[BigFoot48]

We bought a Vizio V53-H6 Soundbar at Costco and added it to our two-year old Samsung 65Q70. There was a HDMI cable plugged into the HDMI-ARC socket, perhaps the Directv cable, so I moved it to an empty HDMI port and plugged the soundbar into the HDMI-Arc port. I enabled ARC on the Samsung and the soundbar has been working.

However, now whenever the TV is off, if I touch any key on the Directv remote that is bonded to the Samsung, or a DT remote in a bedroom bonded to it's TV, the Samsung TV turns on.

Somehow the HR-44 is telling the Samsung to turn on. Why is this happening and how do I fixed it? I've rebooted both the Directv and Samsung with no impact.

 

[Rich]

We bought a Vizio Soundbar at Costco and added it to our two-year old Samsung 65Q70. There was a HDMI cable plugged into the HDMI-ARC socket so I moved it to an empty HDMI port and plugged the soundbar into it. I enabled ARC on the Samsung and the soundbar has been working.

However, now whenever the TV is off, if I touch any key on the Directv remote that is bonded to the Samsung, or a DT remote in a bedroom bonded to it's TV, the Samsung TV turns on.

Somehow the HR-44 is telling the Samsung to turn on. Why is this happening and how do I fixed it? I've rebooted both the Directv and Samsung with no impact.

Nothing a Sammy does surprises me anymore. I have 3 normal 4K sets and a QLED and I have all of them on optical cables. AVRs and soundbars. All of them have ATVs on them and that just adds to the chaos. Let us know if you figure that out, that's one problem I haven't had. Huh, thinking about this and our QLEDs, I never tried using HDMI with mine. I just hooked it up as the TV before it was, with optical cables.

Rich

 

[west99999]

HDMI control is on in your receiver which means anytime you "operate" the dtv even by pushing a remote button it will try and adjust your tv power and hdmi setting.

 

[harsh]

Why are you "touching any key" on the DIRECTV remote?

Does the Genie come out of standby when you touch any key?

I'm assuming that the bedroom TV is connected to a Genie Mini. That shouldn't cause the big TV to fire up.

It sounds to me that anything that causes activity of any kind on the HR44 is initiating a CEC session with the TV. This would most likely be a problem with the Genie.

 

[Rich]

HDMI control is on in your receiver which means anytime you "operate" the dtv even by pushing a remote button it will try and adjust your tv power and hdmi setting.

I know. Try to tell a Samsung TV that's how it's supposed to work.

Rich

 

[BigFoot48]

Thanks for the replies. The other tv is wired to the HR44 via video/audio cables. If a volume button etc. is touched on the Directv remote in that adjacent room then the Samsung tv turns on. All this started after installing the soundbar. I did a red button reboot today and it didn't fix the problem.

Next, I guess, is to remove the soundbar and see if that fixes it.

 

[harsh]

If a volume button etc. is touched on the Directv remote in that adjacent room then the Samsung tv turns on.

The big TV coming on is what typically should happen if you're waking if the Genie and HDMI-CEC is enabled.

Your unusual shared connection scheme would seem to demand that you disable HDMI-CEC (since you don't necessarily want the big TV to come on with the Genie). This opens up a whole other can of worms as it prevents the TV from controlling the sound bar.

 

[BigFoot48]

Conclusion: After turning off ARC setting the problem of using a DT remote in another room automatically turning on the Samsung with the soundbar went away - along with the soundbar function. I tried the Optical connection and it did not work. I could see light at the end to be plugged into the soundbar but no sound. So I plan to return the soundbar and look for another one to test optical on. Thanks for the help!

 

[harsh]

Conclusion: After turning off ARC setting the problem of using a DT remote in another room automatically turning on the Samsung with the soundbar went away - along with the soundbar function.

That's precisely how it is supposed to work. HDMI-ARC (or eARC) is inextricably tied to HDMI-CEC. You can't have one without the other.

I tried the Optical connection and it did not work. I could see light at the end to be plugged into the soundbar but no sound. So I plan to return the soundbar and look for another one to test optical on.

The light in the pipe is always on so that's not a good telltale.

Did you check the TV menus and sound bar configuration to confirm that optical was in play at both ends?

I doubt that any other sound bar is going to treat you much differently unless you find one that has HDMI inputs. At that point, you're probably better off with an AVR and speakers.

 

[BigFoot48]

Thanks Harsh. I did have to set the optical feature on the Vizio on, and it worked but we had an issue with the volume display on the TV. I also got Bluetooth to work but it had issues too. Or may I have issues? Anyway, it was a fine soundbar with all the parts needed and I recommend it, except for setups like mine.

 

[harsh]

I did have to set the optical feature on the Vizio on, and it worked but we had an issue with the volume display on the TV.

Only HDMI supports two-way communications between the TV and the sound bar. Bluetooth, optical and coaxial are treated as one-way. Without that line of communications, the TV can't know what the sound bar is doing.