Life was so much easier with RCA cables.

I’m glad that you brought this out into the open. I gave up using HDMI ARC and eARC.

I really appreciate what you did here. After two hours of head scratching I found your video and just went out to buy an optical cable.

Caleb, as usual, you are spot on. ARC/eARC/CEC are easily one of the most frustrating tech bits in the last decade. You would think that after all this time, they would have this figured out. Now.. the truth is that it’s much better than it once was and it also works much more reliably when same brand products are used. On the other hand, after all this time, it should work close to 100% of the time and it simply doesn’t. Manufacturers simply are not on the same page here and it makes everyone crazy!😵‍💫🤦🏻‍♂️ Caleb, Please champion this issue and see if they can make this all it’s promised to be! Keep the great content coming! 🙏🙏🙏

You know, the more I think about this the more I believe that HDCP is responsible for most of the connectivity issues. Especially delays in video resolution/audio format switching.

I think the other big culprit is High Bandwidth Digital Copy Protection (HDCP), which like CEC has been implemented slightly differently by every manufacturer. If there is even the slightest mismatch, then the two devices will not handshake.

Thank you for this, Caleb! Am so damn sick of this issue. No matter the tv or soundbar I find myself unhooking, restarting, getting on my knees and begging… for sound.

I have an LG C2 OLED TV and an Onkyo rz830 A/V receiver and thank God the eARC works beautifully. I get sound from all sources. Count me as one of the lucky ones! Caleb's videos are always right on the mark and very thorough. I bought my LG OLED because of his positive reviews on it. It is a fantastic TV that thrills me very time I turn it on!

So glad to hear I’m not alone! I have an LG TV and an LG Soundbar but every time we have a power cut it takes about a month to get HDMI eArc working again. And I swear that all I do is put everything back exactly as it was - again and again.

Yes, please do the investigative journalism that you suggested. You will be a hero in getting to the bottom of this fiasco! And yes, I like this video and wish you would do more of them addressing problems in tech.

Keep it up! Keep it “real”! No positive, half glass full videos! Your ability to keep things real is what builds trust. Builds credibility!!

Thank you for the tips, having come from an older B&K pre-HDMI receiver, I was having trouble getting the ARC from my TV to work with my new Arcam avr5. It's working perfectly now...!

THANK YOU!!! Went in and searched out the HDMI-CEC and turned it on in the receiver settings.

Thanks so you and my never quit attitude, I finally connected my Samsung Q90 to my Samsung sound bar with HDMI ARC. Haven’t these people ever heard of plug-n-play? Great, informative post.

Thank you. We were recenty required to update a FIOS cable box, which massively messed up everything. And as soon as I finally got everything working correctly, and felt happy, I would make the horrible error of turning off my television and messed everything up again. So everything you said rings absolutely true. As I play this I keep pausing to repeat it to my wife so that we can laugh maniacally in recognition. I am pleased that I anticipated your solution and "just gave up" and ordered a shiny new optical cable. Thank you so very much. I feel seen.

Very timely video as I just spent a good portion of this past weekend grappling with ARC connection issues. The most infuriating thing when you get it to work one time and then it refuses to work shortly thereafter even if configured the exact same way.

I love the video. You can't ever fix a problem unless you talk about.

Finally: honesty! Thank you. I’ve been clicking, dropping in and out of menu options, unplugging & replugging, watching videos, forget “manuals” (they’re just cartoons now), etc., just to get ANY sound out of a simple set-up (yes, HDMI ARC) - just a damn DVD player/flatscreen/sound bar connection, at a 2.0 level - and it’s been days of maybe it’ll work today, or maybe not, maybe yesterday’s apparently correct settings will hold, or . . . Thanks for your rant, so much better than the No-problem videos we’re normally sedated with.

POWER CYCLING: I normally don't suggest something so silly but I actually resolved HDMI CEC issues with two separate systems (1. Sony OLED eARC to Marantz receiver, 2. LG OLED eARC to Sonos Beam Gen 2) by turning everything off for a few minutes then turning it back on. If your eARC works well then stops working after a few months despite not having changed any settings, try POWER CYCLING! I know- it sounds silly but it worked for me. Just hoping it minimizes headaches for others.

Thanks. I get some sense of relief that it's not me, user error. My setup was working just fine: Hisense TV (with eARC), Vizio soundbar (with eARC and Atmos) and Apple TV 4k. All purchased in 2023. Then a firmware update and now I have to use each remote for each device. Was able to get it to work again by disconnecting all the HDMI cables and unplugging the powerstrip. But, just had to do it again just two months after doing it the first time!

I like it for the reason ! I have that problem and you are my salution every time!! KEEP UP THE FANTASTIC INFO!

Just experienced my third iteration of problems getting sound from my Sony A95k TV to my Sony HT-A5000 sound bar via ARC. Have now implemented the Sony Support suggested procedure to fix the problem twice, only to have it reoccur with no new hardware or software changes to any of my system components. I'm going to give up use optical and avoid a reoccurrence. I suspect this is not going to change due to a new altruistic attitude from hardware manufacturers. Thanks for all that you do to guide the A/V consumer community.

Thank You for this video and I vent with you. I have a Yamaha RX-V6A and had a Samsung TV and had major issues with the "handshake" and at first I thought maybe there was a setting I was overlooking and even wondered if something was even wrong with my equipment. I finally threw in the towel and bought a Sony TV instead since I love the Yamaha receiver and works perfect now. I moved the Samsung in to another room and it works perfect there.

had to switch off CEC on my TV for ARC to work on my AVR. but this sent me down the path Thank You

Caleb knows his stuff! Respect! 👍🏻

I am so glad you brought this up and I was wondering and so frustrated as what am I doing wrong to not get the CEC working. I have my TV-ANKER SOUNDBAR-APPLE TV. I just can’t get them together working on CEC. Apple TV 4K directly to soundbar and the Anker soundbar to the TV via TV's HDMI eARC. All connected using a HDMI 2.0 cable.

I have been using the EARC on my Sony tv to my Marantz AV receiver for several years. It works good. A bit laggy at times but good.

I'm so glad you mentioned this. I thought I was the only one having issues. So I recently bought a TCL Q7 series tv and grabbed the Samsung Q60cc soundbar with the add on wireless surround speakers. I really like how they perform. I'm less than a month in of owning these products and I'm starting to find that E-arc or somewhere along the system there disconnect is happening. I walk away from the TV for a maybe twenty minutes and I no longer have sound coming from the soundbar, or I'm scrolling through streaming services like Netflix and now sound appears during the preview snippets and I only get sound when I play the content. It's not a deal breaker (yet) but this is not a great introductory experience to the world of wired and wireless sound. I find it odd that receivers do not run into these kind of issues (at least from my experience). Do you think these are a consequence of cost cutting measures? Do you know if there’s a dedicated list of compatible devices? Rather than trial and error, it would be nice to know what actually works with what device. I don’t think I’m going to buy a Samsung TV just so I can get my sound bar to work. And I’m not going to use optical to work around the problem. I purchased the sound bar for the Fidelity if it can’t deliver then it’s not worth what would I paid for it.

Hi Caleb. So glad that you are addressing this issue. I have my Vizio sound bar and Sony TV consistently and constantly disconnecting via eARC and then I have to switch the TV speakers back to the sound bar. So, frustrating 😠but sorry to say that I am not alone.

HDMI Forum/Licensing should absolutely be put on blast. They're letting HDMI 2.0 capable devices be sold as HDMI 2.1 even if they support none of the HDMI 2.1 specification.

Love the alliteration and the amusing interjection of clips! (No, the clips did NOT annoy me.) I am a little embarrassed to disclose this but my AVR is pre ARC, eARC, Atmos and 4K. I used to have the satellite box and everything else plugged into my AVR but when I got my first 4K TV I had to plug it into the TV since the AVR couldn’t recognize the 4K. Now everything is plugged into the TV and I have optical plugged from the TV to the AVR. It works just fine! In fact, I like it better this way. I don’t have to do anything much with the AVR except turn it on or change input to play the turntable. The TV automatically switches to the BluRay etc. (It’s especially fun for watching a cool KZfaq relaxation nature video with some nice jazz music from your turntable when you get bored and anxious by the same four chords looping over and over. It’s like doing my own scoring.) I like this video! If ARC/eARC is an issue, then it’s great you brought it up. Only thing is the lighting, brightness and color are different and your eyes don’t look blue!

Thank you. I work as a home theater Geek Squad agent and I'm going to start sending this video to my clients when they say "but the store told me ARC would work" when I tell them it won't because of handshake/compatibility issues. I've been running into it more often with Apple TV's, Sony Bravia TV's and Sony soundbar combinations. For whatever reason, those 3 things hate working together (even though Sony to Sony should be plug and play). I love ARC, but it's also one of my worst enemies lol.

100% Agree! After 50 years in the audio hobby things have gone too far when the cable I bought last year will not work this year.

Thanks, it is good to know that I was not going crazy. Had already worked out to use a optical audio cable to keep sane.

My now resolved issue was when I upgraded my old LCD TV to a new Hisense 55U7N that I connected to an older Yamaha RX-V475 receiver. The audio signal stops when I switched streaming apps (didn't matter if it was Disney+, Hulu, KZfaq, Max) and I noticed the sounds stayed on until it tried to sync with Dolby Digital (which my Yamaha receiver can handle). It didn't matter if I set my new TV to pass-through or hard set the audio to PCM or Dolby Digital...I had to toggle audio inputs from Tuner to my TV on my receiver or power off/oh. The fix for me was basic...a new 4k/8k HDMI cable but then I had to hard-set my TV to Dolby Digital vs AUTO and passthrough was OFF. Thanks for this KZfaq video! It was very informative!!

Editor seems to have fun making this video. Good for him

I had no idea about CEC? The way you included mini clips rocks! Yes please do investigational journalism!

Anecdotally, I hear all kinds of people having issues with CEC/ARC so I realize it's not a perfect solution, but it works pretty damn well for me at this precise moment in time. I use my TV remote to control everything and it seems to just work great. I have to restart my TV or receiver one out of maybe every 50 times I turn it on, but it's a pretty neat thing overall for me. I'm also a nerd who know exactly how to hook it up to make it work, though.

Caleb, To fix my CEC issues, I no longer route UHD player and Roku device through my Denon AVR. Instead, I have UBP-X800M2 player and Roku Ultra connected to my Sony OLED, and EARC running from tv to my Denon AVR using Zeskit Lite 2.1 HDMI cables. This allows me to sleep better at night, knowing my AVR will not randomly turn on at 2 a.m. The only drawback to this new method for routing cables; the UHD Player is slow to boot-up.

Great video Personally not looking forward to the wireless TV future unless they can get rid of the interference problems that we are already having with wifi vs wireless sound systems. Cause if not I'm sticking with wired everything regardless of the hassles.

Good call Caleb. My eARC for LG GX and Denon always stop working after a few days of operation - presumably handshake issue. I had to revert to ARC only as a workaround. Very annoying.

Thank you! I really had no idea CEC was related to ARC, I thought they were completely different extensions in HDMI. Turned that on and then ARC started working.

I have had this issue SO MANY TIMES! I have a Klipsch 1200 Cinema and the number of times I have thought about throwing the whole system out the window. I'll probably just opt in for the Optical cable and hopefully they fix this issue in the futire. Thank you for reassuring me that "I'm not the problem" Lol

I love the video clips that are so spot on with you comments. How you find or remember those clips just shows you have way to much time in your hands🤣

I needed to rescan CEC devices and/or unplug->plug the soundbar again... but I did get it working, thank you 😊

Part of what makes it squirrelly is that CEC is now parallel to network controls. So the software running it is expanded to include networking protocols. Which also if you decide to do investigative journalism, includes a data collection and snooping component. As access to your home network offers these brands data about your devices which they can sell to 3rd parties. From this perspective it’s better to have user oversight over whether to turn on CEC or not. Anecdotally, some TV’s CEC wont work unless the tv is set to enable standby functionality. On LG they call this “Quick start+” which is under general>devices>tv management. Also under devices is “HDMi settings”, which is where you can enable “SIMPLINK (hdmi-CEC)” Of note my Philips tv from 2008 has working CEC but my 2020 LG has CEC issues.

Enjoyed the video and found it informative.

Your video was great. I had the same problem with my new LG TV and my vizio, soundbar. After I contacted LG support and they told me to check the batteries in the remote. I knew I was in for a hell of a ride. They told me to change HDM cable So I did with still no luck. Changing every settings on the t. V and soundbar with no good results, so I finally change it to a digital cable and it works fine.

I was playing with rebuilding and using TV's since the early 70s when everything was analog and some TV's were still full of tubes. RCA cables and coax was pretty much all you needed to connect some of the rare TV's that had external inputs. Then all the other analog video inputs, and coaxi and optical digital inputs that were still easy to deal with. Early HDMI was fairly easy because it was very simple early HD so as long as the cables were well made they worked. And yes if you don't care about all the latest audio formats digital cables almost always work. Every time they added more formats and higher video resolutions and copy protection just getting HDMI cables that play well with everything and work has gotten harder and harder. I was finally able to afford to upgrade to a nice 8k TV and 8k Dolby Atmos receiver so I had to buy a bunch of new cables that have the speed and bandwidth to fully support all the new stuff. My first HDTV was a 16x9 34" 1080i CRT set with 2 whopping HDMI inputs, and two of every other input known to man in 2005 when I bought it. I didn't even have any HDMI capable gear at the time and used optical and component HD video cables. What a long strange trip it's been...

Loved this rant as me, too, have been experiencing this frastrating issue. As Caleb said, we invest our hard earned money on equipment that should really work, tbh. Besides, last time I checked, money does not grow on trees😊.

Sony a95j with the HT-A9 seems to get a stale connection after awhile. A one minute reset always fixes the ticking and audio cutouts.

Caleb, thanks for the "I'm on one" heads-up 😅 They Deserve it!

Lifesaver, explanations alone solved my issue

It would be helpful to have a searchable website that listed the devices which were not compatible with each other. This may shame companies into doing better.

Like you mentioned… HDMI ARC is already old tech. Had this problem before with my TCL tv paired with my TCL Dolby Atmos soundbar. The sound/signals keep dropping off when watching Dolby Atmos movies in Netflix or Disney. Seems like the handshake between the tv and soundbar can’t keep up with all the informations being processed in real-time. Bought a cheap 8K capable HDMI cable from Amazon. Never look back ever since. Now it’s smooth as butter…

Had huge problems with ARC it almost drove me insane, then was advised to get a HDMI pro 3, up to 8K cable from a proffessional HIFI outlet, cost a bit of money but I bought one although I had a good one. Replaced it with the new, pulled all the plugs to power and did a reset with the new cable and now working like a charm for the last 4 weeks, before it would work only for a short time and then nothing. Almost thought I needed a new amp. as I had just bought a new TV. It saved me a lot of money.

Had issues with arc for a couple of years and always put it down to having too many sources. I always used to think that my NAD receiver was the culprit till I change out my LG oled for a Samsung qd oled - no issues since. I think a lot of the problems are down to incompatibility issues between different brands.

Fantastic video on HDMI earc and arc, I’ve been experiencing problems like this for ages. You never had this with scart back in the day and this is supposed to be similar. So manufacturers need to get their act together and come up with a proper universal solution.

Hi Caleb, Don't particularly care if the glass is half full or half empty, it is all about how much is in the bottle. Seriously though, does it help to buy the same brand TV and sound bar to avoid this issue?

I used eARC for just one week with a new Sony a90j and Yamaha A8A. It worked perfectly- EXCEPT it was turning the Yamaha amp on randomly in the middle of the night . So I turned off eARC & HDMI control . Still get Dolby Atmos and I don’t have to worry about the TV turning on when I play a CD trough a HDMI connected SACD player

Does staying within the same brand help (Example: Sony TV with Sony Receiver/Soundbar)?

Wish my TV had a audio-only HDMI out like my UHD BD player.

Thank you so much. I did update my LG OLED HDTV with latest software in the past. So, guessing this is the point I lost ARC signal from HDTV to my AV Receiver. Just watched your vid and learned of Consumer Electronics Control CEC. Found a setting in the HDTV mentions keyboard ECE. in the OFF position. I turned it ON. …BINGO sound has returned. New subscriber and gave you a 👍.

I have tried multiple times to get eARC to last longer than a few weeks. I finally gave up and moved back to optical. The volume level is lower, but it works every time.

Well good video, deal with this issue everyday, if you could dig up some info on having the standard be a standard that would be awesome, also loved the cat reference.😉😉

The fact that in some instances items will work with some other items but not all lean towards a software issue rather than hardware so the problem seems to be in the implementation of the standard, not the standard itself.

I have a Sony bravia Oled TV, A80L 55”, Sonos arc and two sonos ones plus the sub, I also have the Sony UBP x800 m2 4K dvd player. To have better image and sound, is an HDMi 2.1 cable necessary? If so, what would be a good value for money? Thanks for the excellent content.

Good video. Tell it like it is. Sugar coating a problem helps no one.

Thanks, that was helpful

I was excited to upgrade to eARC since it doesn't rely on CEC. However my Sony X900H connected to my Yamaha RX-V6A exhibits occasional audio dropouts which are super annoying, so I stick with an Apple TV 4K connected to the receiver.

Great video and to your point at the end... Windows 11 now has capblity with wireless displays right there in the internet and sound menu... Also all I want frokm eARC is to be able to use my Sony Bravia speakers as part of my sound system with a sony sound bar... As after I got a sound bar for my old bravia I have never used it's speakers which I feel is a bit of a waste.

So glad I just went with Logitech Harmony remotes many years ago. 10 years and still going strong.

I sell TV and soundbars on a daily basis and CEC is a pain that makes some customers think there is something wrong with their TV or Soundbar. Our local TV provider has massive issues with their new streaming device where the CEC is not talking with several brands of TV and soundbars :(

I have eArc between my tv and soundbar, I don’t have any console etc. Sometimes the whole setup goes silent for ten seconds or more while watching any media.

I own the newest Amazon Fire TV cube connected through HDMI eARC on my Sony Bravo OLED, and still cannot get Dolby Atmos working. I have the latest Belkin Ultra HD High Speed HDMI cable connected with the CEC settings “ON”. I get Atmos through my Apple TV, but only get Dolby Digital Plus working on my Amazon Fire TV cube…this is driving me bonkers !

this video helped me just by talking about HDMI CEC. Has to enable it on my Onkyo receiver

Just a thought, seems everything comes down through Ethernet cable wouldn’t it be more practical to connect say the tv to a AV receiver or soundbar and have other things like Apple TV, PlayStation, Xbox etc connected via an Ethernet connection instead of the hdmi?

Use to have problems but I decided to buy name brand cables. My lg CX plays nice with my Samsung sound bar or my Klipsch nines. Cables are what changed everything.

Great rant! Love it.

Loved this video and the hokey humor. I don't mind you telling it like it is, and being harsh on manufacturers when it's justified. The ARC-CEC issue is a long festering one and should be called out.

Thank you Caleb, I thought I was the only one!

Please review the Sony WF-1000xm5 earbuds. Are the microphones for phone calls really as bad as they sound in initial reviews?

Hi. Is there any way to keep the TV's speakers active simultaneously with the soundbar (earc)?

Caleb, can you tackle why the volume coming from my Apple TV is so much lower than anything else? I'm using a soundbar and eARC port on my tv.

I totally agree.... We have a QLED Vizio 70 inch and I have tried 4 different sound bars. I have tried JBL 5.1 sound bar, Vizio 5.1.2 sound bar, the Bose 2.0 sound bar (hated it), and last the Polk Signa.... The Visio worked right out of the box go figure as the TV is Vizio but my wife was not happy with the rear speakers, go figure... The JBL and Polk Audio worked half the time... In the end I had to turn CEC on and then turn eARC off???? Now both sound bars work.

I actually gave up trying to get my Dolby Atmos receiver to deliver Atmos surround because i can't get it to work. I have gone back to the the regular Dolby surround using digital optical.

OMG this is EXACTLY what I've been experiencing. I have a Fire Omni QLED 4k TV, a PS5, and a Vizio Elevate 5.1.2 Atmos soundbar system. These all worked flawlessly for about a month... then they just stopped. I cannot reliably get sound through my eArc channel at all. Sometimes it works right away, sometimes if I fiddle with sound settings it will eventually work, but most of the time it just doesn't work at all. I've reverted to using an optical cable, but that provides no Atmos. I agree, it's a first-world problem, but its so frustrating to buy a system specifically for Atmos and not be able to use it. So glad I'm not the only one, I thought I was going mad.

i have a tcl 6 series and for some reasons for arc to work properly i have go to an audio chanel thats not arc and then back to the arc channel on the receiver to get it to work. any ideas why?

My earc issues got so painfully frustrating between my Sony TV and Vizio sound bar that I gave up and switched to toslink. No more problems. I don’t even really miss Atmos.

An issue I had with ARC (audio dropouts) was solved by switching to a higher quality HDMI cable connecting my receiver to my TV's ARC enabled HDMI port. My issue with is with CEC is my TV sometimes (and only sometimes) does not power on my receiver when I power my TV on with my TV's remote. Requiring me to turn off my TV and then on again. That usually works.

PLEASE Dig Into This!! YOU ARE APPRECIATE 💯

Even your rants are so positive… so more rants please (since they are cathartic) thanks!

I use both a Samsung TV with a Samsung soundbar connected with ARC and I still have issues with loss of connection. I have to detach the soundbar power cable and the reconnect before it sorts the problem. This I hace to do at least once a month! 😢. Great video by the way! 👍

I still using RCA and AUX, even the new Optical Toslink currently. Was thinking to use it, but... After realizing if HDMI ARC/eARC has issues Mr Caleb mentioned here. Maybe I won't getting it if I correctly setup

My recent experience, last 12 months, with HDMI has been awful. Previous 10 years using HDMI was perfect. Last July I installed a TCL 65s546 QLED TV. First TCL instructed me to upgrade to HDMI 2.0 cable to connect to Pioneer receiver. It did connect but I would get, snap, crackle & pop then a disconnect. Those sounds actually emitted from the speakers. Meanwhile my Firestick 4K had no issues controlling the receiver and no HDMI issues using the HDMI cable supplied with firestick (the short dongle adapter) included with each firestick. Not sure what HDMI version that is but the firestick was 4 years old. No issues worked perfect. I gave up on the receiver and purchased a Yamaha soundbar, YAS-109. Not a cheap device. Once gain it worked perfect with the firestick. The TCL tv did connect with the soundbar however there was the audio/lip sync delay. I tried all methods of troubleshooting and nothing corrected the matter. Contacted TCL support. They instructed me to unplug the bar and disconnect the HDMI cable and use the TV's internal speaker. Problem was corrected using the TV speaker and no HDMI connection. I did leave the firestcik connected at HDMI 3 port. Next I purchased a Firestick 4K MAX. This solution was provided by KZfaq creator - Automate Your Life - I connected the Firestick to the TV's HDMI EARC port. I set up a Home theatre with the Firestick and an Echo 4th Gen speaker ( the larger ball speaker) It is also 3 years old. Now there are no issues with audio/lip sync while using the Tv's Apps or the Firestick's apps. For whatever reason a $40 Canadian expense for a Firestick 4K Max has resolved all HDMI issues. I have done this setup at two other homes with various brands of TV's with no issues. For Christmas I will be purchasing the larger Echo studio tower speakers that will provide Dolby sound. To summarize I do not own stock in Amazon. What is for sure is that the Firestick technology is superior for connecting Tv's to external sound. When you purchase a premium TCL TV and a premium mid-tier Yamaha soundbar all should work. It appears that inexpensive Firesticks are the ultimate solution. Another major KZfaq creator recently agreed that - add on sticks such as Roku and Firestick's were the better option. I guess I should have purchased the ROKU version of my TCL TV as opposed to the Google version. Hope this helps - HDMI works perfect when using a Firestick 4K or 4K MAX.

I have yet to get ARC to work 100% on any of my TV setups. I stick with optical. Btw love the video. This all needed to be said a long long time ago.

I work a PT job for a major TV brand selling TVs on the weekends. While I realize that anecdote is not data, my experience has been that Samsung Soundbars like Samsung TVs, but sometimes will have issues with other brands. LG soundbars have issues even with LG TVs, but that seems like a crapshoot. Sony and Vizio bars tend to work with every brand TV. Sonos, Bose, and JBL also seem to work with everything. I would be interested in seeing some sort of study of which brands have more issues. That might pour some gas on the fire.

Well the fun I've had trying to get a Philips TV connected to a Samsung Soundbar really does highlight this issue! eARC is just a complete mess & the 2 just don't play nice! Standard ARC handshake thankfully worked between the two but means I lose out on a couple of audio codecs! Should you do an indepth report? HELL YES. For a Standard which has been out as long as it has, we shouldn't be getting all these issues so more coverage will bring this into the publics eye and hopefully make the manufacturers pull the proverbial finger out! Nice report BTW 👌 👍

Spot on. Please do the digging. When you buy a product and it supposedly has these features you paid for said features and they should function.

Funny you brought this topic up. I have a Sony A80J tv and wanted to use a sound bar. Had a Bose 700 base and rear jewel speakers. So let’s try the Bose soundbar 900. What a joke. Never could get the sound bar working correctly. Tried two separate bars before returning it. Changed HDMI cables. No go. So went to the Sony HT-A9 system with bass. All works great now. One other thing to read is find out what kind of HDMI cable the manufacturer recommends. Use a 2.1 or 2.0? With or without Ethernet. Seams they set these audio and tv system to run with same manufacturers these days. This way all units talk to each other. Not all system are created the same. 😂.