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ducky8888's avatar
ducky8888
Reel Rookie
3 years ago
Solved

How to disable CEC on the roku

I have an LG TV, A marantz receiver, a couple playstations, and a roku ultra. Everything is connected through the receiver on individual HDMI ports with tv audio playing back to the receiver using HD...
TV & Player Setup
  • RokuJechealR's avatar
    RokuJechealR
    11 months ago

    Thanks for the first post to the Roku Community, Dobre198!

    We understand your concerns about disabling CEC on your Roku device and would like to know how to identify and resolve it, but we need more details.

    Refer to these questions to better identify the issue you're experiencing.

    • What Roku device are you using right now? (e.g., Roku Express, Roku Streambar, Roku TV—specify TV)
    • Is this your first time setting up a Roku device?
    • What troubleshooting steps have you taken so far to resolve the issue?
    • Have you checked if your TV supports CEC and that the feature is enabled? It is uncommon for CEC to be disabled by default.

    When looking for the setting on your TV, keep in mind that some manufacturers, such as Hitachi and Vizio, refer to CEC by its proper name, while others, like LG, Panasonic, and Sony, use brand-specific trade names.

    To help understand the various trade names, review the detailed article outlining how several popular TV brands go about enabling CEC.

    Please keep us posted, and we'll continue assisting you from there.

    All the best,
    Chel

ducky8888's avatar
ducky8888
Reel Rookie
3 years ago

Prior to redoing my living room I had an optical cable as well and the TV gave me options for optical, optical + HDMI ARC, internal, etc. Even with the optical in there the roku still reconfigured everything on startup. As I said, I primarily use the TV as my main viewing device, and I have the marantz set to turn on to keep it's previous settings, so if the marantz was turned off after playing the playstation, it would turn back on the playstation input, which it does but the roku then takes control and changes the marantz to it's input and the changes the tv audio output settings. 80%+ of the time I am using the marantz on the audio input from the tv and using the smart features of the tv like youtube, spotify, the internal video player, prime, netflix, etc. I only use the roku for F1 and obviously the playstations for gaming.

 

I think you are right about it being a CEC issue though. When I posted I was going off memory and the TV always says ARC, but when I looked back at the Sony settings that I disabled when the playstations were acting the same way, it was CEC, not ARC. But who knows, maybe its a combination of the 2?  The interesting part is that even the PS3, which is now 16+ years old, has the ability to disable CEC, but for some reason roku cant??? Roku's support suggestion is to disable it on the marantz, which then does make it so the roku doesnt kick on when the TV comes on, but it also makes it so the TV cannot control the marantz and we are back to using 2 remotes.

Roku seems to not really care and wants the user to adjust around their device and provide no support or even give an avenue of requesting features as when I spoke with support many, many times I got the same answer when asking to have the issue escalated, and the basic response "that's not possible". The last support directed me here. I did spend some time this morning assembling an email with the description of the issue, and then scoured the internet for what I believe are the email addresses for the top executives at roku and explained that, as a customer I am very disappointed with the level of support and the lack of options to find a resolution. I also expressed that every support attempt started the same way, with the tech not being able to understand why I wouldnt want to use their device as my primary source. It took several times of back and forth to get them to stop sending me instructions on how to install the device as the primary viewer. 

 

 

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
3 years ago

Not CEC either. It's simply the fact that the AVR's video switcher advances through the inputs until it finds a video signal, which the Roku has whether it's on or "off". Either find a power setting in the ps3 that's like a "standby" that will keep the video switch from advancing, or if you have a 4800, see if there's a power setting that will prevent the switch from connecting when the Roku is idle.

TV switching from ARC to TV speaker has me stumped, though. 

I had to re-read my Samsung manual to restore the Roku CEC "1-touch" feature. Very specific connection sequence and feature settings required to get it back. Not including make and model numbers of TV, AVR, Roku, etc. isn't going to help you getting an answer. 

That's my theory; re-read your manuals, and good luck.

  • ducky8888's avatar
    ducky8888
    Reel Rookie
    3 years ago

    This is 100% CEC.

    I just recently learned that F1tv is now available on the amazon fire so today I purchased an Amazon Fire 4k stick for $34. I unplugged the roku and plugged the fire stick into a different port and turned on the tv, the inputs change to the fire stick exactly like the roku, and the TV audio automatically changes to internal audio (this may just be an LG tv issue). The difference here is that Amazon has a way to disable CEC in the settings. After disabling CEC on the fire stick the tv and marantz turn on and stay on the input that it was last on. The marantz lets you choose, either it will switch to a predetermined input every turn on, or it will stay at the input it was on when it was last used. I have it set to the former. I did try both options and when the roku was plugged in the marantz turns on to it's chosen input and then immediately switches to the roku. 

    So to put it plainly, tried tons of settings on tv and marantz, tons of settings on roku, always the same behavior if I want my tv remote to control the marantz volume. Exaclty the same behavior out of the box for playstation and fire stick. If you disable CEC on those devices behavior goes away. Roku does not have the capability to disable CEC, so no matter what settings you use it will always take control. Roku support doesnt understand this is an issue nor why someone wouldnt want to use their device only. There is no mechanism to escalate an issue or contact anyone above the outsourced tech support who use scripts to suggest repairs. 

    At this point I have found the solution to my problem. Solution is to replace Roku with a fire stick and disable CEC. The Roku Ultra is selling on CL for like $50, so I really wont be out anything if I go that route. An added bonus is that the fire stick seems to provide better audio than the roku. When watching F1 on the roku I had to turn the volume up to like 55-60 to hear it. I have my marantz set to automatically set volume to 30 when turned on and this is a more than acceptable level when watching F1 through the fire stick.