# CEC and the 4K



## jaselzer

I have my 4K Stream attached to a Samsung TV and for sound a Sonos Beam by hdmi to Samsung's hdmi/arc connection. I have the Sonos attached by hdmi rather than optical because I want to utilize the built in Alexa commands which I use in my home. To utilize the hdmi/arc input, and receive sound from the Sonos Beam, CEC/Anynet+ must be turned on in the Samsung. Unfortunately, the 4K Stream hijacks control of the Samsung and does ghostly things such as turning the tv back on, changing the input to the input of the 4K Stream even though I changed the input to something else before closing down the TV. I have even tried running the 4K Stream through an hdmi switch and tried to trick the system by programming my Harmony Remote to go to a different input when shutting down the tv. None of this has worked. And without a solution to this problem, I have to temporarily pull the 4K Stream out of my setup until this issue is fixed by Tivo. I am sort of disappointed by this. I know that Tivo is aware of this issue and hopefully will issue a hotfix soon.

Any thoughts?


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## jmf243

I have the same problem and have submitted the issue to Tivo through the email support on the website. I suggest everyone who notices this issue submit a report to help them correct it. There is another thread on here on how to access developer menus in order to turn CEC off on the Tivo Stream 4K but I have not done it yet. I've just left the HDMI unplugged when not using it for now (far less than ideal)


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## kpeters59

You're not actually holding your breath 'til CEC is solved, are you?

It's kind of a 'Wild West' protocol with no clearly defined rules. So, every manufacturer makes their own implementation.

It seems like there'd be a market for a 'One Device to Rule Them All', kind of device, but I've never seen it.

A Raspberry PI has a fairly robust CEC capability. It makes me wonder if there wouldn't be a fairly straight-forward way for a RPI to 'read' the CEC Traffic and learn the proper settings and override the bad results.

Either way, if I were you, I'd look for an existing solution.

-KP


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## Chris Fox

I'd like to think that someday CEC will mature enough where everything places nicely. I remember long ago when USB first came out for computers. Nothing worked without special drivers that were not easily obtained. For many years it was referred to as the "Useless Serial Bus"


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## MScottC

I just want the TiVo stream to stop hi-jacking my TV every time I turn it on. My TiVo Roamio is the prime viewing device in our household, it's what my wife and I are both used to and the TiVo experience has been great for us for over 20 years. An older Roku and the built in Netflix and Amazon Apps in our LG Smart TV are our other sources. The Stream 4K was to take over for the Roku for things like CBS All Access, XFinity on Demand and a few other small things.

But the fact that TiVo Stream change the input to itself each time we turn on the TV is exceptionally annoying. I tried turning off the CEC function on TV, but then I lose control of my Sound Bar, and somehow even lose audio to my Sound Bar. So disabling CEC on the TV is off the table. 

TiVo needs to make fixing this CEC bug their first priority.


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## jaselzer

You lose audio to your sound bar because CEC/Arc through hdmi is required for the tv to route audio to it. I agree, and I am in the exact same situation as you are, about the CEC issue


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## MScottC

jaselzer said:


> You lose audio to your sound bar because CEC/Arc through hdmi is required for the tv to route audio to it. I agree, and I am in the exact same situation as you are, about the CEC issue


I lose control of the sound bar. When I turned off CEC on the LG (in the hopes of defeating the input swap) it switched the audio output to a different output mode on the TV, which defeated the interaction between TV and soundbar.

I guess CEC or some form of audio control for the soundbar works through the Fiber Optic Audio Connection I'm using.


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## JimT48

CEC can be turned off on the TiVo Streamer but it takes a little work. Go to the post
*Here's How To Disable Tivo's Automatic Remote Programming.*


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## aaronwt

Chris Fox said:


> I'd like to think that someday CEC will mature enough where everything places nicely. I remember long ago when USB first came out for computers. Nothing worked without special drivers that were not easily obtained. For many years it was referred to as the "Useless Serial Bus"


HDMI-CEC has worked great for me in multiple setups. Since I started using it in 2012. The issue I've seen with HDMi-CEC is when you get past a certain number of devices, weird things start to happen. And it doesn't help when you have devices like the Stream 4K, that don't have user settings to turn it off.

With the Stream 4K I'm trying out, I was fortunate to be able to turn off all CEC functions with my Shield TV. Because adding the Stream 4K pushed me to the point of having issues with HDMI-CEC. But once I removed that one device, the Shield TV, the Stream 4K and my other HDMi-CEC devices have been working fine.

Although I'll probably try it in my other UHD setup which uses a Vizio speaker bar and Sony TV to see if I have issues there. I'm also at the limit of HDMI-CEC devices there, where adding another HDMI-CEC device will start to cause weird issues.


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## MScottC

Harold Thomson said:


> CEC can be turned off on the TiVo Streamer but it takes a little work. Go to the post
> *Here's How To Disable Tivo's Automatic Remote Programming.*


Thank you.. I did get this to work. Took a second try. But it did the trick.


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## JxxAxxY

I have a nvidia shield and it sometimes fights me from going to the Tivo Mini. However the streamer like you guys said does it almost every time. It even outfights the nvidia shield. It maybe something to do with how android tv works. Either way they should be able to fix it. Maybe they can fix the unmute on TiVo edge when CEC is enabled and pressing any key on the remote. With CEC off it doesn't unmute the tv automatically.


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## Steveknj

Any word on them fixing this? Mine is disconnected until it's fixed.


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## jaselzer

Wish I had an answer for you, I am awaiting the same.


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## moyekj

Steveknj said:


> Any word on them fixing this? Mine is disconnected until it's fixed.


If you want a short term fix you can disable CEC on the Stream itself as posted above:
Here's How To Disable Tivo's Automatic Remote Programming


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## jaselzer

moyekj said:


> If you want a short term fix you can disable CEC on the Stream itself as posted above:
> Here's How To Disable Tivo's Automatic Remote Programming


Unfortunately for me, disabling the CEC on the Stream turns off the hdmi controlled audio from my TV to a Sonos Beam. In order to fix that, I would need to replace the hdmi connection with an optical connection which then disables Alexa voice control on the Sonos Beam. It is a Catch-22. In the meantime, I do the same as Steveknj, I keep the 4K disconnected.


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## Steveknj

moyekj said:


> If you want a short term fix you can disable CEC on the Stream itself as posted above:
> Here's How To Disable Tivo's Automatic Remote Programming


I'm not looking to "hack" into the device to fix it. I want TiVo to fix it. I have other devices that work fine to stream what I want. I just wanted to try this one out, mostly because people were saying good things about how they sort programs. But so far there are so many issues with this device that it's an epic fail in my book. But as it's cheap enough to hang onto, I'll just keep checking here to see if some of the issues were fixed.


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## Moebius

For the time being, I'm hoping TiVo addresses this in the relative short-term. At the very least, just expose some of the CEC enable/disable functions without having to use a hack to fully disable. I had the worst case scenario since I couldn't even power down my AV system with the stream connected. 

For now, since I'm evaluating both a Fire Stick and a TiVo Stream to figure out which one will be my primary cord-cutter, I've relegated the Stream to my bedroom and the Fire Stick is connected to the receiver in the living room since it doesn't suffer the same CEC problem.


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## moyekj

For me the contest between Fire Stick 4K and TS4K is over. Fire Stick wins by a landslide.


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## md wass

hardware wise, the Firestick is far superior at this point, with really no issues like CEC and auto turn on the TV and such; I just hate the FireTV interface and what a PITA it can be to navigate if you aren't a big Amazon video/prime Video user.

for total superiority, though, my Nvidia shields are still far and away superior to this thing, but obviously you pay more for that superiority..


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## zyzzx

I’m unplugging the USB cable when I’m finished with the Stream. What a pain. This issue needs to have top priority on TiVo’s fix list.


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## fattymcbuckles

moyekj said:


> For me the contest between Fire Stick 4K and TS4K is over. Fire Stick wins by a landslide.


I agree as it is now,but if Tivo gets their act together and pushes updates to fix all the problems then I'll change my vote to Tivo 4K.Tivo. Has a lot of potential to be a great box if they can solve all those various issues on this box.


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## moyekj

fattymcbuckles said:


> I agree as it is now,but if Tivo gets their act together and pushes updates to fix all the problems then I'll change my vote to Tivo 4K.Tivo. Has a lot of potential to be a great box if they can solve all those various issues on this box.


 To me it's quite a bit more than just the TiVo bugs. The Android TV version of some of the apps themselves like Prime Video are nowhere near as good as on the Fire TV.


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## aaronwt

moyekj said:


> To me it's quite a bit more than just the TiVo bugs. The Android TV version of some of the apps themselves like Prime Video are nowhere near as good as on the Fire TV.


How do you figure? To me they look identical. When I use prime video on my Fire TV 4K sticks, my experience is the same as when I use my Android TV devices.(Shield TVs, Stream 4Ks, etc)

Only with my Android TV devices they start at a UHD encode or ramp up to it within a second or two. While my FireTV 4K sticks can sometimes take several times longer to ramp up to a UHD encode.


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## moyekj

aaronwt said:


> How do you figure? To me they look identical. When I use prime video on my Fire TV 4K sticks, my experience is the same as when I use my Android TV devices.(Shield TVs, Stream 4Ks, etc)
> 
> Only with my Android TV devices they start at a UHD encode or ramp up to it within a second or two. While my FireTV 4K sticks can sometimes take several times longer to ramp up to a UHD encode.


I covered it here:
TiVo Stream 4K versus Fire Stick 4K
But specifically for Prime Video app here is my comparison:
* Dedicated buttons for pause/play, ff, rew. With TS4K you have to use the pad and navigate around the screen for any trick function.
* Much more responsive for pause/play, ff, rew remote presses
* Has both ff/rew and 10 sec skip back and forwards and they work very fast. This is HUGE improvement over the TS4K app.
* With Alexa you can skip around videos easily with commands such as "rewind 2 minutes" or "fast forward 1 minute" and the response time is incredibly good.


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## aaronwt

moyekj said:


> I covered it here:
> TiVo Stream 4K versus Fire Stick 4K
> But specifically for Prime Video app here is my comparison:
> * Dedicated buttons for pause/play, ff, rew. With TS4K you have to use the pad and navigate around the screen for any trick function.
> * Much more responsive for pause/play, ff, rew remote presses
> * Has both ff/rew and 10 sec skip back and forwards and they work very fast. This is HUGE improvement over the TS4K app.
> * With Alexa you can skip around videos easily with commands such as "rewind 2 minutes" or "fast forward 1 minute" and the response time is incredibly good.


I use the D-Pad for navigation with the Amazon app on all my streaming devices. The issue is with the way the amazon app is designed. Some of the other streaming apps using the D-PAd still have a 30 second skip forward and a 10 second skip back.

As far as pause and play. Whether the D-Pad is used or an actual Play/pause button it is still basically instant. That is the case with all my streaming devices. There isn't a delay when you hit the OK button. If you are seeing a delay, maybe there is some rf interference in that room?

I also don't use any of my Echos to navigate by voice with my streaming devices. That is one feature I have no desire to do with my twelve Echo devices.


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## Moebius

moyekj said:


> For me the contest between Fire Stick 4K and TS4K is over. Fire Stick wins by a landslide.


Funny thing is, if TiVo worked a few of the things out, I actually like it a bit better. They're similar enough in responsiveness (yes Fire is a bit quicker, but not a ton) and general functions, that the TiVo Stream not shoving half screen banners at you on the home page is pretty big. That said, gotta fix CEC and a few of the in-app bugs that seem to be cropping up before that's the case.


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## BillyClyde

Moebius said:


> Funny thing is, if TiVo worked a few of the things out, I actually like it a bit better. They're similar enough in responsiveness (yes Fire is a bit quicker, but not a ton) and general functions, *that the TiVo Stream not shoving half screen banners at you on the home page is pretty big. *That said, gotta fix CEC and a few of the in-app bugs that seem to be cropping up before that's the case.


Just give 'em time and TiVo will also have those banners and pre-roll ads slapping us all in the face!


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## omelet1978

Ad me to the list of people that have the Tivo Stream 4K and whose TV turns on randomly.

I knew we were going to be getting a Beat product but even for Tivo this is pretty bad IMHO.


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## trip1eX

Moebius said:


> Funny thing is, if TiVo worked a few of the things out, I actually like it a bit better. , that the TiVo Stream not shoving half screen banners at you on the home page is pretty big.


I would assume ads will be coming.


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## Dan Clarke

The Tivo Stream 4K FAQ has been updated to say "Turn off CEC" but for me on a Sony it's called BraviaSYNC and I can't find a way that just "turns off Bravia Sync"...how did this get out of testing. Gah.


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## kpeters59

To not *turn off* the connected device automatically when *turning off* the TV. Press the HOME button, then select [Settings] → [External Inputs] → [*BRAVIA Sync* Settings] → [Auto Devices *Off*] → [*Off*].








Sony.net › helpguide › EXW800
*Setting "BRAVIA" Sync - Sony.net*

-KP


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## roehlaguila

zyzzx said:


> I'm unplugging the USB cable when I'm finished with the Stream. What a pain. This issue needs to have top priority on TiVo's fix list.


I plugged the TiVo Stream 4K to a smart plug so I can turn it on and off on my phone without disconnecting it.


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## omelet1978

So is there an actual fix for this from Tivo coming rather than the work-around posted on these forums?

I would not mind getting another Tivo Stream for the bedroom BUT the CEC issue and the TV turning on would not work since I'd be trying to sleep in there. I've set it up so that the screensaver is on in the living room and that is livable.


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## jaselzer

I had to unplug mine unfortunately until they fix the CEC issue.


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## sjsaleem

jaselzer said:


> Unfortunately for me, disabling the CEC on the Stream turns off the hdmi controlled audio from my TV to a Sonos Beam. In order to fix that, I would need to replace the hdmi connection with an optical connection which then disables Alexa voice control on the Sonos Beam. It is a Catch-22. In the meantime, I do the same as Steveknj, I keep the 4K disconnected.


I'm also in same situation using Vizio TV and Sonos sound bar. Eagerly waiting for a fix.


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## aaronwt

roehlaguila said:


> I plugged the TiVo Stream 4K to a smart plug so I can turn it on and off on my phone without disconnecting it.


This is what I did with my Stream 4K. I have had no issues with the TV powering up/down. Since I didn't have that functurn turned on. But I found that when my HDMI switch is off, that my receiver keeps wanting to switch to the input that the Stream 4K and HDMi switch is using. If I turn the switch on, then I don't have the problem. But since I already had a Smartthings switch programmed into my Harmony remote, I put the Stream 4K on that, to just turn it off when the HDMi switch gets turned off.


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## Mr. C

There is no Android Tv volume. This device relies solely on the tv volume for sound. You may connect a sound bar via bluetooth but Ive seen issues with that as well. It wants to keep re-pairing. The re-pairing issue may be caused from my 500gb Samsung SSD. I was also having issues with my remote too. So I disconnected the Samsung SSD and replaced it with a Sandisk 32gb Flash drive. That seemed to help immensely. I also plugged in an optical wire from the Tv to Soundbar for Sound. But like I said there is no Android Tv volume which means no bluetooth volume. All the buttons on this remote are bluetooth except for volume. The volume is controlled by an IR sensor. They will need to add more options in the sound menu to fix this issue. It also has sound issues with Tivimate. All the channels had to be adjusted to -200ms to fix it.


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## aaronwt

Does it have audio issues with other apps? In my use i did not have any audio delay issues with the ten or so apps I used.


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## Dan Clarke

roehlaguila said:


> I plugged the TiVo Stream 4K to a smart plug so I can turn it on and off on my phone without disconnecting it.


This is a great idea. I mean outside of TiVo releasing a product that works the way every other streaming device is supposed to.


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## usamac

I simply installed ButtonMapper apk and assigned a button on my remote to pop up a 'toggle power, restart and screen shot' panel. When you use this to turn it off, the tivo stream and cec device will turn off and stay off. This has permanently solved this issue for me.


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## zyzzx

The CEC bug may have been fixed with a new software update that was installed on my TS4K this morning. I did some testing and the TS4K is no longer stealing control through CEC any longer on my setup.

There are now CEC options in the settings. All are selected on by default but I don’t know how the device’s behavior changes with each option.


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## usamac

zyzzx said:


> The CEC bug may have been fixed with a new software update that was installed on my TS4K this morning. I did some testing and the TS4K is no longer stealing control through CEC any longer on my setup.
> 
> There are now CEC options in the settings. All are selected on by default but I don't know how the device's behavior changes with each option.


Yup, my update fixed my black screen flashing and my the power down issues.. I'm really excited about that. Would be nice if someone could break down what those 3 settings under it do


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## jaselzer

This is great, going to put my Stream back up now.

Ok, I am at least pleased that I can now leave the Stream hooked up to my tv. I still believe the Stream has a long way to go but I will keep it setup so I can watch for further updates.


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## BillyClyde

zyzzx said:


> The CEC bug may have been fixed with a new software update that was installed on my TS4K this morning. I did some testing and the TS4K is no longer stealing control through CEC any longer on my setup.
> 
> There are now CEC options in the settings. All are selected on by default but I don't know how the device's behavior changes with each option.


Yeah they sent something yesterday because they also fixed the Sony Dolby Vision issue. I wonder what else is fixed that we haven't figured out yet?


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## Hamstring

The CEC issue was the biggest for me. Now at least I can use it for HBO Max and to cast to the tv. What is it with the surround sound for these apps? My Roku has it for nearly every app. Hulu, Youtube and ESPN+ won't do it on the Tivo.


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## rrrccc01

Howdy,

I just hooked my fully updated TS4K up to the TV (TCL) I have/had my Tivo Roamio connected to and I'm having the same, or similar issue, with the TS4K remote and my ARC connected soundbar (RSR); it's bizarre.

Here's what I've found:


The TV (TCL), soundbar and Roamio remote all work/worked and played together well. 
I set the TS4k up with the soundbar connected and although it appeared to go through the setup fine, but once setup is complete, the TS4K remote volume and mute controls just don't work. Even while using the TS4K the TV and Roamio remotes still control volume fine. So...
I disconnected the soundbar, i.e. I unplugged the soundbar, and now the TS4k remote volume and mute work again with only the TV speakers, no soundbar.
Reconnect/power-up the soundbar and the TS4k remote volume and mute stop working. 
So I figure this is somehow related to the ARC/CEC issues in this thread. I tried messing with the HDMI/CEC to no avail.

Any ideas, quick fixes?

Thanks in advance

RC


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## aaronwt

How many CEC devices are you using? Once you get past a certain amount, like maybe four or five or six, strange things start happening. It's why I leave CEC off with most of my devices And only have it active on four or five devices in each of my setups.


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## rrrccc01

aaronwt said:


> How many CEC devices are you using? Once you get past a certain amount, like maybe four or five or six, strange things start happening. It's why I leave CEC off with most of my devices And only have it active on four or five devices in each of my setups.


Aaronwt

Thanks for your reply.

Maybe I wasn't clear in my post but there's only 1 ARC/CEC device in the configuration, the soundbar. Here's what's currently installed and powered up:

1. The TV (TCL)
2. The Tivo Stream 4K
3. The soundbar (Richsound Research (RSR) TB355) plugged into the HDMI ARC port on the TV
4. The Tivo Roamio is powered down/unplugged

That's it. In this configuration the TSt4k remote volume/mute doesn't work, powering the TV on/off does work. I can still control the volume/mute from the Tivo Roamio remote and the original TV remote. If I unplug the soundbar HDMI cable the TSt4k remote volume/mute on the TV built-in speakers

Still looking for a solution and opened a case with Tivo Support

Thanks again

RC


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## Diacritical

Same issue, and it was not always this way. Even with just the TV, the power works but sound Volume control does not.


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## mattyro7878

They did something cuz now Tidal again tells me "this device does not support Atmos".


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## bofis

I realize this isn't the point of this thread, but can anyone tell me what CEC commands the 4k recognizes? As in, can I do more than power/play/pause with my TVs IR remote and have the commands pass through CEC to the 4k? Can I navigate the interface using arrow keys?


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## mdavej

bofis said:


> I realize this isn't the point of this thread, but can anyone tell me what CEC commands the 4k recognizes? As in, can I do more than power/play/pause with my TVs IR remote and have the commands pass through CEC to the 4k? Can I navigate the interface using arrow keys?


I've never seen arrows over CEC implemented in any TV remote mainly because you wouldn't be able to control the TV anymore. The only way to find out for sure is to try it.

I'm curious why you would want to use the TV remote primarily rather than the Tivo remote. All you really need to control on the TV is power, volume and input, all of which you can do from the Tivo remote.

If the Tivo remote isn't sufficient, have you considered a universal remote?


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