A strangely unpopular feature of AV receivers: HDMI-CEC remote control pass-through

We had a couple of power cuts in quick succession recently, and the fluctuations in power around that time killed our old AV receiver. ¹ (If you’re not sure what such a device is for, I’ve described how we use it in footnote 2.) In shopping for a replacement, I thought that to a reasonable approximation I only needed to look at one feature:

  • How many HDMI inputs does it have?

… since having at least 5 is useful, and plenty of the cheaper devices on the market only have inputs for 3 or 4 HDMI devices.

But this turned out to be naïve. I’d just assumed that all AV receivers would have the second most important feature I actually want, which is:

  • HDMI-CEC remote control pass-through. This means that when you press the arrow keys, play, pause, etc. on the AV receiver’s remote control, those commands are sent to the HDMI input device that’s currently active.

Why is that useful? In our case, because two of the connected devices are a Raspberry Pi (running Kodi) and a Playstation 4, both which can be controlled this way just from the AV receiver’s remote control. ³ Without this feature we’d need to get an IR receiver for the Raspberry Pi or have a Bluetooth keyboard by the sofa, and use the PS4’s Dualshock 4 controller, which isn’t great as a remote control – the shoulder buttons tend to get pushed when you put it down. Even if we got those alternatives controllers, it’d mean two additional remote controls to juggle.

However, I’ve discovered the expensive way that this fantastically useful feature is:

  • Very variably supported – even devices that claim to support HDMI-CEC don’t necessarily do the remote control pass-through.
  • Not widely known about – the two otherwise well-informed people I spoke to at Richer Sounds hadn’t even heard of this feature.
  • Not typically listed in manufacturers’ specifications, so it’s very hard to tell if a device you’re going to buy will actually support it.

I don’t understand

Clearly I’m missing something about the world of home cinema / Hi-Fi, otherwise more people would know and care about this feature.

The number of different remote controls you need is one of the most obvious ways that usability of home cinema systems tends to be awful. Is it the case that most of the people in the market for AV receivers don’t care about this? Do they live with people who aren’t Hi-Fi enthusiasts, and how do those people deal with it?

Theory 1 – they live with the complexity

Perhaps they just live with the complexity: they keep four or five remote controls around all the time, and effectively write an operations manual for their families or house guests who might need to try something as extraordinary as, I dunno, watching TV, or using Netflix.

Theory 2 – typically people have few input devices

Maybe people are OK with two or three remote controls, and this usability problem only becomes really bad when you end up needing four or five. (I don’t buy this, really – even with two or three remote controls the situation’s pretty bad.)

Theory 3 – more people use all-in-one remotes than I expect

Of course, you can buy all-in-one remote controls that can be taught the IR signals sent by any of your existing remote controls so that they can be sent from one device. Maybe these are much more popular than I imagine? I can’t think of anyone I know who has one, but obviously that’s not a very representative sample.

The problems with an all-in-one IR remote control for us would be that (a) the PS4 controller uses Bluetooth, so it wouldn’t work for that, and (b) we’d still need to get an IR receiver + remote for the Raspberry Pi.

In any case, these devices seems so inelegant compared to the HDMI-CEC solution – why should the remote control have to preserve the state indicating which device’s IR codes should be sent? With the CEC approach, the AV receiver knows which source is active and it should send the command to.

30 Rock - "St Valentine's Day" mention of universal remote controls
Included only because if there’s even a tangential reference in 30 Rock to what you’re talking about, you should include it…

Theory 3 – there’s some other solution I don’t know about

This seems quite likely, and if it’s correct, I’d really like to know what the answer is! Maybe everyone with several media players connected to their AV receiver these days is controlling them with terrible iPad apps, or telekinesis or something.

Not very clear conclusions

My guess is that usability by non-experts has never been a big concern to manufacturers of relatively expensive AV equipment; usability isn’t their central concern in the way that it is for Amazon or Zipcar, say. Their market seems to care a lot about things that matter little to me (e.g. huge numbers of surround speakers, differences in audio quality that are difficult to detect, etc.) and maybe they think that their target market just doesn’t care about the inconvenience of needing five or so remote controls in reach.

For music alone, I suppose people who care about usability (but not necessarily open standards) are well served by iPhone docks with active speakers, or systems like Sonos. I’m not sure if there are corresponding solutions that are easier for people to use if you have multiple media sources that include video too.

For the moment, I’m a bit torn between:

  • Returning the current replacement receiver I bought (a Denon model that advertises HDMI-CEC support, but doesn’t send the remote control commands, grrr), which  a hassle, and probably involves explaining this blog post to people at Richer Sounds, which I don’t relish. Then trying to find a replacement that does support this feature.
  • Living with the additional complexity. Something that would mitigate that problem a bit would be getting the PS4 universal remote control, which is a bit like an all-in-one remote that also speaks the PS4’s bluetooth controller protocol. We’d need to get an IR receiver / remote control for the Raspberry Pi, too, of course.

Anyway, this all seems very unsatisfactory to me, but maybe I’m missing something really obvious.

Footnotes

¹  One lesson from this experience, which in retrospect should have been obvious, is that if you have a surge-protected extension lead with a “SURGE PROTECTED WHEN LIT” indicator light, it’s not doing any surge protection if that light’s off — it being off typically means it’s protected you from some surge in the past and isn’t providing protection any more; some kind of fuse in it has blown.

²  For me, the AV receiver takes the place that my old Hi-Fi amplifier used to play: it’s an amplifier that the good speakers are plugged into. However, the AV receiver also sends its video output to the TV, and all its inputs are HDMI, which can carry audio and / or video, as opposed to just audio. So the AV receiver is the only device plugged into our TV, and the input devices that send it audio and video to the receiver are:

  • A PlayStation 4, for games, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, DVDs and Blu-Rays.
  • A Raspberry Pi running Kodi, for playing audio files and films and TV that I’ve ripped.
  • A Chromecast, which we stream music and YouTube video to.
  • A TiVo, for random broadcast TV
  • An occasionally connected laptop, via an HDMI to MiniDisplayPort cable, for LuckyVoice at home :)

So basically it’s a way of having audio and video on the best output devices in the flat, no matter what the input source is.

³  I’m making it sound like the remote control pass-through worked perfectly with our old AV receiver; that’s not quite the case. The one big annoyance was that there was no way to do the equivalent of pressing the “Playstation” button on the PS4’s DualShock 4 controller, which you need to turn it on and select a user. Otherwise it did basically send all the commands we needed for watching streaming video, DVDs and Blu-Rays on the PS4, and everything we needed to operate Kodi from day-to-day.

⁴  I gather from hearsay that HDMI-CEC support in general is a bit of mess: whether it’s because the specification isn’t strict enough or manufacturers are just implementing it very differently isn’t clear to me. Maybe someone can summarize that? (We’ve certainly had problems in the past with the power state change signals causing devices to power on again after you’ve just shut another one down, for example.) Still, the remote control pass-through worked well for us.

⁵  I asked Denon whether I was just missing a menu option to turn on support for HDMI-CEC remote control pass-through, and it seems that I wasn’t – here’s how that correspondence went:

I recently bought a Denon AVR-X2300W AV receiver, which claims in the specification on your website to support HDMI-CEC.  However, the feature of HDMI-CEC that I really need doesn’t seem to be working: remote control pass-through.

To be clear, this means that when I use arrow buttons, play button, etc. on the AVR-X2300W’s remote control, those commands should be sent to the current HDMI source device. This doesn’t work, although I have Setup > Video > HDMI Setup > HDMI Control set to “On”. I can’t see any other option in that menu that might turn on that particular feature of HDMI-CEC.

This is a really crucial feature for me, and it worked fine on the (much cheaper!) Yamaha AV receiver I had previously. Is there some other option I need to select to enable HDMI-CEC remote control pass-through or any way to get this to work?

I’d appreciate any information you can give me about this – if this feature is not supported I may have to return it to the shop :(

Many thanks,
Mark

And I got this reply:

Thank you for your inquiry.

CEC protocol is a standard but its mandatory definitions do not include many features and functionality. These are considered as extended features and may or may not be implemented by different manufacturers. You maybe simply experiencing the difference in different manufacturers implementation of CEC. As a consumer the only potential solution for this would be ensuring that all equipment is running on the latest version of firmware.  ( relevant settings should also be made on the equipment ). As extended features are not guaranteed you may need to use  alternative methods for control.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
DENON Customer Support


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45 responses to “A strangely unpopular feature of AV receivers: HDMI-CEC remote control pass-through”

  1. dan chalkie666 white Avatar

    Samsung smart tv, LG sound plate blue ray (speakers), Deutsche telekom IP tv box and amazon stick – HDMI CEC mayhem… i resorted to optical out from tv to sound plate for all but dvd playing … when using youtube on smart tv, sometimes it goes into hdmi audio return, sometimes not. CEC pass through from tv is totally temperamental… seems to kind of depend on what order you turn things on and switch them. 4 remotes required. I feel your pain.

  2. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    Yep, so far I think I’ve never seen any device where CEC was working. All I know is theory, but the lack of interest is just astonishing. Is the license for CEC so expensive or is it just plain laziness? It get’s even better with the CEC namings like SimpLink, Anynet+, BRAVIA Sync and so on.. Sounds all like different technologies, but it’s the same one, and probably half of them not working together. Maybe the CEC standart is not strict enough. Anyway, maybe some day it will work as it should.

  3. Pete B. Avatar
    Pete B.

    Have 6-year-old Panasonic Plasma and Panasonic Blu-Ray connected to the TV via HDMI, it worked mostly well. Some stuff didn’t translate or was unusable due to the differences in the remotes for each device. However, with a 20-year-old Pioneer system (which could interact with other Pioneer devices long before HDMI-EEC existed) that could learn some of the basic remote commands from the, new at the time, Panasonic remotes (actually all I had to do was figure out the right Panasonic code for the Pioneer remote), and I could shut off the whole system with the “all off” function the remote – the TV powering off triggered a Blu-ray power off, and vice versa for turn on – power on the Blu-ray and the TV comes on, then just power up the Receiver… The Blu-ray remote could run the TV well enough for sound, channel, subtitles, etc., but other functions like sleep, require the TV remote. The Blu-ray remote could also run the master volume on the Receiver. The sound was piped back to the receiver via the TOS link out from the TV and converted to Digital RCA input from the Receiver did a I mention the Receiver was from the early 90’s. Not looking forward to the replacement of all these devices (after reading this post) as some are starting to show their age now, but hopefully running all the same brand (TV, Receiver, Blu-ray) will have some much needed parity for the remote aggregation problem we all face… 

  4. Graham Wellington Avatar
    Graham Wellington

    I have an older, lower end Denon receiver from 2012 (AVR-1612) which allows you to set different manufacturer remote codes for each input. Is this something you may have overlooked?

  5. G Rider Avatar
    G Rider

    Can’t read your site on Safari on iPad because tweets column on left hand side covers the main text.

  6. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Hi Mark
    Did you get a setup working with CEC? Know of any receivers that generally work better than others for CEC?

  7. shane Avatar
    shane

    ive had cec working through a denon 2300, using the tv remote for a philips 43 6401 and controlling a ps4 and a fire tv. the denon does not support cec from its rmeote but does support cec from either source or telly to the opposite.
    hope this helps.
    the onkyo 509 the denon replaced had cec control on its remote, which could be used on the ps4 or tv etc.

  8. MartinB105 Avatar
    MartinB105

    I’ve had CEC working beautifully on my 2009 Philips for years (with HTPC, PS3, PS4, PSTV and Sony HTS).

    Last week, I bought a 2016 Samsung 55″ KS8000. Volume buttons don’t work at all, and the rest of the CEC functionality I had before only sometimes works, and fails completely after a few hours, forcing me to physically disconnect power from the TV and reconnect to get it working again.

    Hence why I’m here.

    How is it that a 2016 TV can have so many CEC issues when my 2009 TV worked perfectly!? I’m returning the Samsung this weekend. Might try an LG instead to see if I have better luck.

  9. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    Same here @MartinB105. New Samsung 55″ JS8500 – every time it powers up it sends an input change request to the Yamaha RX675 receiver. ATV and TV are both connected to the receiver; ARC not needed. Previous 42″ Samsung TV didn’t do this. I’ve talked to some installers that indicate they noticed this change in Samsung TV behavior after 2015. I talked to Samsung customer support and they insist it’s the receiver’s fault for changing to its default AV channel, even though they admit that the JS8500 does send the input change about 30 seconds after the TV powers up. What?! Yeah, so it’s the receiver’s fault for doing what it was instructed to do. Thanks for nothing. I did send in a feature request to be able to disable that change request.

    Meanwhile I can just press Menu on the ATV remote to flip back to the proper HDMI input. Or I can disable HDMI-CEC on the receiver (with passthrough) and just leaving the receiver on all the time.

    Not the end of the world, but it’s an annoying stain on what would otherwise be my ideal minimal TV setup.

  10. Freonpsandoz Avatar
    Freonpsandoz

    I know for a fact that Theory 3 can’t be correct. I have yet to find a so-called Universal Remote that can correctly perform more than one or two commands on every device. The Harmony 350 can perform exactly one function on an AVR: volume control.

    1. Steve Avatar
      Steve

      The Sony Commander can do many of the tasks it learns from another remote. I got one in 2006 and it’s great once you’ve set it up correctly.

  11. J Avatar
    J

    I’ve just come across this post as I have an almost identical set-up (PS4, Kodi (libreElec), AV receiver, TV) and was searching for CEC stuff.

    I’ve managed to get it all working reasonably with CEC (I’ve got a droidbox TS-8 Plus v2 running LibreElec so CEC is bundled with it) but I’m trying to look for the elusive Kodi equivalent of pressing the PlayStation button to change source. Bizarrely I managed to do it by accident by pressing stop on my Kodi remote (just the basic Droidbox IR remote) but I couldn’t repeat it more than a couple of times.

    I’m getting close to the point of writing my own addon to make it do what i want. ;-)

  12. Oblobski Avatar
    Oblobski

    I use a Harmony smart hub and remote to control all devices inc. PS4. You can create various activities such as watch TV, play PS4 and it will switch on relevant equipment and switch all their inputs as needed. All with the touch of one button. Works really well for me and even my family can use it… one remote to rule them all. And I think in the future it will be possible to connect this all to a voice assistant.

  13. jpowellcreative Avatar
    jpowellcreative

    as the last poster stated, the last solution is the one that will solve your problems – harmony smart hub and remote..the hub sends out communicates via wifi, bluetooth and IR while the remote to the hub is RF meaning no line of site needed. So the hub can literally control anything you might need to although I don’t know if the rasberry has bluetooth.

  14. B Avatar
    B

    Ugh!!! This is my exact same frustration. I recently switched from an Onkyo to a Denon AVR and the loss of CEC remote pass through is driving me insane. I figured I must just be doing something wrong. I guess this confirms it isn’t me, but Denon.

  15. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    I feel the pain…
    Just bought the denon AVR-X3400H and this is my setup;

    Raspberry Pi — AVR — TV

    And the CEC commands from the TVs remote wont work on my Pi (Open elec). It did work just fine with this setup;
    Pi – -TV

    Just sent an email to Denon to see if they can resolve this. Otherwise, what AVR to buy?

    However, i feel like if there is enough emails sent to Denon, they might actually fix it with a firmware..maybe.

  16. Teach Avatar
    Teach

    CEC is a platform what operations it performs varies by manufacturers. Often it causes more problems than anything else. I have set up 4 systems with different equipment and quality levels. Here is my advice for what it’s worth. The only important HDMI feature is ARC use this from tv to amp/soundbar both must have it. Now as to the remote issues. All of you have obviously invested hundreds if not thousands of dollars in your systems. Spend the money for a Harmony remote 650 or above depending on your needs. A 650 is only $50. Now turn off all your CEC options program your remote online it’s very simple. This will make your system work as you describe wanting it to. I used one on every system over the course of 5 years no complaints or problems and they are upgradable if you add or change equipment. Best of luck. (No I’m not representing harmony or reimbursed in any way)

    1. mark Avatar

      Thanks for your reply – it’s helpful. I’m definitely going to investigate further the Harmony systems that you and several other people have suggested in this thread, although from what I’ve read I have a few reservations about it.

      I guess the core of those reservations is just that it seems a lot like overengineering when an AV receiver that supports remote control pass through would (almost!) completely solve the problem of making our AV system easy to use, for our household anyway. (The “almost” is because sometimes you need an odd device-specific button, but that’s typically rather rare for us.)

      Also, I know that CEC isn’t much of a standard, allowing too much latitude for manufacturers to implement it in incompatible ways – I’ve certainly had problems with the power-related and input switching CEC commands, and I’d be quite happy to disable *those* commands, frankly – however, whenever I’ve used a device that supports the remote control pass through command at all, it’s been a huge bonus, and I’ve not noticed any of the incompatibility problems that plague CEC input switching, say. So fundamentally I still have the same question – this particular CEC command seems to work well, and be fantastically useful, so why don’t more AV receiver manufacturers implement it?

      Increasingly I’m coming to believe it’s that these manufacturers really don’t care about usability, and I think they’re going to see their market share hugely eroded by those who do. (Well done to Logitech, for example, for producing a system that clearly does make this all simpler for lots of people!)

      1. Leroy Avatar

        So sad. I think it is inherent in the design culture of Asian manufacturers. User experience is not something they are good at. And since they are in a highly competitive market, even for high end products, they only focus on features that are well understood.
        I was just given a Google home and I found out about CEC. Hopefully when Google home becomes more popular, manufactures will pay more attention to usability in general.

        BTW thanks for writing this. I’m just thinking about buying a new amp. Now I know what to expect.

    2. Gerben Avatar
      Gerben

      I actually have a Logitech Harmony 650 for several years now.
      Also with HDMI-CEC turned on in my Yamaha RX-V685 receiver and old Panasonic TV (Viera-Link)…Since this TV is not a smart TV, I never used ARC because there were no (Netflix) video apps on the TV.

      However since I recently replaced my old Panasonic TV for a Samsung QLED SmartTV, the HDMI-CEC problems began. To get TV Audio (ARC) you need to turn on Anynet+, which is Samsungs HDMI-CEC version. This is quite aggressive and unreliable programmed by samsung. Now I have 2 HDMI-CEC/ARC problems, probably caused by Samsungs Anynet+ function:

      1. When I want to listen only to music on one of my HDMI attached devices, there is no need to turn on the TV, The scene I prepared on the Harmony Remote turns off the TV, however after 10sec. the HDMI audio signal on the receiver is lost…when I turn on the TV again, the signal returns. (this didn’t happen with my old TV)

      2. The TV Audio signal (ARC) is lost every once in a while. Restarting the TV is the only solution (also the order of turning on devices is important; TV the last one to turn on) …eArc is quit important to have because it can handle much more Audio Codecs (Dolby Atmos, etc.) than the Optical Cable solution.

      I am a littlebit sad that I didn’t read more about Anynet+, because it seems to be a general problem for several years now and Samsung is still not doing anything to improve it. Although the Video quality of the TV is superb, if I had known this HDMI-CEC/ARC problem in advance I would probably have bought a TV from another brand.

      Greetoidzzz

      1. Chris Avatar
        Chris

        I just purchased an LG C9 OLED and am having all sorts of problems with ARC. I never needed it on my old setup because my older Yamaha rx-a3020 AVR was able to handle all my devices and send the video to my 10yr old Panasonic Plasma.

        However now i want to get HDR 4K on the new TV but the only way to do that is to use ARC to send the audio back to my AVR…unfortunately ARC requires CEC and the LG TV insists on changing the AVR input to the ARC HDMI port on my Yamaha regardless of what device plugged into my AVR i really want to watch :-( …e.g. i cant watch CNN on my set-top-box because the LG keeps switching the AVR back to the ARC HDMI input even though the set-top-box is connected to a different HDMI input on my Yamaha.

        ..bottom line LG is no better than Samsumg

  17. Barclay Avatar
    Barclay

    I’ve noticed it actually does work with my blu-ray player, but not the PS4. Power, play, stop, etc. So it is like the Denon doesn’t recognize the PS4 supports CEC.

    1. mark Avatar

      Just to double-check (sorry if you’ve already done this) but there’s an option in the PS4 settings you have to turn on to allow it to receive remote control pass through over CEC – Settings -> System -> Enable HDMI Device Link has to be turned on, I think.

  18. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    Any updates on receivers that support this?

    1. mark Avatar

      The best resource I know of is the table here: https://kodi.wiki/view/CEC#Manufacturer_Support which suggests that LG, Onkyo, Panasonic and Philips are good bets. I’d still try it out in a shop before buying, though, just to be sure.

      1. J Avatar
        J

        Yeah, this page is very useful and actually helped me solve my CEC problem. Section 6.5 was a lifesaver; Common Issues with CEC.

        My problem was that the cable that came bundled with my device was crap. It was fine for the basics like audio and video but CEC completely failed to work. I bought a better quality one and suddenly it works fine. :-)

  19. MartinB105 Avatar
    MartinB105

    To follow up from my earlier post, I ended up returning the Samsung due to the HDMI-CEC and eventually got myself an LG OLED C7. The C7 works beautifully with CEC, just like my old 2009 Philips did.

    The only minor issue with the C7 is that it doesn’t display the volume of the AV system (only indicates that it’s being changed, but not the actual value), and the C7 remote doesn’t have the media buttons like Play, Pause, etc. so I need to navigate to the onscreen ones in Kodi. Not huge issues; I can live with them.

  20. Luke Avatar
    Luke

    Im not sure where you got the idea that the feature you described should be working on a cec equipped avr. An avr is a controllable device, but it is not a cec commanding device. If you want to control a cec equipped source such as bd, ps4 etc you would need to use a cec commanding device like a TV. Cec passthrough on an avr allows the tv remote to control connected sources.

    1. mark Avatar

      I got the idea from this working on my previous A/V receiver!

      (That is I would use the A/V receiver’s remote control, and the commands would be forwarded to whatever the active input source – for example, if the A/V receiver was taking input from my PS4, the arrow keys on the A/V receiver’s remote control would act as if I was using the PS4 controller.)

  21. Manel Avatar
    Manel

    I´ve arrived to this post searching for a solution to my problem. And this post reflects how I feel about CEC and the AV implementation. I´ve a samsun Q7F a kodibox (vero4k) and the last buy is a Denon X1400h. in my previous configuration with a Yamaha RV477 CEC was working more or less OK. I could manage TV and kodi with the samsung remote but know whit the Denon, this is not working any more.

    I´ve also tested a Harmony 950 and my experience with it is too frustating, IR is to laggy and destroys completely the user experiences. Yes, you can set almost whatever you want and works, but then is to laggy with the user interface.

    Conclusion. I´m returning the Harmony 950 and probably the Denon too. I will try with other brands. Do you know how Onlyo CEC implementation is working? Maybe buy another Yamaha AV.

    thanks for the post, I needed to read something like this and feel that I´m not alone in the world.

  22. Dennis Jakobsen Avatar
    Dennis Jakobsen

    Now we just need a Compat chart for all the AV receivers out there, so we can name and shame the shitty ones, like Denon’s ..and buy the good ones. From manufacturers that give a shit about consumers, unlike Denon.

  23. Dustysa4 Avatar
    Dustysa4

    I was having this same conversation with a buddy recently. It’s definitely something that manufacturers claim to support as a marketing gimmick. They just don’t tell you to what extent they’ve ensured it will work with other devices. My Samsung TV will control my Denon receiver reasonably well, yet neither will control my Sony BD player or my Roku.

    But let’s take the argument a bit further regarding AV receivers. I recently upgraded my 13 year old Denon with a 2017 model. You see, we can save a few bucks buying yesteryear’s model because there is minimal change from year to year. Other than being able to decode the recent sound formats, and adding HDMI inputs, it’s like I purchased the same 13 year old AVR. To put it plainly, my phone from 13 years ago was garbage by today’s standards. Heck, my iPhone 6 seems lame next to my 2018 smartphone. So what’s the deal with AVR manufacturers? Just about every other field in the tech world looks completely different than it did 10 years ago. Receivers should be 1/3 their current size, should contain 1 (one) set of RCA inputs (for the old timers hanging on to their VHS collection for some reason). We really need to start holding these manufacturers to a higher standard. As long as we keep paying sucker prices for sub par innovation, they’ll continue to invest zero effort towards improving what they sell us.

    *drops mic*

    1. mark Avatar

      Well said :) And some of the “improvements” they have made are transparently user-hostile, e.g. HDCP which means I have to have an HDMI splitter between my TiVo and the A/V receiver because my TV predates HDCP…

  24. RaduP Avatar
    RaduP

    Sony xf9005 and Denon avr2400. Somewhere in hdmi cec they miss routing control. Switching denon’s input to media player (from Tv audio) will not switch the tv from tuner to hdmi. Still, pressing Setup on Denon’s remote will do the switch. Seems to be on Denon’s side..

  25. kerlyn2001 Avatar
    kerlyn2001

    I had HDMI-CEC working with my Yamaha RX-A3020, PS3, TiVO, and Panasonic 65VT50 (everything working on the A3020 remote) https://www.avsforum.com/forum/90-receivers-amps-processors/1415108-official-yamaha-aventage-rx-a1020-rx-a2020-rx-a3020-thread-8.html

    However, the A3020 does not support HDMI audio out with CEC, so since changing to the Bose Soundtouch 300 I’m back to multiple remotes until I find a new receiver that can do both.

  26. Sub Avatar
    Sub

    I use an Apple TV to my Samsung smart tv, and it controls the volume and power through CEC perfectly. I recently added some external powered speakers (Dynaudio xeo) which work great but I can’t control the volume anymore because my TV does not have a variable optical output, its set to max volume only. Samsung fail! So I now lost my ability to control the volume with my appletv remote (my goal). Do you know of a device that will assist me? I don’t have space for a proper preamp which is the obvious solution, but I could use a small adapter box inline with the hdmi cable if it provided a variable volume optical output, and there would be major bonus points if it did the same for a subwoofer output. any ideas?!

  27. Sub Avatar
    Sub

    I should have said hdmi or optical passthrough.. that might open up the options. Would something like the amazon echo link work?! Not sure if it does CEC..

  28. J Avatar
    J

    It’s interesting coming back to this thread after eighteen months have gone by. I actually gave up on CEC even after getting it working reasonably OK and just got a Logitech Harmony Elite Smart Hub when it was on some Amazon offer. Even with CEC working I still seemed to have loads of remotes lying around the place. I think if the PS4 remote had turned out any good maybe i would have persevered with CEC but since it was shockingly bad I just consolidated with the the Logitech. One Remote to Rule Them All! ;-)

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  30. Josh Avatar
    Josh

    I only ever need one A/V input to my receiver anymore: My TV. And I have 5 HDMI inputs on my TV. I use the same receiver I’ve had since high school in 1998. Because all my HDMI devices are directly connected to my TV, HDMI-CEC works with all of them and I need only one remote: the universal remote that came with my receiver and has “learned” how to send IR commands to my TV (yes, learning remotes have been around for a long, long time). Sure, I have an audio input (chromecast audio) to my receiver as well, but for volume I use my receiver remote still.

  31. Md Rabby Hasan Avatar

    The A3020 does not support HDMI audio out with CEC, so since changing to the Bose Soundtouch 300 I’m back to multiple remotes until I find a new receiver that can do both.

  32. Jerry Avatar
    Jerry

    I just want to boost the volume level from a Philips 32PFL4664/F7 tv. I had the same problem with a previous tv that had a line out audio but alas its volume was constant. Solution – I opened the tv and taped on to the small speakers and ran to a small amplifier and larger speakers, set the volume to satisfactory level and ran for several years until the tv died. The remote controlled the volume. Why cant the tv manufacturers just provide a simple audio output that is controlled by the remote so I could just RCA jack it to an external amp? May do the same thing when the warranty is up!

  33. Richard Winstanley Avatar

    I bought a new Philips Tv, PS4 and 4k Apple TV.
    Without having to do anything, the RC Pass-Through feature set itself up and worked like a charm. I could control all the devices with any of the remotes. Often, I just opted for the Apple TV remote as it is so simple and clean.

    Then, one day, out of nowhere- it all stopped working. Not knowing how it set up in the first place, means I have no idea where to start. I’ve tried factory reset, manuals, updates, the lot. But the solution eludes me.
    Shame, as when it worked, it was absolutely awesome.

  34. Pat Avatar
    Pat

    Could never live without CEC! and of course ARC.
    I’m using 2 types of smart TV’s LG-WebOS & Hisense-Android OS. These TV’s have a RaspberryPi – LibreELEC/Kodi directly connected via HDMI. From TV’s, to their respective AVR’s, they support volume control & Kodi navigation with TV supplied remotes.
    Yamaha RX-V683BL 7.2 (2018 model)
    Yamaha RX-V373 5.1 (2013 model) Oldest I’ve seen with CEC passthrough.
    Worse case, just use Wechip (USB) remote (Google it)

  35. RWJ Avatar
    RWJ

    Hi there,
    It looks like I am a little late to the party, but I might have a solution depending if your AVR is controllable using your local LAN.

    If so, you should definitively take a look at Home Assistant.
    I control my TV, PC, Kodi, Spotify And Denon AVR using Home assistant for a while now.

    I recently started adding some Zigbee lights, buttons and power switches.
    This is where HA has its initially intend use

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