HDMI ARC Not Working? This May Be Why

HDMI ARC is a super cool feature that many are excited to discover since it can help make a home entertainment system work simpler and soundb better. That's the idea, anyway. But a lot of folks are struggling to make HDMI ARC work and are desperate to find a fix. Unfortunately, there may not be a fix. Here's why.

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#homeaudio #technology #tech #tvs #homecinema #hdmi #Guide #Audio #TV #HomeTheater #HomeEntertainment #DigitalTrends

[FlairUp]

I really appreciate what you did here. After two hours of head scratching I found your video and just went out to buy an optical cable.

[WhiskyCardinalWes]

Life was so much easier with RCA cables.

[greentg]

I think the other big culprit is High Bandwidth Digital Copy Protection (HDCP), which like CEC has been implemented slightly differently by every manufacturer. If there is even the slightest mismatch, then the two devices will not handshake.

[MiamiHiFiMan]

Caleb, as usual, you are spot on. ARC/eARC/CEC are easily one of the most frustrating tech bits in the last decade. You would think that after all this time, they would have this figured out. Now.. the truth is that it’s much better than it once was and it also works much more reliably when same brand products are used. On the other hand, after all this time, it should work close to 100% of the time and it simply doesn’t. Manufacturers simply are not on the same page here and it makes everyone crazy!😵‍💫🤦🏻‍♂️ Caleb, Please champion this issue and see if they can make this all it’s promised to be! Keep the great content coming! 🙏🙏🙏

[aninterestedparty]

Finally: honesty! Thank you. I’ve been clicking, dropping in and out of menu options, unplugging & replugging, watching videos, forget “manuals” (they’re just cartoons now), etc., just to get ANY sound out of a simple set-up (yes, HDMI ARC) - just a damn DVD player/flatscreen/sound bar connection, at a 2.0 level - and it’s been days of maybe it’ll work today, or maybe not, maybe yesterday’s apparently correct settings will hold, or . . . Thanks for your rant, so much better than the No-problem videos we’re normally sedated with.

[mohamedahmed]

POWER CYCLING: I normally don't suggest something so silly but I actually resolved HDMI CEC issues with two separate systems (1. Sony OLED eARC to Marantz receiver, 2. LG OLED eARC to Sonos Beam Gen 2) by turning everything off for a few minutes then turning it back on. If your eARC works well then stops working after a few months despite not having changed any settings, try POWER CYCLING!

I know- it sounds silly but it worked for me. Just hoping it minimizes headaches for others.

[ShotgunSandwichENT]

Thank you for this, Caleb! Am so damn sick of this issue. No matter the tv or soundbar I find myself unhooking, restarting, getting on my knees and begging… for sound.

[bikdav]

I’m glad that you brought this out into the open. I gave up using HDMI ARC and eARC.

[dustincortes]

I have had this issue SO MANY TIMES! I have a Klipsch 1200 Cinema and the number of times I have thought about throwing the whole system out the window. I'll probably just opt in for the Optical cable and hopefully they fix this issue in the futire.
Thank you for reassuring me that "I'm not the problem" Lol

[CarsandCats]

You know, the more I think about this the more I believe that HDCP is responsible for most of the connectivity issues. Especially delays in video resolution/audio format switching.

[kevinpastores]

My now resolved issue was when I upgraded my old LCD TV to a new Hisense 55U7N that I connected to an older Yamaha RX-V475 receiver. The audio signal stops when I switched streaming apps (didn't matter if it was Disney+, Hulu, YouTube, Max) and I noticed the sounds stayed on until it tried to sync with Dolby Digital (which my Yamaha receiver can handle). It didn't matter if I set my new TV to pass-through or hard set the audio to PCM or Dolby Digital...I had to toggle audio inputs from Tuner to my TV on my receiver or power off/oh. The fix for me was basic...a new 4k/8k HDMI cable but then I had to hard-set my TV to Dolby Digital vs AUTO and passthrough was OFF. Thanks for this YouTube video! It was very informative!!

[genehager]

Just experienced my third iteration of problems getting sound from my Sony A95k TV to my Sony HT-A5000 sound bar via ARC. Have now implemented the Sony Support suggested procedure to fix the problem twice, only to have it reoccur with no new hardware or software changes to any of my system components. I'm going to give up use optical and avoid a reoccurrence. I suspect this is not going to change due to a new altruistic attitude from hardware manufacturers. Thanks for all that you do to guide the A/V consumer community.

[mddg]

I have an LG C2 OLED TV and an Onkyo rz830 A/V receiver and thank God the eARC works beautifully. I get sound from all sources. Count me as one of the lucky ones! Caleb's videos are always right on the mark and very thorough. I bought my LG OLED because of his positive reviews on it. It is a fantastic TV that thrills me very time I turn it on!

[benjaminwyatt]

To everyone watching this: GET NEW HDMI CABLES!!! They have to be modem/ethernet compatible. Any newer “high speed” cable on Amazon will do the trick. My Sony soundbar was a brick until I updated my cable and it worked instantly. Thank you for the video!

[jameslester]

I have been using the EARC on my Sony tv to my Marantz AV receiver for several years. It works good. A bit laggy at times but good.

[ssalani]

Yes, please do the investigative journalism that you suggested. You will be a hero in getting to the bottom of this fiasco! And yes, I like this video and wish you would do more of them addressing problems in tech.

[ChaseSchleich]

Thank you. I work as a home theater Geek Squad agent and I'm going to start sending this video to my clients when they say "but the store told me ARC would work" when I tell them it won't because of handshake/compatibility issues. I've been running into it more often with Apple TV's, Sony Bravia TV's and Sony soundbar combinations. For whatever reason, those 3 things hate working together (even though Sony to Sony should be plug and play). I love ARC, but it's also one of my worst enemies lol.

[jamestapscott]

Caleb,

To fix my CEC issues, I no longer route UHD player and Roku device through my Denon AVR. Instead, I have UBP-X800M2 player and Roku Ultra connected to my Sony OLED, and EARC running from tv to my Denon AVR using Zeskit Lite 2.1 HDMI cables. This allows me to sleep better at night, knowing my AVR will not randomly turn on at 2 a.m.

The only drawback to this new method for routing cables; the UHD Player is slow to boot-up.

[TapCat]

Very timely video as I just spent a good portion of this past weekend grappling with ARC connection issues. The most infuriating thing when you get it to work one time and then it refuses to work shortly thereafter even if configured the exact same way.

[nashvilleboy]

Thank You for this video and I vent with you. I have a Yamaha RX-V6A and had a Samsung TV and had major issues with the "handshake" and at first I thought maybe there was a setting I was overlooking and even wondered if something was even wrong with my equipment. I finally threw in the towel and bought a Sony TV instead since I love the Yamaha receiver and works perfect now. I moved the Samsung in to another room and it works perfect there.