Soundbar issue

[Jones978]

Hi, 

i have a sony ct290 which is having a intermittent issue. It did it once with our previous tv (toshiba 4k tv) and it happens once maybe twice in an evening. The sound will mute for around 30 seconds and then the sound comes back distorted for around 15 seconds then the sound is fine until it happens again. Our new tv is a samsung cu7100 58”. The sound bar is connected in the eARC, samsung have just said to contact sony. I have tried a new hdmi cable and turned off the ‘hdmi-eARC mode’ many thanks

[royabrown2]

@Jones978 

Turned off the HDMI-eARC mode where? Leaving HDMI-ARC running or what?

Your soundbar is ARC only, nor eARC, according to the Sony spec:-

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/sound-bars-home-theater-systems-sound-bars-surround-speak...
so the Samsung should anyway negotiate with the soundbar to use ARC, not eARC, without you having to choose a setting for this.

For proper ARC though, you need AnyNet enabled on the Samsung, and BraviaSync enabled on the soundbar (both things are just the respective manufacturers’ names for CEC); is this the case? If not, make it so.

AAMOI, was the Tosh eARC, or just plain ARC?

[Jones978]

Hi, 

the hdmi-eARC mode is for the tv to auto connect to an eARC device (i turned it off, didnt solve issue) 

the anynet and bravia sync were enabled but didnt solve the issue. 
the toshiba was just ARC and the soundbar is ARC, is an eARC tv meant to work with a ARC sound bar?

[royabrown2]

@Jones978 

My question “Turned off the HDMI-eARC mode where? Leaving HDMI-ARC running or what?” remains unanswered, but thank you for the rest.

eARC is not backwards compatible with ARC - they are two quite separate protocols - but TVs and soundbars are supposed to behave as if eARC was backward-compatible.

Which is to say that if you wire an eARC-capable TV to a soundbar that can only do ARC, then the TV should realise this when negotiating with the soundbar, and transparently drop to ARC.

Should. But maybe the process could go wrong. So for this, ideally, the TV should let you specifically choose ARC on the TV manually, instead of eARC.

But I don’t know what ‘turning eARC off’ on your TV does. Maybe it’s what makes the TV go just ARC, in which case things ought to work. Or maybe it turns eARC/ARC off altogether, in which case, the soundbar will get nothing.

You have kindly said what model the TV is, though, so I will see if I can look up the manual for it later on, and see what the ARC options are with it.

Having Anynet and Braviasync enabled is good; needed for ARC, so make sure they stay on.

The new HDMI cable; is it HDMI plus Ethernet? Not a consideration at the moment, but that sort of cable is needed for eARC, if you ever get an eARC soundbar in the future.

[royabrown2]

@Jones978 

OK, I have read the manual for your TV, and it is as clear as mud regarding ARC connections as distinct from eARC ones 😢

I found the bit about turning eARC off, but whether that leaves ARC on, or turns it off as well, it does not say.

There’s a suggestion in one place that having the TV set to output Dolby Digital+ audio (wherever that is set) may result in silence, as ARC/the soundbar can’t handle it; if you can find that setting, try the other options there.

PCM, if offered, should be guaranteed to work, but is only stereo, so try that first, and if it works, try any other options there, like Dolby Digital (no +) if offered, and anything else.

If still nothing works, then you have a Samsung problem with the TV, not a Sony problem with the sound bar, so call Samsung Support on 0333 000 0333,Mon-Fri | 8am to 8pm
Sat-Sun | 9am to 6pm, and see what they say.

They may even be able to log into your TV remotely and configure the correct settings for you - that is part of their service here.

Before you do this though, you might want to make sure that you have the latest firmware update:-

Upgrade File(USB type)

• ver 1204.9
• 1365.61 MB
• May 23. 2023
• All OS

MULTI LANGUAGE

You may have this already, or you might be able to fetch it from Updates in the System or Support menu. If not, though, you can download it and its instructions here, and update via a USB stick you may possess:-

  https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/model/UE75CU7100KXXU/#downloads

(doesn’t matter this is a different screen size, as long as it’s CU7100).

Do please keep us posted as to how you get on.