ARC receiver, eARC TV. Audio only possible via optical cable?
 

A friend of mine just bought a new (Sansung) TV to pair up with his older Onkyo receiver. Asked for help setting it up. He has a very basic setup. An older (HDMI with ARC) Onkyo receiver, a cable box and the new TV. He told me the salseperson at Best Buy recommended buying an optical cable to achieve sound output from the TV to receiver because the TV has eARC and the receiver has regular ARC. I thought that was nonsense, but apparently not. After going through all settings within his receiver and TV the ONLY way I could get audio output from his TV to receiver (using the built in apps, etc) was with the optical cable connected. I have the cable box connected to the receiver with HDMI, HDMI connected to the eARC port on his TV to the only ARC port (HDMI out) on his receiver, and of course the optical cable which I still don't think is necessary. What do you guys think? Thanks!

Re: ARC receiver, eARC TV. Audio only possible via optical cable?
 

Yeah, that should work. I've got a very similar setup. But ARC is kind of tricky. If you haven't already, go into the Onkyo's HDMI settings from the setup menu. Make sure HDMI CEC is turned to ON and the ARC setting is set to AUTO.

Re: ARC receiver, eARC TV. Audio only possible via optical cable?
 

Yes, all the HDMI settings as far as ARC and HDMI control are set to "on" for receiver.

The model Onkyo is TX-NR609. After looking at the manual, it says the Audio TV Out setting should be set to OFF in the HDMI Control Menu. I think I had it set to on. Does anyone have a similar model receiver that could confirm this?

EDIT: He returned this TV because of blacklight bleed for a better Samsung model & still has the same issue after I set it up. Read this in the manual: With some TVs and input signals, no sound may be output even when this setting is set to “On” , referring to the audio TV Out function which I tried setting both On & Off.
Looks like this just won't work with his (older model) receiver and possibly, Samsung TV's.

Re: ARC receiver, eARC TV. Audio only possible via optical cable?
 

Keep in mind you need eARC to get Dolby Digital Plus and Atmos from the built-in apps- without it, you just get regular Dolby Digital. I was pissed that my new receiver didn't have eARC, I thought that ARC in the first place could carry the advanced sound formats. Works good for the TV tuner though but is a bit tricky, you have to keep playing with the settings until it works.

Re: ARC receiver, eARC TV. Audio only possible via optical cable?
 

Yeah I couldn't get any audio at all. Had to use the optical cable