We use blurays whenever possible first. But have had good luck with Panasonic TV's using ARC. Stay away from Samsung. Tried using ARC and every time I would adjust volume, the Samsung would bring up it's own volume overlay onscreen over top the Denon onscreen volume.

Exactly. But it also takes you out of the smart hub and works like a toggle.

I need discrete smart hub active and smart hub not active. The customer still has to use the oem keyboard remote along with our control system. I don't like this.

We only do it if the customer wants this feature. It took a while for us to figure how to get the Onkyo and Samsung to work together but we got it figured out now. Oh yeah, we switched to Yamaha Aventage so I am sure we will start all over.

Issue 'exit' with some delay prior to your 'internet' command.

Exactly what I do. The only thing that is a PITA on the Pannys is that it takes a while for it to connect to the network after it powers on. A while, like maybe a minute? So I just train the clients to turn it on and wait. They can hit the Viera Cast button whenever, and if it works it works...if not, cancel and wait some more.

I think all "smart" TVs should have a network standby mode like Integra and Denon AVRs. They do consume a bit more power in this mode, but worth it for the shorter wait times IMHO.

Another thing I ran into with a Samsung TV (8000 model LED I think) and an Integra AVR was whenever I turned on the Samsung....once it initialized and discovered the AVR, it always switched the AVR to the TV/CD input regardless if that was the input I wanted.

To fix it, I turned OFF HDMI CEC (Simplink or whatever stupid name they give it) on the Samsung TV. I figured the ARC would stop functioning. It did not. It continued to send audio back to the Integra. I have not tried this on any other jobs, so do not expect it to work for you. Maybe only the AVR needs CEC turned on in order to tell the TV to send audio to it....who knows. But it worked this time. :)

Tried utilizing ARC on an RXA2010 Yamaha receiver and a Samsung PN64D8000 today...Snap HDMI cable (1.4 compliant) all throughout chain.

1) ARC on in receiver...set to proper input for return channel
2) Turned on CEC on TV. Activated and deactivated receiver control (once it didn't work the first time)
3) Turned both units off and on.

No dice. We then tried multiple power boots, changing the order of on/off, etc. We couldn't get the audio to pass back out of the TV to the receiver for the TV apps (client likes the web browser).

Anybody had luck with Yamaha and Samsung?

Thanks in advance,

Kickasaurus Rex

This is really good to know. Sammy TV/Integra AVR is our bread & butter. I helped someone set up a Yamaha RX-V4XX and a Sammy TV the other day, and it took about 2 hours to get ARC to work. First ARC would not work with CEC disabled. Second, in the Yamaha's menu, I had to assign which audio input the ARC audio would be input to. Third (and this is what took so long to figure out), I had to assign that same audio input to an unused HDMI input on the AVR as well.

I strongly dislike CEC and it's great to know it can be disabled and ARC can still function on the Samsung/Integra combo. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah it tends to be more of a PITA than a brilliant idea. I had one system we did for a guy that worked absolutely perfectly. It was a Panny VT30, Denon AVR 2310, Denon DVD2500BTCI bluray, DirecTV HR23. We turned on CEC in all devices and expected the normal chaos to ensue. Lo and behold, it worked surprisingly well.

The AVR turned on when you turned on the TV (using the DirecTV remote). As long as it was in the Sat input before it was powered off, it stayed there. If you powered on the bluray player, the AVR switched to that input. If you powered the bluray player off, the AVR switched back to the Sat input automatically. When you turned off the TV, the AVR shut down as well. It was actually exciting to do for me since it was so rare. :)

Just did another ARC today..... Panasonic 55GT30 w/Yamaha RXV-667 (I think) worked just fine. I've also have had good luck with Panasonic VT30 with a Pioneer Elite VSX50.