Soundtouch 300 + non-CEC-compatible Cable-Box, recommended setup

[thewild]

Hi all !

I have a Soundtouch 300, a Philips TV with HDMI ARC compatibility, and an HDMI Cable Box that is not CEC compatible (it's a Voocorder from Voo Belgium, actually a rebranded Cisco cable box).

What is the recommended setup to opperate all these devices together with a single remote ?

For now, I have tried to setup but none of them was perfect.

My Universal Remote is configured to turn on the Cable Box and the ST300 simultaneously.

Setup 1 :

•  linked the TV and ST300 via HDMI ARC (HDMI 1)
•  linked the Cable Box to the TV via HDMI 2

-> I press the "power on" key on the Universal Remote, the ST300 and Cable Box both turn on. The TV turns on (probably triggered by the ST300 CEC ?), it is on the HDMI 2 source (if it was the last one used). I get the image and no sound. After some time (10s or so) I get a message on the TV "ARC Mode Activated", then the TV switches to HDMI 1 source, so I have no more image.

Setup 2 :

•  linked the TV and ST300 via HDMI ARC (HDMI 1)
•  linked the Cable Box to the ST300's HDMI IN

-> this works OK (TV is always on HDMI 1, so no more auto switching), but when I power on the system it takes a lot of time for ARC Mode to turn on. By "a lot", I mean maybe 1 minute, and clearly more than 30s. Quite annoying.
Also on both setups, I have a problem that sometimes the "power on" key of the remote will not turn everything on. It will power on the Cable Box, but not the ST300, so everything get out of sync and I have a hard time turning everything off simultaneously.So :

Is it possible to have a non-CEC compatible Cable Box turn on the ST300 automatically (i.e. have the ST300 turn on when a signal is coming in via HDMI IN) ? This would solve the problem of my devices not turning on.Is there a way to solve this HDMI ARC audio taking a very long time to turn on ?Why is my Universal Remote having problem turning on the ST300 and Cable Box at the same time ? I am standing quite close to both of them, and the batteries are brand new.Is there another recommended setup ?

Thanks for your insights !

[jaybo41]

Hi,

I have my Soundtouch 300 setup precicely the way you describe in setup 2, though I'm not experiencing the issues that you've described.  I am however using my Cable Box remote to power on the TV, Soundbar and Cable box. 

I suspect you may need to try looking at some of the settings on the TV related to CEC and see if an adjustment can be made.  You may also find that resetting the TV to factory settings might be helpful, I needed to do this in order to get my setup to work.  Another poster commented that he removed power from TV and Soundbar AND removed the HDMI cables from all devices and that allowed the handshake to work properly.

Lastly, if in fact you're using the Bose remote it sounds as though your devices may be out of sync.  Here's a link to the manuals page.  Look for remote control, resynching the devices for more info.

https://www.soundtouch.com/Manuals#

Hopefully this is helpful.

[thewild]

Hi jaybo41, and thanks for your help.

Indeed, I think I will try resetting everything (including my Universal Remote), maybe that will help.

Just another question though : you say your are using your Cable Box remote to power on everything, but do you mean that your box is CEC compatible and therefore powers on everything, or that the remote is configured to send the infrared codes to all these devices at once ?

My cable box remote can power on a TV if I set it up appropriately (same as what the universal remote can do), but the box itself cannot power on another device via CEC.

Cheers

[jaybo41]

Hi thewild,

My Cable Box is NOT CEC capable and that the IR codes are being sent to all devices at once.  Hopefully that clarifies your question.  Please report back once you've had opportunity to work though the process.  Here's hoping you're successful!

jaybo

[thewild · Accepted solution]

OK so I kind of sorted it out.

I just enabled HDMI IN Direct Input on the ST 300, so now the sound comes directly from the Cable Box to the ST300 via the ST300's HDMI IN port.

I now use only my Cable Box remote. I configured it to turn on my TV, and the TV takes care of turning on the ST300. The setting in the TV is called Easylink Autostart (or something like that because my menu is in french so I don't know the exact setting name in english).

So when I press On on the remote, the Cable Box and the TV turn on, and quickly after the ST300 turns on. As soon as I have an image I also have sound coming from the ST300, so that's good.

The only problem that remains is when I try to use a device on plugged on the TV on another HDMI port. I have no sound, unless I turn off all devices, then turn on the TV then the other device.

My cable box is my main device so that's OK, but still not 100% perfect.

Maybe I'll try unplugging and replugging everything to fix this last issue, but it works OK for 95% of the time so I think I'll just enjoy it for some time.

Thanks for helping !

[jaybo41]

Awesome news, it sounds as though you've made some progress.  I'm glad to hear it!  I don't use the blue ray or Apple TV too often, but noticed that a bit of time elapsed for the sound to come through the soundbar when I tested it whilst the Bose Technician was on the phone.  It did however work using the same connections you've described. 

It may be worth your time to disconnect ALL HDMI plugs from the tv, their respective device ports and power everything off, then on again.  I can't say for certainty whether that will correct everyone's issue, but I can say that I did this when I set my system up and I am fully operational without any issues at the moment. 

It's unfortunate that so many have issues with this system as the sound truly is wonderful. 

[thewild]

Last feedback on my setup :

The experience when switching sources was pretty bad, so I went on messing with the settings.

I turned off direct HDMI audio input, and it seemed to do the trick.

That was the first thing I had tried, but I had this very annoying 30s delay for the audio to come through.

Now things somehow have settled themselves, and audio is there as soon as I turn on my setup (even though it still takes ~30s for the message "HDMI ARC activated" to come up, weird...). Audio is flowing perfectly to my soundbar when switching sources.

At last, I am very happy with my setup ! 🙂