Samsung MU8000 TV => Marantz SR5014 receiver setup: grr...

[Trebdp83]

HDMI control is a mess. It can be a bigger one after changing inputs around. You may want a fresh start and unplug all of the HDMI cables and then unplug the TV and receiver for a bit. Reconnect all of the HDMI cables and then plug in TV and receiver. This has worked for me in the past after changing out different devices in the setup.

 

[Trebdp83]

While you are working on your setup, and no doubt getting frustrated with it, keep in mind most cable boxes do not support HDMI-CEC. I use a TiVo myself and out of the box it did not support HDMI-CEC. A few years on, a firmware update that included a new GUI and features also included HDMI-CEC. So, now when I press the TiVo home button on the remote control, the TV and receiver power up to the TiVo input. If HDMI-CEC is working properly in your setup, when switching to one of the TV's streaming apps, the receiver should switch to the TV ARC input and output the audio. If the disc player has HDMI-CEC enabled, powering it on should switch the receiver to the player input. To check the devices with HDMI-CEC enabled, go into your Smart Hub, move over the receiver tile and a small up arrow appears. press up on the remote and options appear. Click on the Anynet+ devices to see the list of connected devices that have HDMI-CEC enabled. Clicking on a device in the list allows limited control of the device with the TV remote control. Running the Universal Remote Control setup for the TV remote control enables more control of the device and gives each device it's own source tile in the Smart hub. In a perfect scenario, all devices would be HDMI-CEC equipped and one could use the TV remote control to control all of them and have the receiver switch to them when their source tile is selected in the Smart Hub. I've been able to accomplish this but not without glitches from time to time.

 

[rlk]

The only items that show up under Anynet+ are the receiver and blu-ray. The cable box, as you surmise, isn't.

I'm not using Smart Hub here, just the home menu at the bottom of the screen. I *presume* it's the same thing.

The cable remote is programmed to turn on the TV and the cable box. The TV remote is that Samsung mini remote that they think is so cool and that I find to be a pain in the ass. My wife wants to use just one remote, understandably. But the receiver remote won''t control the TV apps (and for that matter a Bluetooth keyboard won't work with YouTube, which is annoying, but wednesday thursday friday).

I bought a Harmony remote, one of the lower end ones. Shelling out several hundred $$$ for a remote seems a bit over the top. But it's not actually all that easy to use, and of our collection of remotes, it's probably the one we least use. It looks like it sends commands sequentially, so you have to keep it pointed toward the equipment for a few seconds and hold down the button. Same thing, for that matter, with the cable remote. The only remote I have that does it right -- keeps track of all of the state, and sends the entire state to the device -- is the air conditioner remote for a 10 year old portable AC we use to boost the central AC. But that's the way it should work IMO; the remote stores the entire state of the system and sends the whole thing. But I'm getting a bit off topic here.

Fortunately our current dog isn't a chewer. She'll eventually trash her toys, but never touches our stuff. Our first one was, and destroyed pretty much all of the remotes (for stuff we no longer have).

 

[Trebdp83]

Now, I know you do not like the TV remote control, but there may be a work around. Connect the cable box directly to the TV and leave the blu-ray player connected to the receiver. Run the universal remote control setup. It will walk you through it. Setup the cable box and blu-ray player functions. When you are done, you should have source tiles for each in your Smart(Home) Hub. The TV remote control will now control the cable box. Because it is now connected to the TV directly, ARC is used to get audio to the receiver. So, when selecting the cable box source tile, the TV will send an audio command to the receiver and it will switch to the TV(ARC) audio input. So, the channel buttons will work on the cable box and the volume and mute button will work on the receiver. The info button will bring up more functions on the screen including the power button for the cable box. You will use that button to turn it off and then the regular power button on the remote control to turn off the TV which will also turn off the receiver. When turning the TV on and selecting the cable box source, the receiver should come on and switch to the ARC input when the audio hits it. Yeah, it's a mess, but whatever works, right?

 

[rlk]

I have it working -- I'm not sure how reliably -- by programming the cable remote's "Watch Cable" button to hit the audio, TV, and cable (previously it only hit cable and TV; the TV previously turned the receiver on properly). But at one point when experimenting I did something that resulted in the TV no longer detecting a signal from the receiver. Power cycling everything fixed that, but I don't know what I did that triggered that, so I'm concerned that it will happen again.

Man, this is all a mess. I'm a software engineer and not getting this right.

 

[Trebdp83]

Hey, it’s working. Time for a cold one.

 

[Trebdp83]

Say, what cable/internet service are you using there?

 

[rlk]

RCN (business class), 500/25. Bit of an upgrade over our old 1.5/.368 DSL and SD satellite (having to do with a tree blocking the HD satellite).

 

[Trebdp83]

Yeah, that’s a heck of a jump. Don’t think your TV has an app for them but you can look. My provider has an app so one can use it and skip a cable box altogether. Not sure about business class or your area, but I think RCN offers the TiVo experience.

 

[rlk]

The whole problem here is that the TV offers very few options for HDMI audio out, apparently (at least with our setup) the only ones are PCM and DTS Neo 2:5. PCM is 2 channels only, so if I set it to that, the receiver only gets two channels; it can synthesize more, but that's not necessarily going to be what the original was. DTS Neo 2:5 always synthesizes 5 channels from 2, so even playing stereo source material, those ghost channels are still there. I can set the receiver to stereo, but I've verified that it still doesn't sound like stereo original.

Ideally, the TV would only be a video sink unless for some reason we're watching OTA (the receiver has an FM tuner but IIRC no DTV tuner, although I have a couple of USB DTV tuners). To get there we'd need something else to plug into the receiver to provide the other apps (youtube, netflix, what have you that my wife wants). I'm a bit old school with this; I don't watch significant TV but am more interested in music.

 

[snakeeyes]

Sounds like you don’t watch much TV. Have you tried a Firestick or Roku streamer? I paid $35 for a firestick 4K. Super cheap investment to try out.

These plug into the AVR hdmi and have the apps you mentioned such as Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, AMZN Video, and whichever TV service App you want to pay for and more. It’s simple and you have voice search as well. You just have two remotes you use day to day in that situation. The Streamer remote and the Blu-ray player remote for when you want to play discs.

 

[rlk]

I don't watch TV, but my wife does.

I assume things can be done on a streamer without voice? Most if not all of the voice op systems do the processing externally and gather information for marketing purposes, something I want to avoid.

And finally, if it plugs into HDMI, there's still the issue of what audio formats it supports.

 

[snakeeyes]

I don't watch TV, but my wife does.

I assume things can be done on a streamer without voice? Most if not all of the voice op systems do the processing externally and gather information for marketing purposes, something I want to avoid.

And finally, if it plugs into HDMI, there's still the issue of what audio formats it supports.

I have only used Roku at motels and condo rentals but I have Firestick 4K in 3 of my rooms so I’m very familiar with those. I have a Samsung 4K TV in my den setup.

The firestick remote is super simple to use. It supports all the HDR formats and does DD+ surround. You don’t have to use Alexa voice control unless you want to.

The firestick remote supports all TV and receivers so when you power on both will power on and your sound will use the AVR. You set this up in the Firestick settings.

As far as TV apps there are a lot of options. For me I just use Sling Orange but there are more expensive options such as Hulu TV or YouTube TV. One thing to know on these apps is unlike Netflix, you get 2.0 Dolby so you need the DSU upmixer in the AVR turned on.

As far as marketing I’m sure Alexa will want to sell you TP but she’s just trying to be helpful. LOL . (The remote Alexa is just for you to search, Alexa isn’t giving you other info but there are some ADs in the main screen for TV shows and movies not products). Your phone is doing similar information gathering.

Edit: You press the button on the firestick remote to ask Alexa to search. If you don’t press the button she won’t do anything.

 

[rlk]

Well, I spent the day (I have 5 days of vacation time I have to burn by March 15) programming a Harmony 655 remote I bought at Mediocre Buy a while back. It's definitely a pain to use. Some things I had to issue 6 commands, so the remote has to be kept pointed toward everything for a while.

I somehow (again) got the TV confused so it wasn't seeing the HDMI output from the receiver and had to power cycle the mess to get it back. I really need to put the cable box on an unswitched outlet so when I have to cycle everything else the cable box doesn't have to spend 5 minutes reloading everything.

 

[lovinthehd]

I got used to the pointing thing, and generally just position it on the couch aimed at the gear so I don't even have to hold it. I gave my brother and his wife one, they both found that part frustrating and preferred multiple remotes instead....not everyone's flavor.

 

[rlk]

My wife simply wants the whole thing to be dead simple. I don't think that's unreasonable, but I'm also not sure that it's possible with today's gear (I saw postings on the Samsung boards about problems people have integrating Samsung TVs...with Samsung soundbars). She said to me the other night "why do other people not have these problems"...until she asked her manager yesterday about it, and she said that she has no idea what's going on, that her husband set it up and that she never fiddles with it. So my wife was rather more understanding last night, but for now she's going to use the multiple remotes until I get a chance to teach her how to use the universal. Programming it is a bit of a pain. I have to use my wife's Mac (there's no Linux software for programming it), and then when I make any changes the whole fool thing has to be reprogrammed, which takes several minutes.

The one problem that I'm still having is the TV and receiver losing contact, so that the TV doesn't see a signal on the HDMI channel to/from the receiver and I have to power cycle everything. First thing I have to do is put the cable box on a non-switched outlet, because power cycling that means a multiple minute wait just to be able to watch, much less downloading all of the program information. Then I have to figure out which of the components (TV or receiver) is the problem, so I can put just that one on a switched outlet. Both of those components are up to date with firmware.

 

[snakeeyes]

That is definitely a painful approach. I already offered my advice using firestick or Roku. Good luck.