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Sonos Beam Apple TV and LG OLED via HDMI-ARC loses connection every power on/off

  • 2 February 2021
  • 20 replies
  • 6932 views

Setup is LG OLED CX 55” connected to Apple TV via hdmi. TV ARC connection to Sonos beam/sub paired. 

PROBLEM:

EVERY time I power off my devices (aka turn off the TV and appleTV) and power back on at a later time, I lose the Sound to sonos.  
 

I have to go into the sonos app, click on the zone, click on TV as the source, then go into appleTV and restart the system.  
 

Please help/advise! This is a poor process for the money paid into this setup. 
 

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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 3 February 2021, 09:00

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20 replies

Perhaps try toggling off/on ‘TV Autoplay’ in the Beam’s Room in ‘Settings/System’ in the Sonos App and see if that fixes it for you.

Thanks for the quick reply Ken!  Upon your suggestion, I toggled TV auto play to “off” as it was already “on”. Unfortunately, the same results ensues. When I power on the appleTV using the appleTV remote to boot up the tv and appleTV, the sound comes through the tv speakers. When I look at the sonos app for the zone, it has no source selected (like it loses the tv source) and I have to manually select tv and restart appleTV to get the sound going through the beam again.  Any other help is greatly appreciated. 
 

thanks again

My suggestion perhaps wasn’t clear. I appreciate TV Autoplay is set to ‘on’ by default, but my thoughts were to toggle it ‘off’ and then back ‘on’ again. The TV should then Autoplay through the speaker, but I’m guessing you may have toggled the switch back ‘on’ in any case.

The issue sounds HDMI-CEC related, it’s perhaps best if you can ensure that HDMI-CEC is switched on for the TV and switched off for any other devices connected to the TV, except for the Beam.

With LG TV’s that’s enabling both Simplink and Auto-power-Sync to get things working and ensuring the Beam and nothing else is connected to the TV’s HDMI-ARC port (usually HDMI-2)

The Apple TV HDMI-CEC feature can be switched off in its settings (I believe it’s in ‘Remotes and Devices/Home Cinema Control’

Hope that Assists.

Hey ken,

 

thanks again for trying to help me. I really appreciate it.  
 

the lg tv has those settings on (simplink and auto power sync).  However, I’ve noticed that when the problem occurs (before I reset it) the lg tv has the sound to internal tv speaker on so it’s almost like the sonos beam and tv arent always locked in with each other.  I don’t know if it’s an appleTV setting, an lg tv setting, or a sonos setting but it’s very frustrating to say the least. Is there anyway I can provide you a diagnostic report when it happens again?  Would that help?

 

thanks again for all help. 
 

cheers

Ruchacha

Only Sonos support staff can see/read your diagnostic reports - please note that the Staff here are clearly marked by their Sonos profile image. I’m just a Sonos user, like yourself, so can’t read your diagnostic.
 

I will suggest however that the next time you encounter the issue, then immediately submit a further diagnostic report and post it’s reference number back here in this thread ...and then contact/chat to the Sonos Support Staff via this LINK to see what they can ascertain from the report.

I hope that helps.👍

I have a similar issue with a Beam, LG OLED TV, and FireTV. I worked around it by having a HDMI switch connected to the LG TV rather than having the FireTV connected directly to the LG TV. The only thing connected to the TV is the Beam and the switch.

Ken and pasc,

 

thanks for your continued help with my tv sound issues.  I think I found another piece of critical information needed to help diagnose what the real underlying problem might be.  This goes back to kens home theater hdmi cec attempt.   I noticed that when the tv turns on and the sound is coming out the tv speakers , that I go into appleTV settings , remotes and devices and it seems to trigger the appleTV to flip over to hdmi cec.  It’s odd.  I literally go to that screen and as soon as it appears, I see the appleTV auto update that setting and then it comes through the sonos beam.  So the issue is how to get appleTV to “remember” or stay on this setting without having to manually go to that screen and have it trigger over. 
 

any thoughts/ideas? 
 

I can create and post a YouTube video of it if you think it will help.  
 

let me know

 

thanks again!

Check the TV for updates. It sounds like the CEC hub software is misbehaving. I’d also double check for the latest update from Apple. And, of course, the Sonos, but I honestly don’t think this issue is coming from there. 

Then try unplugging the TV from the wall for five minutes, forcing the TV’s software to reload when it gets plugged back in. Do the same thing for the Apple TV.

I’d be tempted to remove any HDMI cables connected to the TV other than the Apple TV and the Beam, to ensure there isn’t a non compliant CEC device connected that is interfering with the hub to properly ‘read’ the Apple TV and Beam’s connection. You could add them back, one device at a time, to see if this odd behavior continues. 

Ultimately, if it continues to misbehave, I’d contact LG’s customer support folks. 

Ruchacha,

That same screen ‘remotes & devices’ refreshes for me too when I first go into it and then stays there after that initial refresh - so I’m not sure it’s that.

Two things to try (perhaps) - Just try switching off the TV control at the bottom of that screen but it means controlling the ATV with its own remote.. or have a look in "Settings/Airplay & Homekit” and remove the ‘room’ from the available room option (if any room is showing). See if that resolves your issue - you can always change them back, if no joy.

I have exactly the same problem. LG CX 65, Sonos Beam, Apple TV 4K.

HDMI CEC enabled for Beam and Apple TV.

The audio doesn’t work *sometimes* after I switch on.

Switching Apple TV on also switches the TV on, that works fine. The Beam seems to be powered on all the time, but sometimes after a few minutes when it doesn’t work I can go into the menu on Apple TV and switch the audio to the Beam instead of TV speakers, then it starts to work. Although in some apps there is still a delay between a video starting and audio playing through the Beam.

I used to connect the Beam through an optical cable, it always worked fine. I could do that again but because Apple TV doesn’t have internal volume control, I don’t want to have to use a separate remote for volume.

Not sure what else to do.

 

I’d be awfully tempted to check for an update to the TV’s OS from LG. It sounds like it’s not allowing the CEC connection across HDMI to activate all the time. And I’d also be tempted to pull out the HDMI cables, and then put them back in. Sometimes a reseat fixes a bad pin connection. But if it is a bad HDMI connection, it’s anyone’s bet as to whether that’s in the TV, the cable, or the Beam. Not sure I know how to check that, other than just swapping the cable out, but that doesn’t really prove anything, although it may fix the issue.

 

👋 hey 

the solution is: turn the IR off in your Sonos app, this way Apple TV remote won’t turn your soundbar off, and they stay connected. 
 

I’m having this same issue ever since getting the new Apple TV and trying to use the ATV remote with HDMI-CEC instead of my Harmony remote.

 

I’ve tried turning IR and TV auto play off in Sonos settings for the Beam and it doesn’t fix the issue. I don’t want to turn off CEC in the Apple TV settings under Remotes and Devices because I want to be able to use the Apple TV remote as my only remote.

 

Is there anyone who has an LG OLED, Beam connected via ARC, and an Apple TV 4K able to use the Apple TV remote as a main remote without having the issues stated in this thread? Before I start buying new HDMI cables and trying that I’d like to see if it’s even possible with the current software versions.

I have been having the same issue for a while and was finally able to fix it on my end. I realized that my ATV 4K was set for Atmos for audio out, which my Beam does not support. When I changed the audio out setitng from Atmos to Dolby 5.1 in the ATV settings, this issue was completely resolved - both the remote and beam intermittently not connecting to the LG TV at some power ups. Has worked perfectly since. Maybe this can be helpful!

I’ve been having this same issue, and just found something that has fixed it for me. Go into “Settings”, “All Settings”, “Sound”, “Additional Settings” and then turn off e-arc, then unplug the HDMI cable from your Sonos Beam and plug it back in. The TV should show a notification that the beam was detected and magic remote is ready to control it. After which there shouldn’t (at least in the 5 or 6 power cycles I tried) be any more disconnects. I can confirm that, at least for me, turning e-arc back on made the problem return, and turning it off again restored the proper function. 
 

Overall annoying, and difficult to tell if this is an issue with how the beam handles e-arc or the LG CX. That being said, as far as I can tell the only benefit of e-arc is in playback of lossless audio (probably an issue for some, but not for me as I stream all my content), so maybe just having it off for now is a viable workaround until either Sonos or LG fix the issue. 

I’ve been having this same issue, and just found something that has fixed it for me. Go into “Settings”, “All Settings”, “Sound”, “Additional Settings” and then turn off e-arc, then unplug the HDMI cable from your Sonos Beam and plug it back in. The TV should show a notification that the beam was detected and magic remote is ready to control it. After which there shouldn’t (at least in the 5 or 6 power cycles I tried) be any more disconnects. I can confirm that, at least for me, turning e-arc back on made the problem return, and turning it off again restored the proper function. 
 

Overall annoying, and difficult to tell if this is an issue with how the beam handles e-arc or the LG CX. That being said, as far as I can tell the only benefit of e-arc is in playback of lossless audio (probably an issue for some, but not for me as I stream all my content), so maybe just having it off for now is a viable workaround until either Sonos or LG fix the issue. 

This appears to have solved it for me 

Monitoring this closely. $4K+ buy hinges on this.  Used to have high hopes for HEOS but thats done since Apple TV allows use as COMPUTER SPEAKERS via Airplay now.  Nice to not need exotic 40’ HDMI cables or expensive HDbaseT Baluns anymore….  

It would be nice to have this one last problem go away. 

I have the LG CX65 a beam (the Costco one), a pair of play ones and a first Feb ATV 4K.  I have the same issue.   
 

My setup takes volume control away from my apple remote any time it goes to sleep.  If I turn it off and on with the apple remote it works just fine.  If I let it go to screensaver and it turns itself on the next time I turn it on the Sonos won’t work from the apple remote and I have to power cycle the Apple TV to get the Sonia to work with the apple remote.  
 

best setup I have had in my entire life.  Absolute worst experience.  

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I hesitate to even suggest this solution, as for many months my LG CX 55 inch OLED (OLED55CXAUA) randomly stopped outputting ARC audio to my [Sonos Beam Gen1 + Play:1x2] system requiring me to physically unplug the Beam’s HDMI cable from HDMI Port 2 on the TV multiple times a week. The TV would just output to its internal speakers while completely ignoring the Sonos setup until I re plugged it in. I was getting to the point of worrying about the TV’s HDMI port 2 getting worn out.

All prior suggested solutions on this website have been temporary at best, but I seem to have found a durable solution that has lasted me the past four weeks of regular usage, found by reading multiple posts about this issue and parsing together a solution through trial and error. 

Of note, I first thought this was an Apple TV / LG CX / Beam problem, but I have realized after changing multiple settings on my Apple TV 4K Gen 2 (tvOS 15.1 with output forced to Dolby 5.1) over many months that it was a red herring because I was just using the Apple TV all the time as the source.

Ultimately, I believe that that LG and Beam are not playing nice through the HDMI-CEC protocols, specifically something to do with power. Sonos and LG engineering will need to figure this out.

 

First, my firmware versions:

LG CX: 04.30.10

Sonos system: 13.3

 

Second, my fix:

Gear button on LG remote → All Settings → Connection→ Device Connection Settings → Universal Control Settings → HDMI2(Arc)  - > Manage Settings → Set Manually → Bluetooth / SoundBar → HDMI2 (ARC) → Yes to reset → DO NOT ENABLE “Auto Power Sync” (SIMPLINK is OK to be on) → Scroll down and select Sonos → Next → Done

 

The only thing that I have noticed different with this setting disabled is that my Apple TV remote’s power button now does not turn on the TV. I have to do this on the LG remote. For me this is a fair trade rather than having to be constantly annoyed that my supposedly first in class, rather expensive system is randomly not working. 

 

To confirm this fix, two days ago I went back and re enabled Auto Power Sync and I had my first random disconnection in a month today.

 

 At least for me, having Auto Power Sync disabled is the fix.

 

Hopefully this is a universal fix for others undergoing this same frustrating issue.