Tv cons

[rogerhp]

Using Arc tv to bar, leaves only one 4K hdmi. Plus 2 hdmi. Sony kd49xe 9005. Bar has 3 more hdmi.Have Appletv, Firestick,Bt YouView box.And an Android box.How best connect. Can an hdmi splitter be fitted to the arc connect on the tv? Newbie. Any help thanks.

[royabrown]

“On the physical side, there are four HDMI 2.2 ports to connect up Blu-ray players and games consoles”
Read more at https://www.whathifi.com/sony/kd-49xe9005/review#xbS3hzZZhVBJijWu.99

i.e. four full-featured 4K ports. So why do you think there are only two?

Or do you mean the soundbar? Which model soundbar?

And which models are the other devices? 

But you have five things to plug in, and five 4K HDMI inputs you can use, and I am not even sure all the devices you list are 4K anyway.

So what is the issue?

Re splitting the ARC connector, you would be asking the port on the TV to negotiate ARC with both devices on the splitter at once, which is an absolute no-no.

I tried to put a switch (strictly one device at a time, depending on which way the switch was set) on my ARC port, which ought to have worked, with a switch that was sold as ARC-capable, but I could only get even that working with the stream to the TV, never the ARC back.

But why would you want to split that port, and not one of the others, which might be possible?

Anything you plug in the soundbar, it will send the best picture it can to the TV, and give good sound direct from the soundbar.

Anything you plug in the TV, it will show a 4K picture direct, real UHD or upscaled, and give good sound back down the ARC to the soundbar.

But what would you like to plug in where? And why can’t you? Or what compromises do you fear?

[rogerhp]

Many thanks for your detailed and helpful response.Which I am still digesting! My newly bought Tv is the Sony kd49 xe9005. Installed by John Lewis. Who were great but did not seem over. Familiar with the set. Research had informed that only HDMI 2 and 3 were able to be used for 4k hdr content and that one of these , hdmi 3 was the arc connector. JL seemed reluctant to accept this, and connected to the bar(Cambridge Audio AP2) optically. The bar has 4 hdmi,s one of which is Arc.

[royabrown]

I can’t find a Cambridge Audio AP2. Is it a TVB2, the only soundbar they make, apparently?

The HDMI ports on that are 1.4c, so while they will pass 4K through to the TV, they won’t pass HDR through.

So any devices you have which support HDR (do any of what you listed actually do that anyway?) need to be plugged into the TV directly.

Can you point me to the research that you, or John Lewis, did to suggest that only two ports on the TV support HDR? Which is not at all the same thing as only two ports supporting 4K.

[rogerhp]

Sorry is TVB2 Soundbar. My info was gained from reading customer reviews on the JL site. A friend tried unsuccessfully. To connect the two via Arc sockets. Now dispensed with Bar. He is usually confident! Is it possible that the bar is incompatible.? None of my devices support 4k, not sure about the Apple TV. Optical socket seemed weak,on the Bar, perhaps best try different bar with 2.2 ? Is that the problem possibly? Again thanks, for the help.

Sent from my iPad

[royabrown]

@rogerhp

A friend tried to set up the ARC connection on your setup, or on his own?

If on yours, did he disconnect the optical cable at one end (and preferably both), draw the curtains and switch any ‘smart’ lamps you may have off, put both TV and soundbar into Standby, and only then connect the two ARC ports, with a high speed HDMI cable in free air and not tangled up with any other cable of any sort, before switching on the soundbar and letting it settle, and only then switching on the TV and letting that settle?

(He may not actually have needed to do every step of all that, but unless he did, he won’t have eliminated every reason why two working devices might not connect for ARC over a working HDMI cable).

We now come to some misapprehensions you may have 

Firstly, to experience HDR from any source, that source must generate HDR, and any equipment you pass it through must support the passing of HDR.

You haven’t currently got anything that will generate HDR, so it does not matter where you plug it in.

If you do buy something that generates HDR though, such as a UHD Blu-ray Disc Player playing a UHD disc with HDR on it, then you would need to plug it directly into the TV.

And not into the soundbar, which cannot pass through an HDR signal, and will cause the UHDBDP to drop to a non-HDR signal, though still a 4K one, which the ‘bar can pass through to the TV.

Come to that, you haven’t got anything that will generate UHD (4K) either, though this matters less, as the TV will upscale any signal you give it to 4K.

The soundbar will, I think, pass 4K through, but if you give it HD, or DVD quality, it will pass that through unchanged, for the TV to upscale.

Though upscaling HD means the TV has to invent 3 out of every 4 pixels you see, and upscaling DVD means it has to invent 15 out of 16, so be glad your TV has a good upscaling engine 

I don’t know what you mean by the optical connection being ‘weak’; if you mean it’s too quiet, you can go into the Sound menus on the TV, and choose how loud you want the optical output, and whether you want it fixed, to be controlled by the soundbar remote only, or variable, to be controlled by the TV remote.

But my advice is to stop futzing around with optical and get the ARC working, as above; if you really can’t still, call the nice folks at Cambridge Audio, and they will walk you through it.

Finally(!) I did find out what it is that only HDMI ports 2 and 3 will do, and the other two won’t, which is to accept 4K at a frame rate of 50 fps or 60fps, rather than the 4K at 24 fps that all four HDMI ports accept.

Come back when you have more than one UHD external device that does HDR, and we can debate what goes where, or if you should upgrade to a soundbar that does HDCP 2.2; But at the moment, once you have the soundbar ARC to TV ARC ports connection in place, you can plug anything else anywhere else, on the ‘bar or on the TV, and not lose any of its capabilities at all.

[rogerhp]

Thanks again, am learning! Wonder if bar needs changing? Hdmi,s 1.4.? Weak referred to difficulty in getting cable to stay connected. Further problem! Did not install YouView app supplied, as use Bt box.,And if not deactivated,prevents recording via usb. But have found preinstalled Apps like BBC I player wont work. (SonykD49xe9005).

[rogerhp]

Thanks again, am learning! Wonder if bar needs changing? Hdmi,s 1.4.? Weak referred to difficulty in getting cable to stay connected. Further problem! Did not install YouView app supplied, as use Bt box.,And if not deactivated,prevents recording via usb. But have found preinstalled Apps like BBC I player wont work. (SonykD49xe9005).

[royabrown]

As I said above, you currently own nothing that would give you any benefit whatsoever from changing the soundbar. 

I have a Panasonic DMP-UB400 UHD Blu-ray player that my Yamaha YSP2500 soundbar won’t pass HDR from; no worries, the video goes straight to the TV, as does the audio for non-critical listening, while for critical listening, I route the audio to the soundbar still.

If buying today, I would get a YSP2700, which does route HDR, but not spending three times the price of the Panny on a soundbar that will take it, when just moving an HDMI cable means I don’t need to, is a no-brainer.

An optical connection that keeps falling out hasn’t been pushed home far enough. Or did you mean that the cable stays in OK, but stops sending? My advice was anyway to avoid it and get the HDMI ARC working,

I don’t know why anyone with a YouView box would want to use the USB recording on the TV. Though is there satellite, or some other service you can record from, that the YouView box doesn’t cover, perhaps?

The two apps you lose if you “don’t install” YouView on the TV (or, more accurately, disable it, since it arrives as the default UI) are the itv Hub and All4.

The BBC iPlayer and My5 still work on the Freeview side of these sets. Or if they don’t, you have some other problem there...

But you have the itv Hub and All4 apps on your YouView box anyway, so no loss there. Further solution!

By the way, if you really have some money you must spend, get a UHD Blu-ray Player, and UHD copies of Planet Earth Ii, Blue Planet Ii, and the original Blade Runner.

Plug it into HDMI 3 on the TV, and let those discs blow your socks off.

But don’t spend the money on a soundbar that doesn’t need changing, even in those circumstances 

[rogerhp]

Hi , Some interesting points you raise.As you will have gathered, a Newbie is what I am! A problem have found is when trying to accept the onboard BBC I player app Ji am presented with a BT screen, to sign in! And when attempting to sign in other BB C apps( news and Sport) am told there is a problem.Question is, are these difficulties the result of disabling the Youview app? Can't see the tie in.At present have Sony Blueray open,player in hdmi2,Apple tv in 4, Btyouview boxin hdmi1. Three empty,keeping for Arc.
Again my gratitude for your helpful replies.
Sent from my iPad