ARC Channel Support

We have Panasonic 3D TV, Panasonic 7.1 Surround Sound system, and Xbox One Elite.

On our old Xbox 360 we had it connected to the HDMI1 (Game) on the TV and that allowed the sound to pass back thru the HDMI2 (the ARC channel) back down to the surround sound system and we had full stereo. With the XB1 doing this reduced the sound down to
just old 2 channel and sounds much worse in games. I noticed people had asked about this same issue last year and was told that Xbox was aware of the issue and was working to bring the XB1 up to speed with the XB360.

So we was forced to have the XB1 connected to the HDMI2 input on the surround sound system, and the HDMI(ARC) out going up to the TV and this gives us full 7.1 digital surround sound but that is now how Panasonic recommends it be connected to minimize the
possibility of any video lag in multiplayer games like CoD.

Since a tech here said they was aware of it last year (and now even had newer models of the XB1 like the Elite released) and was working on it, does anyone know if they have done that yet?

We would like to go back to connecting it the way Panasonic recommends (it's a plasma screen rated for game playing) but don't want to mess around with moving the cables around back behind everything if we're only going to end up finding that they haven't
fixed this issue yet.

:)

 

Does Xbox One support ARC

Since Xbox One has two HDMI 1.4 (input and output) port, does it support audio return channel (ARC)?

 

Itermittent but annoying HDMI handshake issue with panasonic viera

Wow, you have been very thorough with your testing.

Browsing the user manual for that TV, I notice that HDMI 2 supports ARC (Audio Return Channel).



According to
this article (which also explains about ARC), some HDMI cables (particularly older ones) might not support ARC, which could be causing the weirdness.



Otherwise, I think the unfortunate answer is that there is a problem with that port.

 

The tv cable should actually be plugged into the ARC port in the back of the receiver. That's how I have it on mine and then my cable box is plugged into my xbox one's hdmi passthrough then my xbox one and ps4 each plugged into a hdmi port on the back of
my receiver and it sounds great! Try the way I have mine to see if it corrects the problem

 

The TV cable is plugged into the ARC port on the back of the receiver now, that's what I described as how we have it now. But Panasonic said for maximum reduction in possible video lag caused by going thru the receiver before getting to the TV they say to
plug game consoles direct to the TV on the HDMI port marked (Game). And we don't like our Satellite plugged into the Xbox because then you have to have the Xbox turned on in order to watch the TV which just burns extra energy for no reason.

Unless they have fixed it recently the the Pass-through on the XB1 does not work when we tried it in the past and the XB1 had to be turned on in order to watch TV but that's silly to make you have to run your XB1 for hours and hours if all your doing is
watching TV (and certainly don't like the XB1's TV feature when it's on anyway). Having to have the XB1 turned on is just burning energy and adding wear and tear to your XB1 to have it on when watching TV. We ONLY want to have to turn on the XB1 if we're actually
playing games or doing something specific to the XB1.

 

Your totally correct that a family who is going to have a night of nothing but watching TV it is senseless and power-wasting to need to have the XB1 turned on to do that. In this modern save-the-planet society it's amazing they want you to have to leave
something powered on burning energy when you don't need it. When it's been awhile since any new games they like have been released (or their just temporarily burned out on games) families sometimes go weeks without playing games or doing anything that requires
the XB1 to actually be turned on, but they do still watch TV for hours each day. So why would you want to have to have the XB1 powered on just to do that? Your burning extra energy to power the XB1, your burning extra energy to run the house AC to cool that
extra heat (small but it's there) that the XB1 generates when its on, and your putting un-needed wear and tear on the XB1 itself just by having it run all those hours when your not actually using it for anything. All just to get a TV signal to go through it.
And who wants to have to deal with the extra steps of having to pull out an XB1 controller to snap to the TV mode each time you turn on your AV system just to watch TV.

Unless they have patched it in a firmware update the XBox One does NOT have Passthrough. They advertise that it does but that's false. Been in electronics engineering, computers, and A/V systems my whole life and true HDMI passthrough is defined as something
that allows a signal to passthrough it uninterrupted and unmodified even when the device (that it's passing through) is turned totally off so that if it has a failure, looses power, or is intentionally left off any signals can still passthrough it and on to
other devices. When we first got our XB1 and it said it had passthrough I plugged it in that way and it did not work, I called XB1 tech support and they kept saying it has passthrough BUT the XB1 has to be turned totally ON and you have to snap to the TV window,
it won't even work if the XB1 is off and you have it set to the quick-start mode. That is NOT passthrough, they apparently are choosing to call it whatever they want but they're false advertising and causing confusion with customers who don't know the true
definition of how real passthrough works.

Now I have a Panasonic receiver for example that has a passthrough port, on it and in the menu you can set the unit to NO PASSTHROUGH meaning it never passes the signal through unless it's totally on (like the XB1 actually is) or to Passthrough but notes
the receivers power settings must be set to the "quick on" setting. No it still wont passthrough when the receiver is totally off AND it's not set to the quick-on mode but it will still passthrough when it's off as long as the receiver is in quick on mode.
It uses a little more power (like 2 watts) more if it's in quick on mode but much less than if you actually turn it totally on and you still don't have to have it turned on so for all practical purposes it's still a form of true passthrough, but the XB1 doesn't
do this either (again, unless they have patched it via firmware update in the past couple of months).

They really need to either quit falsely advertising that the XB1 has passthrough OR they need to update it so that it WILL pass the signal through even when the XB1 is turned off, it's OK if it has to be set to quick on mode for it to work, at least that
would be acceptable and only add a couple of extra watts of energy usage.

 

Yes even CNN's weekly "New Tech" show called Microsoft out on the false advertising that the XB1 had "pass-through" when it didn't back when it came out. CNN didn't count it as being pass-through either since the unit has to be totally on for it to work.

We would love to hook ours up that way to save having to switch inputs on the Surround Sound receiver if the XB1 worked that way but the last time we tested it back last fall when we upgraded from our original XB1 500Gb to the XB1 Elite 1000Gb it still did
not pass-through so we don't (and wont) have it hooked up that way until they fix that so it will pass-through the HDMI signal when the XB1 is off, or at least in low-power standby.

 

That doesn't change our problem though which is the audio quality if we hook the XB1 direct to the GAME port on the TV.

Our Panasonic 60" 3D plasma TV says it's designed for gamers. The ports on the back are marked as follows;

HDMI-1

HDMI-2 (ARC)

HDMI-3

HDMI-4 (GAME)

Oh, and I incorrectly said the game port was HDMI-1 in my original post, I forgot which was which. I knew it was at one end of the row.

Anyway the TV manual says "Plug a gaming console into the HDMI-4 (GAME) port and select GAME CONSOLE as the input device type in the TV's menu that this TV is designed to switch off all extra processing singing the signal virtually direct to the screen,
combined with a 240Hz signal rate this provides monitor-like speeds with only 12ms of video lag in a massive 60" 3D true-glass plazma screen for a truly immersive gaming experience.

And it is! Games like COD rock on our TV!

The problem is the manual also says that if you are using a receiver that you should connect your game console direct to the TV's GAME port and an ARC certified cable from the TV's ARC port to the ARC port on a receiver. This allows the TV to pass the sound
signal back to the receiver via the ARC channel. While going through a receiver first will NOT increase the TV's video lag, many receivers themselves will add anywhere from 2 to as much as 16 frames of input lag as they pass the video signal through them before
the signal ever gets to the TV.

On our XBox 360S we was able to hook it up in the way Panasonic recommends and was getting Dolby 5.1 digital at the receiver (I don't think the XB360 could do 7.1) but on both of the XB1's we have had all that we end up with at the receiver is 2 channel
stereo. Our girls friend brought over a Play Station 4 the other day and we tested it and was getting 7.1 Digital Surround Sound. So since the XB360 was working with Dolby 5.1 and the neighbors PS4 is working with Dolby 7.1 we know that the issue is with the
Xbox One and not our system. So to get Dolby 7.1 from our Xbox One we have had to go from the XB1 to the Receiver and then from the Receiver to the TV, this gives us great 7.1 sound but now we're concerned that we're getting lag from the Receiver as mentioned
in the TV's instructions.

Back in January an XB1 tech said they knew about the issue and was working on a fix, but have they fixed it yet? Our entertainment system is large and somewhat self-enclosed in a cabinet so I don't want to go to a lot of trouble to get back there to swap
cables around only to find that they still have not fixed the issue.

Does anyone know if they have or not?

 

I'm sorry, I wrote our TV has a default 240Hz refresh rate, I forgot to mention it says it can go up to 600Hz when supported devices are connected.

 

My setup for 5.1 and no lag:

XboxOne HDMI to "Game" port on receiver

From receiver "Video Out" (HDMI) to ARC on TV.

I had major lag until I went into the xbox audio settings, and unchecked "Allow 24Hz"....or whatever boxes, and set the Xbox to 5.1 with no compression.

On the receiver, I adjusted the sound delay a bit. I also run the receiver in PCM which gives me no audio compression, and a nice rich 5.1 sound.

 

We have our audio set to "HDMI Audio 7.1 Uncompressed", our system is 7.1 and sounds great just worried about the lag caused by going through a receiver like the Panasonic manual recommended against because some receivers can add a few frames of lag. We
also have Optical Audio OFF and the Bitstream Format is set grayed out.

The 24Hz is under Video settings not Audio settings and kinda surprised that would create lag in a multiplayer game, it shouldn't affect a game at all or at least that's what I would have thought.

 

Don't worry about any video lag. Any delay caused by going through the receiver would literally be in the 5 ms range. Alternatively, instead of using the ARC, you could use an optical audio cable from the TV to the receiver, or from the Xbox directly into
the receiver.

My receiver is not HDCP 2.2 compliant, so to get HDR from my Xbox One S, I currently have the Xbox plugged into the HDMI port on the TV, and an optical cable running from my Xbox to my receiver.

 

5ms is a lot in many FPS multiplayer games like the CoD series. In fact 5ms would be a 20% increase over the normal lag rating our internet has so 20% seems like it would be noticeable.

Thanks, though we tried an optical cable but couldn't get 7.1 out of it, only 5.1 out of the Xbox One, unless they have patched that since then.

 

Ok well, changing the advanced video settings allowed me true 5.1 with no lag. Perhaps you should listen to bus driver and downgrade your audio with an optical cable.

 

Why would we downgrade our audio? And I didn't say we're getting lag with 7.1 I said we'd like to get 7.1 without having to go through the Receiver first in case the receiver is adding any small amount of video lag. Our audio is absolutely fantastic. It's
a flaw in the XB1 that they need to fix and apparently haven't yet.