Hey guys, finally went with an all streaming entertainment solution. Bought an Apple TV 4K and couldn’t be happier. Mainly because it puts all other TV applications (whether from a provider’s proprietary box or a built in TV app) to shame.
Issue is that I have old ass audio gear for it. A basic Denon AVR-1707 that’s ten years old which doesn’t have HDMI in/out. The only way to connect the Apple TV is via HDMI so I’m feeding that to the TV and then feeding an optical out from the TV to the Denon.
I’m not concerned about the sound (I have Orb Audio People’s Choice kit which I bought primarily for the aesthetics) as speakers will remain. From a basic connectivity standpoint what’s a good 4 channel with sub out AV amp that I can feed HDMI in that will then sent the HDMI out to the TV? I’m asking because the main goal here is to have the Apple TV turn on and turn off the amp and tv. As it stands I’m stuck turning on and off the TV and AV receiving manually.
Not sure if this will really help with your goal of everything coming on / off w/ Apple TV (that sounds like a Universal Remote possibility but not sure) but you do have one other option for getting the audio channel split off the HDMI out from Apple TV unit, something like this:
There is a functionality of newer HDMI capable AV gear that’s there to put devices into sleep mode and wake them up all via a daisy chain. So from the Apple TV to an AV receiver with this newer HDMI functionality then out to the TV. This way the Apple TV remote does it all. What I’m asking for is of a newer AV receiving that is known for good audio. That would have this HDMI.
EDIT: checked. The functionality is called HDMI-CEC
Yeah I think for connectivity since you don’t care about audio quality being higher tier, any of the major brands would work where the receiver supports CEC. Receiver would need an ARC port for output to the TV (and TV needs an ARC input) and an ARC input for input from Apple TV. Any basic Yamaha / Onkyo etc. with that feature-set should work. Does that help your search? Maybe there are a few other starter brands others can chime in about that are decent too.
So, the HDMI CEC portion would control the devices, HDMI ARC, or eARC is for the audio return channel.
You use that to output audio from the TV to the AV receiver through the same cable that transfers the video signal from the receiver to the TV.
You might need to connect the ATV to the TV, using it to turn on the TV and then the TV would turn on the receiver, and set the TV to output audio through the HDMI ARC connection.
Did some digging in the back. The TV is a newish Visio, 4k it was a highly rated unit when it came out, 4 year now I want to say? I does have an audio ARC out HDMI so I’m good there. I set the TV to CEC and it immediately saw the Apple TV and now does turn on and off with the sleep button. I guess I just have to pick up a newer receiving with that ARC audio feature. I’ll shop around for something with good bang for the buck. I prefer sleek clean front panel which is a rarity in the AV receiver world I guess.
That AVR is missing a few features if you want to assess if you care about them or not:
No amp outs if you want more power and no dolby sound processors.
You may want to look at ARC 2.0 or whichever the newest one is.
Keep in mind you are correct to go with purely value here. AVRs go out of date very quickly.
Question for you guys since seemingly both the TV and the receiver have the option of in and out. Theoretically am I better off going through the TV first if I was looking for less loss on the video and going through the receiver first if I was looking for less loss on the audio?
Some people have had audio sync issues using HDMI ARC, I have not had that problem my self, I have not heard of anyone having problems with video signal loss going from an AVR to a TV.
Later on though, if you’ve bought a newer TV and a newer Apple TV or some other input device, then you’d want to connect it straight to the TV since the AVR might not support the latest standards for video processing.