No sound using Audio Return Channel.

[Lost Angeles]

I have a Pioneer SC-LX57 Receiver and I’ve just bought a LG OLED, my problem is I can’t get any sound over Audio Return Channel, everything else works perfectly. Sky and Blu-Rays work using HDMI 1 out for video and sound through the Pioneer, and I’ve just purchased a new QED cable with ARC included as I presumed my old 1.3 cables didn’t support this. I can’t seem to get any sound back to the receiver off Netflix, Freesat or Amazon Prime.
The biggest thing that’s baffling me is what setting do I put the Pioneer on to get ARC in to work.

 

[macdiddy]

was everything ok before you changed tv's ?

secondly can you tell us the model number of your new tv.

*music2*

 

[Lost Angeles]

The TV is a LG OLED 55B6V. My previous Panasonic did not have ARC on HDMI so this was never used.
I have the HDMI cable into the TV on HDMI 2ARC and into the Pioneer on HDMI 1 out as per the instructions. I presume the Pioneer needs to be on Television to receive ARC (the manual does not make this clear)

 

[bigboss]

1) Make sure the HDMI cable supports ARC.

2) Check sound settings on your TV to ensure output is via ARC.

 

[Lost Angeles]

1) Make sure the HDMI cable supports ARC.

2) Check sound settings on your TV to ensure output is via ARC.

I have done both of the above, the new cable is a QED eFlex HDMI high speed with ethernet which states it does Audio Return Channel. The sound on the TV is set to Audio Out(Opticlal/HDMI ARC) and I have tried it on all the DTV Audio Settings MPEG, DD, DD Plus, HE_AAC and Auto. I have to go out this afternoon, but the next thing I'm going to try is to connect my Blu-Ray player straight to the TV and see if I get ARC to work that way.

 

[macdiddy]

the HDMI setup menu page on your Pioneer amp, the online manual says page 69 for info on how to do this.

*music2*

 

[Lost Angeles]

I've just tryed a Blu-Ray and still get no sound. Later I will try with some audio leads if the TV accepts them.
The problem is that the TV is on the wall ,the manual is useless, there is no picture of the rear of the TV in the manual, so it is awkward to see and do anything. It could be a TV fault, receiver fault, cable fault(unlikely) or me doing something without realising.

 

[Lost Angeles]

the HDMI setup menu page on your Pioneer amp, the online manual says page 69 for info on how to do this.

*music2*

I've set up ARC from here.

 

[macdiddy]

where's "here" your amp or your tv ?

*music2*

 

[Lost Angeles]

where's "here" your amp or your tv ?

*music2*

Sorry I've set the Pioneer up from Page 69, I did it the other day with my other HDMI cables and repeated it today with the new cable. I have to go out now for 2 hours but will try audio leads when I come back. thanks.

 

[bigboss]

Only 1 HDMI port on TV supports ARC. Make sure you're using the right port.

 

[Lost Angeles]

Only 1 HDMI port on TV supports ARC. Make sure you're using the right port.

I am in the correct port HDMI 2 and it does say HDMI 2ARC on the TV screen when I set it up.

 

[Lost Angeles]

I'm making progress, with an Optical cable in I can get sound back from the TV to the Pioneer but only playing through the front surround speakers so far. Not investigated this any further yet.
I think the fault is with the Pioneer, more investigations concerning ARC to follow.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

Is there a setting in your TV sound menu to send audio to external speakers or the ARC channel instead of the TV's own speakers? If so, make sure that's selected. (I had to do this on our Samsung 4K TVs).

Also, it's a good idea, if you can, to set all your source boxes to send undecided PCM or bitstream to the receiver rather than have the source boxes do the decoding.

 

[Lost Angeles]

I now have surround sound from Netfilx etc using the Optical cable from the TV to the amp so that’s a good start and when in the Pioneer system set up 4e HDMI Setup, if you switch the ARC to on you lose the sound from Optical and if off - the sound comes back on which is what I would expect.

On The Pioneer If in 4e HDMI Setup, ARC is set to off then in 2b Input Setup, Audio In reads Opt-1 in bold letters and you have the option to alter to Coax, Analogue etc.
If in 4e HDMI Setup, ARC is set to on then in 2b Input Setup, Audio In reads ARC in greyed out letters and HDMI In reads ---- . Should ARC be greyed out? I think this is the main problem.

The TV Sound Out is set to Audio Out(Optical/HDMI ARC) and as it’s working on Optical I presume the HDMI has to also be functioning.

Have I got a duff HDMI cable? How can I prove that?

Hope this makes sense to anyone reading it.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

Have I got a duff HDMI cable? How can I prove that?

Try a different cable.....

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

At this point I would reset everything to factory default settings. If there's not an on-screen menu option for each device, you can look up how to do it for each device on the internet. It's susually a matter of pressing two or three buttons whilst simultaneously switching the device on or off. Later you can download the firmware updates for each device, but stick to the out-of-the-box settings to begin with.

Then I would splash out on a new an HDMI 2.0 cable that has the ARC channel built in (most do by default). Ethernet could be useful but is not essential. Ten to twenty quid per cable should be the most you need to spend. You can splash out on more expensive cables later if you want to and / or think they're necessary, but buy them on line not from the "high street" retailers. They rip you off - they sell their TVs at or near cost and make all their profits on the add-ons like HDMI cables, extension cords and (especially) extended warranties. I know this for a fact - my brother used to work for Comet.

Hook everthing up anew, being sure to observe any directionality arrows on the cables and us the minimum numer of cables you can, e.g. one HDMI from your satellite or cable TV boz, Amazon box or whatever to the receiver, a second from the receiver to the TV and avoid extra audio or fibre optic cables to begin with. Get one deivce working properly, then the next, and so on.

 

[Lost Angeles]

That’s good advice Benedict but the new HDMI cable I ordered on Monday from Futureshop which was delivered Tuesday (brilliant service) and is a QED make 2.0 with ARC included, I ordered this as I couldn’t get any of my other cables to work on ARC as most were 1.3 and one was 1.4.The one I ordered also has Ethernet in it. This cable was about £25.
I only have two HDMIs into the receiver one from the BD player and one from the Sky box and from the Receiver I have only the one HDMI to the TV. The 2.0 which should do ARC. I then connected the Optical from Receiver to TV as this was the only way to get sound back.
Your idea of doing a re-boot is a good idea and I might have to do this but I’ve been on the Pioneer site and it says there are no updates available for my Receiver and I’m not sure whether or not we have the latest firmware on it.
I might have to buy another HDMI cable, CYP do a HDMI2 with ARC for £9.91+p&p from Futureshop, (I keep plugging them) if that doesn’t work at least it eliminates the cables.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

I'd pop down the shops and buy another two or three new HDMI cables if I were you. Then start with the Blu-Ray player. Sky boxes can be awkward. You shouldn't even need ARC is you can hook it up BDP > Receiver > TV, but you WILL need it if you hook the BDP up directly to the TV. If your BDP has two HDMI outputs, hopok one up to the TV, one up to the receiver. You could also try hooking up a digital (fibre optic or coaxial) audio cable from the BDP to the receiver, so that video goes to the TV and audio goes to the receiver. Set your BDP (if you can) to output UNdecoded bitstream or pcm signals to the receiver, so that the receiver does the decoding, not the BDP.

 

[Lost Angeles]

I’m not sure you fully understand my situation.

I have no problems with sound from BDP or Skybox as my receiver controls the sound to my speakers. I’m not using ARC for this. The TV only does the picture for this from my new HDMI cable which proves the HDMI cable passes video to the TV.

My new TV allows me to watch Neflix and Amazon Prime direct from the Internet and Freesat from my dish. This is where I need ARC to work as I need get the sound back from my TV to my Pioneer so I get Surround sound from my speakers. I can do this Optically but my system should allow it to be done through ARC.

Thanks for everyone’s input so far.

 

[bigboss]

Did you activate it in the Pioneer as well?

AV forums makes this note in the review of LX57 (not sure it'll help you):

"ARC works well - Dolby Digital from Netflix sounds convincingly full bodied like other surround formats - but actually setting it up is an unprepossessing combination of menu settings and then finally working out that with ARC activated, the ‘TV’ input becomes the ARC channel. Nowhere in the manual does it say - “The ARC is accessed via the TV input when activated in the settings menu”, you effectively have to figure it out yourself."

https://www.avforums.com/review/pioneer-sc-lx57-av-receiver-review.10293

 

[Lost Angeles]

Did you activate it in the Pioneer as well?

AV forums makes this note in the review of LX57 (not sure it'll help you):

"ARC works well - Dolby Digital from Netflix sounds convincingly full bodied like other surround formats - but actually setting it up is an unprepossessing combination of menu settings and then finally working out that with ARC activated, the ‘TV’ input becomes the ARC channel. Nowhere in the manual does it say - “The ARC is accessed via the TV input when activated in the settings menu”, you effectively have to figure it out yourself."

https://www.avforums.com/review/pioneer-sc-lx57-av-receiver-review.10293

Yeah I figured this out since I asked the question in my first post, it did baffle me at first but as I said before when you switch the Pioneer to ARC the TV set up on the Pioneer changes from OPT1 to a greyed out ARC.
I’ve put some feelers out where I used to work to see if anyone has a soundbar connected with HDMI. I don’t know anyone with an AV setup

 

[Lost Angeles]

Went down the town and bought a cheap HDMI cable with Audio Return Channel and guess what - still no sound, this proves to me that both my HDMI cables are OK (surely you cant buy 2 faulty ones from 2 different places). I reckon the TV and the Pioneer are not communicating with each other.
I need to find someone local with a soundbar connected with a HDMI cable amd get them to bring it to my house for an hour to see if the ARC works from the TV. Otherwise I've got to lug my Pioneer and a speaker to a mates and see if we get sound from their TV through ARC. Option 1 would be easier.

 

[Series1boy]

This may be a silly question, is your HDMI cable directional? My Chord hdmi calves are and have arrows on the cable telling you which way it should be plugged in. This may not be the issue, but the really simple 1s are sometimes the issue...

 

[Lost Angeles]

This may be a silly question, is your HDMI cable directional? My Chord hdmi calves are and have arrows on the cable telling you which way it should be plugged in. This may not be the issue, but the really simple 1s are sometimes the issue...

. Cables are not directional and I've tried both ways anyway. Spoke to a Pioneer engineer who said the ARC should be greyed out which it is so no luck there. Thanks anyway. Off to the pub later, currently got the HiFi on at least my TT talks to my amp, computer to Dac, Dac to amp and amp to speakers.