This article reviews the ARC (Audio Return Channel) feature on the DMS-AV. This is more of information than a procedure and should be reviewed by in-house tech support.
Firstly, because the selection is "automatic" by the DMS-AV, it does not play well with Accelerator. This is because Accelerator likes to keep track of the inputs selected in the system.
CEC should have nothing to do with ARC. The source device is what you need to be concerned with when using ARC. The source needs to be setup correctly, which frequently involves diving through layers of sub menus. Also, no two ARC source devices are the same, in regards to menu structure.
Here are the suggestions when using ARC:
- When creating the user interfaces in Accelerator, make them intuitive enough to expect an "Auto-Detect" ARC input Switch by the DMS-AV
- For example, if the customer wanted the TV's Netflix to be an ARC Input, my Accelerator macro would be something like this.
- Select an empty input on the DMS-AV. This causes the remote control to display the ARC source commands. If you do not have an empty input, syncing the remote controls may not work.
- Select the Sources service widget on the TV (this should trigger the ARC signal to be present, going into the DMS-AV, causing auto-detection (once again there is no standard for ARC source).
- If the TV does not have specific commands for their service widgets (example: Pandora, Netflix, YouTube), there may be a command like "Vera Link" or "Smart Hub" or even "Menu" that takes the TV to the available service widgets. The user will than have to use Up/Down/Left/Right/Select to start a TV widget service. This would start the ARC signal from teh Tv, causing it to be played out of the DMS-AV zone.
Note: The key is trying to make Accelerator think that it has selected an input on the DMS-AV for the ARC input. This way, Accelerator Input tracking still works, and the programmer can create a custom button layout for the ARC device selected automatically.
The programmer may also have to edit all other source selection macros in the system, because it needs to be sure that a TV's services is not playing an ARC source when "Roku" is selected for example. So a macro for a regular input in the system may need a few commands that make sure the TV is not playing an ARC source (maybe a few "Exit" commands will archive this)
- If CEC or TV Power Sync, are note being used, disable them both in the DMS-AV, Input Source, and the Display Monitor.
- Many ARC standards are not followed by Display manufactures. So, sometimes "trial and error" is the only way to make ARC work reliably.
- Verify what type of bitstream the display monitor is outputting for ARC, if like expecting to have full multi-channel surround from ARC sources.
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