Sony 55W808C, HT-CT780 and cable provider Cisco PDS3121 connection problem

[stanislavgrujic]

Hello everyone,

I recently bought a new Sony 55W808C TV set and HT-CT780 soundbar.

I'm perfectly happy with both devices, but, since my cable provider replaced the old set top box (Cisco 4682DVB) with the new one (Cisco PDS3121), it seems as if the HDMI ARC connection between the TV and the soundbar does not work anymore.

I have connected the HDMI from the set top box to the regular HDMI on the TV, and HDMI ARC on the TV to the HDMI ARC on the soundbar. This connection has worked perfectly with the previous set top box device - all what was expected from an ARC connection was working: volume could be controlled with both remotes, and turning on/off the TV also made the soundbar go to standby, or wake up.

After the set top box has been replaced, it has stopped working - there is no sound at all when I choose the Audio System as the sound device and they do not detect each other.

I tried replacing the cables, switching the HDMI ports and changing the various sound settings on the TV, but nothing has helped. When I removed the HDMI cable from the set top box, the TV and soundbar started working as they were previously, with the old cable box. When I put back the HDMI cable to cable box, after some 30 seconds of everything working, the TV has restarted completely (this was scary 😐 ), and afterwards, it was not working again.

I tried making a reclamation to the cable provider, but they didn't accept it, claiming that it's not their problem, since the TV speakers do play the sound, when it is chosen as a sound device. Also, they do not want to replace the device with another one (different model), since this one is working properly.

Finally, I have connected the optical cable between the TV and the soundbar, but I still have to use two remotes, and to turn them on and off separately.

To me it seems obvious that the cable box device is causing the problem, since the same connection combination with the old box worked, and also, when I remove it from the system, everything starts working again.

Does anyone have an idea if there are any settings, either on the cable box, the TV or the soundbar, which I could tweak to solve the issue? Is this a hardware or a software problem?

Any help is highly appreciated!

Kind regards,

Stanislav

[stanislavgrujic]

So, it seems that the CEC signal from the set top box is causing the issue.

One way to solve it would be to get the CEC less HDMI adapter.

The other one would be to disable the CEC for the device, in the software.

Does anyone know how to disable CEC (Bravia Sync) per HDMI device, not system wide, on my TV set?

Thanks!

[stanislavgrujic]

I tried removing the pin 13 (CEC) from the HDMI cable, but it didn't help. So, if anyone has any proposals or ideas, I'd appreciate it.