Do you experience CEC issues with an AV receiver? (XH90 series)

[Alon_Solo]

I am a proud owner of the Sony's KD-85XH9096 and the Arcam's AVR 390.

I use the AVR as an 'external speakers' for my Bravia.

I have one extremely annoying issue with the volume control via the Sony's remote control. Each time the TV switches to 'external speakers' (either when I turn on the TV, or when I do it manually from the settings) its volume scale is set to zero (not to be confused with mute) and therefore I cannot lower the volume of my AVR (the TV blocks my strokes due to the fact it's internal scale is zero). When I cast with AirPlay, the internal volume scale jumps from 0 to 100 (max) and then I cannot raise the volume.

It's important to mention the 'internal speakers' have its own volume and when I switch to it, it works fine and remembers the last state.

With my previous TV (Samsung 55ES8000) I had no issues as they suppressed the volume scale of the TV and just passed-through my strokes to the AVR. This makes me believe that CEC isn't implemented correctly in my TV and my ability to control the volume via TV's remote is strongly compromised.

I am wondering if anyone else who is using an external audio system has same issues with CEC (aka Bravia Sync) Control?

[kdhuk66]

So, on my TV (0-100) the on screen pop up volume follows the AVR (0-50) scale from 0 up to 49. Then on increasing again the pop up suddenly says 100 and the AVR display shows "Max".... 🤔

[Alon_Solo]

@royabrown2 

Sony has a separate scale for its own speakers which is not effected by the dummy scale for the external audio system. As I see it the scale on the TV must me either suppressed, or in sync with the AVR. Showing a non-relevant figure on my TV while the relevant figure is on my AVR doesn't make any sense. I could live with a dummy figure but the fact it is always 0 at power-on and blocks the volume down key is unacceptable.

[Alon_Solo]

@kdhuk66 

So your TV is communicating successfully with you AVR and the volume is in-sync like it was with my previous Samsung TV. Therefore it is a local issue with my new Sony TV. Hard to blame the AVR which worked fine with the old one.

[royabrown2]

@Alon_Solo 

Is what you are saying here is that when my Samsung TV says volume 20 on its own speakers, and the Yammy is switched on, the TV should switch to showing the same 75 volume number that the Yammy says?

I wouldn’t agree with that.

I am happier that the Samsung continues to show the number that it would be set to if it was putting out the same volume level that the Yammy is; and what is in sync is the volume level of the two devices, not the two numbers.

However, Sony need to resolve the bugs that are currently making your system unusable before we can get on to niceties like precisely how it should work.

[Win_88]

Hi @Alon_Solo

You're absolutely right in the sense that this shouldn't happen, but we should start a process of elimination to figure out which part is causing the issue:

1- Try a different cable.

2- Try to disable/re-enable CEC on both sides.

3- If the two sides are up to date, perform a factory reset on each before trying again.

[Alon_Solo]

@royabrown2 

Well, it's a question of personal preference. I prefer to see the volume of my AVR on the screen as if it was its OSD. You might have your own preference. While I don't know what is right according to Samsung's engineers, I will be really surprised if they indeed match SPL as you say, as it requires a calibration and a measurement (what I believe the TV is not doing by itself) or some kind of a database for defined systems like soundbars (but not AVRs as you can never know what they are connected to and guess which SPL is produced at different volume levels).

Anyway, it's an interesting thing and my old Samsung's volume wasn't working this way.

[Alon_Solo]

@Win_88 

Hi!

Before I write anything, let me thank you in advance for you help. I also want you to know that I already tried anything I can think of before posting here.

1) The cable I am using is a Culb 3D certified HDMI 2.1 cable that I bought few days before the Sony was installed so it's still less than 2 month old. I tried some basic 1.4/2.0 cables that I have (my old TV was a FHD so 1.4 was more than enough). Today I tested a bran new Belkin 48Gbps certified and the result was the same CEC is working fine except the volume sync with the AVR.

2) Done it too many times to be able to count.

3) Done this too. No change. Just a big waste of time (specially with the AVR and its Dirac Live calibration).

So I have my fingers crossed in hope you will be able to come across something I missed. Can tell you that my old Samsung do sync with my AVR's volume so I strongly believe it's the new Sony TV that causing (or at least not preventing) the issue.

[royabrown2]

@Alon_Solo 

I don’t know how the TV and the soundbar negotiate the volume increments, but they do. Maybe they swap percentages?

Some soundbars don’t have their own OSD, so it would be a problem for TVs to mimic this.

it will be interesting to see how your setup behaves once Sony get the bugs out, though.

[HannahEd01]

Hi Alon_Solo,

Just trying to understand few things, on your other TV that doesn't have the same issue, do the two scales match?

On the Sony TV when you are on zero, do you still get sound? When you are on 100, if you used the remote of the AVR can you raise the volume more?

[Derharne]

Hi

KD55XG8796

I have exactly the same issue with my LG soundbar

I try to lower or raise the volume but because the TV volume has reached minimum it won't lower the volume or when the TV volume reaches maximum it won't let the soundbar volume go higher, this stops me using the tv remote for volume and I have to use the soundbar remote.

If I turn off the soundbar and use the TV speakers it's fine, this happens when adjusting the volume while connected to the HDMI ARC socket. Both volume scales go from one to 100 but the TV volume goes far quicker than the soundbar volume therefore reaching zero quicker and not letting the soundbar volume go lower.

I've tried numerous HDMI cables but they all do the same. It's very frustrating.