Magnifi Mini: ARC issue with LG LE265300 TV

grante

I'm trying to use ARC with my Magnifi Mini and an LG 26LE5300 TV. The TV manual says it supports ARC and CEC, and has a "Simplink" menu that allows me to select "Home Theater Speaker" instead of "TV speaker" when the Magnifi is connected via HDMI. The TV appears to be happy and turns off the TV speaker. The TV volume controls report that they're controlling the "home theater" volume, the white LED bargraph on the Magnifi Mini goes up and down the way it should, and the TV's mute/unmute function controls the Magnifi.

But there's no sound at all -- even though I've verified the source is set to ARC.

I've tried the internal tuner on the TV and several different HDMI sources with various audio formats (PCM stereo, Dolby-D, Dolby-DTS, etc.). Same result for all: silence.

Any suggestions?

The Magnifi seemed to update successfully when I first connected to it via google home.

I can stream bluetooth music, and casting to the Magnifi from google play music works.

If I connect a TOSLink cable to the TV (leaving HDMI connected), and select the optical input on the Magnifi, then I get sound, and the TV volume buttons still control the Magnifi. But, when I switch the TV input between different sources, the Magnifi often (but not always) goes silent, and I have to re-select the optical input to get the sound back. Turning the TV off/on also seems to cause problems: the TV doesn't reliably reconnect to the Magnifi, and will usually turn the TV speakers back on.

If I unplug the HDMI cable, leaving the TOSLink cable connected, the Magnifi is much better behaved. Switching sources on the TV doesn't cause problems, and the Magnifi goes to sleep when the TV is turned off and wakes up when the TV is turned on. I've programmed the Magnifi to recognize the TV remote's volume and mute buttons. The TOSLink-cable-only setup is good enough so the question of why ARC doesn't work is largely moot -- but it bugs me that I can't get ARC to work.

[Deleted User]

Hello,
Welcome to Polk's forum. Let me send this to my friend at Polk for help.
Regards, Ken

[Deleted User]

Hello,
The consensus of opinion is that the trouble may lie with the LG not providing an ARC channel. The reasoning is that everything else seems to be fine with the Polk and if it isn't receiving anything then there wouldn't be an output. So, maybe a call to LG support is in order.
I hope this is helpful information.
Cheers, Ken

oferiko19

Hi, I also have a lg smart tv.. Same problem with the arc... But my optical cable isn't turning off/on the sound bar. How did you do that it will control the sound bar?

BobbyVP

Hi grante. I have the same issue with my lg tv. I phoned both Polk and Lg. Polk said they are aware of the ARC issue with Lg tvs and are working with Lg to fix the issue which can be fixed with a firmware update- Polk was waiting on Lg- apparently (Hah Hah!). Where this mysterious firmware update is coming from or when is still questionable. Lg says because of the age of my tv (circa 2013/14) no firmware update will be coming from them (I wasn't aware my tv was especially old, but what do I know) . Lg support did not mention they were working on a fix for this issue with Polk- they didn't seem aware of the issue at all. So I think Polk support is pulling my leg. Currently I'm using both HDMI ARC and an optical cable coming from my cable box directly to the soundbar. When I want to watch Netflix I have go into to sound settings and switch sound to external speaker by switching between tv speaker-to lg optical-to external speaker. My Tv has an lg Smart remote so switching the speaker outputs is quick when Netflix is on. I have had problems occasionally but most of the time I can switch back and forth. Personally I think the problem is with HDMI ARC and should be fixed by Lg. I'd like to know if Sony, Vizio, Samsung etc owners have had issues with Magnifi Mini and their TV's. Is this an LG/Polk issue only?

BobbyVP

So, LG did do a firmware update at the end of December. But it was to fix the sign-in issue with Netflix where you had to sign-in constantly to watch content. While I'm grateful for that, when will they fix the sound output switching issue with their HDMI ARC? Given the Netflix fix took years, I'm not hopeful.

southbay82

@BobbyVP, similar issue, I posted in another thread. My experience is that I have an LG OLED 55c7 with only the HDMI ARC line connected. When using the SIMPLINK feature, the TV, FireTV and Magnifi Mini all shut down at the same time. When powering on, only the TV and FireTv power off. Now I must manually power on the polk, and no sound comes out. So then i must pull the power cable, let it resync, and then it works.


To get everything working, I have disabled SIMPLINK and control things manually seems to at least mitigate the manual power cycle with a cable unplug/plug action.

@Polk Support, any news on what this situation with LG's SIMPLINK communications?

BobbyVP

@southbay82, instead of "resyncing" have you tried going into the TV's sound settings and selecting external speaker again? When I don't get sound I re-select External Speaker from the LG sound settings (even though I selected it before) and I get sound through the Mini. It seems like the TV "forgets" that the sound through external speaker was selected.

If you still can, why not return the Magnifi Mini and get Bose Solo 5? It was my second choice and I still haven't ruled it out- I have a week to return my Magnifi Mini. I like the Mini because it's shorter than the Bose Solo and works better in my bedroom, but the sound is pretty good in both.

I don't know how you put up with all the plugging/unplugging.

southbay82

So I ran for a few days with the CEC option off and essentially treated my setup as if I had a stand alone receiver. 3 remotes, 1 for FireTv, 1 For LG TV, 1 for Polk, when operating in this fashion things just worked. It sucks because i'm back to the trinity situation, but it's consistent and no need for the plug/unplug situation.

Regarding, why not return it, i hear you, i've got the box in the basement. It's an unfortunate situation, the speaker set has a great form factor and sound, but we really need some attention to software here. This is the most active i've ever been on a vendor forum in my life, how do we flag the attention of support? I've not got to call in yet, but not sure if they'll quickly punt the the TV vendor, all I can say is the CEC (SIMPLINK) works just fine for a FireTV built 3 years ago, what's up with the mini?

I do agree, it does appear the TV forgets, but is this just a challenge for LG using what appears to be a popular standard to unify the experience across devices?

southbay82

@bobbyvp Following up on this situation, I have been running for a week using the optical cable instead of HDMI, it's worked flawlessly so far. I would suggest the same, i've seen a bunch of random articles on line which I know doesn't count as legit research but they point to ARC being a problematic technology.

BobbyVP

@southbay82 Like I said in my January 5 post, I've resorted to using HDMI ARC and Optical together. The HDMI ARC carries the Dolby signal to Polk Mini from the tv and the Optical carries Dolby from the cable box to Polk Mini. For some reason I lose Dolby for the Netflix, which comes from the TV, if I only run the optical from TV to Polk Mini. It shouldn't be that way. The TV should act as the switch and I should only have to use one or the other cables- not both together. I've read some articles as well which say the ARC is problematic- which is probably why Polk kept the Optical option and why most other manufacturers use only Optical.