Panasonic forum: Audio Issues with New TV - Panasonic TC-L42ET5

I appreciate the quick response. As far as I know, that is how I have my devices set up. I meant to do this originally, but let me quickly run through my set up...

Cable Box ----(HDMI)----> Receiver (SAT/CAT) ----(HDMI)----> TV (into HDMI 1 - ARC)
X-Box 360 ----(HDMI)----> Receiver (DVD) ---- ""
PS3 ----(HDMI)----> Receiver (BD) ----""

Alternative (unhooked) setup for 3D Blu-Ray:

PS3 ----(HDMI)----> TV (HDMI 2)
----(Digital Optical)----> Receiver (TV Optical)

I've lost count how many times I've seen ARC fail. That's why I always get that last connection back to the receiver but your hookup looks OK.

However many cable companies in what appears to be a pullback on the amount of data on the system or trying to get more space for more channels are pulling back to stereo. I can't tell if your cable co is doing same.
Bob

PS. Your hookups like good to me.

Thanks for the confirmation.

I've been able to get Dolby 5.1 out of the cable box by setting the audio to "passthrough" in the service menu. I don't know exactly what that achieved, though I assume it has something to do with asking the receiver for output options directly rather than the TV taking over? The problem with this solution, is of course, that it renders the TV speakers useless for the cable box unless I change it back. It's something I can live with, but it's less than ideal.

The same goes fort he X-Box. Turning off "display discovery" did the trick there, but that one isn't as big of a deal, as it's less likely I'll want to use it without the receiver.

What would you suggest going forward? Would I be best to contact Panasonic and/or Sony regarding the ARC issue (in relation to Viera Connect)?

Would I be best to just try the one optical cable I have now on other sources and see if it produces the desired result? I could always buy a couple more. I'm wondering if I run an optical from the box to the receiver, and turn the audio option back to optical, if it would still force it to bypass the TV, while keeping the option to use the TV speakers open.

Same goes for Viera Connect. I could just switch optical cables back and forth between TV---->Receiver TV Optical and PS3---->Receiver TV Optical as necessary. Again, not the solution I'm looking for, but if it came down to it...

I meant to say: run an optical from the box to the receiver and turn the audio option back to "auto" on the cable box, not "optical".

Sorry but if you are talking about the HDTV then you are repeating what we know about content protection and the rule about that.

This is not a bug but a deliberate decision by the makers and the groups they belong to.
Bob

I'm referring to the service menu of the cable box, not the TV, sorry. It allows me to choose from Auto, Passthrough, and L-PCM.

Auto is the standard output which I had previously used with no issue, but is now forcing 2 channel PCM.

Passthrough is giving me Dolby 5.1, but rendering the TV speakers useless.

L-PCM, of course, just forces two channel.

If I am understanding you correctly, because of limitations imposed by manufacturers, in order to output the correct signals, I need to find methods on each device to force it to query the receiver for audio output only, as the TV will always downgrade to stereo.

As far as my questions in the previous post, do you have any suggestions one way or another?

"Cable Box ----(HDMI)----> Receiver (SAT/CAT) ----(HDMI)----> TV (into HDMI 1 - ARC)" should let you set the receiver to downgrade the audio to stereo for the TV's use. Not all receivers can do that trick but in your post you have nailed it.

The Cable Box is not sending all audio streams. Or it's auto is buggy. Remember there's a lot of code in all these things so you will encounter this far too often.

But most TVs handle 5.1 audio just fine. I'm a little stunned it can't handle that or maybe it's proper today (another HDCP rule?)
Bob

Believe it or not, when I got home this evening and turned my TV on, the TV turned on my receiver as well. I thought that was a little strange, but thought nothing of it. As I was preparing to power down the cable box and access the service menu to select passthrough and receive Dolby 5.1, I noticed a Dolby logo in the corner of my receiver.

Everything on the passthrough front is working flawlessly. I have no idea what happened. The receiver is handling Dolby 5.1 as it should with Viera Link running, audio is matching up perfectly, and I'm able to switch back and forth between the TV and the receiver speakers without issue.

Unfortunately, the ARC issue did not resolve itself. I looked into the TV manual a bit more and it claims that its ARC capability adheres to "HDAVI 5" standards, which was settled upon in November 2011. My receiver is from late 2010/early 2011, so perhaps that is where the issue comes in. I will try running an optical cable from the TV to the receiver for Viera Connect apps.