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atc98092
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Roku Ultra causes HDMI-CEC issue

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eARC is not commonplace yet, although it is on more and more equipment. Neither of my AVRs support it, so basic ARC is all they have. That loses the ability to stream lossless audio from local media. 

The TV smart apps for many of the online providers is usually equal to what you get with a streaming player, but not always. Again, streaming local media you will find most Smart TVs have a terrible user interface for connecting to a DLNA server. I can use both my Samsung and LG TVs as an example. They both show the title of the video and the image of the media from the DLNA server. This image is very small, and even on a 55" TV shows doesn't look great. My LG is better than the Samsung for this, but it's 5 years newer as well. But there is zero media metadata available, so no release year, no synopsis, no actor or directors listed, etc. No Smart TV can touch how a Roku or Shield displays this information. And with my Shield, I get TrueHD/Atmos and DTS:X height channels in their full lossless bitrates. No TV can touch that.

So, I respectfully disagree there's no longer a need for an external media player. eARC will allow the lossless audio bitstreaming, but you still have the terrible user interface, and you still won't get captions from a ripped DVD or Blu Ray. 

I will acknowledge that Plex is available on many Smart TVs, so it can work around many of these shortcomings. But it requires a particularly powerful computer to handle the inevitable transcoding necessary for captions and potential unsupported codecs. 

Dan

Roku Community Streaming Expert

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PCB
Channel Surfer

Re: Roku Ultra causes HDMI-CEC issue

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1) Agreed on older equipment, which is why I kept mentioning that it needs to be high-end. 

2) Agreed on metadata. Same kind of problem as having to use the TV remote instead of much better ones.

3) Shield does TrueHD, but so that others are aware, that is " 7.1 audio channels and is used with Blu-ray Discs. No major streaming platforms use it." In other words, if the system is less than 7.1 and/or if a person isn't using Blu-ray, and lastly if the equipment is less than, say, 5 years old, then the setup as described will get the best video and audio quality. There will still be other issues like the remote. Do you agree? (Trying to help others.)

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atc98092
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Roku Ultra causes HDMI-CEC issue

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Yes, there are no current online providers using TrueHD or DTS-MA. Most today use DD+/EAC3, sometimes with an Atmos track as well. And those don't work with an optical or digital connection to an AVR. They do work with ARC. But it just keeps everything simpler with all devices connected directly to the AVR, and leave the TV as a display only. Every AVR I'm aware of allows video passthrough without altering anything, so there's no video loss going through them. If you have a Dolby Vision capable device, such as the Ultra 4800 or the latest Streaming Stick, then the AVR must support that as well. I had to swap my two Yamaha AVRs when I bought a DV capable TV, as only one of my AVRs is DV capable. Just having video passthrough isn't good enough for Dolby. 

DD+ with Atmos is still a 7.1 or 9.1 audio source, so there are online providers that make it worthwhile to have the devices directly connected to the AVR.

CEC seems to be an issue that simply won't go away. No idea if it's something with the standard, or if it's the way each company implements the standard. My guess is the latter, and I've been fortunate that the equipment I've used over the years (Samsung and LG TVs, Sony Blu Ray players, Roku players, Nvidia Shield) have all worked well enough together that it generally makes live simple for my home users. Trust me, the wife lets me know when things don't work as expected. 🙂

Dan

Roku Community Streaming Expert

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PCB
Channel Surfer

Re: Roku Ultra causes HDMI-CEC issue

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Love the wife comment. As the saying goes I resemble that 😂

For those who are following this thread to try and figure out the best possible way to wire their system for the highest possible video, audio, reliability, and ease of use, you now have everything you need to make a decision about wiring through the AVR, as suggested by atc, or through the TV. The key being that for many years AVR has been the only way to do this, but that it can now be done for some just as well through the TV. And for several reasons outlined in the thread, It is better for me to go through the TV. 

Happy streaming. 

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