I was wondering how I am able to receive sound through my surround system from my television. I have the hdmi cable plugged in to both the arc out and arc in for my receiver and television, however when i try to adjust the settings it will not allow me to enable it. I have an onkyo tr-nx555 receiver and a sony xbr-900c television. (i know i can use a digital optical cable, but i want to save myself the trouble of buying a 50 foot cable to place into my wall)

What brand and model of HDMI cable are you using? At 50', you probably aren't using the correct one. Assuming that it's 50' since you mentioned the optical cable would be that long.

KOT

I'd expect an HDMI cable's audio performance to exceed its video performance. If the cable is delivering an image, seems like audio would also be fine.

I could be wrong.

Also remember that HDMI CEC has to be enabled on both ends AND both pieces have to want to work with each other. For an example of that, a Marantz receiver and a Sony X850B TV work a dream with ARC, but pair that same Marantz receiver with an LG TV and it won't work even a little.

ARC is a crap shoot at best. The reason why so many dealers stay far away from that BS. There are a few that have discovered specific equipment models, that actual work together and offer that package to customers. They are brave souls, since a firmware update could come any day and break it.
I would say your best bet (to save yourself time & aggravation) is to get the 50' optical cable and run it.

Now about that 50' HDMI cable. What brand are you using? I'm guessing you are only sending 1080p to your TV at this point. Noway you can make me believe you are sending 4K over that distance on a passive cable.

I'm not using 4K wires the 1080p wires work fine and I set my tv to just upscale if the quality is 1080p. Not really sure the brand I just bought a set of 3 50 foot cables. I think I might as well just run the optical cable like you said. However would I just be able to use standard r/w audio cables, although I do know the sound quality isn't as good as digital optical

Analog left & right cables are not going to get you surround sound. That is called stereo sound. In order to get surround sound in any form (Dolby Digital, DTS, etc...), you have to run the S/PDIF cable (optical).

Don't use ARC. Use an optical connection from the tv digital out. Arc is a pain in the ass.

Your problem is probably that you've disabled hdmi control. It has to be on for arc to theoretically work. But when you turn the system on, it will always take over and override your selected input.

That said, I recently used arc because a customer broke the optical jack on his tv. So far it seems to work for him, but I haven't slept for a week.


Oh I just saw you said 50'. No way that will work reliably. I wouldn't ever try it on anything longer than 6'

You have no idea how wrong

Isn't it just amazing that the manufacturers who want to bring out new improved performance for their products introduce technology that's limited to six feet of cable? This happened with both S Video and HDMI.

This is especially stupid for use with projectors, where six feet of cable is ridiculously short. They want to sell us great equipment but don't supply a signal that will go far enough for a good installation!

How is this relevant to the OP's question? He should have provided the internal ARC chipset model #.

I'll give it a whack...Stave off headaches - run the damn cable.

A note on the 50' optical cable.
Be careful when you pull it! Make sure their are no sharp bends in the cable when you pull it - nice gentle sweeping bends. And no excessive pulling on the cable.
The plastic fiber will loose some transmissive quality every time it is bent. At 50' you already are going to be getting a lot of attenuation; to many or to sharp of bend could cause you to drop below the threshold and get no audio (or constant drop outs).
I would suggest using a quality optical cable for this length. And not the $8.55 Monoprice crap.

[Link: fullcompass.com]
Yes the Liberty cable is over $100. But it is a good cable that will do the job. You might get lucky with a cheaper cable, like you did with the HDMI you have (I'm assuming it was really cheap). It's up to you.

Well, you'll still get good old Pro Logic-style decoded surround, which for some people might be enough. I'd have a fit if I couldn't get the best sound possible (DD, DTS, uncompressed), but I have to remember that not everyone is me!

Thanks for all the help guys I'll take many of these into consideration and test them out

A better solution than Audio Fiber is to use Coax.
Come out of you display with a short optical cable into a D/D (optical/digital coax) converter and then into coax back to you AVR.
This will allow you to meet building code requirements and eliminate the worry about breaking the fiber.