Problems setting up AV Receiver - Me or it? (1 Viewer)

[Nevarthur]

Hi everybody,
I bought a Pioneer VSX 930 recently, and have had hours of frustration, and few hours of great sound, ever since.
Pointless telling you about my early set up attempts as they didn't go well, a bit of a learning curve encountered I think.

I have never managed to get sound from my Humax Freesat PVR, I have a couple times managed to get sound through the ARC HDMI connection from the TV to the Amp and out of the speakers but I don't really know how I did that, but was playing about with some command on the remote to do with outputs. Needless to say, I cannot often hit the right sequence to replicate this. The setup screen does appear on the TV screen. We have had the Blu-ray player working well, but sometimes I hit the remote for that, and you can see the player has started up and is on the main homescreen, but nothing has appeared on the TV screen until you do a lot of random fiddling with source buttons and the like.

I can listen to Internet Radio. I can listen to music on a USB drive. I know this amp basically works, so I'm assuming the problem must be me, right?

Last night I reset it to Factory Settings to start afresh. Using the Start Navi app on my iPad I plugged in cables (nearly all HDMI, plus co-ax from CD player, and optical lead from Freesat box. I hit the Freesat remote button and I get a picture, but not until I fiddle with the source button on the TV and select the exact same source that it was on anyway!

With a bit of fiddling, I can get the Blu-ray player working, although it's a bit random whether it turns off or on when I turn the receiver on or off. But it's not easy, there's still delays and luck involved.

I cannot make sense of the ARC setting at all, but I could not get the TV last night to output to the receiver the sound from the Netflix app I was watching so I could get it in the 5.1 it was claiming it was in, so I just have to use the sound from the TV (48 inch Samsung JE6400).

I find the manual annoyingly badly written. I cannot seem to perform the simplest of setting changes. I was never useless with hifi, I've always had separates, so why can't I make any sense of this product when so many people on the reviews praise it for its ease of setup?

I'm on a course for a few weeks which needs a lot of revising and I keep getting hung up on "just one more thing to adjust" on the amp in the hope it's suddenly going to start working but I never get anywhere.

Should it really be this difficult? Shall I concentrate on just one thing at a time? The Blu-ray, I'd like the BD player to work reliably, for now.

I would be astonishingly grateful for explanation links to easy to understand websites, first hand step by step instructions, general advice, and mild abuse. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and have a great day everybody.

 

[Salacious Ackbar]

With the TV, just run an optical cable from the TV to the receiver and assign and/or select that input to receive the audio from the TV. HDTV's usually don't have HDMI outputs, so that's a no go. Using an optical cable when you're using the TV's built in Internet App's is just about the only way to get sound to the receiver. You could just use the Netflix app on your Blu-ray player though.

As far as the Blu-ray player, it should be very simple. Run HDMI to any of the HDMI inputs on the receiver and select that input. There shouldn't be much else to it.

 

[Nevarthur]

Thank you for your reply. Without trying at all to be awkward, there is in fact a facility on my amp to send the app's sound back through the HDMI 3 connection, labelled ARC.
This has worked on occasion, so as my optical out on the TV is unusable as it's covered over, that's what I need to stick with.
Your information was spot on, until recently, when I believe it has changed. Thanks though.
As regards the Blu-ray, I agree, what you said is what I would expect, it's just not happening that easily.
Perhaps I have a faulty unit?
Or, I'm doing something wrong.
Blooming annoying though ;-)

 

[Salacious Ackbar]

What do you mean the optical is covered?

 

[Nevarthur]

Oh, it's just that my TV is hung on the wall, the bracket covers the socket, so it's unusable with major faffing about.
It's not applicable to the problem, so not worrying about it. The problems are elsewhere Josh.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Despite the difficulty in accessing the optical connection, it is a much more reliable way to get audio OUT of the display than relying on ARC.

ARC has never worked as simply as it claims to. In fact, it almost never works correctly if the connected devices are different brands. If you have been unable to get ARC to work correctly and can't utilize the optical connection, then sadly you may have to resign yourself to using the TV speakers for app audio.

As for the other HDMI-based devices, did you "hot swap" the cables when you hooked everything up?

HDMI is a finicky beast. Simply put, for copy protection reasons HDMI somewhat "remembers" what devices are connected where. When initially connected, a "handshake" is performed between the devices. If this handshake is not properly done, then all sorts of oddities result.

What you should do is this:
- Disconnect all HDMI cables from all devices.
- Physically unplug all the devices from the wall.
- Wait at least 10 minutes or more before moving on.
- Make all your HDMI connections - each source into the receiver and a single HDMI from the receiver's output to your display.
- Turn on your SOURCES first - Cable/Satellite box, Blu-ray player, etc.
- Next turn on the receiver and let it fully boot up.
- Lastly, turn on the display.

This process should ensure that all your HDMI connections are good.

Once that's done, then it should simply be a matter of choosing the HDMI input for your cable box or Blu-ray player and you should get sound. If not, then there is a setting or additional configuration needed on the receiver, but at least you won't need to fiddle with the HDMI connections anymore.

Good luck.

 

[Nevarthur]

Despite the difficulty in accessing the optical connection, it is a much more reliable way to get audio OUT of the display than relying on ARC.

ARC has never worked as simply as it claims to. In fact, it almost never works correctly if the connected devices are different brands. If you have been unable to get ARC to work correctly and can't utilize the optical connection, then sadly you may have to resign yourself to using the TV speakers for app audio.

As for the other HDMI-based devices, did you "hot swap" the cables when you hooked everything up?

HDMI is a finicky beast. Simply put, for copy protection reasons HDMI somewhat "remembers" what devices are connected where. When initially connected, a "handshake" is performed between the devices. If this handshake is not properly done, then all sorts of oddities result.

What you should do is this:
- Disconnect all HDMI cables from all devices.
- Physically unplug all the devices from the wall.
- Wait at least 10 minutes or more before moving on.
- Make all your HDMI connections - each source into the receiver and a single HDMI from the receiver's output to your display.
- Turn on your SOURCES first - Cable/Satellite box, Blu-ray player, etc.
- Next turn on the receiver and let it fully boot up.
- Lastly, turn on the display.

This process should ensure that all your HDMI connections are good.

Once that's done, then it should simply be a matter of choosing the HDMI input for your cable box or Blu-ray player and you should get sound. If not, then there is a setting or additional configuration needed on the receiver, but at least you won't need to fiddle with the HDMI connections anymore.

Good luck.

Hi Jason,
Many thanks for your considered reply. I did not know about ARC not necessarily being trustworthy. I will do some research and look into whether anything can be done about the TV bracket.
Like I said though, it has worked before, and worked well, but I lost the settings while fiddling around trying to get the Freesat box's sound working.
I didn't hot swap the HDMI leads but because I have connected it all up the way the Pioneer app suggests, and that hasn't worked, I might look for a different method to incorporate into a startup procedure more in line with what you've suggested.
I think I have many more hours of work ahead of me before I solve these issues, but Thank you so much the pair of you, for trying to assist me.
Perhaps other people familiar with the brand or even model could assist as well given time, but for now, it's a start.
Cheers,
Nev

 

[Martino]

For your optical cable issue - you could look into getting a 90 Deg angle adapter - that may be able to be used behind your TV mount.

 

[Nevarthur]

For your optical cable issue - you could look into getting a 90 Deg angle adapter - that may be able to be used behind your TV mount.

Great idea, and may very well be able to sort my situation, to some extent. It's not the only problem I have, but anything that works towards the solution has got to be worth trying.

I've had a look and the device and similar ones are on sale in the UK where I'm located, so thank you very much, I'm ordering one now!

All the best,

Nev

 

[Dheiner]

Nev,

I strongly recommend you try the procedure outlined by Jason. Confusing the "handshake" is a sure way to complicate any installation.

 

[Nevarthur]

I certainly intend to John, probably at the weekend. I'm on a course at the moment, learning the rules for Belgium, to drive trains there and any further reason to cut my revision and just procrastinate is unwise ;-)
I will report back when I have had time to give this a go. I don't have great access to the plugs because of the situation where everything is located.
On the one hand this explanation sounds plausible, and on the other, almost sounds too easy!
Looking forward to trying it though.

 

[schan1269]

Quit trying to use CEC(which is how the ARC works).

CEC causes these issues you are having.

 

[Nevarthur]

OK, I played about with the setup last night.
Did all that was asked of me.
I did get sound and picture coming from the Blu-ray player.
I did get sound (finally) and picture from my Freesat box (although admittedly, that's because I found the volume had been turned off in its settings, and I'd forgotten I'd done that. Doh!)
I got the TV working with ARC and getting some sort of surround sound out of the amp.
However, it's all a bit of a pain in the arse, and switching between these seems unreliable.
I used to use my Harmony remote on the old setup, to control everything very nicely, but I'm really not looking forward to trying that on this set up!
I have ordered a 90 degree plug and long enough optical cable for wiring the TV in better, and I'm learning a bit more about adjusting settings on the Pioneer but I wouldn't ever be using the word "intuitive" for it!!!
Many thanks for all the help, the saga is not over yet though.
Cheers,
Nev

 

[Nevarthur]

Update!

Hi all,

After taking on-board all of your advice I'm very grateful to you all as my problems are pretty much sorted.

In the end I didn't use the optical cable from the TV to the AV receiver and instead bought a new Sony BDP-7200 player which has the Netflix and YouTube services that I required built in.

This meant I could mostly switch off the problematic CEC service and not have to worry about fiddling with the bracket securing the TV to the wall. So far I am very happy with how the new Blu-ray player is performing.

I still have not set up my Harmony remote so currently have a bunch of remote controls on the sofa but generally I find I can watch what I want to watch, with the sound options that I require, and with a really really nice picture!

So that's pretty much it!

To everybody who chipped in or at least read my request for assistance, thank you so much.

Nev