OMG I am going mad with this – please HELP – HDMI ARC

This is the set-up:

Virgin TiVo box plugged into HDMI1 on soundbar

XBox plugged into HDMI2 on soundbar

Soundbar’s HMDI (ARC) OUT plugged into HDMI2 ARC IN on TV (via dead fast cable)

When I set the soundbar input mode to ARC, I get a HDMI2 no signal error.

I think I’m making a simple error in the chain somewhere but I could do with a fresh set of eyes / brains.

I’d really appreciate any help.

TiA

ARC is audio only. I think you probably need it the other way around. Certainly I have TV ARC -> (Sonos) soundbar (which just has a single ARC input) with everything else direct to the TV. Possible that your soundbar can route HDMI on to TV I guess, but I doubt it’s via the ARC socket.

Not at home to check but yes, I think I have it the other way round.  Everything plugged into the TV and only the TV’s ARC port to the soundbar.

In fact given we mostly just use the Firestick which is direct into the TV, it is definitely that way round.

Every so often I have to switch the TV and soundbar off and on at the plug to get them to talk to each other again.🤷‍♂️

ARC is there to send the audio from the telly (or an input connected to the telly) to an external receiver. In your case, the sound bar.

Let’s say you wanted to watch Netflix on the TVs app. The video would be displayed on the TV but audio would be passed via ARC to the soundbar rather than the telly speakers.

If you had the Xbox connected to the TV, you’d need to use the ARC to get the sound to go through the soundbar. As you’ve got the Xbox connected to the soundbar, just set the input to HDMI 2 and it should all work.

If the soundbar has an option for CEC or device control, make sure its enabled and in theory, just switching the Xbox on should automatically change the input. Doesn’t always worm though as not all devices play nicely with each other.

You might have the soundbar HDMI in the wrong input on the TV.  Check which TV input does audio out and connect the soundbar to that.

If it’s still not working maybe a menu option in the tv menu to enable audio out on the tv?

Hard to be sure from what you’ve described but it sounds like your soundbar (make and model?) has an HDMI passthrough whereby devices plugged into HDMI1 or 2 on the soundbar have their audio played by the soundbar and the video is passed on to the TV (does the soundbar have another HDMI out or is it just the ARC output?)

If this is the case then it’s likely that when you set the soundbar input mode to ARC then this is for the soundbar to receive audio produced on the TV, either from devices plugged into the TV HDMI ports or from the TV itself (onboard apps or broadcast TV)

It sounds like you need to be setting the soundbar input to whichever device you want to use (HDMI1 for TiVo, HDMI2 for Xbox), and then set your TV top whichever HDMI input the soundbar is plugged into.

Ideally, as suggested earlier, set both the soundbar and the TV to use CEC (it might be called something different depending on the manufacturer, Sony call it BraviaSync, LG have called it SimpLink in the past but I think it’s now just HDMI control, Panasonic call it Viera-Link).

What’s the TV model and sound bar model? Should really be arc out on the TV, so you may have it on the wrong port, or it might be you need a setting to tell the TV to send its arc out

Also, you say the soundbar and TV are connected via ‘dead fast cable’.  What kind of cable is it.? Is your soundbar using ARC or eARC.? Does your TV support eARC.?  While both should fall back to simple ARC if either doesn’t support the newer standard, if they are both trying to handshake an eARC connection and your cable isn’t at least HDMI 2.0 standard, then you probably won’t get a picture.

If that’s the case, then you might be able to force simple ARC for your current cable, either that or you might need an HDMI 2.0+ standard cable.

(eARC carries Dolby Atmos and DTS-X level surround sound, whereas ARC will only do Dolby Digital and standard DTS)

Soundbar’s HMDI (ARC) OUT plugged into HDMI2 ARC IN on TV (via dead fast cable)

I assume this is a misstype.? the soundbar would have an ARC IN and the TV would have ARC OUT not the other way around.

Having said all of that, generally the best way to set the system up is to plug everything into the TV and just have the ARC connection between the TV and the soundbar.

There are a couple of reasons not to do it this way, depending on the capabilities of the TV and soundbar.  Some TV’s won’t send proper surround sound down the ARC port (I have an older Panasonic TV that will only do stereo via ARC while it does Dolby Digital via optical)

Conversely, quite a lot of soundbars won’t passthrough full 4K HDR video, hardly any soundbars can passthrough high refresh rate video or unusual resolutions (your Xbox, for example, can do 120Hz refresh rate and/or 1440P resolution), the soundbar might well not be able to pass that on to the TV resulting in a ‘no signal’

TV’s generally deal better with signal passthrough than all but the high end soundbars hence, plug everything into the TV.

I echo what others wrote. Get everything plugged into tv and then the one HDMI cable from the ARC port to the sound bar. With the XBOX through the sound bar I would imagine the added latency would be horrific to game with if you even got it to work which is unlikely.

H1ghland3rFree Member
Soundbar’s HMDI (ARC) OUT plugged into HDMI2 ARC IN on TV (via dead fast cable)
I assume this is a misstype.? the soundbar would have an ARC IN and the TV would have ARC OUT not the other way around.

No, OP is correct it’s an HDMI Out( as described further up) which passes video to the TV and it’s also the ARC port which needs plugging into the corresponding HDMI port labelled “ARC” on the TV

No, OP is correct it’s an HDMI Out( as described further up) which passes video to the TV and it’s also the ARC port which needs plugging into the corresponding HDMI port labelled “ARC” on the TV

Not in my setup – as others have written – ARC (out) passes the audio only from the TV to the sounder’s ARC (in).

Any inputs (virgin box, consoles etc) go from HDMI out (not ARC) on the device, to HDMI in (not arc) on the telly.

Basically everything goes IN to the telly, and it’s only the HDMI ARC that goes OUT to the soundbar.

In some TVs you have to go into the settings and specify that you want the audio to go via ARC to a sounder/receiver (rather than the TV speakers) – it’ll be in the sound settings

ARC is Audio Return Channel. It means that the TV can send audio back down the HDMI cable which used to be a one way, input only thing. ARC makes it 2 way.

The point of the ARC (out) on the TV is  that you only need a single cable between the TV and receiver (sound bar). The point of having multiple HDMI connections on the receiver is so that you dont have to have everything plugged into the telly.

Generally speaking, an external receiver or soundbar is going to do a better job of decoding audio that the TV so it makes sense to have everything plugged into the receiver rather than the TV.

Devices plug into the receiver, the receiver sends the video to the TV and the audio to the speakers. The 2 devices talk to each other to keep everything in sync.

Before ARC came along, you’d have to have used a seperate cable (hdmi or optical or whatever) to get sound from the TV to the receiver. You’d have HDMI in to the TV from your source, and then an optical cable out to your receiver. ARC fixes that. eARC gives more bandwidth to handle multichannel/ dimensional sound such as Atmos.

If the TV or soundbar don’t support eARC and you’ve got all your sources connected to the telly, you’ll lose the ability to get Atmos or DTS:X through the speakers.

ARC (in) on the sound bar should also be the main HDMI (out) to the TV.

Some receivers will have a second HDMI (out) that would be used to send video only to something like a projector. You obviously couldn’t connect an Xbox to this. Well, you could but it wouldn’t work.

Generally speaking, an external receiver or soundbar is going to do a better job of decoding audio that the TV so it makes sense to have everything plugged into the receiver rather than the TV.

Devices plug into the receiver, the receiver sends the video to the TV and the audio to the speakers. The 2 devices talk to each other to keep everything in sync.

And this is the issue with the whole system I was highlighting.  Not all TV’s will support full Atmos/DTS-X via eARC and even fewer soundbars/receivers (other than the very high end) will correctly passthrough high refresh rate 4K HDR especially Dolby Vision.

I have had to split between the 2 with my setup for example as my receiver will happily passthrough everything up to 4K Dolby Vision but can’t cope with 120Hz output from the PS5.  Conversely the TV (LG OLED) passes everything down the eARC except for DTS-X (LG won’t pay the its licence on their TV’s apparently!). So the AppleTV has to get plugged into the receiver to get all the surround formats and the PS5 has to get plugged into the TV to get proper 120Hz 4K HDR.

As mentioned above as well, passing a games console through the receiver adds latency.

You’ve got it all arse-backwards.

Plug everything into the TV, HDMI-ARC from TV to soundbar.

Soundbar’s HMDI (ARC) OUT plugged into HDMI2 ARC IN on TV (via dead fast cable)

When I set the soundbar input mode to ARC, I get a HDMI2 no signal error.

Look carefully at OUT and IN here. When you set the soundbar’s input to an output there’s no input. Well, yes.

It is a complex web of electrical horror you have walked into OP.

So many experiences and opinions.

my preference is to plug stuff into my AVR and take 1 HDMI cable from that to the TV.

works fine as the AVR will happily receive up to atmos from the TV if we use the TV’s apps. And will happily pass 4K to the TV from whatever devices can supply it that are plugged into the AVR. Works well nearly all the time. Except for those occasions when something doesn’t switch on at the right time and we get TV sound (weak) or sound and the TV isn’t on.

if your TV and soundbar have the right abilities for each other then I’d favor one cable between soundbar and TV and use the soundbar to switch between devices.

if there are some differences. For example, if the soundbar cannot pass thru 4K to your 4K TV then you’ll need to experiment with some things plugged into the TV and possibly others plugged into the soundbar.

also, as has been said, check your TV knows where the sound should come from in its audio settings.

good luck.

The labelling is confusing but the OP is still correct in that his HDMI port on the AV unit says HDMI Out (ARC) and this is an HDMI OUT not an ARC Out. It’s just an HDMI Out that supports ARC. His AV will possibly have several HDMI IN for his devices, and to get these signals to the TV he needs to use an HDMI output from his AV receiver to an HDMI input on his TV. This same output will also (if labelled ARC) deliver the sound from the TV back to the AV receiver without the need for dedicated audio only cables. ARC generally isn’t labelled in/out but it might look like it is because of the way it’s labelled eg

HDMI ARC (Out)

HDMI Out (ARC)

Both of those are HDMI Out not ARC Out.

Thanks for the contributions so far.

Majority Sierra Plus sb and Samsung UE50TI7020K tv.

HDMI cable is a high speed one @48 GBps.

ARC out on sb and ARC in on tv.

Just to add to the mix, hdmi cables can be one direction only (usually when longer and usually marked with an arrow showing direction)

Sorted:

With this configuration I set the soundbar input as follows:

ARC for terrestrial TV, Prime, Rakuten and all the TV’s integrated apps (so this is solely for TV and soundbar link)

HD1 to view / hear XBox

HD2 to view / here Virgin TiVo

So had a quick look at the manual for the soundbar.  Looks like you’ve got everything hooked up correctly but might be misunderstanding the input settings you are using.

The soundbar supports 4K HDR passthrough on both HDMI ports, so you should be OK plugging everything into the soundbar as you have it.

It just seems that you might have the wrong inputs selected.  To watch your TiVo as it was connected on the OP you would select HDMI1 on the soundbar and HDMI2 on the TV (the TV should always be on HDMI2 for TiVO AND Xbox).

For Xbox select HDMI2 on the soundbar and HDMI2 on the TV

To watch native TV apps or broadcast/satelite TV you need to select the relevant thing on the TV and set the soundbar to ARC

Hopefully that sorts it.  If not then there is likely a setting in the TV menu somewhere to enable ARC audio that is currently disabled. If the TiVo works but the Xbox is still causing issues then try plugging it back into the TV directly and check that you don’t have any odd resolution or refresh rates set.  As I mentioned earlier even though the soundbar passes 4k HDR it might not like 1440p or 120Hz from the Xbox if you have those set.  Set it to 4K/60Hz and see if it works then, if so then you can decide to leave it at that or if you want 1440p or 120Hz then you’ll need to plug the Xbox directly into the TV and pass the audio via ARC to the soundbar.

Finally, if you can enable HDMI control/CEC on both the TV and the soundbar then all these inputs should change automagically rather than having to remember to select the right ones everytime.

#EDIT : Ninja’d by the OP.

EXACTLY Highlander! Thanks

Glad you got it sorted.  Seems like a decent soundbar as well, enjoy.

It’s bloody powerful I know that!

Seen it’s sorted. Ignore