Why wont my soundbar work?

[blueST]

I have a lovely shiny new LG G5 TV and I'm trying to get it to work with my existing Creative Stage 2.1 soundbar via HDMI. Whatever I do, the sound just wont come through. The TV "knows" the bar is there in some way as when I switch the bar to HDMI input the TV automatically kills the internal speakers, but the tv wont control the volume or the power of the bar via HDMI like my old TV did.

Things I have checked (with the help of AI):
Bar is plugged into HDMI 2 (ARC/eARC)
TV is set to put the audio out to HDMI
I have tried enabling/disabling eARC, no difference
I have tried changing the audio out on the TV from Auto to PCM and Pass-through, no difference.

Can anyone help? DOn't really want to buy a new soundbar when this one was great on my old TV.

I can connect by optical cable, but I don't then get the TV to properly control the bar which is a no go (my Wife wont stand for it!).

[MacW]

Have a dig through the settings to confirm that HDMI-CEC is enabled on the TV, this is the protocol that allows additional devices to be controlled by the TV remote.

[Nezquick]

Does your HDMI cable support ARC or eARC output?

[LordGrover]

I have an LG tv and hisense soundbar.
TV remote won't control the soundbar, but the apple tv and sky q remotes both work fine.
Not ideal, but it works.

[blueST]

MacW said:

Have a dig through the settings to confirm that HDMI-CEC is enabled on the TV, this is the protocol that allows additional devices to be controlled by the TV remote.

Thanks, yes, that was another thing I have checked.

[blueST]

Nezquick said:

Does your HDMI cable support ARC or eARC output?

I've no idea how to check, but it worked on my old TV (ARC not eARC) so I assume so

[blueST]

LordGrover said:

I have an LG tv and hisense soundbar.
TV remote won't control the soundbar, but the apple tv and sky q remotes both work fine.
Not ideal, but it works.

It'd be a win if I could just get some sound to come out of it!

[blueST]

blueST said:

Nezquick said:

Does your HDMI cable support ARC or eARC output?

I've no idea how to check, but it worked on my old TV (ARC not eARC) so I assume so

Appears it was the HDMI cable, but not sure why given it was fine on the old TV. I nabbed the cable off the PS5 and that worked straight away.

In the unlikely event anyone else has the same issue, the soundbar also requires eARC switched off and the audio output set to PCM (whatever that is )

Edited by blueST on Wednesday 9th September 14:38

Edited by blueST on Wednesday 9th September 14:39

Edited by blueST on Wednesday 9th September 16:01

[LordGrover]

Nice one.

[Nezquick]

blueST said:

blueST said:

Nezquick said:

Does your HDMI cable support ARC or eARC output?

I've no idea how to check, but it worked on my old TV (ARC not eARC) so I assume so

Appears it was the HDMI cable, but not sure why given it was fine on the old TV. I nabbed the cable off the PS5 and that worked straight away.

In the unlikely event anyone else has the same issue, the soundbar also requires eARC switched off and the audio output set to PCM (whatever that is )

Edited by blueST on Wednesday 9th September 14:38

Edited by blueST on Wednesday 9th September 14:39

Edited by blueST on Wednesday 9th September 16:01

Glad that worked! Always sensible to try the cheapest things first.

[TEKNOPUG]

You want an HDMI 2.1 cable for eArc. 2.0 is fine for ARC.

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Monday 14th September 23:37

[Solocle]

Funnily going through the same conundrum right now, so this was timely. Got the bar working, but not remote controlled yet. Using optical, but otherwise, LG sound bar with an LG OLED.

Will have a play later.

[blueST]

TEKNOPUG said:

You want an HDMI 2.1 cable for eArc. 2.9 id fine for ARC.

The strange thing is, there is apparently no consistent way to tell what version a HDMI cable is from looking at it. I read that the HDMI standard explicitly forbids identifying the version number on the cable, which seems a bit bizarre.

[TEKNOPUG]

blueST said:

TEKNOPUG said:

You want an HDMI 2.1 cable for eArc. 2.0. is fine for ARC.

The strange thing is, there is apparently no consistent way to tell what version a HDMI cable is from looking at it. I read that the HDMI standard explicitly forbids identifying the version number on the cable, which seems a bit bizarre.

It will say "ultra high speed" on it.

[blueST]

TEKNOPUG said:

blueST said:

TEKNOPUG said:

You want an HDMI 2.1 cable for eArc. 2.0. is fine for ARC.

The strange thing is, there is apparently no consistent way to tell what version a HDMI cable is from looking at it. I read that the HDMI standard explicitly forbids identifying the version number on the cable, which seems a bit bizarre.

It will say "ultra high speed" on it.

Somw do, some don't.

[TEKNOPUG]

Buy one that does...

[blueST]

TEKNOPUG said:

Buy one that does...

Now I know that I will, but my point was that if, like most of us, you have box of cables about the place, you can't necessarily pull out a HDMI cable and know what version it is.