I bought Wiim Ultra couple of weeks ago: something odd happened a few times. While listening through my Qobuz account the music suddenly stopped and the display showed the ARC connection as active. But the TV (linked to my Ultra) was switched off. Is it an issue? Can I solve it by my own? Thanks!
ARC stops music
- Thread starter campaz
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Is it a Sony OLED? My Sony sometimes does this 10-20 minutes after being put into standby. I think that it is doing a screen refresh in the background but the HDMI becomes active.
It's still most probably caused by the TV activating its HDMI port unexpectedly.
If there's nothing in the TV's settings the only way to work around this issue is probably to disable auto-sensing or HDMI-CEC power control, both having their own implications regarding convenience.
If there's nothing in the TV's settings the only way to work around this issue is probably to disable auto-sensing or HDMI-CEC power control, both having their own implications regarding convenience.
So, if I understand correctly, the problem is in the ARC interface of the TV. If I move the HDMI cable from the ARC to another socket on the TV side, I will lose the automatic switching of the Wiim Ultra when I turn on the TV: at the same time, it will prevent the random interruption of music playback. Is this correct? PS: There's no way Wiim will make a software patch to fix this, right?
CEC ("consumer electronic control") for automatic power/volume control and ARC (audio return channel) are 2 different things.
Most if not all TV's will only have one (e)ARC compatible HDMI port. So if you connect the WiiM Ultra to a different port, you'll probably lose the benefit of sending audio (output) over HDMI.
On the other hand: a game console for example can use HDMI CEC to automatically turn on your TV and could be connected to any of your HDMI ports (as input for both audio & video).
WiiM could add a setting to enable/disable auto-sensing individually per input. Or a setting to ignore auto-sensing when music is already playing from a different source. Best to create a feature request for this.
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Actually i'm going to submit a feature request for this as well. Could be handy especially when you want to use the tv as a "now playing" screen for an app that's already streaming audio directly to the WiiM.
slartibartfast
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Isn't that already the case. If music is playing over WiFi or Ethernet then auto switching doesn't take place until the music stops.
As @pieterv1 pointed out correctly, you would really lose audio output altogether, so this connection makes no sense.
It's not impossible, but maybe rather unlikely. Generally speaking, if the TV wakes up its HDMI ARC port the WiiM device might not be able to tell if this is "for real" or just because of a lazy implementation on the TV's part. I cannot fully rule out that there's a way to identify these unintended wake-ups. Maybe the signalling is a little different from normal operation, maybe it is not. Only a developer with access to the devices (or at least the log files) could tell for sure.
Your options:
- Try switching off HDMI-CEC Power Control in the WiiM Home App. It's not very likely to help because the Ultra is switched on already. Also, the TV could no longer wake up the Ultra from standby. You can still see if it makes a difference.
- Switch off Auto-sensing of Optical In and HDMI. This should definitely keep Qobuz from losing the connection to HDMI. Drawback: You will have to manually switch to the HDMI input from any other input when you want to start watching TV. Same for any source connected via optical.
- Use an optical connection to your TV instead of HDMI ARC. If your TV has an optical output and if the optical input on the Ultra isn't already occupied by some other device there is a chance that the optical connection doesn't wake up unintentional like the HDMI port does. It's not sure, though, you'd had to try it out. Also you would be losing the feature of volume control using the TVs remote.
- Send feedback to WiiM Support from within the WiiM Home App (Settings => Send us feedback). immediately after the issue occured. This will send your device logs along with your feedback. The developers might see a pattern they can deal with and improve on. Just don't be too disappointed if they say it's out or their realm.
This is exactly what seems to be happening to @campaz ...
Would be great! I don't have an Ultra yet so cannot test this.. but then why is OP having the issue with playback from Qobuz being interrupted?
slartibartfast
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I only have the amp and 3 seconds after playback stops it switches to the optical input where the TV is connected. A few firmwares ago it used to switch while music was playing. Maybe the Ultra still has teething troubles.
HDMI and optical work differently. At least on my amp, there is an auto switch to HDMI even during streaming playback.
Interesting! Could you do the same test using HDMI if you have a compatible TV?
slartibartfast
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That's a good design decision then. You couldn't make it up.HDMI and optical work differently. At least on my amp, there is an auto switch to HDMI even during streaming playback.
Aha that's clearly something which could be addressedHDMI and optical work differently. At least on my amp, there is an auto switch to HDMI even during streaming playback.
slartibartfast
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My TV is too old to have HDMI ARC
I wouldn't call it a "bug" per se
it's just the WiiM always prioritising HDMI CEC control over anything else. Good thing that your particular issue is solved though! So it probably was the TV?
...which has now stopped bringing the HDMI port "online" randomly?
I wouldn't call it a "bug" per se
Good thing that your particular issue is solved though! So it probably was the TV?
...which has now stopped bringing the HDMI port "online" randomly?
You're right and same for me: I don't think it's a Wiim's bug. IMHO the bug is in the HDMI standard (or, more probably, in the ways it is implemented by various suppliers). Anyway, I didn't do (or moved) anything at all: it simply didn't occur anymore!
