Frame TV QE55LS03RAUXXC - optical sound output active when not required

[peejii73]

Hi,

I got this Frame TV, and there is one annoyance with the optical sound output.

There's a Denon RCD-N10 receiver connected to the TV, and it is set to switch on itself and change input to "optical" as soon as it detects signal in it's optical input. A very handy feature.

The problem is that the TV activates it's sound output in art mode (by for instance presence sensor activation), and sometimes also when it is switched completely off (long press on remote's power button). Maybe it checks some FW udpate or similar, who knows.

Anyhow, this will break the receiver operation if it is used for something else, eg. listening to CDs.

Could the TV's firmware changed so that the optical output is active ONLY when there's sound output required, please? I'd guess someone else might be happy too with this kind of behavior.

Thanks!

[ksandene]

I have also noticed this. I just bought my the Frame, and I have noticed that my Sonos Playbase register audio coming from the TV while it is in Art mode. I can also hear a very low buzz coming from the connected speaker if I put my ear next to it. If I turn the TV off, the buzzing stops and the Sonos does not register audio output from the TV.

As I said, I just got it, so it's too soon for me to say whether this is a problem for me or not, but I can see it being a problem as the Sonos is set to automatically switch to TV sound and abort other music if it detects sound coming from the TV. Can see a potential problem where the Sonos might switch to TV while I am listening to other music. 

Samsung, please fix! 

[ksandene]

Didn't take long before this turned out to be a problem. This happens: when turning on music on my playbase in the Sonos app while tv is in art mode, a message appear that is warning me that this will end tv sound. Ok, fair enough, I press ok. But then, when turning on the tv to watch something while the music is playing from the playbase, the tv sound does not come on. This means that if I want to go from listening to the radio, to watching tv, I have to go to the Sonos app and manually tell it to use tv as source every time.

Sonos handles this by having the "tv sound will override other playback"-feature, but the way the tv acts, it is sabotaging this feature. This is not acceptable and it does not make any sense at all that the tv shall send out sound on the optical output while in art mode. If there is no fix on this, I will have to return the tv, and I can not ever recommend anyone buying Samsung TVs... at least not if you want to use it with Sonos sound bars. 

Samsung, please! This must be a bug and a sw thing that is possible to fix with and update. 

[peejii73]

Now there are two of us. Sorry to hear!

It's a pity as the TV is otherwise of very good quality. I think we cannot anticipate a fix .. I wonder is anyone from @Samsung reading this? Still keeping fingers crossed, though.

If they only released the source code and tools to compile the firmware, I'd be happy to do this by myself

[Ruud0]

Hi there, same issue here: The Frame QE65LS03 (2019) connected to a Harman Kardon Citation bar via optical.

The TV keeps the optical signal active in Art Mode, so the bar is pretty much useless as Google Home assistant or Spotify Connect etc. 

(@Samsung) How to configure that Art Mode drops the optical signal? Please reply. 

[Ruud0]

After a discussion with Samsung technicians the answer is that the TV will occupy the optical audio interface when in Art mode and thus something as designed and will not be changed. Option mentioned is to change the output to TV speakers eacht time before a switchover to Art mode. This is of course not a real life option at all. I guess it will not be changed in the near future I am afraid. Allthough not for Sonos maybe but they also mentioned using HDMI ARC to try. 

[ksandene]

Thanks for giving giving updates guys. Interesting to hear that you have spoken to Samsung, however, I do not for a second believe them when they say that this behavior is intentionally by design. This is for two reasons:

1: It simply does not make any sense for them to design it this way. For the user, Art mode is equal to turing the TV off, and there is no sound coming from it. There is no reason for the tv to send out a signal on the optical out.

2: I have found out a way to avoid it, that points in the direction of this being a bug, and not by intention. If I close the app that I am streaming from (e.g Netflix), the tv will return to input hdmi 1 (where my tuner is connected). If I enable art mode while this input is selected, the TV stops the optical out signal just a few seconds later.

This trick makes the situation a little bit better for me, and hopefully it works for you to. It also tells me that the problem is only related to built inn apps and will only happen if you enable art mode while an app is open. This also supports my theory of this being a bug. If it was intentionally, it should be this way all the time.

Please test and see if this works for you as well. Let me know how it goes. 😊 

[Ruud0]

HDMI ARC does not work either. When switching TV to Art mode the soundbar goes to standby due to CEC I guess, but after 2 to 3 seconds the soundbar comes up again in active mode on HDMI. So there is a signal on that as well. But I have another thing using HDMI ARC: it puts the TV to fully off after a while. So Art mode does not work also when using HDMI ARC. Back to optical. 

I have a remote session on Wednesday with Samsung support, I'll let you know. 

[Ruud0]

Opt 2. does not work in my case. Do you use the Netflix app on the TV itself?

[ksandene]

Yes, I use the app on the tv. Are you sure you closed all the apps? What happens when you close an app? Does it go to HDMI 1?