Volume control via HDMI resets after sleep/wake

[Matt T]

I’m trying to help some friends of mine with their TV setup. Their Apple TV is their primary device, and it’s connected to a Yamaha RX-V383 receiver which the TV also connects to. Their TV speakers are disabled so all audio plays through their surround sound setup via the receiver.

They have a large coffee table which blocks IR signals to the receiver unless the remote is held up above your head to adjust the volume, so I have configured the Apple TV remote to change the receiver’s volume over HDMI — I did this by enabling “HDMI control” (HDMI-CEC), standby sync and ARC on the receiver. This also means when putting the Apple TV to sleep, both the receiver and TV go into standby mode too, and vice versa when waking the Apple TV. So that’s all working as we hoped.

The problem is after sleeping and waking the Apple TV, the volume control setting in the Apple TV’s settings changes from “Auto via HDMI (Receiver)” to “Auto via TV (IR)” each time. The only way to set this back to Auto via HDMI is to put the receiver in standby mode for a few moments and waking it up using it’s own remote, which essentially defeats the purpose. And it seems there is no way to ‘force’ the Apple TV to control volume over HDMI, that only happens when set to auto. My guess is the Apple TV is waking up before the receiver comes out of standby, so when the Apple TV checks it’s HDMI connection it finds no CEC link and so defaults back to controlling volume via IR.

Can anybody offer me some advice here please? Is there no way to set the Apple TV’s volume control to HDMI without auto? Thanks.

 

[Michelasso]

I have configured the Apple TV remote to change the receiver’s volume over HDMI — I did this by enabling “HDMI control” (HDMI-CEC), standby sync and ARC on the receiver. This also means when putting the Apple TV to sleep, both the receiver and TV go into standby mode too, and vice versa when waking the Apple TV. So that’s all working as we hoped.

I have a Yamaha Rx-v483 and that seems correct to me.

The problem is after sleeping and waking the Apple TV, the volume control setting in the Apple TV’s settings changes from “Auto via HDMI (Receiver)” to “Auto via TV (IR)” each time.

Here instead I am not exactly sure about what it happens. What I know is that once I stop the ATV, the AVR and TV go in stand-by. After a stand-by the Yamaha has an option to reset the volume to a minimum defined value.

Actually let me check the ATV options because I have never used that “Auto via TV (IR)”... Ok, so just for testing I selected “Auto via TV (IR)”. The good news is that, at least on my setup, it changes nothing, meaning it works as before. The volume from the Siri remote still changes the AVR volume, putting the ATV in stand-by puts everything else in stand-by, and the same after waking up the ATV.

Actually now is ringing a bell... Is it a Bravia television by any chance? Because after a while mine messes up the HDMI/HDMI-CEC connections. The (always working in my case when I have an HDMI issue) solution is to unplug the TV for few seconds and plug it again. Wait for the TV to reboot and all should be fine. A simple soft reboot won't do. So, once you're there, unplug the three of them (ATV, AVR, TV) and test.

Otherwise, the only thing that comes to my mind, is to try to reset the ATV. Don't worry, it's a quite painless solution, the ATV gets rebuilt as it was via iCloud (just be sure the ATV is logged in the iCloud and iTunes accounts). Even the Home screen with the folders and app disposition is the same! But you'll loose some login details in apps like Netflix, Prime Video and such.