Teach my A/V receiver not to care if the TV's on
December 5, 2014 7:13 PM Subscribe
I have an Onkyo HT-R290 A/V receiver which receives HDMI inputs and passes them on to a Philips 47PFL7403D TV. The sound pops in and out when the power state of the TV changes, and I'd rather it not.
The A/V receiver manual is here, the TV manual here.
The specifics of the scenario: I have the system set up with various audio and A/V inputs (mostly HDMI, some component video & RCA audio) hooked up to the inputs of the A/V receiver. The HDMI output of the receiver is hooked up to the first HDMI input of the TV, and it's the only input. I have the sound on the TV muted, and the receiver plays audio through its own speakers. This system works pretty well for watching video, or playing audio-only sources, but it's a bit irksome when it comes to audio sources with on-again-off-again video (specifically, say, Pandora, which I'll turn the TV off often and only turn it on when I want to actually see information about the track playing). Because every time I turn the TV off or on, there are 3 or 4 stutters in the audio: not a buffering problem or anything like that on the pandora-streaming device, but rather the receiver itself seems to be deciding that, because the TV's off, it's supposed to be in standby, and taking a while to figure out that, no, there's still audio coming in, even if the receiver has nowhere to send the video.
I understand that HDMI is a two-way connection, and so the receiver is certainly aware when the signal it sends up is going into a black hole. But I'd rather it not respond to that, and I'm wondering if there's some configuration --- either in device preferences, or in how I physically connect these things --- to make it ignore the TV's return signal. I've particularly tried fiddling with the RIHD and ARC settings (described on page 34-35 of the above Onkyo manual), and although I might not have tried every single configuration, none of them seem to have worked: neither RIHD off, or RIHD on with no ARC, stopped the problem. Auto Standby is off, but that seems to be a red herring anyways: that kills the power after 30 minutes of inactivity, not when the video output device turns off.
Basically, I just want this thing to not be so smart, and to not let whatever it's getting from the TV affect its audio production. Is there an easy way to make it do so?
The A/V receiver manual is here, the TV manual here.
The specifics of the scenario: I have the system set up with various audio and A/V inputs (mostly HDMI, some component video & RCA audio) hooked up to the inputs of the A/V receiver. The HDMI output of the receiver is hooked up to the first HDMI input of the TV, and it's the only input. I have the sound on the TV muted, and the receiver plays audio through its own speakers. This system works pretty well for watching video, or playing audio-only sources, but it's a bit irksome when it comes to audio sources with on-again-off-again video (specifically, say, Pandora, which I'll turn the TV off often and only turn it on when I want to actually see information about the track playing). Because every time I turn the TV off or on, there are 3 or 4 stutters in the audio: not a buffering problem or anything like that on the pandora-streaming device, but rather the receiver itself seems to be deciding that, because the TV's off, it's supposed to be in standby, and taking a while to figure out that, no, there's still audio coming in, even if the receiver has nowhere to send the video.
I understand that HDMI is a two-way connection, and so the receiver is certainly aware when the signal it sends up is going into a black hole. But I'd rather it not respond to that, and I'm wondering if there's some configuration --- either in device preferences, or in how I physically connect these things --- to make it ignore the TV's return signal. I've particularly tried fiddling with the RIHD and ARC settings (described on page 34-35 of the above Onkyo manual), and although I might not have tried every single configuration, none of them seem to have worked: neither RIHD off, or RIHD on with no ARC, stopped the problem. Auto Standby is off, but that seems to be a red herring anyways: that kills the power after 30 minutes of inactivity, not when the video output device turns off.
Basically, I just want this thing to not be so smart, and to not let whatever it's getting from the TV affect its audio production. Is there an easy way to make it do so?
Try as hard as I might, I've not been able to remove this behavior from my Marantz receiver. Maybe it's something inherent to HDMI pass-through?
posted by conradjones at 10:05 PM on December 5, 2014
posted by conradjones at 10:05 PM on December 5, 2014
Disable arc on the tv, not just the receiver.
My receiver switches inputs every time my TV powers on, and often decides to shut off if the tv turns off. Switching that off fixes it.
Also disable hdmi CEC if that shows up in your tv's settings. That's probably part of what's causing this.
Every time I deal with this crap I kinda miss my 70s h/k receiver and analog plasma TV setup...
posted by emptythought at 10:24 PM on December 5, 2014
My receiver switches inputs every time my TV powers on, and often decides to shut off if the tv turns off. Switching that off fixes it.
Also disable hdmi CEC if that shows up in your tv's settings. That's probably part of what's causing this.
Every time I deal with this crap I kinda miss my 70s h/k receiver and analog plasma TV setup...
posted by emptythought at 10:24 PM on December 5, 2014
The same thing occurs on my Denon receiver. I suspect that this is part of the cost of HDMI's content-protection technology.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:15 AM on December 6, 2014
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:15 AM on December 6, 2014
« Older Book ID: What sci-fi series did I read in the... | What comes to mind when I say "cleaning service"? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Aleyn at 9:42 PM on December 5, 2014