Help with using zone 2

[jmancrafter5]

I could use some help here. i have a roku tv that supports ark and a pioneer vsx-935 with a 7.1 surround sound system set up in my living room. i want to use the zone 2 options to listen to music off of my tv with the main room listening to the same thing with arc support. the only way i have found to do this is use a 3.5mm jack to av adapter and set all inputs to that specific channel but it doesnt have the arc support. i know that turning on zone two shuts off 2 of my surround speakers and thats not a problem. is there any arc splitter to av that would function correctly since zone 2 only accepts an av input and not a digital input

 

[lovinthehd]

ARC I assume rather than ark . Zone 2 can have digital limitations, ARC/hdmi probably is one of them. So using an analog connection (is that what you mean by an av input ?) is a good way around that. Generally you'd go into the avr's input assignment and make sure both the analog and hdmi ARC connection are assigned to the same input (with ARC that's probably the "tv" input?) to enable zone 2 to work with the same source.

What tv do you have?

If you're using the available amp channels on your 935, and using speaker connections for zone 2 then yes that's the tradeoff in using zone 2 since you only have 7 channels of amplification, you would trade off for a set of heights/surrounds in the main zone.

 

[jmancrafter5]

Thanks for the fast reply. I'm not 100% percent certain on the TV. It has an optical jack. Arc and a headphone jack. Unfortunately it can only output to one of those at a time. I could switch everything to analog but then I lose the TV remote controlling the receiver and that gets me brownie points with the wife haha and just makes it much easier to use. I also have an adapter to go from headphone to analog

 

[Merkules2001]

I could use some help here. i have a roku tv that supports ark and a pioneer vsx-935 with a 7.1 surround sound system set up in my living room. i want to use the zone 2 options to listen to music off of my tv with the main room listening to the same thing with arc support. the only way i have found to do this is use a 3.5mm jack to av adapter and set all inputs to that specific channel but it doesnt have the arc support. i know that turning on zone two shuts off 2 of my surround speakers and thats not a problem. is there any arc splitter to av that would function correctly since zone 2 only accepts an av input and not a digital input

You could use the biamp Height Speaker terminals and run wire, or rocketfish wireless transmitter/receiver. Arc won't power off the other unit, but will send the signal.

 

[lovinthehd]

Thanks for the fast reply. I'm not 100% percent certain on the TV. It has an optical jack. Arc and a headphone jack. Unfortunately it can only output to one of those at a time. I could switch everything to analog but then I lose the TV remote controlling the receiver and that gets me brownie points with the wife haha and just makes it much easier to use. I also have an adapter to go from headphone to analog

I only use tvs as displays but I've connected bluray players this way (both hdmi and analog), but if the tv only can output in one mode at a time that would be a stumbling block....you sure about that?

Your headphone output isn't analog? What kind of converter is it? Usually a headphone jack on a tv would just be a stereo 3.5mm analog output I'd think.

 

[BMXTRIX]

How does zone 2 on your AV receiver work if you connect a source using HDMI directly to the receiver? Like, if you hook up a game console or a laptop with HDMI out? Do you get audio in both your main zone and zone 2? If so, then I'd switch over to a stand alone Roku Ultra and go with that and simply bypass the internal source of the TV.

At the end of the day, the Roku TVs on the market tend to be so-so in quality, at best. These aren't exactly the highest quality in brands. That's fine, but you are now finding out that things can't all work perfectly across all connected devices. What you want to do is well beyond 'basic' setup, so you will need to change things up a bit I expect.

 

[Trebdp83]

Digital audio is supported in Zone 2 from HDMI ports 1-3 as well as from the digital coaxial and optical ports BUT ONLY when the signal is PCM 2.0.

This particular TV, like many new eARC equipped sets, has audio output limitations when using HDMI-CEC and ARC/eARC.

 

[Trebdp83]

If the receiver is network connected and the music streaming service is available in the receiver’s list of supported music streaming apps, you can take the TV out of the loop and stream directly from the receiver’s built in apps to both the Main Zone and Zone 2.

When streaming to both Zones, using the Pioneer Remote App will prove less difficult to use than the remote controller and TV screen. The app will also control limited functions of devices in the system that are using HDMI-CEC.

If there are any iOS devices in the home, you can Airplay to both Zones as Airplay 2 does not have Zone restrictions like Chromecast or DTS Play-Fi. All are available to this particular receiver but only Airplay 2 will stream the same content to both Zones.

As was mentioned, streaming devices connected directly to the receiver can deliver audio to Zone 2 but only when the signal is PCM 2.0 and the device is connected to HDMI ports 1-3.