Samsung TV connected to AVR not outputting audio

[Ponzio]

Can you help a brother out?

My Samsung TV is connected to my Yamaha AVR RX-A3070 (HDMI 1 to AV2) from my set-top box and it works perfectly fine.

But if I access Amazon Prime/Disney/Paramount/etc. on the TV, I'm not getting any audio output. What am I missing?

Do I have to connect another HDMI cable between the TV and the AVR or is a separate audio cable needed?

Or if there's an existing thread on this problem of mine, can you direct me to it?

Thank You

 

[TLS Guy]

Can you help a brother out?

My Samsung TV is connected to my Yamaha AVR RX-A3070 (HDMI 1 to AV2) from my set-top box and it works perfectly fine.

But if I access Amazon Prime/Disney/Paramount/etc. on the TV, I'm not getting any audio output. What am I missing?

Do I have to connect another HDMI cable between the TV and the AVR or is a separate audio cable needed?

Or if there's an existing thread on this problem of mine, can you direct me to it?

Thank You

You did not say what model of TV you have.

You will need a 4K HDMI cable. You need to connect the cable between the HDMI ARC inputs and outputs. Hopefully your TV has an ARC or eARC connector.

Your receiver is old enough that it does not have an eARC HDMI out, only an ARC out. So you will not be able to get lossless audio to your receiver, it will be lossy.

Now ARC is often fickel. eARC is much more stable. Often CEC has to be enabled in each unit. We seem to have more problems with this connection with Samsung TVs than any others. eARC is in theory backward compatible with ARC. However I should warn you there can be enough problems you wonder.

Since you do not have an eARC compatible receiver you could use an optical connection between your TV and receiver. Again the connection will be lossy, but the TOSLINK Optical spec and ARC are the same.

 

[Trebdp83]

Samsung’s designation for HDMI-CEC is Anynet+. It must be ON for ARC to work. The receiver must also have HDMI-CEC turned ON for ARC to work.

While lossy, ARC supports more bandwidth than an optical connection. But, because it is tied to HDMI-CEC, implementation of it can be problematic depending on the combination of devices.

Streaming services such as mentioned in the first post do not support lossless multichannel audio and nothing is lost over an ARC connection as it supports Atmos/DD+ from such services if the apps support as much on a given platform.

The optical connection will limit output to DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 if using an older Samsung TV that support the up mix using DTS Neo 2.5.

 

[Ponzio]

Thanks guys. Some good info there.

It's a Samsung 49” Q6F [OLED], so it's relatively new, and yes it has an HDMI eARC connection.

I'm assuming ... I know, I know, don't assume ... that if I run a HDMI cable from the TV's eARC connection to an open HDMI input on the AVR I should be golden.

Or I can go with the TOSLINK cable, in a worst case scenario. Let us pray.

Again, thank you.

 

[TLS Guy]

Thanks guys. Some good info there.

It's a Samsung 49” Q6F [OLED], so it's relatively new, and yes it has an HDMI eARC connection.

I'm assuming ... I know, I know, don't assume ... that if I run a HDMI cable from the TV's eARC connection to an open HDMI input on the AVR I should be golden.

Or I can go with the TOSLINK cable, in a worst case scenario. Let us pray.

Again, thank you.

NO! You must use the HDMI port labelled ARC on your receiver. If you use the wrong one, it won't work.

I always thought that ARC and TOSLINK were roughly equivalent, but I note standard ARC supports 1Mb/sec of audio, whereas TOSLINK only 196KHz. eARC on the other hand supports 37Mb/sec audio bandwidth.

So, I guess Ponzio has a new receiver on his wish list. Trust Samsung to call CEC something different. Is it any wonder there is so much consumer resistance to all this complication? Things could be made much more plug and play. I would not thought that it be over the top difficult, for units to know what they were connected to and automatically set the correct settings. The industry has a lot to answer for I think. It gets confusing even for us, so small wonder a lot of others just give up and don't progress beyond a sound bar, and I bet even that defeats some.

 

[Trebdp83]

ARC and eARC connections can only be made to ARC and eARC ports at each end. I believe there was an update for the Yamaha to support eARC but I believe the Q6F only supports ARC. The audio from the TV will simply go back to the receiver through the HDMI cable used to deliver video to the TV. But, that cable must be connected to ports marked ARC at each end and Anynet+(HDMI-CEC) must be turned ON in the Samsung TV and HDMI Control(HDMI-CEC) must be turned ON in the Yamaha receiver. There are many designations for HDMI-CEC. LG calls it Simplink. It's all over the place.

 

[TLS Guy]

ARC and eARC connections can only be made to ARC and eARC ports at each end. I believe there was an update for the Yamaha to support eARC but I believe the Q6F only supports ARC. The audio from the TV will simply go back to the receiver through the HDMI cable used to deliver video to the TV. But, that cable must be connected to ports marked ARC at each end and Anynet+(HDMI-CEC) must be turned ON in the Samsung TV and HDMI Control(HDMI-CEC) must be turned ON in the Yamaha receiver. There are many designations for HDMI-CEC. LG calls it Simplink. It's all over the place.

Yes, you are right about that. I guessed Simplink was CEC on my LG TV right away. That is an intuitive name. Anynet+ is not! The AV industry really does have a lot of work to do, to get its house in order.

 

[Ponzio]

NO! You must use the HDMI port labelled ARC on your receiver. If you use the wrong one, it won't work.

I always thought that ARC and TOSLINK were roughly equivalent, but I note standard ARC supports 1Mb/sec of audio, whereas TOSLINK only 196KHz. eARC on the other hand supports 37Mb/sec audio bandwidth.

So, I guess Ponzio has a new receiver on his wish list. Trust Samsung to call CEC something different. Is it any wonder there is so much consumer resistance to all this complication? Things could be made much more plug and play. I would not thought that it be over the top difficult, for units to know what they were connected to and automatically set the correct settings. The industry has a lot to answer for I think. It gets confusing even for us, so small wonder a lot of others just give up and don't progress beyond a sound bar, and I bet even that defeats some.

What a mess.

When I did connect the HDMI cable to the Yamaha ARC port ... there is no eARC port as you previously stated ... things really went crazy. The AVR would just power off every 3 minutes or so for no discernible reason.

TLS Guy I wish a new, more modern AVR was in my future but financially it's just not gonna happen at this time. So I guess a TOSLINK cable is in my future, since I don't have one around the house.

Or I can continue to watch Amazon Prime/Paramount +, etc. on my 32" Samsung LCD PC monitor like I currently do [sigh].

And as you stated, the lack of backward compatibility is criminal and their refusal to standardize the option/feature is just as bad. I have to believe that a firmware update (?) could resolve this issue. But since there's no financial gain in it, it's just not gonna happen.

As a retired IT/telecommunications worker I shouldn't be surprised but it still pisses me off.

They obviously weren't in school that day when we were taught to 'play nice in the sandbox'.

 

[TLS Guy]

What a mess.

When I did connect the HDMI cable to the Yamaha ARC port ... there is no eARC port as you previously stated ... things really went crazy. The AVR would just power off every 3 minutes or so for no discernible reason.

TLS Guy I wish a new, more modern AVR was in my future but financially it's just not gonna happen at this time. So I guess a TOSLINK cable is in my future, since I don't have one around the house.

Or I can continue to watch Amazon Prime/Paramount +, etc. on my 32" Samsung LCD PC monitor like I currently do [sigh].

And as you stated, the lack of backward compatibility is criminal and their refusal to standardize the option/feature is just as bad. I have to believe that a firmware update (?) could resolve this issue. But since there's no financial gain in it, it's just not gonna happen.

As a retired IT/telecommunications worker I shouldn't be surprised but it still pisses me off.

They obviously weren't in school that day when we were taught to 'play nice in the sandbox'.

It is too bad you did not post here before you bought that Samsung TV. We get more HDMI connection issues with Samsung TVs than any other.

 

[Ponzio]

Well since I can't fight Samsung technology on my TV audio out specifically, I just purchased a 15' TOSLINK cable, as recommended.

If it works, and I'm praying it will, I can purchase another TOSLINK for my newish Sony TV in the living room which is connected to an oldish Yamaha RX-A3040, which is having the same audio issue for Prime, etc.

 

[TLS Guy]

Well since I can't fight Samsung technology on my TV audio out specifically, I just purchased a 15' TOSLINK cable, as recommended.

If it works, and I'm praying it will, I can purchase another TOSLINK for my newish Sony TV in the living room which is connected to an oldish Yamaha RX-A3040, which is having the same audio issue for Prime, etc.

You have been guilty of being sparse with your information and I should have pestered you more.

Your problem is that your HDMI cable is too long at 15'. So you need an active hybrid HDMI cables and voltage inserters. About 12.5' is the reliable max for current HDMI specs, and some say that is too long now.

Your units are either losing signal or more likely are loosing repetitive handshake data.

So I use Ruipro which are known to be reliable. Quite a few members have used them here.

If you don't want the cable tight then this is what you need. Actually the next size down will be too short.

You need a voltage inserter as the cables draw too much power from the HDMI board, and can blow it. It does not matter which end you place the inserter.

As I was going off to sleep last night, I said dang, I should have asked Ponzio how long his cable is.

We had a case like this recently and the guys system was shutting down like yours, exactly what you have now. The advice I'm giving you solved his problem. He was also using a 15' standard cable.

This is something you need to do and your system will work much better.

 

[Trell]

I got an LG CX OLED TV (2020 model) using ARC to a Denon AVR-X4200W (2015 model) that gave a couple of problems for me.

1. Enabling "HDMI Ultra HD Deep Colour" (in Picture menu) on the LG will cause no-sound on my old Oppo BluRay player that is connected to my receiver. If I wish to watch movies or listen to music on the player I've to disable that.

2. The other is enabling eARC (in Sound menu for LG) that made so many things not just working. For that I had to disconnect all the devices from the outlet, wait a while, and start plugging in on device after the another.

 

[Trebdp83]

I’d say 10’ is the limit for passive HDMI cables these days. Years ago, I was able to use a robust 25’ passive cable for a 1080 system but those days are gone.

I believe that particular Samsung TV uses the One Connect box. If so, that just adds an extra connection port and length of wire and is not helping the problem.

If the speaker configuration includes Dolby Atmos speakers, it would be advantages to get ARC working as it supports Atmos from streaming services. The optical connection will only support Dolby Digital 5.1.

 

[Trebdp83]

I got an LG CX OLED TV (2020 model) using ARC to a Denon AVR-X4200W (2015 model) that gave a couple of problems for me.

1. Enabling "HDMI Ultra HD Deep Colour" (in Picture menu) on the LG will cause no-sound on my old Oppo BluRay player that is connected to my receiver. If I wish to watch movies or listen to music on the player I've to disable that.

2. The other is enabling eARC (in Sound menu for LG) that made so many things not just working. For that I had to disconnect all the devices from the outlet, wait a while, and start plugging in on device after the another.

You might start a thread concerning this post. You are not alone.

 

[TLS Guy]

Well since I can't fight Samsung technology on my TV audio out specifically, I just purchased a 15' TOSLINK cable, as recommended.

If it works, and I'm praying it will, I can purchase another TOSLINK for my newish Sony TV in the living room which is connected to an oldish Yamaha RX-A3040, which is having the same audio issue for Prime, etc.

One other thing, when you get your active cable, connect it in the correct direction. These cables are DIRECTIONAL because you need the correct converter at each end. So the arrows point away from the receiver and to the TV.

 

[Trell]

You might start a thread concerning this post. You are not alone.

It was meant as a couple of things @Ponzio could look at, if he hasn’t already tried it.

 

[Ponzio]

You have been guilty of being sparse with your information and I should have pestered you more.

Your problem is that your HDMI cable is too long at 15'. So you need an active hybrid HDMI cables and voltage inserters. About 12.5' is the reliable max for current HDMI specs, and some say that is too long now.

Your units are either losing signal or more likely are loosing repetitive handshake data.

So I use Ruipro which are known to be reliable. Quite a few members have used them here.

If you don't want the cable tight then this is what you need. Actually the next size down will be too short.

You need a voltage inserter as the cables draw too much power from the HDMI board, and can blow it. It does not matter which end you place the inserter.

As I was going off to sleep last night, I said dang, I should have asked Ponzio how long his cable is.

We had a case like this recently and the guys system was shutting down like yours, exactly what you have now. The advice I'm giving you solved his problem. He was also using a 15' standard cable.

This is something you need to do and your system will work much better.

TLS I'm mostly using 10', or less (6 feet), HDMI cables throughout the house, on 3 separate 2.2, 5.1 (2) systems. When I actively started upgrading my A/V sound system(s) in 2012 ... luckily I found & signed up with Audioholics at the time ... that was something i became aware of, not to get HDMI cables longer than 10', because of signal degradation, etc. And to date its never been an issue.

Hopefully the extra 5' on the optical/digital TOSLINK cable isn't a problem. It arrives tomorrow and I'll find out soon enough. That is why I only bought one of them, instead of two, if said issue (signal degradation, etc.) should arise.

 

[TLS Guy]

TLS I'm mostly using 10', or less (6 feet), HDMI cables throughout the house, on 3 separate 2.2, 5.1 (2) systems. When I actively started upgrading my A/V sound system(s) in 2012 ... luckily I found & signed up with Audioholics at the time ... that was something i became aware of, not to get HDMI cables longer than 10', because of signal degradation, etc. And to date its never been an issue.

Hopefully the extra 5' on the optical/digital TOSLINK cable isn't a problem. It arrives tomorrow and I'll find out soon enough. That is why I only bought one of them, instead of two, if said issue (signal degradation, etc.) should arise.

I still wonder if this is a cable issue though. You need to know the spec of your cables. Some are actually saying 5' is max for a non active cable now. You do need cables with the latest specs now. ARC is very demanding and requires the highest spec. cables. That connection you have ought to work, but as with everything HDMI results may vary. Length of your optical cable will not be a problem.

 

[lovinthehd]

The optical cable solution just may be the most pain-free if you're not having any video issues....I avoid ARC.

 

[Ponzio]

I still wonder if this is a cable issue though. You need to know the spec of your cables. Some are actually saying 5' is max for a non active cable now. You do need cables with the latest specs now. ARC is very demanding and requires the highest spec. cables. That connection you have ought to work, but as with everything HDMI results may vary. Length of your optical cable will not be a problem.

That may be so but there is also the age of the features/options of the Samsung 49” Q6F [OLED] and the Yamaha RX-A3070 AVR to consider here in my office, where I'm doing the initial testing. If it all goes well, then I'll roll it out to the living room (a new 5 month old Sony XR-6580CK (65'' TV)) and an older Yamaha RX-A3040 AVR.

The 3rd A/V system in my wife's office, a 2.1 setup, wont be used to watch Prime, Disney +, etc., so it's a non-issue. It's mainly (90% of the time) used to listen to music, via a USB flash drive, and the the news, using the net radio function. We live in a valley and the antennae reception is terrible. The net radio function on the Yamaha RX-A3000 has been a godsend.