[bombcar]

eARC or whatever it is really changed this. I don't need a receiver with buttons anymore, I just need one that handles eARC gracefully.

We're about five years away from "no remotes" anymore, imo. As it is I only need to find the TV remote when something goes really wonky - and even then I can reset it by using the smart app to power cycle the outlet ;)

[mikepurvis]

For a wall-mounted TV, it's still pretty essential to get a single cable run to it, vs needing to plug in each device individually. That said, it's curious how the multiplexing and audio amp functionality ended up in the same box.

Really what it should be is:

- a "remote" multiplexer comes in the box with my TV. It speaks HDMI/CEC to the TV telling it what input is active so that the TV's UI can reflect that and it can do things like switch between movie and game mode picture tuning.

- the former AVR should become a purely eARC box with no buttons, not even a power button— it comes on on command of the TV, and adjusts its amplification volume according to the same eARC signals that a soundbar uses. Any initial calibration or speaker setup is done via a single-use phone app.

[tass]

Monoprice make a HDMI switch that does a lot of this. No metadata for game mode, etc. as far as I know but I have:

TV

Apple TV on earc connection (HomePods for sound)

Blackbird switch with all other devices.

It can automatically switch between everything, but also has an IR remote for selecting an input.

[mikepurvis]

I've had bad experiences in the past with autodetecting switches, especially that tiny square one. But I should give this a shot— it would be awfully nice to just pipe everything directly to the TV and have the AVR in eARC-only mode.

[Arainach]

>Any initial calibration or speaker setup is done via a single-use phone app.

Please no. No more phone apps that are unmaintained, barely work in the first place, and don't work at all within 2 years or when the vendor goes bankrupt. Things should be physical buttons and work offline.

[mitthrowaway2]

Isn't it done this way because your TV might not be the only thing that wants to use your nice speakers?

[mikepurvis]

I guess that's true too, certainly in a living room setting if you've still got a vinyl player or whatever— but modern TVs have the audio streaming apps of course, plus they can be a cast target for anything on your phone.

Maybe it also matters in a home theatre that's oriented around a projector rather than TV.

[hedora]

Our bargain basement projector (for a project; it was under $100) has more smart app bs on it than the TV.

I get the impression everyone eventually settles on a roku ($35, but full of spam) AppleTV (a bit over $100; better in all ways), or maybe goes with the google thing.

All of those cost < 10% the price of upgrading a TV, and all of our TVs have outlasted the (incredibly shitty) software they were bundled with.

[kyriakos]

eARC is amazing tech - when it works.

I have a recent top of the line Samsung TV, and last year's 5.1 Samsung soundbar and even though both components are from the same brand there are some very frustrating times eARC fails. The rest of the time it works like magic.

[dylan604]

I often get weird issues using the ARC, and have never tracked it down. I don't know if it is the audio device of the TV. Randomly, the audio will get all distorted for a random amount of time, and then suddenly it snaps back to normal. I never looked into the format to see if there's some sort of re-sync signal sent periodically that is part of ARC, but that would make sense to me based on observed behavior. When the audio gets weird, it's sounds like some sort of sample rate issue as the sound changes pitch, plays distorted, and goes out of sync with the video.

My TV and audio equipment happen to have an optical connection and after switching to that away from ARC, the issue has gone away.

[Marsymars]

I had perfectly working eARC for over a year until I started getting random audio dropouts. After months, I figured out they were due to my Wii U coming out of standby and checking for updates on a different HDMI port. I think it worked fine before a firmware update to either my TV or my soundbar. Works fine again after disabling the Wii U's background updates.

[bombcar]

There's a reason my tv was named "Slamsung" for awhile, and I didn't cry or yell at all when a kid put a toy through it. Thing was an absolute steaming pile of barely usable crap, so I went back to Vizio.