Q90R TV and Q90R soundbar not working correctly with ARC

[m-oc]

I have the TV and soundbar of the same name - Q90R. Presumably they are designed to work together...

If if I connect my 2 HDMI sources to the soundbar and use the HDMI ARC to connect to the TV, everything works fine except that my TV remote will switch the TV and soundbar off. However, if I switch the TV on with the TV remote, the soundbar does not switch on. Why would it switch off but not on?  This is how you are advised to set it up in the manual. 

Everything is enabled on Anynet+ CEC and the universal remotes also set up. Volume controls also work from TV remote. Just not switching on both devices together.  I also sometimes have to switch the source off/on to have it recognised.  The only way to switch on the soundbar is with its own remote. 

Interestingly, if I move my 2 HDMI sources to connect to the TV and not the soundbar, the TV remote will switch both devices on AND off and works perfectly in this regard. However, then I get unreaolveable lip sync issues and don’t even get me started on that!

Any ideas (or fixes - Samsung) gratefully received. 

[primalair]

Just finished setting up my new C9. Couldn't be happier. Everything works as it should.

[slomar]

Got a software update on the Q90r TV today. Haven't done any testing yet to determine if eARC rolled out in any fashion. Not entirely in the mood to mess with stuff this evening, but thought I'd give you all a heads up. On version 1335 now. 

[m-oc]

Will be interested to hear of any improvements. My TV has gone back now and I've bought an LG instead. Hope there's a fix soon! 

[Ian57]

Hi

Did you return both TV and Soundbar?  If you kept the soundbar does it function correctly with the LG C9?

Regards

[Ian57]

Has anyone managed to successfully connect a Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-Ray player to either the Q90 soundbar or Q series TV (I have Q90)?  I've tried connecting into both using HDMI (ideally into the soundbar to get full Atmos capability) but in both set ups I get the problem of the TV not recognising the soundbar on HDMI ARC and reverting to the TV speaker setting after you've put TV and Soundbar into standby and then turned on again.

The Blu-ray player works fine when first connected and I'm getting Dolby Atmos stream when connected into the soundbar.  Once I have the TV sound problem I have to power cycle the TV and Soundbar to get the HDMI ARC option back and to disconnect the HDMI cable from the Blu-Ray player to stop recurrence of problem.

[primalair]

@lan56 the soundbar works more or less as it should with my LG C9. It turns on and of automatically and also the volume is controllable by the tv even if it hops sometimes two ticks in volume if you hit the button once. What doesn't work for me every once in a while is switching between the two hdmi sources on the soundbar. I've an XBOX One X and an Nvidia Shield pro 2019 connected. Sometimes when I want switch back from the XBOX to the Shield, I get no Picture. Switching everything off and on fixes this behavior. At the Moment I control everything most of the time with the remote of the shield. I like it more than all the others and it lets me do almost everything like switch everything on and off, control volume and of course the Shield itself.

Something I figured out lately, not really a deal breaker but still annoying, the Soundbar can't pass through VRR. So if you have an XBOX you have to choose between TrueHD Atmos or VRR because one works if you connect the XBOX directly to the TV and one if you connect to the Soundbar. Unfortunately again some limitation of the Soundbar but while I was deciding if I should also give this back, I couldn't find a better alternative for the time being. On the CES 20 we might see something better. I've still hope for an earc update for our Q series soundbars but the chance we never see it might also get bigger every day we don't get it.

[Ian57]

@primalair Thanks for your reply that's very helpful.  I'm about to raise my issues with Samsung as I'm past the early return route through the retailer (Curry's/PC World in UK).  Where are you located?

I don't have any gaming consoles, my 2 external sources are a Sky Q Box (not 4K) and a Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-ray player.  With the Sky box connected into the TV OCB (via an HDMI splitter) the TV/Soundbar work fine albeit with the well reported the Lip sync problem unless on PCM.  However, as soon as I connect the Blu-ray player into either the OCB or directly to the soundbar I get the HDMI ARC problem with the TV not recognising the Soundbar when you power on after being in standby and reverting to using the a TV speakers.  Most frustrating to say the least, but you know all about that!

Thanks again.

[primalair]

I'm located in Switzerland. Use the mail to CEO function on Samsungs Website. I posted the links for US, UK and Switzerland in this thread a while ago.

[m-oc]

I returned both and bought the LG OLED65W9PLA. 

[Ian57]

@primalair. Thanks yes I saw your earlier link re the CEOs.