Solution Found - Q950A eARC Problems

[Moralneeeick]

I have spent 4 painful days trying to solve the issues with eARC on the Q950A when paired with a Samsung TV (I have QN800A). I have finally got the eARC connection to persist and have some explains below. Hopefully someone from Samsung reads this and fixes their software.

What you need to sacrifice to get this to work:

Samsung universal remote for everything except Q950A.

CEC functionality from a non samsung device.

What the issues are:

1 - any device connected in the chain which has CEC enabled can break the earc handshake

2 - if you use samsung universal remote it will not leave the appropriate delays when turning on devices causing earc handshake to break

Steps to get a perfect earc setup:

1 - on every device except for TV disable CEC or HDMI control. Apple TV, Sky Q, Xbox, PS5. Has to be all of them.

2 - unplug all devices from tv and Soundbar and hard reset both. 950A hard reset is holding volume up and down on bar until you see INT displayed and then it says BYE.

3 - During Samsung tv setup plug everything back in (nothing into Soundbar, all into TV)

At this point samsung setup pairs things with the smart remote. But it also defaults earc to ‘off’ which is helpful for next step.

4 - once the tv is set up - do not enable earc (yet). Go to sources and universal remote and delete all sources created by Samsung so they default to HDMI 1, 2 etc. You can still rename them and add them to home just don’t use the universal remote.

5 - Turn off all HDMI inputs and turn off Soundbar.

6 - now enable earc in the menu. If it doesn’t switch on the Soundbar after this you can. It should detect earc for the first time.

7 - now turn on Xbox or PS5 - you will have to change the input manually on Samsung remote. In samsung sound settings on tv once the input is up select pass through and leave it.

Now you have an earc connection which can’t be killed by external sources. One final point:

whenever you turn on tv - make sure you turn on tv first and no other device. Soundbar should come on automatically if you have a Samsung tv - if not turn that on after tv is on. Check you have earc - if so you’re safe to turn other devices on.

I don’t know if Samsung will fix this - but I know understand why it’s not totally within their control. However it is in their control to fix pass through for multi channel LPCM and DTS-X.

make sure Xbox is set to bitstream Atmos pass through and PlayStation set to Dolby. Also make sure to change blu ray app output to bitstream within the player to get lossless Atmos.

Hope this helps someone. And I hope Samsung read it.

[Members_GDm92xn]

Same Problem here with qn95a an 950a soundbar.

(I already tested different high quality 2.1 cables)

I disconnect earc 3 port and reconnect: earc working. Tv off and on again without much time in between : starts up in earc Mode.

If I wait longer : D.IN displayed in the soundbar and regular hdmi connection. It only happens Wenn de qled lgo is displayed at startup. So tv goes deep sleep and something must be wrong with the hdmi handshake.

If startet in hdmi Mode, disabling earc Mode an turning it on again again, solves the problem too, but I dont want to Do this every time after start.

I will wait for the announced 19xx Update. If it doesnt solve the Problem I will call the Support.

[twchpr]

Had the same issue with QN95A and Q950T soundbar. Tried different high quality HDMI cables to no avail. Other connected devices are Apple TV 4K, Panasonic UB820 Blu-ray player and Nintendo Switch. 

Sometimes the TV would get into a state where it was outputting via the soundbar but the TV thought it was using TV speaker.

So far the steps by Moralneeeick seem to have worked, I'm hopeful it stays this way. Is there any info about a new firmware update? Haven't managed to get through to Samsung support via phone or chat. 

[Moralneeeick]

I purchased all new cables after a recommendation from HD Fury AV specialists - they are called Zeskit Maya and have copper cores which massively reduce EMI - they are not stupidly expensive either. Also I bought the longer one connect cable and I noticed it has extra shielding compared with the one that came with the the tv but the HDMI cables alone should prove if you have a faulty one connect box or not.

HDMI cables are a minefield even the “certified” ones are often not up to the task. Trust me on the Zeskit Maya cables - I haven’t had a drop out in months. That said my tv was replaced 3 times. If the loss of earc still occurs with these cables then it’s 1000% a faulty main board in the tv and/or OCB. I had very expensive audioquest cables and thought I had the best - I was completely wrong and could have saved a tonne if I bought the zeskit straight away.

Firmware won’t fix it at this stage. It’s either the cables or the device is faulty.

The steps I outlined were a workaround to limit the number of handshakes being done in the loop, now I run the tv as it’s meant to be with zero issues. 

Best of luck.

[twchpr]

Thanks for the reply and for the cable suggestion. I may give those a try given the amount I've already spent on this kit, I really want it to work properly. I'll continue trying to get through to Samsung if the problem persists with those cables. Thanks again for the advice!

[twchpr]

My setup seemed stable after disabling CEC everywhere and not setting up universal remote. Today I've replaced the HDMI cables for the soundbar, blu-ray and AppleTV with Zeskit Maya cables. I then experimented re-enabling CEC and I think enabling "VieraLink" on the Panasonic Blu-ray seemed to re-introduce issues. Disabled that again, full reset and setup again, just leaving VieraLink disabled. So far, seems stable, with CEC still enabled on AppleTV. I also was able to set up Universal Remote to control ATV and Panasonic Blu-ray (via IR) and still seems to be stable. 

The only thing I haven't tried yet is connecting anything to the HDMI input of the soundbar to be able to use the eARC port fully. If this setup remains stable I'll try that with another Zeskit cable. 

[Moralneeeick]

If the new cables don’t solve the problem you have to push Samsung on a replacement for the main board in TV, OCB, and a new one connect cable. The 2021 TVs do work perfectly when you have devices that are not faulty. You have the exact same problem as me you shouldn’t have to disable CEC etc that is just going to lessen the chances of a lost handshake which is the cause of the problem. 2020 TVs are a different story as earc was brought in later.

having had a working Tv now for months it’s night and day compared with what I struggled with for ages - you have to keep pushing them and after 3 repairs they should replace the tv completely which is what they did for me. The tv I was given was manufactured later and didn’t have any of these issues - there is something wrong with quality control at Samsung maybe exacerbated by COVID but you’re better off pushing them now as if you still can’t use earc with the zeskits then the devices are 100% faulty.

[crazyjohnyw]

Hi, Moralneeeick. I have a few question. 

1. Can you use smartthing app now?  Does your smartthing kill the earc connection on your new TV?

2. What about  programming the smart remote? Can you do that as well with your new TV? Will that kill the earc?

3. Q-Symphony work no problem? No loose connection? 

[Moralneeeick]

Hi - yes I have zero issues in all 3 cases. One thing I would mention about the smart things app is that if you are using a 5Ghz network which has DFS channels enabled you will see issues with smart things app but I haven’t had it disrupt the earc on new TV.

The only time there is a risk of losing the earc is if I accidentally turn on the TV via CEC on another device such as sky Q. But It doesn’t drop back to tv speakers in this case it simply detects an ARC connection instead of earc so there is no loss of sound or picture and that’s actually the expected result as Sky Q would trigger an ARC connection not an earc one. 

We shouldn’t have to worry about any of these issues - they are not normal and it’s only since I’ve had a working set do I understand that. The issue is electrical, and the reason it can be ‘improved’ is because you’re lessening the number of handshakes initiated between end points. 

The TVs should be undergoing a recall in my opinion as Samsung must know which batches are impacted, it’s definitely not everyone but it is widespread enough that a saumsung engineer said they are seeing “a lot” of these issues.

When you have one that works it’s perfect.

[crazyjohnyw]

Moralneeeick. Thank your for your reply. I just scheduled with Samsung tech to come out this coming Friday.

You mentioned that samsung came to you for the repair 3 times and finally they give u a new tv.

1. Can you tell me what they do each time they come to your house?  

2. How did you return the old TV? Because I don't have the package box anymore.

[Moralneeeick]

First time they replaced the main board in the one connect box - nothing changed. Second time they replaced the main board in the TV. At this point some improvement was there but I then had stripes on my screen. Third time they replaced the one connect board again and no change. I had to fight a lot to stop the pointless replacements but if it wasn’t for the stripes on the screen that got introduced post the tv main board replacement I may have been ok with the old TV.

All in all that took about 2/3 months. It was extremely painful and You just get pushed between multiple people without any sense of understanding.

but in theory replacing the OCB and TV main board should solve the issue. 

In terms of the old tv they come and pick it up you don’t need to worry about the box.