PC audio problems related to soundbar power

[sxctrance]

Firstly, I hope I've covered everything, though I'm a little out of my depth so apologies if not.

I recently bought a new TV (Sony XF9005) and soundbar (XF9000) and have noticed that whenever the power on the soundbar changes (either on to off or off to on), my PC (Windows 10, NVidia GeForce 970) stops playing sound. It has only happened since I bought the new TV and soundbar and didn't happen previously with my old Sony X8505C TV with HT-CT80 (optical) soundbar.

The TV reacts as if it is changing inputs, but there appears to be no indication of anything changing within Windows - for example the device still appears to be active, and there are no errors in the event log. Also, changing back to the original power state doesn't resolve the problem. So, if the soundbar is 'on', I turn if off, I loose sound. I turn it back on, and I still have no sound. There is sound on other inputs, like if I turn over to Sky TV, but when I turn back to the PC, there is still no sound.

The only solution I've found is to go into the audio device properties > enhancements, then change the state of 'Disable all enhancements'. It doesn't matter what the initial state of the checkbox (checked/unchecked), or the soundbar (on/off), currently is, just changing the state of the check box and pressing Apply resolves the problem, temporarily. The thing is, I have to do this every time the soundbar changes state, and it's becoming more and more of a hassle.

It may also be worth noting that the soundbar is connected to the TV via. ARC and the PC is connected to the TV (not the soundbar).

It might seem that the most obvious solution is to leave the soundbar on, but I leave my PC on, and my soundbar goes off when the TV goes off and I THINK it has an idle timer, so it happens pretty frequently.

I've done some googling and not been able to find anything like this - has anyone seen this before, and know of a more permanent solution?

 

[jsmithepa]

It could be because the TV/SB combo is CEC'ing each other, when the SB goes off, it signals the TV to switch out to *something else* perhaps to its last HDMI input or whichever HDMI input is active of the bunch. Try turning off CEC see what it does.

 

[sxctrance]

It could be because the TV/SB combo is CEC'ing each other, when the SB goes off, it signals the TV to switch out to *something else* perhaps to its last HDMI input or whichever HDMI input is active of the bunch. Try turning off CEC see what it does.

I gave this a try both from the SB and from the TV but to no avail. On the SB, there is no dedicated "turn off CEC", just "Control for HDMI" which I had assumed was CEC, but it also disables ARC. When this setting is toggled off, PC audio only comes out of the TV, and Sky STB (which is connected to the SB) doesn't even display when the soundbar is in standby.

Presumably this solution might work in tandem with using optical from SB to TV and making sure the SB is always on when watching the STB, though I'm assuming (and as per my original post I'm a little out of my depth here) all the 'perks' of the SB like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X would not work over optical, meaning only the STB would be capable of benefiting from them.

 

[sxctrance]

I've made some progress.

I decided to switch the PC and STB, so now the STB audio passes through the TV and the PC video passes through the SB. Now, the STB continues to work correctly (no strange audio issues after changing the power state on the SB) while the PC, still not perfect, is an improvement. When the SB is on, there is audio and video. When the SB is off, there is only video.

It's not 100%, but I can live with that. If there is a known way of changing this so that audio still plays when the SB is on standby, I'd be greatful but it's not essential. Otherwise, I'm happy to consider this resolved.