U4 - no sound at 2160p

[Paul_oz53]

For ages I have run the U4 at 1080p50 into the Denon and then at 1080p50 to the Samsung TV. Sound has never been a problem. All connections being by HDMI. The TV is connected via the e-ARC HDMI port to the Denon.

Today I tried running the Denon upscaler at 2160p and it worked fine. However, when I changed the U4 to 2160p multi got a good picture but no sound.

Rebooting the U4 had no effect. Turning off the upscaler and rebooting the U4 had no effect. Changing the U4 to 50hz or 60hz had no effect, rebooting each time. Turning on enhanced mode on the Samsung had no effect. Swapping to a different HDMI input on the TV had no effect.

Switching back to 1080p50 and rebooting it all works.

Is there a known configuration that works for U4 sound at 2160p when connected via a Denon AVR?

[MrQuade]

Is there a known configuration that works for U4 sound at 2160p when connected via a Denon AVR?

Works fine for me. My U4 is set to 2160p with the Auto resolution option enabled.

What does the Audio Info screen on the Denon say when you loose audio? Is there any detected audio stream at all?
Have you checked the audio options in the receiver after switching to ensure that the receiver is still the preferred audio device?

Is it happening on all channels?
What are your U4's audio downmix options set to?

[Paul_oz53]

Is there a known configuration that works for U4 sound at 2160p when connected via a Denon AVR?

Works fine for me. My U4 is set to 2160p with the Auto resolution option enabled.

Thanks for replying MrQuade. Rather expected you might since you have a Denon too.

What does the Audio Info screen on the Denon say when you loose audio? Is there any detected audio stream at all?
Have you checked the audio options in the receiver after switching to ensure that the receiver is still the preferred audio device?

I trawled through the menus but didn't pay attention to the screen. I'll check that tomorrow.

The U4 is the only active device connected to the Denon but not sure what you mean by "ensure that the receiver is still the preferred audio device". I did have a problem with the Samsung not seeing the Denon for a bit but I got it recognised and got audio back at 1080p50 and lost it everytime I switched to 2160p. I had to reboot each time I switched back to 1080p50 to get audio back.

Is it happening on all channels?
What are your U4's audio downmix options set to?

If you mean TV channels then yes, and media playback too. I tried with both downmixing turned off and on.

Quite unexpected and frustrating. I've bought an 85 inch Samsung which is awaiting installation so was just looking to see how the U4 went connected to the Samsung 65 inch at 2160p. The other U4 will be direct connected as I have a Samsung soundbar for the 85 inch TV.

[MrQuade]

Thanks for replying MrQuade. Rather expected you might since you have a Denon too.

And same year series if your signature is still current, so that's helpful.
Though looking at the feature list, it looks like the X2400 never received the eARC firmware update, so keep that in mind, that your receiver is limited to standard ARC only (TOSLink equivalent audio capability).

I trawled through the menus but didn't pay attention to the screen. I'll check that tomorrow.

Check the audio info screen. I think there is a button on the remote for showing that info. It will overlay it over the video. (My remote has a command for it, but there are lots of commands that do not have buttons on the native remote).

The U4 is the only active device connected to the Denon but not sure what you mean by "ensure that the receiver is still the preferred audio device". I did have a problem with the Samsung not seeing the Denon for a bit but I got it recognised and got audio back at 1080p50 and lost it everytime I switched to 2160p. I had to reboot each time I switched back to 1080p50 to get audio back.

The preferred audio device is in the Video->HDMI Setup section (yea, audio in the video section....)
The option is called "HDMI Audio Out" and should be set to "Play back through speakers connected to the unit."
Check that both when in 1080p mode and 2160p mode. It shouldn't be resolution dependent, but you never know.

Also, I would advise turning off HDMI-CEC as well if you can (Turn of "HDMI Control" on the receiver at the very least). It does automagical things to the connection behind the scenes and can make troubleshooting more difficult than it needs to be.
You may want to disable ARC temporarily too, as this also relies on CEC. I have had it working wonderfully for months at a time, and then things break for no discernible reason. I resorted to using an optical cable for return audio from the TV in the end, and just avoided the whole mess.

Quite unexpected and frustrating. I've bought an 85 inch Samsung which is awaiting installation so was just looking to see how the U4 went connected to the Samsung 65 inch at 2160p. The other U4 will be direct connected as I have a Samsung soundbar for the 85 inch TV.

There have been other reports of Samsung TVs having audio issues lately, and they seemed to be quite stubborn. But those problems were with the older non-4K Wiz units. May be related, possibly not...


As for enhanced mode, you should have both the receiver and the TV's eARC port set to "Enhanced mode" in order for 2160p50/60 modes to work.
According to the manual, 2160p60 with Chroma 4:2:0 at 8 bit more (SDR), standard mode should JUST be able to work.
Enhanced mode will work at up to 2160p60 Chroma 4:4:4 8-bit, or 2160p60 Chroma 4:2:2 12-bit (HDR).

I'd also be turning off all the i/p scaler options on the Receiver too. There shouldn't be any need for those.

[Paul_oz53]

Thanks MrQuade, I'll work through that when I get a break from assembling flat pack furniture. Moving is a bitch!

I'll report back in a day or two.

[Paul_oz53]

The good news is I got it working after setting the Denon video settings as you suggested.

Playback is choppy but I haven't upgraded the HDMI cable yet. Had to turn off downmixing too.

[Star6key]

OT, but do either of you use HEOS speakers, or the heos environment?
I've been wanting to get some wireless speakers, but it's hard to find reviews that don't have the usual 'works great, until they don't' comments. I've had Yammy receivers for years but as yamaha seems to be abandoning musiccast, I've been reading up on HEOS with the thought of moving to Denon. Looks interesting...

[MrQuade]

Playback is choppy but I haven't upgraded the HDMI cable yet. Had to turn off downmixing too.

Good stuff . It's best to turn off downmixing when you are feeding the audio into a fully-features receiver like yours.

[MrQuade]

OT, but do either of you use HEOS speakers, or the heos environment?
I've been wanting to get some wireless speakers, but it's hard to find reviews that don't have the usual 'works great, until they don't' comments. I've had Yammy receivers for years but as yamaha seems to be abandoning musiccast, I've been reading up on HEOS with the thought of moving to Denon. Looks interesting...

Nup, never used wireless for my home theatre setup. I just have a standard 5.1.2 wired set of speakers.

I do use Google Home speakers all over the house extensively if I ever need basic audio anywhere else.
I have one set on the back patio set up as a stereo pair, and they work quite well together.
The audio quality won't win awards, but that's not really what I need them for.

[Star6key]

Thanks MrQuade.

[Paul_oz53]

OT, but do either of you use HEOS speakers, or the heos environment?
I've been wanting to get some wireless speakers, but it's hard to find reviews that don't have the usual 'works great, until they don't' comments. I've had Yammy receivers for years but as yamaha seems to be abandoning musiccast, I've been reading up on HEOS with the thought of moving to Denon. Looks interesting...

Like MrQuade, I haven't used HEOS so I can't really help.

The closest I have come to using wireless is with my Samsung 65inch trying to wirelessly connect to the new soundbar for the new 85inch TV but it complains that reception doesn't match the TV wireless parameters.

Not surprising. The 65 inch TV is about 1m from the router and gets excellent WiFi. The soundbar is at the far end of the house about 20+m away where the WiFi is crap so it doesn't surprise that the Samsung wireless reception is also bad over that distance.

I've booked an installer for the 85 inch who insists that eARC by HDMI is by far the best connection option for the soundbar. Right now it is optical to the old no-name 42 inch. It has a wireless sub-woofer that works perfectly well at around 5m. Being ATMOS capable, I decided to try it without rear speakers first.

The new TV is a QA85Q80BAWXXY and the soundbar is a HW-Q800B/XY. The Samsung cashback offer made the soundbar a cheap option compared to getting new speakers to use with my spare AV receiver.