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. 

[m-oc]

Is this Francis Chun? Do you have an email address for him? He also covers UK I think. I am about to give up and arrange a return of my Q90R as I’ve not had any update from Samsung. Maybe I can try the same approach.

[primalair]

You mention the CEO of Samsung UK. That's not the same guy that runs Samsung Switzerland. You can use the same process like I did for my country:

https://www.samsung.com/uk/info/contactus/email-the-ceo/

there almost at the end of the page you have a button "email the CEO". I have given my Samsung Client ID in my message but I think they can look up your profile by your mailadress. Of course the support agent I talked to tried first things like "we never heard of this problem", "you are the only one" blabla but good for me is that they reproduced my problem and a case is open and linked to my account so there is really no way they can talk themselves out...

[slomar]

I'm in the US... I don't think they have that option to contact the CEO on the contact page.  We also don't have Samsung stores around here, at least in the state I'm in.  I've talked to support with chat, phone, and over twitter and no one will acknowledge the problem goes beyond me even when pointing them to threads like this.  One moderator removed my ticket number from a post and when I said they should spend some time responding the problems being posted, he said he'd be happy to look into my issue... never heard back from him.  I'm hoping the folks on here who say that Samsung has replicated the issue will end with a result of me receiving a software update on your coattails.  

[m-oc]

Thanks for the link.  I have also sent a request.

[primalair]

@slomar of course you can.

https://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/company/executives/us-executive-team/

down that page choose: "email the CEO's office". Took me 2mins to google by the way...

[slomar]

Ah... ok, thanks for the link.  I was looking from the support page, I didn't google it.  I may craft an email myself, but keep me posted if that proves to get a useful response.  I probably want to spend the time wording it appropriately if I'm going to go through the effort to send someone at that level an email.  

[primalair]

I've got a first call from a samsung support engineer. The plan is to change the mainboard of my one connect box and see if the problem is solved. I don't expect it but we will see. The person from the complaint dept mentioned that if this doesn't help, we may discuss an exchange of the products even against other model-hardware. the problem migth be; against what I could exchange at all. There is currently not really something, I could upgrade to as far as I see the product line.

[m-oc]

I had the whole TV, including the one connect box, replaced by Samsung and nothing changed.  They are wasting your time and theirs in my opinion.  However, at least it will help you to move it on to the next stage.  The only other option is the 8K model I believe, if you want to stay with the "flagship" range.  I don't know if anyone on here has experience of that.  It might fix the issue, it might be the same!

[slomar]

I didn't have any luck with the CEO email.  All they did was have the same tier 1 support people respond and give me the same scripted troubleshooting response.  I didn't have time to get into working on it with the phone rep and asked him to call me back later in the day, which they said they would (again) and instead got a text message to setup an in-house support call (again).  I got the wifi working by resetting my soundbar with the HDMI cables unplugged.  Also noticed that CEC acts up sometimes.  I swapped my Firestick 4k with the new Nvida Shield Pro (connected to the soundbar).  If I use CEC for volume control, it works for awhile and then just stops working altogether, so I've switched that to IR.  

Pretty much giving up on chasing support and just hope they fix it in a software update... maybe if they ever update the TV to eARC.  I'm done wasting my time calling them though since it's getting no where.  Probably pursue other brands in the future.  

[primalair]

I agree but as it's a required step in their escalation process I'll go with it. I also don't expect it to help but for me it's okay if they need a statement from a samsung official. I don't really want upgrade to their Q950 model but at least it would support earc / hdmi 2.1...