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Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2015 6:45 pm
by newfiend
Update...
Well I ended up with the Samsung UN46H7150 recommended by Robert Heron.. The picture looks great. Much better Contrast and black Levels then on the old Sony LCD..
I am having one small issue I am hoping someone else with a similar panel can help me with. I have a Harmony One and set it up to Turn on all the devices and set to the appropriate inputs etc..
It powers on the TV then AVR then HTPC.. Once it starts up I notice the screen refreshes the HDMI signal and it switches my AVR from HDMI 1 to TV. (Sony STR-DN1000).
I believe this is happening because of Samsung's Anynet+ CEC control. I would like it to stop switching my AVR to TV.
I disabled Anynet+ CEC and then of course it stops controlling the CEC Devices (AVR) and it stays on HDMI 1 however If I disable this then the HTPC for some reason doesn't see my AVR. In the TV speaker Settings the option to select the receiver as the audio output device is greyed out and not selectable. None of the DTS audio tracks play etc..
Re-enabling Anynet+ allows me to then select the Receiver as the audio output device and everything works. But I still have the issue with the TV switching the AVR back to TV at Turn on instead of staying on HDMI 1. Is there a workaround for this? or am I missing something? I currently have the HDMI cables running from HTPC HDMI out > AVR HDMI 1 Input > AVR HDMI Output to TV.
Thanks for any help.
newfiend~

Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2015 10:02 pm
by STC
Hi n, Are you trying to use ARC - Audio Return Channel?

Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 12:25 am
by newfiend
I don't think my older AVR supports ARC, new tv has it on HDMI 2 though. Time for a new AVR? been thinking about updating that at some point. Would ARC fix this? I notice that the TV Anynet CEC will find my avr when it scans for CEC along with the playstation but after the scan it only lists the playstation in its found device list. The avr works, plays surround sound etc. It just switches to tv instead of staying on HDMI 1 at turn on on the AVR.

Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:57 am
by STC
The reason I asked is because if you're not, then try and see if you can have things setup without CEC. It can cause a lot of headaches.

I presume your AVR is not connected to your HTPC via the TV i.e. chain is: HTPC -> AVR -> TV

Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 3:50 am
by newfiend
Tried HDMI 2 as well same result, but I'll try again. Chain is HTPC out of NVIDIA GTX 750Ti > Sony AVR HDMI 1 input > out of AVR HDMI output > Samsung HDMI 1 input (STB). If I disable the CEC on the TV, then open Control Panel > Sound on the htpc select the HDMI connection and then configure button, only option is stereo.. No surround sound options. The TV basically can't see the AVR. Re-enable CEC on the TV and open Control Panel > Sound > HDMI connection , configure button and I get stereo, 2 different 5.1 options as well as a 7.1 option. I don't understand why the Anynet CEC must be enabled for the HTPC to see the AVR but it does. I tried disabling Anynet CEC and Sony Bravia Link (CEC) on the AVR both but then I only get stereo sound through the AVR. Do you think a newer AVR that supports Audio return Channel would fix the issue? Reason I ask is I need to update that piece anyway as it doesn't support 3D anyway. So its on the list of parts that need replaced.. Thanks for the help STC.

Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 4:02 am
by newfiend
The HDMI 2 on the TV supports ARC but I don't think my old AVR does.

Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 4:10 am
by STC
ARC can be a pain, so nothing lost there.
Hmm, it does appear to be a funky problem.
Where do you start, it could be HDCP getting in the way....
When CEC has been disabled on everything, have you tried power cycling / resetting your HDMI chain for a 'clean boot'? (10 seconds everything unplugged).

As a test you could bypass the AVR and see whether the HTPC sees the TV correctly plugged in to each other.

Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 1:35 pm
by newfiend
Ok I'll give that a go.. Might see about just resetting the AVR to factory defaults as well as the TV.. unplugging it all let it set a bit then plugging it all back in and starting from scratch. My old sony's TV's cec would list the AVR and PlayStation but the Samsung only sees the playstation in it's found CEC device list.. it does find the AVR when searching because I can see it list it as being found during search but it won't add it to the "found CEC device list" on the TV.. weirdest thing..
If that doesn't do it I may start looking at AVR's next.. not that I can afford that right now.. (Or the TV that Died for that matter) I had to borrow funds just to get that from the wife and replace it with my tax refund.. ugh.. I really didn't want to shoot out that much cash right now but all we do is sit home with the kids so a TV is used a lot here. The way it's set up now with the Harmony is it turns on the TV, then AVR then HTPC last (because of HDMI handshake issues) It sets it all to the correct inputs and outputs. a few seconds after its all up and running and on the correct inputs the screen refreshes (goes black for a second and comes back up) which seems to initiate a new HDCP handshake and it then sets my AVR to TV instead of HDMI 1.... FRUSTATING!! It's like I almost have it perfect but then..no..lol
I think with the smart TV apps as well I may end up needing an AVR with ARC to get multichannel audio out of Netflix etc. *sigh*
newfiend

Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:22 pm
by babgvant
Samsung TVs are greedy, they always want TV Audio if CEC is enabled. You shouldn't have to enable CEC to make compressed formats work or have a device work correctly. You may need to power cycle everything, and remove power from the AVR to get to a good state after toggling CEC.

You may need to enable CEC to get HDMI pass-through to work, especially on an older AVR. You absolutely need CEC to enable ARC.

Since you have a Harmony you can leave CEC enabled and deal with the TV's greedy behavior. Essentially it comes down to adding after start actions to the activity startup macro. When I was messing around with ways to solve this problem, I ended up using a series of "wait, then set the input I want" at 1, 5, & 10 seconds.

I.E.:

avr waits 1000 milliseconds
set avr input HDMI 1
avr waits 4000 milliseconds
set avr input HDMI 1
avr waits 5000 milliseconds
set avr input HDMI 1

This always worked for me, but the delay was annoying and getting my kids to keep the remote pointed at the receiver until it was done was a pain.

So I ended up disabling CEC on everything and just running a TOSLINK cable from the TV to the AVR to get audio from the Smart Apps. Much easier, but I can't control the PS4 via CEC anymore :(.

All that said, I also played around with using a rPi to control the TV's bad behavior. CEC is a shared bus, so it should be possible to react to the TV's request for TV Audio and overrule it under some conditions. I have something sort of working, but there are some issues that I never made the time to run down.

Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:32 pm
by newfiend
Thanks Andrew and STC for the input!! I'll give this a go. I've been pulling my hair out since yesterday trying to figure this out.
newfiend~

Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:36 pm
by holidayboy
I use a harmony hub and have had to add an extra input command when I change activities with my new Samsung TV, my old Samsung didn't need it though. Progress!

Re: <-- This Guy needs a new TV! Help

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:28 pm
by newfiend
Ok I finally figured this out... (Thanks to the help posted above!!)
I Turned off Anynet+ (CEC) on the Samsung TV.
I Turned OFF Bravia Sync (CEC) on the Sony AVR.
I Power Cycled both the TV and AVR (Unplugged them and let them sit 30 Seconds)
However that didn't yield results. What finally did it was powering off the AVR, Then holding in the power button to factory reset the AVR (Sony STR-DN1000).
After factory resetting the AVR I then Power cycled both TV and AVR again (Unplugged them and let them sit 30 Seconds).
plugged them back in and suddenly all my surround sound options were again available in Control Panel > Sound > HDMI Connection >Configure.
I had to set up my speaker configuration and Bi-Amp (on my Polk front speakers) and rename the Inputs the way I had them but other then that all my surround sound Is again working.
Thank you both STC And Andrew Van Til for helping me out!! Also Thank you to everyone that posted your thoughts and suggestions on TV brands. It really helped out.
newfiend~