I don’t think ARC can do Atmos.
Edit: Seems I’m wrong. The 7 and 8 series can do DD+ Atmos over ARC, but not TrueHD Atmos.
I bought an OLED65B7A a month ago and love it to bits, but had some similar issues initially. A few comments and learnings:
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Turn off all the power saving and auto smoothening and processingjunk. That should keep it from unexpectedly turning off
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ARC and CEC are unreliable beasts. I tried running my stuff through my Denon receiver as well as direct to the TV. Going direct didn’t really help anything and made the remote juggling worse. I reverted to everything through receiver with one hdmi to tv. Then I setup the denon remote as the supported “universal remote” on the TV remote. Now I can control both essential functions with one (admittedly too complex for the family) TV remote
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The built in apps are mostly ok, but LG really wants to spy on you when you turn those on. I turned as much of the smart tv as possible OFF and use my Apple TV 4K for the streaming instead. Those apps work fine and support the standards and Apple doesn’t spy on me mostly
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There’s no great alternative to having to switch video modes. The TV is supposed to remember the setting for different sources but often doesn’t since ARC and CEC are unreliable / sometimes crap. The switching IS super important though since there are many possible modes depending on what you watch. SD, 1080 HD, 4K, Dolby 4K, etc. etc.
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Is STRONGLY recommend going through the video calibration for each mode you are going to use. RTINGS.com has some good settings for popular TVs though you might not agree with every one. Those make good starting points and are essential for best viewing IMO. Switching to / from game mode especially important to minimize lag for games but maximize picture for other sources
Hope those help!
Diego
Supposedly you can block a few addresses in your router and stop that without affecting functionality in any meaningful way.
That’s a good point and solves the problem without buying more stuff, though at the cost of added router complexity and maintenance when LG changes things.
Yes it will, and there’s no reason why you can’t use separate video settings for each device by running it through your Denon like that. In fact, HDR or DV will automatically switch to those picture settings if you run content that supports it.
Rewired the C8 today and put the Tivo Roamio OTA, Apple TV, and Fire TV Cube on their own inputs. Now they can have appropriate image processing settings, and the game consoles attached to the Denon can get pure game mode.
Only time I’ll need to switch any settings manually now is when watching the occasional 4K Blu-ray on the Xbox One X.
Seems to be remembering all the appropriate settings when switching with my Harmony remote.
Crossing fingers that it’s reliable for you!
Mine remembered for the first two weeks and is now flaky about auto switching, turning on / off attached devices etc
Turning off HDMI-CEC should resolve that in most cases.
Yeah, if you’re using a Harmony, there’s not much point in having CEC on anyway. Personally I find the benefits of the smart remote combined with running things through a receiver and mainly using the LG apps means I don’t have much call to use the Harmony any more. I have to do a slightly awkward menu thing when I switch back to the Live TV input as a result, but I don’t use it that often and it means I can use a single remote, which has a pointer (and microphone? Not sure if the mic is in the TV or the remote).
Isn’t the CEC setting somehow connected to transmitting Dolby Atmos via ARC? I swear I had to toggle it on my B7 last November (all devices connected to a Denon receiver, one HDMI cable between Denon and B7).
Not sure. You could leave it on just the receiver and TV if that’s the case. Turn it off on everything else.
Seems very unlikely, but I haven’t got an Atmos setup so can’t confirm.
I’m using the Harmony to do the switching. (Though my Fire TV Cube also does a great job of it via voice. Only issue is you kind of need to decide between the Fire TV and the Harmony, so I opt for the Harmony because volume and stuff.)
Yeah, I haven’t found clarity on Atmos through ARC. My Apple TV doesn’t support it yet, but when I tried some content that I think was Atmos (Lost in Space) on Netflix on the Fire TV, the receiver didn’t display Atmos. That’s one tweak I still have to figure out. Atmos works fine on the Xbox which is still going directly to the receiver.
Okay, it’s not absolutely required for Atmos, but Simplink is supposed to be on for ARC in general, per the LG user guide for the B7:
You can toggle the power sync thingy, but CEC itself should be on for the TV.
Arise!
Has anyone seen any great Black Friday deals on these? I’m mostly seeing mediocre deals similar to the typical discount prices of the last several months ($1500ish for 55, $2500ish for 65).
If you do buy from an unauthorized dealer, I’d suggest taking some of the money you saved and getting a Squaretrade warranty. Slickdeals says that’ll cost another $75.
Thanks @stusser!
On the west coast, Video Only is the place to go for way below MAP deals and full factory warranty support. I wonder if there’s anything like that in the DFW area.
Two big check-boxes getting marked off with LG’s 2019 sets: HDMI 2.1 (with variable refresh rate support) and 120Hz sets. There you go, @stusser!
Yep and Xbone supports VRR also!