Powering On Problem With Ignite Remote That Is Paired to A/V and TV

[dougjp]

Hi. I'm not sure if my problem is unique to other posts about pairing Ignite, I did read a few and couldn't see it. I just got converted from digital to the Ignite bundle yesterday, a professional install where he did the pairing. There's a lot to absorb/solve about the Ignite bundle, but I researched yet can't figure what to do about the following problem.

My equipment; XR15 voice remote. TV box via HDMI into a Yamaha RX-V379 A/V Receiver. It has surround sound speakers connected. HDMI goes from the A/V to the TV, which is a Samsung UN55HU8550. The TV's own volume is set to off. In other words, a common setup.

The remote does turn off the TV and A/V receiver. The problem happens when the remote turns the A/V and the TV on. Most of the time, there is a picture, which appears to be in a lower resolution, but no sound. The mute and volume change functions, when used on the remote, appear on screen as larger numbers (confirming SD picture?). They don't appear on screen like that when everything is working. Occasionally I will get no picture but the sound will go on (and can't be muted) via the Ignite remote! Never both on power up. Left alone in hopes of a delayed automatic solution does nothing

What I do to get both, is either use my A/V receiver's remote to turn off the A/V receiver, then turn it back on with the A/V's remote. Or, sometimes I can use the A/V's remote to change to a different input source than Rogers, then back to Rogers. From then on I have HD TV and sound and everything appears free of problems.

Using the "A" button I did a system refresh which didn't help. I looked at the remote pairing and proceeded to again pair both the TV and A/V receiver, both times it said 'success'.

I previously used (and personally prefer no universal function remotes) multiple remotes, one for each device and the A/V never was turned off. I don't mind going back to that if I have to, but I don't know if I loose any functionality re: the services I get.

In summary, I don't know what to do or try to fix this nuisance, and would appreciate some ideas.

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[57]

This sounds like a handshake issue between your various devices. For example, if the IgniteTV box comes on before the AVR has had a chance to complete its startup, then the handshake may not complete properly. By turning the AVR on/off or switching inputs, the handshake procedure then goes properly.

If you had a programmable remote like a Harmony, you could programme in a "delay" allowing the AVR to start, then the TV, then the Ignite box a bit later.  Or switch AVR inputs away and back to the input required.  Of course a Harmony will not have any of the voice functionality and may only have IR depending on model - no RF.

Another workaround as you found is to leave the AVR on.  I'm assuming that the Rogers remote is properly turning on/off your AVR as some Yamaha AVRs have a separate IR signal for "on" vs. "off" and if that's the case, then the Rogers remote only sends a "power" command which only does on or off, not both.  You can tell if there are separate on/off buttons on the Yamaha remote vs. a "power" button.

You could try enabling HDMI-CEC on all your equipment, or try disabling HDMI-CEC on all your equipment to see if either helps in your situation. Here's a post on the topic:

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Ignite-TV/Problems-with-Ignite-Remote/m-p/456589#M5829

[-G-]

@dougjp  I'm not sure what the ideal solution will be for you.  The "Video Output Resolution" (in Settings / Device Settings / Video Display) on the Ignite set-top boxes is typically set to Best Available.  However, for this to work consistently, the entire HDMI chain, upstream from the STB, needs to be active at the time that the STB powers up.  If the AVR and TV are not on, or are not set to the correct inputs, weird issues can happen and the HDMI handshake between the STB and TV may not work.

One thing that you can try is to temporarily set the STB HDMI output to a lower resolution, say 1080p60.  This may or may not help, but it tends to be a bit less finnicky than the 4K HDMI handshake.

Alternate setups, such as connecting the STB directly to the TV and using HDMI ARC to send audio back to the AVR can sometimes work better.  Another solution is to use a better universal remote, that will give you more fine-grained control of the order in which components get turned on and allow you to insert delays in various steps when setting up macros that control components.

You also mentioned that you would prefer to use separate remotes to control individual components.  You can do this by factory-resetting the Ignite Remote, then reprogramming the remote to control either only the STB, the STB and TV, or the STB and TV and audio receiver.

[dougjp · Accepted solution]

@57  and @-G-    Thank you so much for your replies, they brought everything into focus and pointed to solutions. Its definitely a handshake problem as mentioned.

I don't know what I did when fiddling around to fix this last night, or perhaps the Ignite remote gave up trying to deal with a proper startup with my A/V, but it seems to be working today properly without turning off my A/V on exit (only the TV does go off using the Ignite remote). And I didn't go in to "A" to reprogram cancelling the pairing to the A/V either. Incidentally, I forgot that the TV and Blu-Ray player used to connect to the internet for updates and were not set up to do this with the new modem, and I did those first thing before trying to turn on and off. I can't see how that would have messed with the handshake though.

Anyway, with the A/V permanently on, the handshake works with a proper HD picture and sound through the A/V connected speakers. So when I turn off the TV via the Ignite remote, the sound stays on and naturally is still controlled via the ignite remote, ie; hit the mute button. Another strange observation, I had to redo all the volume settings on each A/V connected speaker.   

Thanks again!

[LG21]

We've had Rogers Ignite TV for a couple of weeks.  Our Panasonic Viera TV and Rogers Ignite are connected to a Yamaha receiver which is also our home theatre sound system.  Rogers ignite remote turns all of these on and off as required.  However, when we turn the systems off and back on again with Rogers remote, the home theatre switches to TV speaker settings.  After days of searching different remote settings on each device, we think this issue might be fixed.  In Rogers Ignite Remote Settings; Voice Remote Pairing; we changed "Do you want to use your remote to control your TV power and volume?" to Not Now.  We hope this helps other frustrated users.