Smyth Research Realiser A16

[Om ma Ni]

Update 3: Atmos now seems to be working over eARC, or at least it was on my last test. Will test again later, but I think I found the correct sequence of powering on devices and changing settings for my TV to detect that the A16 is Atmos capable.

will be great to make a tutorial for everyone about your proper sequence to make eARC stable on your A16

 

[Got the Shakes]

will be great to make a tutorial for everyone about your proper sequence to make eARC stable on your A16

I will once I give it a few more tests and make sure it’s actually working and not a one time fluke lol.

 

[Om ma Ni]

I will once I give it a few more tests and make sure it’s actually working and not a one time fluke lol.

so far i tried eARC with an LG C9 tv but couldn t make it work...my A16 couldnt detect the eARC hdmi signal at all...correct me if i am wrong but the eARC hdmi on the LG C9 is the # 2 right?

 

[mrmac]

So strange that DTS was not part of 2.0. Seems like it was meant to be… DTS is mentioned a lot in the notes. Maybe they will “announce” the 2.0.1 with DTS in a few weeks…

Still, I’m glad the Smyth’s are still improving this miracle box. Crazy it’s been almost a year since the last firmware.

Updating mine tonight!

 

[Fox1977]

It's good to see that things are still in motion for the A16 after nearly 9 months without any news from Smyth Research nor shipping units for KS backers (let alone preorders).
For me, since my TV is ARC compatible but not e-ARC, the most convenient feature is the HDMI bypass, so that i will not need to turn the A16 on every time i need the sound of my NVidia Shield on TV instead of on the A16.

 

[Got the Shakes]

so far i tried eARC with an LG C9 tv but couldn t make it work...my A16 couldnt detect the eARC hdmi signal at all...correct me if i am wrong but the eARC hdmi on the LG C9 is the # 2 right?

I have a CX and it’s HDMI 2 on that. Do you have eARC turned on in the additional settings part of the sound setting menu? Here is what I have found to be the most consistent way of getting the A16 to not only see the connection, but also allow Atmos to be passed via eARC. This is with the tv powered off.

• Turn on the A16 and let it boot until it gets to the speaker map screen
• Use the remote (or Centro Control) and change the input on the A16 to eARC, and hit the PA button to return to the speaker map
• Turn on your tv
• Hit the settings button on your LG remote and toggle the sound from internal tv speakers to HDMI ARC
• Hold down the settings button the your LG remote to open the full menu of tv settings
• Go to the sound settings and in the menu select additional settings
• Toggle eARC off (this make the tv switch back to using the internal tv speakers)
• Tap the settings button your LG remote and toggle the sound from internal tv speakers back to HDMI ARC
• Hold down the settings button on your LG remote to get to all settings again
• Click on the sound tab, go into additional settings and turn the eARC toggle back on

I have tested that method a bunch of times and it seems to have worked every time. I never had any real issues with the A16 detecting an eARC connection if I just powered everything up and switch the tv from using the internal speakers to ARC, but the issues I did run into was it not passing Atmos instead using Dolby Digital 5.1 or 7.1 or even worse, sometimes it was taking a surround signal and passing it as 2 channel PCM. Hopefully the steps I use work for you because we have basically identical TVs.

 

[Om ma Ni]

I have a CX and it’s HDMI 2 on that. Do you have eARC turned on in the additional settings part of the sound setting menu? Here is what I have found to be the most consistent way of getting the A16 to not only see the connection, but also allow Atmos to be passed via eARC. This is with the tv powered off.

• Turn on the A16 and let it boot until it gets to the speaker map screen
• Use the remote (or Centro Control) and change the input on the A16 to eARC, and hit the PA button to return to the speaker map
• Turn on your tv
• Hit the settings button on your LG remote and toggle the sound from internal tv speakers to HDMI ARC
• Hold down the settings button the your LG remote to open the full menu of tv settings
• Go to the sound settings and in the menu select additional settings
• Toggle eARC off (this make the tv switch back to using the internal tv speakers)
• Tap the settings button your LG remote and toggle the sound from internal tv speakers back to HDMI ARC
• Hold down the settings button on your LG remote to get to all settings again
• Click on the sound tab, go into additional settings and turn the eARC toggle back on

I have tested that method a bunch of times and it seems to have worked every time. I never had any real issues with the A16 detecting an eARC connection if I just powered everything up and switch the tv from using the internal speakers to ARC, but the issues I did run into was it not passing Atmos instead using Dolby Digital 5.1 or 7.1 or even worse, sometimes it was taking a surround signal and passing it as 2 channel PCM. Hopefully the steps I use work for you because we have basically identical TVs.

Bit confused.. so from what i understood, it s like turning on and off multiple times the eARC function on the LG and letting the A16 powered on first?
how and where on the menu do you change the input of the A16 to eARC. Do you also need to reload the atmos room or just let the A16 detect the hdmi signal from the TV?
do you set the TV to let the hdmi signal out in PCM, Auto or Passtrough on the LG with eARC on?

 

[sander99]

how and where on the menu do you change the input of the A16 to eARC.

What I understand from it: with the input selector, eARC is simply added as another option next to HDMI1, HDMI2, etc. (Just go where you normally change your input, which could be the main menu or in the preset menu depending on how you set the switch behind the input selector in the main menu.)

 

[Got the Shakes]

Bit confused.. so from what i understood, it s like turning on and off multiple times the eARC function on the LG and letting the A16 powered on first?
how and where on the menu do you change the input of the A16 to eARC. Do you also need to reload the atmos room or just let the A16 detect the hdmi signal from the TV?
do you set the TV to let the hdmi signal out in PCM, Auto or Passtrough on the LG with eARC on?

I can try and put together photos if it would help, but I will need some time to do all of that.
My method is letting the A16 fully power up and then switching the input on the A16 to eARC before even turning your tv on. Once the A16 is powered up then you turn the tv on and set the sound output to HDMI ARC. The connect may work fine when you do that, if not then follow the other steps of going into the deeper tv menus and toggling off eARC and the rest of the steps I listed. On the A16, eARC is an input just like HDMI 1-4, optical, etc. You change the A16 to eARC in the same way you change the input from say HDMI 2 to HDMI 3. I have my TV set to auto for the HDMI signal out as PCM will only give you 2 channel and pass through didn’t seem to work for me.

 

[Om ma Ni]

I can try and put together photos if it would help, but I will need some time to do all of that.
My method is letting the A16 fully power up and then switching the input on the A16 to eARC before even turning your tv on. Once the A16 is powered up then you turn the tv on and set the sound output to HDMI ARC. The connect may work fine when you do that, if not then follow the other steps of going into the deeper tv menus and toggling off eARC and the rest of the steps I listed. On the A16, eARC is an input just like HDMI 1-4, optical, etc. You change the A16 to eARC in the same way you change the input from say HDMI 2 to HDMI 3. I have my TV set to auto for the HDMI signal out as PCM will only give you 2 channel and pass through didn’t seem to work for me.

I noticed on my LG C9 with the latest firmware that turning off eARC with the HDMI ARC on, didn t make the tv switch back to using the internal tv speakers..? it s still showing HDMI ARC on in the first sound menu..
Been trying again and again to work on the LG C9 with eARC on and off with the A16 powered on before and set to eARC as input but still can t establish the eARC connection between the 2 devices..Tricky or might be just too unstable with this Beta eARC firmware...

 

[sander99]

Actually there are differences between C9 and CX, for example that the CX doesn't support DTS formats anymore. So maybe there could be more differences in behaviour regarding eARC.

(https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/com.../10619?usage=11&threshold=0.10#comparison_203)

 

[Got the Shakes]

I noticed on my LG C9 with the latest firmware that turning off eARC with the HDMI ARC on, didn t make the tv switch back to using the internal tv speakers..? it s still showing HDMI ARC on in the first sound menu..
Been trying again and again to work on the LG C9 with eARC on and off with the A16 powered on before and set to eARC as input but still can t establish the eARC connection between the 2 devices..Tricky or might be just too unstable with this Beta eARC firmware...

Actually there are differences between C9 and CX, for example that the CX doesn't support DTS formats anymore. So maybe there could be more differences in behaviour regarding eARC.

(https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/com.../10619?usage=11&threshold=0.10#comparison_203)

I was actually about to mention this as well. Not only the difference in DTS decoding, but the C9 has HMDI 2.1 that is capable of 48 gbps of throughput while the CX has its ports limited to 40 gbps. The differences in that might be why my method works for the CX but not the C9.

I will say this, for as much messing around as I did trying to figure out how to consistently get this to work, the one thing that never happened was the A16 slowing down or locking up like the release notes mentioned. On my end it seemed pretty safe to keep tinkering with things until you find a way to make this work.

 

[Thomasphoenix98]

Hdmi version is shown as v74.50.29 on the release notes. Mine after update is showing 74.50.25.. Everything else is matching with the release notes, can someone who has updated to 2.0 verify the hdmi version for me.

 

[Om ma Ni]

I was actually about to mention this as well. Not only the difference in DTS decoding, but the C9 has HMDI 2.1 that is capable of 48 gbps of throughput while the CX has its ports limited to 40 gbps. The differences in that might be why my method works for the CX but not the C9.

I will say this, for as much messing around as I did trying to figure out how to consistently get this to work, the one thing that never happened was the A16 slowing down or locking up like the release notes mentioned. On my end it seemed pretty safe to keep tinkering with things until you find a way to make this work.

Just to confirm as it might sound silly.. So connection from my LG TV to the A16 is HDMI#2 ARC (LG C9) to HDMI 1 input from the A16 right?

 

[sander99]

Just to confirm as it might sound silly.. So connection from my LG TV to the A16 is HDMI#2 ARC (LG C9) to HDMI 1 input from the A16 right?

No, A16 HDMI out to HDMI#2 ARC (LG C9)! You don't use an HDMI input from the A16!

[Edit: audio goes the other way, that's why it is called Audio Return Channel.]