PreaMacMini With Audirvana - No Sound

[hahone]

I am running a M2 MacMini with Audirvana into my Anthem AVM 90 via HDMI to play music. No ARC/eARC for this connection. My AVM 90 is connected to my Sony Bravia TV via HDMI via the eARC connection of both the TV and preamp. CEC is disabled on the preamp. When the TV screen is off, the music playback stops randomly. It appears to be a handshake issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dolynick]

I am running a M2 MacMini with Audirvana into my Anthem AVM 90 via HDMI to play music. No ARC/eARC for this connection. My AVM 90 is connected to my Sony Bravia TV via HDMI via the eARC connection of both the TV and preamp. CEC is disabled on the preamp. When the TV screen is off, the music playback stops randomly. It appears to be a handshake issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What kind of TV do you have? An OLED?

 

[hahone]

Sony Bravia 4K OLED.

 

[dolynick]

Sony Bravia 4K OLED.

OLEDs are supposed to run screen/pixel care routines when they are off. My Samsung QD-OLED routinely "blips" the HDMI signal when it's off while doing this. It will disrupt the handshake further upstream between the source and the receiver and is generally a pain in the ass. In my case the source was a PC and this will cause playback to stop with some (all?) media players (WMP would sometimes carry on after a brief pause).

My solution was to set up an alternate input using optical or coax for headless audio only. I was grumpy about it when I did it, but I'm happy enough with it now.

I have no such issues with the MiniLED TV in the other system. It blips and interrupts when the TV is turned on or off, but not at any other time.

 

[Trebdp83]

I am running a M2 MacMini with Audirvana into my Anthem AVM 90 via HDMI to play music. No ARC/eARC for this connection. My AVM 90 is connected to my Sony Bravia TV via HDMI via the eARC connection of both the TV and preamp. CEC is disabled on the preamp. When the TV screen is off, the music playback stops randomly. It appears to be a handshake issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Is the TV powered OFF, or just the screen turned OFF. Is Bravia Sync(HDMI-CEC) turned OFF in the TV? Have you tried connecting the AVM 90 to the TV using its HDMI OUT #2 port into a port other than the eARC port on the TV to test?

 

[TLS Guy]

I am running a M2 MacMini with Audirvana into my Anthem AVM 90 via HDMI to play music. No ARC/eARC for this connection. My AVM 90 is connected to my Sony Bravia TV via HDMI via the eARC connection of both the TV and preamp. CEC is disabled on the preamp. When the TV screen is off, the music playback stops randomly. It appears to be a handshake issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This is probably not solvable. I have and LG OLED. It calls CEC Simplink. I have my Marantz AVP connected to the TV via eARC. If I use my Panasonic BD player, then the TV has to be on, even of just playing a CD. If you turn the TV off the Panasonic BD turns off. If you turn on the Panasonic the TV turns on. I have CEC turned off on the Panasonic, but if I turn off Simplink eARC does not work.

Fortunately I also have a Sony BD player in the rack which does not behave like that, and also a stand alone CD player. So basically the Panasonic can only be used if you are watching a video disc.

 

[Trebdp83]

This is probably not solvable. I have and LG OLED. It calls CEC Simplink. I have my Marantz AVP connected to the TV via eARC. If I use my Panasonic BD player, then the TV has to be on, even of just playing a CD. If you turn the TV off the Panasonic BD turns off. If you turn on the Panasonic the TV turns on. I have CEC turned off on the Panasonic, but if I turn off Simplink eARC does not work.

Fortunately I also have a Sony BD player in the rack which does not behave like that, and also a stand alone CD player. So basically the Panasonic can only be used if you are watching a video disc.

The Panasonic designation for HDMI-CEC is VIERA Link. Make sure to turn it OFF as it is ON by default. LG TVs will turn Simplink ON automatically for use with eARC. This means turning HDMI-CEC OFF in connected devices to avoid annoying behaviors.

 

[Trebdp83]

Different component combos will have different handshake issues. I don’t have this particular issue with my LG TV, Onkyo receiver or Mac mini M1. Even when the TV is OFF. I can grab my iPhone anywhere in the house, turn on the receiver with the Onkyo controller app, select a track from my Mac’s library using the iTunes Remote app and play it over HDMI to the receiver without issue.

It’s been some time since I used Audirvana but I guess I’ll see if that introduces any issues when using its app to play music from the Mac to the receiver using the HDMI connection. I don’t think it should matter but s#%t happens.

 

[Trebdp83]

I’d forgotten how obnoxious Audirvana can be to setup and use on the Mac. Anyway, with the TV powered OFF, I can power ON the receiver with the Onkyo controller app and then use the Audirvana Remote app to control playback of music using the HDMI cable connection from the Mac mini M1 to the receiver without any signal issues.

Audirvana Remote app:

Onkyo Controller app:

After using the HDMI cable connection from the Mac mini M1 to the receiver, I changed the Audirvana audio output setting from AV Receiver(HDMI) to the UPnP(network) setting.

Audirvana will power ON the receiver itself when making a track selection in the Audirvana Remote app and the Onkyo Controller app can control playback when using the UPnP connection.

All still worked fine when the TV was powered OFF and also worked fine when the TV was powered ON and the screen was turned OFF using UPnP connection. It may be the preferred output setting for those having issues with the HDMI cable connection of their Mac mini to certain AVP/AVR and TV combos. Results will vary of course.

Audirvana Remote app:

Onkyo Controller app:

Audirvan Remote app:

Onkyo Controller app:

 

[hahone]

Thanks for the help. I did not have any playback issues when I turned the TV on, but turned the screen off using an option in the settings, so the issue is definitely the OLED screen being off. It is a pain in the ass, but at least I could get playback without stopping with the TV powered on but the screen being off. I will try the UPnP and see if that also solves the problem, as that would avoid having to turn the TV on just to turn its screen off during playback.

 

[dolynick]

Thanks for the help. I did not have any playback issues when I turned the TV on, but turned the screen off using an option in the settings, so the issue is definitely the OLED screen being off. It is a pain in the ass, but at least I could get playback without stopping with the TV powered on but the screen being off. I will try the UPnP and see if that also solves the problem, as that would avoid having to turn the TV on just to turn its screen off during playback.

You could also pick up one of these: https://www.smsl-audio.com/portal/product/detail/id/808.html to run out to optical/coax to your AVM 90s DAC and avoid HDMI altogether. At long as you don't need over 192kHz, and you're not doing surround codecs (atmos, etc) those connections will be fine and unaffected by any shennanigans your OLED is playing with the handshake.

 

[TLS Guy]

The Panasonic designation for HDMI-CEC is VIERA Link. Make sure to turn it OFF as it is ON by default. LG TVs will turn Simplink ON automatically for use with eARC. This means turning HDMI-CEC OFF in connected devices to avoid annoying behaviors.

Thanks for reminding me. I had forgotten that Panasonic called it VIERA Link. LG call it Simplink. I wish everyone could agree and just call it CEC. Anyhow I went into the set up and hunted for the VIERA Link and turned it off. So that solved it.

 

[Trebdp83]

There is no HDMI-CEC standard. It’s disgraceful actually.