No sound from cable box.

[gamelovers11223]

Hello everyone. I have a strange problem.
Absolutely no sound from cable box (optimum Samsung HD box).
Set up:
Tv: LG 65" OLED B7A
Receiver: Denon AVR-X3300W
Cable box: Samsung HD box fromOptimum on cbl/sat input
Blu ray: Sony UBP-UX80 on blu ray input
Console: Sony PS4 1tb on game input
Media Player: Memohi T96 pro 4k android box on media player input
CD player: Teac cd650
Other: google Chromecast on dvd input
Speakers:
Fronts: Polk Audio Signature Series S60
Center: Polk Audio LSIM 706c
Surrounds: Polk Audio Signature Series S15
All components connected to receiver, tv connected to zone 1 output.

All other inputs have sound without any issues.
Only cable box is silent with picture present.

Tried to connect the cable box to another input like dvd or blu ray - no sound.
Tried to change the hdmi cable - no difference.
Tried checking and changing audio settings on the cable box itself - nothing changed.
This problem started two days ago, nothing was changed in the set up.
For six months everything was working fine until 2 days ago.
Please help me diagnose and fix this annoying issue.
Thank you.

 

[lovinthehd]

I'd first try a soft reset of avr and/or cable box. (soft reset is unplugging the unit for a little while).

 

[TLS Guy]

I don't think the problem is with the AVR, I would not reset that. Try the soft reset. If that does not work do a hard reset. If that fails you need a new cable box from your cable company.

In general cable and satellite boxes are of poor quality. I had Comcast in one residence and went over air. In the other there is no good over air signal and I use Direct TV. Their boxes are the lowest quality units in my whole set up. The early HD units were awful with at least three failed boxes over the years. The Genie is better, but picks up RF from LED light bulbs and dimmers slightly. I'm close to getting rid of it. More and more is available via streaming. We actually watch very little content from Direct TV. At least 90% of what we watch is Internet streamed from HTPCs, with some disc used.

I'm a old school, and remain convinced that an HTPC gives the widest choice and highest quality streaming content experience. I hate Apps except the Netflix app for windows 10 which is excellent. That is the only app I use. As far as I'm concerned the sooner all content, including radio is streamed the better. Transmitters are a huge waste of energy and the sooner they are shuttered the better.

 

[gamelovers11223]

Thanks guys.
Just did the soft recet on the cable box, nothing changed. I also noticed that in the receiver audio settings half the options are grayed out/unselectable that were selectable before: dialog level adjust, subwoofer level adjust, restorer and graphic eq.
Also in options two settings are missing completely: channel level adjust and tone.
Again, these options are there with any onther input except cbl/sat.

 

[everettT]

What happens if you try a digital audio cable for the audio?

 

[gamelovers11223]

What happens if you try a digital audio cable for the audio?

Haven't tried that. It was working fine through just an HDMI cable alone and I wouldn't want to add more cables too.

 

[everettT]

Haven't tried that. It was working fine through just an HDMI cable alone and I wouldn't want to add more cables too.

Just looking for a quick fix for you before you have the box replaced.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I used to have Cablevision Samsung cable box. Check Audio settings and make sure it's set to output audio to HDMI, not digital out.

 

[gamelovers11223]

Just looking for a quick fix for you before you have the box replaced.

I remembered I have a second cable box in another room. Switched the boxes around - same problem!
Hooked up my cable box to the tv in another room- sound works fine.
Just hooked up an optical cable from the receiver to the cable box, assigned an optical audio input to cbl/sat input and voila - the sound came back!
Now I am totally confused!

 

[Montucky]

I used to have Cablevision Samsung cable box. Check Audio settings and make sure it's set to output audio to HDMI, not digital out.

This would me my guess too. They may have recently pushed an update that nerfed your settings.

 

[TLS Guy]

I remembered I have a second cable box in another room. Switched the boxes around - same problem!
Hooked up my cable box to the tv in another room- sound works fine.
Just hooked up an optical cable from the receiver to the cable box, assigned an optical audio input to cbl/sat input and voila - the sound came back!
Now I am totally confused!

Interesting. You say the AVR HDMI inputs work on other sources.

Now an AVR is a repeater device, and a TV an end device. So a TV only makes an initial handshake via HDCP codes. A receiver has to make repeated handshakes to the cable box.

So the repeater function for audio in the HDMI board of the cable box has gone out most likely, but it could be a receiver problem.

What you need to do is to check the cable box on another receiver to make sure the HDMI board of your receiver is not on the way out.

 

[gamelovers11223]

Interesting. You say the AVR HDMI inputs work on other sources.

Now an AVR is a repeater device, and a TV an end device. So a TV only makes an initial handshake via HDCP codes. A receiver has to make repeated handshakes to the cable box.

So the repeater function for audio in the HDMI board of the cable box has gone out most likely, but it could be a receiver problem.

What you need to do is to check the cable box on another receiver to make sure the HDMI board of your receiver is not on the way out.

I tried swapping out the boxes and sound works fine on both through hdmi connected straight to tv.
Unfortunately I don't have another receiver to test.

 

[TLS Guy]

I tried swapping out the boxes and sound works fine on both through hdmi connected straight to tv.
Unfortunately I don't have another receiver to test.

Did the cable boxes or AVR have a firmware update recently? If so this could be an HDCP compliance issue. Does the other cable box not send audio via HDMI on you AVR? If both don't send audio via the AVR, then the HDMI board on your receiver is starting to fail and you will have worse problems, or this is a compliance issue due to a firmware update. The cable boxes may well have had a firmware update unknown to you. Cable boxes are notorious for HDCP compliance issues particularly with repeater architecture.

 

[gamelovers11223]

Did the cable boxes or AVR have a firmware update recently? If so this could be an HDCP compliance issue. Does the other cable box not send audio via HDMI on you AVR? If both don't send audio via the AVR, then the HDMI board on your receiver is starting to fail and you will have worse problems, or this is a compliance issue due to a firmware update. The cable boxes may well have had a firmware update unknown to you. Cable boxes are notorious for HDCP compliance issues particularly with repeater architecture.

Both boxes had no sound when connected to avr.
No recent firmware updates on the avr, don't know about the cable boxes.
Is there any way to test the receiver I have?

 

[mtrycrafts]

Did that cable box HDMI audio work at all beforehand?
Does the receiver show cbl/sat as the source when selecting it to watch tv?
Can you see how that input is set up for audio?

May want to try to swap the BD player to that input and see if that works.

 

[gamelovers11223]

Did that cable box HDMI audio work at all beforehand?
Does the receiver show cbl/sat as the source when selecting it to watch tv?
Can you see how that input is set up for audio?

May want to try to swap the BD player to that input and see if that works.

Yes to the first and second question.
As for the third question, I can access some options but half of them are grayed out and some missing comepletely.
As soon as I get home I'll try to swap and report back.

 

[Darenwh]

Have you ever tried the reset on the Receiver? You sound like you were leery to do so and were trying the cable box first. As the cable box, and a second box, both work connected to the TV and If other sound options are working it is not the speakers, your issues can only be a few things. 1: Cable between the Cable box and the receiver. 2: The receiver itself. As you stated that many of your options on the receiver were grayed out that were not previously grayed out I would try the soft reset on the receiver and if that fail try a hard reset on the Receiver.

 

[gamelovers11223]

Have you ever tried the reset on the Receiver? You sound like you were leery to do so and were trying the cable box first. As the cable box, and a second box, both work connected to the TV and If other sound options are working it is not the speakers, your issues can only be a few things. 1: Cable between the Cable box and the receiver. 2: The receiver itself. As you stated that many of your options on the receiver were grayed out that were not previously grayed out I would try the soft reset on the receiver and if that fail try a hard reset on the Receiver.

I'll try to do that tomorrow before work and report here.
If it's the receiver starting to kick off, it is still under warranty, I just hope they do advance replacement.

 

[lovinthehd]

Keep in mind that a hard reset sets everything back to the way it was when you opened the box. I'd suggest saving your Audyssey profile on your computer to make it easier to reload after reset (without using the setup mic all over again). You'd also have to put back any app user id/password info after a hard reset....

 

[mtrycrafts]

Yes to the first and second question.
As for the third question, I can access some options but half of them are grayed out and some missing comepletely.
As soon as I get home I'll try to swap and report back.

Since the BD input seems to work if I understand your posts, also try to plug the cable box into the BD input and see what happens.