HDMI ARC Not Working? This May Be Why

for a technology that was introduced in 2009 and is still used to this day you would think that most of the bugs would be worked out and yet after 14 years it remains one of the most frustrating features I've ever dealt with I'm talking about HDMI ARC or HDMI ARC and folks I'm fixing to go on a bit of a rant here so buckle up [Music] foreign I'm Caleb Dennison and I generally try to keep things positive on this channel when stuff doesn't work I report it and I've even worked closely with Brands to help make their devices better I'll wait patiently for a firmware update I'll sit tight until there's a patch hell I'm okay if the first go at a product isn't just right if the next version works better generally I like to give Brands and the very smart people who work for them the benefit of the doubt but today well today you're going to get a little bit of frustrated Caleb and I'm frustrated because many of you are frustrated just this last week alone I fielded questions and calls for help from three different personal friends help me because they could not get the sound from their TV to their sound bar or AV receiver using HDMI ARC and prior to last week I've got about 12 years worth of emails DMS and text messages about the exact same issue under my belt and hey before you come for me in the comments I realize this is a very first world problem nobody's life is ended prematurely because their audio return Channel doesn't work but people spend their hard-earned money with certain expectations and there is no denying that this is a problem I just don't understand why in 14 years this continues to be an issue now I want to make sure I'm Fair here I've targeted HDMI ARC but the truth is there is no one entity or person to blame which makes it all the more frustrating it's not like we can email the CEO of HDMI and tell them to get his crap together and fix HDMI ARC a because that's not a tactic that's Bound for success but also B there is no such person I am just a figment of your imagination no actually there are a lot of entities to blame here there is a veritable cabal of ineptitude lurking in the shadows and while I'm going to try to shine some light into those dark corners of the AV Tech world I don't actually think much is going to change as a result of this rant I'm just trying to see catharsis together sometimes it helps to just let it out so let the letting begin let's start with shifting our attention to the the real culprit okay HDMI ARC is just a symptom not the actual illness if HDMI ARC is a pool of blood on the floor than HDMI CEC is the gushing artery yes I could have gone with something less graphic and I'm sorry that's just the mindset I'm in right now so about HDMI CEC or consumer electronics control it's been out here screwing around since 2005. 18 years y'all it's been 84 years and while it has seen some improvements some cool new features it's Baseline bugginess it's propensity to propel you into fits of Madness because the seemingly simple solution is not at all simple and often just does not work that's remained a constant for 18 years and honestly it's probably going to be more or less the same POS it's always been on its 20th birthday the CEC and HDMI CEC as I said before stands for Consumer Electronics control and it's the protocol that allows communication among your devices and as it would suggest control of those devices so it's what allows your Soundbar remote to turn your TV on or off or your TV remote to play and pause your Blu-ray player or set top streaming box or to adjust the volume on your receiver in an Ideal World HDMI CEC makes it possible for you to Chuck a few remotes in a drawer and leave them there until you need to do something very hyper specific but also just know the batteries will be dead by then since dead baby all the most common controls volume up and down Channel up and down power that sort of thing the stuff that you do every day most of that is covered by HDMI CEC and I've had Fairly good luck with that kind of operational stuff but the key word there is luck because it's anything but reliable we'll come back to that HDMI CEC is also at a very fundamental level what enables HDMI ARC to work there's a little handshake agreement that needs to happen between your AV Electronics in order for them to start communicating and HDMI CEC is the Gateway for that communication if HDMI CEC isn't working then a bunch of stuff ain't working we know this to be true because if you turn HDMI CEC off on one of your devices then a Cascade failure begins to take place and here is where our journey into madness begins this is madness see in order for anything that HDMI CEC enables to work properly CEC has to be enabled on both ends of a signal chain so if we have an Xbox One X and we want the TV to turn on when the Xbox is turned on we need to make sure that CEC is turned on on the Xbox and the TV that right there that alone is a problem I mean how many of you knew what HDMI CEC was before you came to this class I mean ran oh you did okay Johnny you're very smart sit down honestly most folks don't know CEC from the CDC which that's another rant entirely look most folks don't know that CEC exists therefore they are unaware that you need to turn CEC on for certain cool features to work in their stuff I know that we live in a world where we prefer to opt in than to have to opt out but frankly CEC should just be on by default my argument in favor of that stance is that if it it is highly Technical and designed for your convenience you know to make things easier then it should just be on because you will have far fewer issues of something that makes other things easier is just turned on by default anyway as I explained in this video about HDMI ARC which after we commiserate here you should go watch that if you're having trouble for a you know an actual possible solution in order for HDMI ARC to work CEC has to be enabled in your TV and your audio device if it isn't your devices are telling your audio signal [Music] yeah you're not going to get anything and a lot of folks are going to miss that but even if you do have HDMI CEC turned on that's not a guarantee that things are going to work because and this is where things get a little fuzzy for me there is something about the code for HDMI CEC that is apparently highly vulnerable to being screwed up like here is a scenario I hear of all the time let's say Johnny and remember Johnny is the clever one in class let's say Johnny has a Ford TV I'm using non-tv Brands so that nobody is unfairly targeted though to be honest they can probably all be fairly targeted here anyway Johnny has a Ford TV and a Chevy sound bar these two devices have been working together just fine for years but Johnny decides to upgrade his TV and goes with an Acura Johnny figures he'll stick with his Chevy Soundbar for now and maybe upgrade that to a Nissan down the road but for now he'll just mate his Chevy Soundbar with the new Acura TV but for whatever reason that Chevy Soundbar which works fine with four TVs and Toyota TVs and even Hugo TVs somehow it doesn't work with the new Acura TV now if Johnny were to buy an Acura sound bar there's a good chance that it would work just fine and in fact having the same brand of sound bar as his TV might even unlock some other really cool features but the thing is HDMI CEC is supposed to be brand agnostic but for whatever reason does not always work out that way not because HDMI CEC itself favors one brand over another but because somehow well there are multiple ways of implementing it and sometimes device a and device B will work together and sometimes they just won't and no amount of tinkering adjustment or slamming things against the wall is going to help wow so let me pause for a moment and just say this if you've been banging your head against the wall trying to make your TV work with your sound bar through HDMI ARC and they just won't work no matter what you do look I rarely say this but I just give up try a different sound bar or try a different TV or skip HDMI altogether and just use optical digital Because unless you need Dolby Atmos Optical will work just fine it's just another cable you'll have to use and there won't be any inter-device control available but you'll get sound and honestly maybe that's enough for you right now pouring some salt onto this festering wound of frustration is that a new version of HDMI ARC that would be e-arc could and many would argue should be more reliable and by the Numbers Perhaps it is when both of the devices you're using support e-arc but purely anecdotally here I'm still hearing of troubles from time to time foreign now I've been urged by some of my colleagues to stop being so soft and just put the HDMI forum and HDMI licensing Administration on blast for this I haven't done that so far because frankly I don't understand what is their responsibility and what is manufacturer's responsibility and I don't know if I want to do that investigative journalism maybe I should do you want me to let me know down in the comments but my friends may have a point if HDMI has a standard that companies should follow when using their technology then perhaps they should enforce those standards you think Apple isn't going to tear into anchor if anchor goes and makes a product with the works with iPhone label when in fact the thing does not work with iPhone uh no you know apple is going to jump on their case and tell them to get it right or get the F out by the way I have no knowledge of any such thing ever happening with anchor I use anchor in this example because I happen to really like their products but what do you think you think we should bark at the HDMI organizations and tell them to get this sorted out or is it too late I mean HDMI has a Stranglehold on TV interconnections I feel like the only way we ditch HDMI and all the associated Technologies is by going Wireless and going Wireless is a fertile landscape for more Shenanigans so I'm not sure that's a solution either let's keep in mind that the HDMI forum is just made up of a bunch of companies that use HDMI in other words they are all the problems so if they haven't policed themselves so far I don't think they're gonna start now so folks frankly I don't know what we do about this I do not like throwing my hands up and saying it is what it is oh well guess we'll just deal with it but honestly I've been shaking my head on this one for over a decade myself maybe I'm jaded and I just lack the fire in the pit of my belly motivation to go after some fools or maybe it's been a problem for so long now I'm convinced it can't be fixed but you know what I have to have a positive takeaway here I'm just not going to sleep well at night if I don't so here's what I've come up with we are indeed moving toward a wireless signal delivery Paradigm look at LG remember the M series I showed you at CES that TV comes to Market soon in fact I'm going to go see it next week that M series TV is the first of what I think will become The New Normal you connect things to a box and then the Box just sends the signal off to the TV so let's not let happen with wireless video and lossless multi-channel audio what happened with HDMI ARC and HDMI CEC we have an opportunity to loudly reject something that doesn't work we just need to organize around it and perhaps that starts right here right now thanks as always for watching everyone what do you think about all of this and did you like this video or do you prefer positive upbeat glasses half full Caleb let me know all about all of that down in the comments please consider liking and subscribing I'll see you on the next one and until then here's two other videos I think you might like

Channel: Digital Trends

Views: 181,404

Keywords: audio return channel, hdmi arc, home theater, hdmi arc vs optical, hdmi arc vs earc, hdmi earc, what is arc, what is earc, hdmi cec, hdmi arc setup, why is hdmi arc not working, hdmi arc not working, hdmi cable not working on tv, arc not working, hdmi vs optical, what is hdmi arc, arc and earc explained, what is hdmi earc, hdmi arc for tv, enhanced audio return channel, connect hdmi arc, hdmi arc explained, audio return channel explained, audio return channel meaning

Id: 6PXFPdLpU6E

Length: 12min 45sec (765 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 24 2023