I have Q-Symphony on and the soundbar is plugged into the eARC HDMI port. When I turn on the TV, the soundbar is supposed to automatically turn on and then the speakers in the TV and soundbar are supposed to work in harmony. Lately, they both do turn on but the sound is set to the soundbar only. Beginning to happen more and more. I then have to go into the sound menu and make the change. When I do that sometimes TV + Soundbar with eARC isn't listed as an option. This was working for over a year 99% of the time. Now it is about 50%.

I've checked for the latest FW for both. TV is at 1602.3 and soundbar is 1010.0. It should be noted that the FW version on the TV does not list the .X so I downloaded the FW from Samsung and tried to install using USB. It also said the FW was up to date.

I'm using a MX-850 to control both but that shouldn't matter. The programming for "ON" is as follows:
1. Power On - DTV
2. Delay
3. Power On - TV
4. GoTo DTV - P1

Is it an issue with eARC? Should I turn that off in the TV settings and put a power On for the soundbar in the "ON" macro?

Any suggestions?

How long is your delay?

Maybe change the order of the macro? And yes experiment with a sound bar “power on” command in your macro, assuming it has a discrete on command

Does the TV perform auto updates (some do)? If so, that may have caused the issue, since it was working 100% at one point?

The delay between the DTV streaming box and the TV is 0.2 sec. No delay between TV and soundbar on because there isn't a power on for the soundbar in the macro. I think it currently turns on because of the HDMI-CEC portion of eARC. I am using a discrete power On for the TV.

Soundbar does have a discrete ON. I'll have time to play with it tomorrow. Do you think the soundbar should be 1st? followed by a delay then DTV then delay then TV?

Yes. Auto Updates are on. I don't have any way of knowing if there is an update or not so I left that on when I set up the TV. Issue did start to get worse 4 - 6 weeks ago and the build date of the current FW update was 10/16/2023. Not sure when the TV actually updated. I will be turning that off. Is there any way to know what each Samsung FW update does?

I did a soft reset of the TV:
Start by powering down your Samsung TV, then unplug it from the power.
Wait about five minutes and plug in the power cord.

It didn't seem to help. I can't do a full reset because I'll lose my professional calibration.

I’ve seen weird issues get resolved by changing the order of macros…and adding longer delays too.


Sometimes fw updates can add other problems. I just saw that on my own 65” tcl tv. One day I Couldn’t access live tv unless I unplugged power. My guess is that a fw update caused the issue, the issue was brought to their attention and a subsequent fw update fixed it. (the problem corrected itself after a few weeks).

It seems the HW-Q930B soundbar does not have discrete power on/off. At least it isn't in the CCP database.

I added 2 lines at the top of my power on macro:

1. Power - Soundbar
2. Delay 0.5 sec
3. Power On - DTV
4. Delay 0.2 sec
5. Power On - TV
6. GoTo DTV - P1

I've tested it about 5 times and they all went to TV + Soundbar within about 30 seconds. So, so far this is a win. Time will tell.

Sure wish I had discretes for the soundbar though. I'm going to post in the Discretes area. Maybe someone has them.

Yeah a toggle command in that macro would make me nervous and will eventually bite you in the ass. I’d look at other code sets within that brand to see if by chance there is a discrete on in another code set. Is there a chance that an input command will wake it up out of stand by?

If you were using a newer URC remote you could program a conditional to track power. Not as good as a discrete on command but better than trusting a toggle.

Yes, the toggle makes me nervous too. I just went back and looked at all of the codes for Samsung soundbars in CCP and there aren't any listed. I did see a couple models that had a Power command and an Auto Power command. I don't know what Auto Power means. Any idea?

I have an MX-780 so that if a code is found in CCP, I can teach it to the MX-850.

First of all I would consider it a miracle if a Samsung sound bar had discretes.

For a client I’d never put a toggle power in a macro.  What I’d do, and what I’ve done with many client owned Bose sound bars is to add a power button on the cableTV page, the Roku page, etc labeled SOUND for when the sound bar needs to be woke up.

It's not a matter of being woke up, I think it is a timing issue. eARC (CEC) did turn on the bar consistently. The issue was the TV and soundbar didn't always communicate in such a way for Q-Symphony to work. I assumed that it was due to a timing issue between on and the TV seeing it causing the TV + Soundbar option to not automatically connect. Sometimes even with the bar on, I'd get TV speakers or just the soundbar but not both. So far, turning the soundbar on at the beginning of the macro seems to work. I get both within a minute of turning everything on. Now I've probably jinxed it.

Regarding the discretes, I posted in the discrete section here and at JP1 remotes. No responses yet and all of my googling hasn't been positive either. Still hoping.

Yep. I jinked it. Not I just get the soundbar and have to go into TV settings and choose both. It sounds a lot better but is a PIA.