Pioneer Elite VSX-LX103 & Samsung CEC/ARC Issue

[pmazzola57]

Help please, I am struggling with the HDMI Passthru and ARC...

My setup is a Spectrum cable box running into Pioneer Elite VSX-LX103, and out of the Pioneer to Samsung F8500 Plasma Smart TV.

I want to setup two actions/activities:
First being "Watch TV" which turns on only the cable box and TV, and uses the TV's internal speakers and the receiver's HDMI passthru function, which is fine for normal TV programs and such.
The second being "Watch TV w/Surround" that would turn on the TV, Cable Box, and LX103 and use the LX103 and its speakers for when we want to watch movies or sports with surround sound.

With AntNet CEC on in the TV, and the Pioneer's HDMI options of HDMI CEC On, HDMI Standby Through Auto, ARC Auto, the receiver turns on anytime the TV does, and the TV detects the external audio and disables its speakers. In other words, this is fine for "watch TV w/surround" but doesn't work for "watch TV" (with the receiver off, using HDMI passthru).

If I turn off AnyNet CEC in the TV OR change the Pioneer's HDMI settings to HDMI CEC OFF, HDMI Standby CBL/SAT, the receiver stays off and passthru works for the "Watch TV" action. Unfortunately when AnyNet CEC is off and I use "Watch TV w/Surround", the TV doesn't auto-detect that the receiver is powered on to turn off the TV's speakers for me (and I have to manually either volume down the TV, or use the TV menu to switch to external audio), so "Watch TV w/Surround" doesn't work well. Also, set with the receiver's HDMI CEC off, ARC doesn't work (ARC is needed for watching movies with the TV's built in Netflix app.

Any tips on how I should set this up?

 

[jsmithepa]

Give up and use your full surround audio for everything. Cable TV sends you surround audio(?) my OTA does.

Not what u want to hear but I did read your whole post and I've been in this game for years.

 

[pmazzola57]

Yea, Resigned myself to that. I am OK with it, but my wife is the one who gets confused by it all. Tryig to make it simple by not including the Pioneer when she is just watching TV.

But one more question - when everything does turn on, all is good (audio/video/surround sound), but after about 5 seconds the Pioneer switches to TV source and the TV goes black with a signal not found error. Not sure why it auto switches.

 

[jsmithepa]

Not sure why it auto switches.

Probably something to do with CEC. In my experience, half of the time, CEC breaks as much as it helps.

WAF, contemplate turning off CEC and set things up for her, come movie time, you turn on the rest manually, is gonna take more buttons clicks, but perhaps a fully programmable universal that can send multiple commands with one click can help.

Another thing is, what about Amazon/Google voice automation? they make it so good on the Ads... am very skeptical myself.