Need help with soundbar suddenly not working with ARC

[Particle Physicist]

So I am at a loss as to what happened and what I can do. I have a Vizio PQ65 and a Samsung MS 650 soundbar. It has been connected via ARC for over 2 years working flawlessly until about 2 weeks ago or so. The sound works for a few seconds when you first turn it on and then just stops working and I have no idea why. The sound works when just playing through the TV speakers or if I connect via optical but nothing changed whatsoever and it's frustrating. I have no idea how to trouble shoot this. How do I find out if it is the tv or the soundbar that is the issue?

:(

 

[Cation]

Might be dumb, but are there input modes (like HDMI/Optical, BT, WIFI, aux) on the soundbar? I had issues like that on my LG SJ8 and my LG C8. Resetting would fix it, but later I found out just toggling the input modes on the soundbar would fix it - even though it said it was on the right mode. Never made sense to me, but it always works somehow

 

[Particle Physicist]

Might be dumb, but are there input modes (like HDMI/Optical, BT, WIFI, aux) on the soundbar? I had issues like that on my LG SJ8 and my LG C8. Resetting would fix it, but later I found out just toggling the input modes on the soundbar would fix it - even though it said it was on the right mode. Never made sense to me, but it always works somehow

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so I have tried factory resetting both my tv and the soundbar and no dice. The soundbar auto detects arc as an input when the tv turns on and it still happens. I try switching inputs around and the sound doesn't come back when I switch it. I sometimes can get arc to work with a bunch of fucking around turning it on and off and switching inputs on the tv and soundbar but it's not consistent. It's just weird that this happened all of a sudden without any changes to my setup.

i also don't want to buy a new soundbar to only find out that the issue is with the tv or vice versa. How do I figure out where the issue is?

 

[Crazymoogle]

Usually the first step I do troubleshooting ARC after many painful moments with it is to unplug all other devices. Just have the arc device and I guess however you get TV. Then fully power off the TV and soundbar (usually the unplug for a couple of minutes) and see if you get it back after.

In my experience there are a bunch of devices out there (including various HDMI hubs) that can cause ARC to cut out, so ultimately the job is to get ARC back and then see if there is a device that causes it to fail later.

 

[Particle Physicist]

Usually the first step I do troubleshooting ARC after many painful moments with it is to unplug all other devices. Just have the arc device and I guess however you get TV. Then fully power off the TV and soundbar (usually the unplug for a couple of minutes) and see if you get it back after.

In my experience there are a bunch of devices out there (including various HDMI hubs) that can cause ARC to cut out, so ultimately the job is to get ARC back and then see if there is a device that causes it to fail later.

Click to shrink...

I only have an AppleTV and a Switch connected. I'll give that a try but would the devices still cause issues even when using an input they are not connected to?

 

[Crazymoogle]

I only have an AppleTV and a Switch connected. I'll give that a try but would the devices still cause issues even when using an input they are not connected to?

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Yes. To give an example on my Sony X900F the soundbar (through ARC) would cut out if these HDMI devices were installed on *other* ports:

• Switch (though I fixed that by turning off the on/off sync with HDMI)
• A specific HDMI port switch I had to connect multiple devices through HDMI4 (fixed this by throwing out the port switch and finding a better one)

The cut out was never instant; it could take up to 15 minutes and after that point ARC was totally unusable. But if I unplugged the problem device and power-cycled the TV, ARC would come back.

 

[Particle Physicist]

Yes. To give an example on my Sony X900F the soundbar (through ARC) would cut out if these HDMI devices were installed on *other* ports:

• Switch (though I fixed that by turning off the on/off sync with HDMI)
• A specific HDMI port switch I had to connect multiple devices through HDMI4 (fixed this by throwing out the port switch and finding a better one)

The cut out was never instant; it could take up to 15 minutes and after that point ARC was totally unusable. But if I unplugged the problem device and power-cycled the TV, ARC would come back.

Click to shrink...

even if it has worked for years? Damn. How do you turn off the on/off sync with HDMI for the switch? I wonder if that may be causing issues?

Does eARC have less compatibility issues? This is turning into a huge headache :(

 

[Crazymoogle]

even if it has worked for years? Damn. How do you turn off the on/off sync with HDMI for the switch? I wonder if that may be causing issues?

Does eARC have less compatibility issues? This is turning into a huge headache :(

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I believe so (for eARC) but the whole chain matters. Maybe the TV is a bit flakey with incoming signals. Maybe one of the HDMI cables is doing something bad, or isn't rated for the same speed as the port. This is why reducing your TV setup to the bare minimum is important, to narrow down all of the reasons for failure.

For Switch: Settings > TV Settings > Match TV Power State: OFF

 

[Particle Physicist]

I believe so (for eARC) but the whole chain matters. Maybe the TV is a bit flakey with incoming signals. Maybe one of the HDMI cables is doing something bad, or isn't rated for the same speed as the port. This is why reducing your TV setup to the bare minimum is important, to narrow down all of the reasons for failure.

For Switch: Settings > TV Settings > Match TV Power State: OFF

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it seems unplugging the Switch may have worked! So far so good. Thanks. So strange that it would happen after a few years of no issues.

 

[Multiverse Moo]

it seems unplugging the Switch may have worked! So far so good. Thanks. So strange that it would happen after a few years of no issues.

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Not that strange considering devices get updates, ya know? Something as simple as a new game refreshing your Switch's firmware and resetting an HDMI mode is enough to mess with how your TV responds to incoming signals.

 

[Yoss]

My tv stopped detecting my soundbar through ARC last week.I have a samsung tv and soundbar. What worked for me is: turn off tv and soundbar, disconnect soundbar from tv, turn off CEC in tv settings, turn CEC back on, connect soundbar.

 

[Particle Physicist]

My tv stopped detecting my soundbar through ARC last week.I have a samsung tv and soundbar. What worked for me is: turn off tv and soundbar, disconnect soundbar from tv, turn off CEC in tv settings, turn CEC back on, connect soundbar.

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none of that worked for me. I did ally hat. Reset to factory setting. Everything. Then... I unplugged the switch. Freaken hell

 

[Crazymoogle]

none of that worked for me. I did ally hat. Reset to factory setting. Everything. Then... I unplugged the switch. Freaken hell

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So that suggests, btw, that it is either the Switch or the HDMI cable. Your next step should be switching cables (and if that doesn't work, switching HDMI ports, if possible, but not both at once)

 

[Particle Physicist]

So that suggests, btw, that it is either the Switch or the HDMI cable. Your next step should be switching cables (and if that doesn't work, switching HDMI ports, if possible, but not both at once)

Click to shrink...

I'm going to try to switch cables. I tried turning off the Match Power setting on the Switch but it still screws with the audio when plugged in. What's interesting is that it looks like my TVs firmware may have been updated around the time this started happening. I wonder if that fucked things up. At least I found the culprit. I was so freaken frustrated . I appreciate all the help everyone :)

 

[louiedog]

I've been good for about 18 months now, but I used to have to unplug my sound bar and TV HDMI and power and leave them both off for 10+ minutes every few months. I found that solution on a post about a different ARC receiver and TV combo so its not my devices. I think HDMI can just get kind of flakey. In my case the audio sync would drift and get worse over time. So when it first started happening it'd be off by a small fraction after about an hour, then a few days later it might get off by a half second after 10 minutes.