Overcoming ARC Limitations

[Bert 49]

So, I wanted to make the jump to 4k (actually really just started wanting a bigger TV) and bought this 70" LG 70UH6350 to pair with my new XBox One S and existing Yamaha RX-V773.  I had everything routed through the receiver then the TV but the Xbox complained that I was missing a bunch of formats.  Long story short, although my receiver is 4k ready, it does not pass most of the 4k refresh rate signals nor does it pass HDR.

 

No problem, I thought, the TV has ARC so I will hook everything up to the TV and just use one input on the receiver.  Well, it appears the ARC only supports 2 channel audio so I am not able to go that route.  I am stuck with choosing either limited 4k resolutions (unacceptable) or 2 channel stereo from a lot of my sources (unacceptable).  The TV is going to go back unless I can figure a work around.  Hoping someone here has ideas.  I have a 7.1 system already wired into the walls that I've use for quite some time.  

 

The options I have thought of so far:

 

1.  Get an HDMI splitter and route one to TV (video) and one to receiver (audio)...not sure this will work and there are a ton of warnings about splitting HDMI

2.  Optical connection-  I haven't tried this yet, but maybe it will pass multi-channel audio over optical.  The drawback here is no bit streaming as I understand it and no DTS-HD or TrueHD

3.  Buy a new receiver (probably wouldn't spend the cash to do this as the one I have is only a couple years old, works fine, and hardly gets used)

 

Anybody have any other suggestions / recommendations?  Not really wanting to take the set back because of the hassle but it was definitely not a need item to begin with (replaced 60" DLP I paid like $4k for a million years ago).  I hate that this stuff isn't standard..... HDMI was intended to be plug and play.

 

 

[Jdiesel 1431]

I don't think you will have much luck splitting the hdmi signal with most splitters as they tend to default to the lowest common configuration. There are more sophisticated splitters that will emulate or use custom a edid which may work but your results may vary. The one option I think is guaranteed to work is something like the HD Fury Integral that is able to do just about everything you can think of when it comes to hdmi signals but it is not cheap. I just went through this process when trying to get a 1.4a signal to my TV for 3D and a 1.3 signal to my AVR for HD audio, what a pain

 

The optical connection will bitstream DD and DTS and do 2-channel PCM only. Not a huge deal for some but it pretty much eliminates the chance of 5.1 Netflix as they use DD+. Probably not what you want to hear but if you want both 4K and HD audio you are likely going to have to get a new AVR. 

 

Edited December 6, 2016 by Jdiesel

[Bert 49]

Yeah it's ridiculous... Probably take the TV back and have a bit more money. Bought the Xbox for the TV so one thing lead to another... But I don't think I'm shelling out another 700 for a receiver. Appreciate your thoughts. Next time I'll just have to budget to replace it all which means I'll have my current gear a while since it was resulting in a marginally better experience to begin with.

[Bert 49]

Hmmm.....$200 sony receivers exist that do this, might be not a huge drop off from my Yamaha, just don't want to hook it up!

[Jdiesel 1431]

I have the flagship Denon receiver from about six years ago, I think it cost over $2500 at the time. Everything on it works great and it sounds great. I have a hard time ditching it for a new HDMI 2.0 receiver that probably will sound worse in the end. I was in the boat that I should buy highend and upgrade rarely but after seeing the HT market evolve over the last 2-4 years I'm starting to think I should buy cheap and upgrade often. I guess that's what the electronics companies want anyways.

[JeremyFr79 228]

The ARC issue would be a limitation of the TV, I get multi channel audio just fine through ARC from my Vizio M Series.  

[Jdiesel 1431]

The ARC issue would be a limitation of the TV, I get multi channel audio just fine through ARC from my Vizio M Series.  

But do you get DD+ and HD audio like DTS-MA and DD TrueHD? I thought ARC was limited to DTS and DD. 

[JeremyFr79 228]

But do you get DD+ and HD audio like DTS-MA and DD TrueHD? I thought ARC was limited to DTS and DD. 

I get DD+ since that's what Netflix uses, as for other stuff I cant say for sure, I only use ARC for Netflix and Youtube, everything else is through my HTPC which passes through my receiver.

[Bert 49]

Yeah that's my problem...my receiver won't pass both 4k and Dts-hd... but I ended up connecting xbox One to TV. ARC to receiver from TV computer to receiver and then receiver to other Hdmi port on TV. The only drawback is having to set input on both receiver and TV. The computer now is crapping out.... So on to another problem.

[JeremyFr79 228]

Yeah that's my problem...my receiver won't pass both 4k and Dts-hd... but I ended up connecting xbox One to TV. ARC to receiver from TV computer to receiver and then receiver to other Hdmi port on TV. The only drawback is having to set input on both receiver and TV. The computer now is crapping out.... So on to another problem.

You don't need 2 HDMI cables running between your receiver and TV, HDMI is 2 way hence ARC.

 

i.e. in my setup I have a single HDMI cable running to HDMI OUt 1 (ARC) on my reciever.  HTPC is connected to HDMI IN 2, and XBone is connected to HDMI IN 1.  That's it, when I go to watch Netflix on the TV it automatically switches the receiver to ARC and displays TV on the display screen as the input.  there's 0 switching sources or having even more cables.

[JeremyFr79 228]

You don't need 2 HDMI cables running between your receiver and TV, HDMI is 2 way hence ARC.

 

i.e. in my setup I have a single HDMI cable running to HDMI OUt 1 (ARC) on my reciever.  HTPC is connected to HDMI IN 2, and XBone is connected to HDMI IN 1.  That's it, when I go to watch Netflix on the TV it automatically switches the receiver to ARC and displays TV on the display screen as the input.  there's 0 switching sources or having even more cables.

As a sidenote, XBone and XBone-S do not bitstream yet, so no matter what you won't get HD audio from the XBone.

[Bert 49]

[JeremyFr79 228]

 Arc cannot pass DTS-HD or TrueHD

Yet there's no reason it can't but it's not implemented yet.  There are some providers talking about using DTS-HD in their streams and that being able to pass through ARC.  The bandwidth is there in the cable, it's just a matter of implementation.