BRAVIA KD49XG8096BU automatically turning on home cinema

[robstopper]

I got a BRAVIA KD49XG8096BU yesterday. I have a Sony home cinema kit, through which I run my Sky+ HD box for certain shows. When I turn on my TV and the Sky box, the TV is automatically turning on the home cinema kit. Whilst that's not too much of an issue, I don't always want to use the home cinema kit.

I can't see a way to disable this. My tv is connected to the amplifiers TV HDMI socket, the Sky box is connected to the amp via the Satellite HDMI socket. I get audio from the Sky box when the amp is set to the Satellite output, but I don't get any audio from the tv's inbuilt freeview when the amp is set to the TV output. I have an HDMI splitter box on its way to me, hoping that if I plug both the tv and Sky box in to the Satellite HDMI socket on the amp, and then switch between inputs, it may work?

[Marino.Manolo]

Tourne Off "Control for HDMI" (BRAVIA Sync) in the TV's.

[royabrown2]

Yes to what Manolo said.

But we need to go a bit deeper; you said ‘turn on the TV and the Sky box’, as activating the home cinema amp; but which is doing it?

Since the Sky box can’t send anything anywhere unless it turns on the home cinema amp, it still needs to do this.

But if the TV turned on, on its own, fires up the home cinema amp, then what Manolo suggests will fix it.

However, I note another oddity, which is that the amp doesn’t get sound from the TV, and this makes me think that either the amp doesn’t support ARC, or you haven’t got the HDMI cable between the TV and the amp plugged in to the one HDMI input on the TV that says ARC.

So if this latter is the case, then move the TV end of that cable into the ARC-labelled HDMI input port.

Though if the amp doesn’t do ARC, you will need to go optical from TV to amp, to get the TV sound through the amp.

But ARC is tangled up with CEC (which everybody calls something different; Sony call it BraviaSync), so I don’t know if turning off BraviaSync will affect the ARC, maybe stop it working.

So fix the ARC connection before you turn off BraviaSync, see if it works OK, and then turn off BraviaSync, see if it stops working.

If it still works, then fine; you can have the TV on its own, from its own speakers, or choose to turn the amp on and get the full home cinema sound when you so desire.

But if stopping BraviaSync stops ARC, you will then have to decide which is preferable; never having cinema sound from the TV, or it turning the amp on automatically.

And the HDMI splitter will never work in the manner you envisage; the only audio path from the TV to the amp is the ARC (Audio Return Channel) signal wire in the HDMI cable from amp to TV, and for this to work, the HDMI port at each end has to be ARC-savvy. Which, likely, only the HDMI Out From the home cinema amp is, and no HDMI Ins on it are.

And even if it/they were, I’ve never seen ARC survive going through an HDMI splitter anyway.

[robstopper]

Thanks for the advice. Manolo's suggestion didn't work unfortunately. I turned off Bravia Sync, but that then totally lost the input from my Sky box.

I did find the solution though. There was one setting to prioritise either TV speakers or audio system when you turn on the TV - that was set to audio system, so I turned it off, and hey presto, it now defaults to the TV speakers when you turn it on!

As for the other issue, I think it's perhaps my Sony home cinema not being fully compatible. Even on my old TV, I never got any audio output when the amp was set to "TV" - wasn't much of an issue, as I always watch tv through my Sky box, the only frustration was that I could never get surround sound when watching streaming services through my Amazon Fire TV stick, plugged in to the back of the TV.

My TV is connected to the amp via HDMI2 at the moment, not HDMI3 (ARC). I will try it in 3 when I get home tonight, but I think I have already tried it and it didn't work. I don't think my amp does ARC, it wasn't listed on the list of compatible systems in BraviaSync.

I can't use an optical cable from the TV to the amp, as there's only one optical socket on that, and my Sky box is already using it.

[robstopper]

Ok, hdmi3 still doesnt send any sound to the amp on its "tv" input.

I guess i need to use an optical digital cable from the tv to my amp. Problem is, that my amp has one optical input which is currently being used by my Sky box, and one coaxial digital input which is currently being used by my bluray player. I dont want to sacrifice having dolby 5.1 on either of those, so i guess the only solution is an optical digital splitter, into which i'd plug both the tv and sky box and then in to the amp?

[royabrown2]

@robstopper 

As I explained above, the only sound that will come from the TV to the amp is via the ARC return in the HDMI cable between TV and Amp, and this cable must be plugged in to the HDMI port on the TV that is specifically labelled ARC, and the other end must go into an HDMI port on the Amp that understands ARC, and the only one that does is the HDMI out on the Amp.

So leaving everything else aside for the minute, set this up that way, and keep BraviaSync On on both devices.

You should get the TV sound coming from the Amp now, when you switch the TV to using ‘external speakers’. And when you switch the TV input to the Firestick, the TV should also send its sound the same way, to the Amp.

If you don’t, have a look in the manual for the Amp, and see if you have to make a setting for ARC On - I’ve seen Amps that need this. If you let me know the model number of the Home Cinema kit, I can look the manual up as well.

Once you get this working, you won’t need Optical between TV and Amp any more.

I also don’t understand why you think you want Optical from the Sky box.

The Sky box is plugged into the Satellite HDMI on the Amp, right? So you set the Amp to play that Input, which gives you the audio off that input through the Amp, and you set the TV to play the HDMI input that the HDMI cable from the Amp is coming in to, and this gives you the video on the TV.

Simples. Because unlike the TV which outputs its audio only on the special ARC pin on the HDMI Out on the Amp, the Sky box outputs its audio on the pins that the amp expects on the Satellite HDMI Input, or indeed on any of the HDMI Input ports on the Amp.

No Optical cables needed, anywhere, so no splitter needed either, not Optical, and not HDMI.

[robstopper]

I definity did not get any audio when my tv was connected via hdmi3 arc to the hdmi out on the amp. The manual for my tv says if the amp does not support arc, which i suspect it doesnt, then i need to use an optical digital lead.

I used to use just hdmi to connect my sky box and amp, but never got full 5.1 sound, until i read in the sky box's manual that i also needed to use an optical or coaxial cable for the audio feed. Same with the bluray player, it needs an optical or coaxial cable to get full dolby 5.1

My amp is a STR-KS360S with a separate BDP-S360 bluray player. The amps hdmi control function is on.

[royabrown2]

@robstopper 

Right, I’ve had a good dig through the manuals now.

Indeed, the amp does not support ARC - so you need to connect the TV to the amp with Optical. Nothing else will work, both according to your manual, and to my practical experience.

There is actually a second Optical In on your amp, Opt In Sat, next to the TV Opt In, according to the manual I’m looking at. Can you check this?

You will need this if your Sky+HD isn’t a DRX890W, DRX895W, DRX890 or DRX895, but these models do support Dolby Digital over HDMI. I know you said yours doesn’t support this, but worth rechecking. What’s your model called?

I looked at the BDP-S360 manual, and this can send 7.1 over the HDMI Out, (page 20) so it certainly ought to be able to send 5.1. The manual is slightly ambiguous here, in the way it talks about the digital alternatives on page 21, but I think you should be able to operate the BluRay, with 5.1, solely over HDMI.

If not, then the BluRay sound can stay in the coaxial input; I don’t think this gets tangled up with the Optical In Sat beside it, as the manual shows two things connected at once to these two inputs.

Though I had an earlier Sony AV amp, where this was either/or, with the Coax taking priority. So worth checking, if you have to do this.

It seems that sound is more problematic than video these days; I’ve got most of my inputs going into the TV, with the audio coming down the ARC link to the soundbar, but my UHD BluRay player needs two leads out, one for video and one for audio, as the soundbar won’t do the 2.2HDCP needed for maximum picture quality, and the TV can’t pass the maximum quality audio the UHD player can produce back down the ARC link.

2015 TV, 2017 soundbar, and hovering on the brink of obsolescence... 😟

[robstopper]

We must have been looking at the manual at the same time, as I too have just noticed the amp does have a optical in socket for the TV as well. I didn't spot it on the back of the amp to be honest, but in my defence I had my head buried in the TV cabinet and it was dark! 😆

I'm pretty sure that at the moment my Sky box is plugged via an optical digital cable in to the Opt In Sat, so the Opt In TV will be free for the TV...so I just need another optical digital cable, and that should solve the issue. Fingers crossed!

I can't recall what model my Sky box is, but it's very definite in the manual that I do need to use either a coaxial or optical digital cable to get 5.1 dolby - I recall that when I was relying on just the HDMI lead, I only ever got "pseudo" 5.1 through the amp. The bluray player is connected exactly as it was on the day I got the system, via the coaxial and an HDMI, and works fine, so I'll leave that happily ticking along as it is. As we've determined that there's a second Opt In socket on the amp anyway, then having to rejig any other inputs should hopefully be unnecessary.

Ahhh, unless as I've just thought, my Xbox may be plugged in via the second Opt In......can't recall how I've got that connected to the amp. Got a sneaking feeling that I had to use an optical lead on that too...dagnabbit! If that's the case, then an optical switch may be my only way forward.

Thanks for all your assistance Roy, very much appreciated. After I solved the issue of the home cinema being detected and turned on by the tv, I think I may turn that function back on after all. The speakers on the new TV are the only thing which lets it down - the sound they make is about as "thin" as the TV itself! Very disappointing audio quality, so I think I'll in day to day viewing watch via the amp, set to 2.0 channel stereo, saving the full 5.1 Dolby for shows which merit it!

[Pat100]

Just addressing your optical issue:

Amazon UK. Search for “670924939597”

I found that optical switch worked very well for 2 in 1 out. I had been using a unpowered splitter backwards but it was very temperamental.  The new switch is always cold to the touch and doesn’t even register on my Watt meter so I always leave it on as one less thing to bother about. So much better than an unpowered one!