Todd’s Tips - HDMI Control (CEC) & ARC with TVs, AVRs & Soundbars

If you have purchased a Television and/or AV Receiver or Soundbar with HDMI connections in recent years, the companies have added some extra functionality as part of HDMI. CEC will enable control of on/off & volume of compatible AV Receivers or Soundbars via your Televisions remote control. ARC or Audio Return Channel will send sound back down the HDMI cable connected from your AVR or Soundbar. This is a convenient way to get high quality sound from Free-to-air or Apps such as YouTube or Netflix.Each brand will handle these differently and can be confusing, which is another reason why we limit the brands that we sell. For televisions, we stick with Panasonic which work well with Yamaha home sound equipment. If you’d like to set this up yourself, follow these steps to ensure ARC & CEC is set up correctly on your current Panasonic & Yamaha equipment.

Ensure to connect an up to date HDMI cable to the Output of your AV Receiver/Sound Bar to the ARC (Usually HDMI 2) port on your TV. Using the Panasonic TVs remote, select “MENU” & go to “Setup” > “VIERA Link Settings” and make sure that ARC (Audio Return Channel) is turned “On”. Note: while in this menu, you may also like to turn on each of the CEC options for control.

To finalise the setup and if after setting this up, your audio is not coming through, on your smart TV, go to “Apps” on the Panasonic remote > “Viera Link” & make sure the “Sound Setting” is set to “Home Cinema”.

You will also need to go to the settings in your AV Receiver and enable CEC & ARC (Audio Return Channel). For the Yamaha AV Receivers, Select “On Screen” then go to “Setup” (Toolbox icon). Go over to HDMI and turn On HDMI Control, after that is complete, press “OK” and make sure “ARC” is set to “On”.