# Receiver Switches to TV Input After a Few Seconds - HDMI-CEC



## gfgray

If your receiver switches to TV Input (instead of staying on the input that the Tivo is connected to) after several seconds after turning your TV on, this is the explanation. The Tivo does not support HDMI-CEC. When a TV that supports HDMI-CEC does not detect that a HDMI-CEC compatible device is connected, it will tell a HDMI-CEC receiver to switch to TV Input.

You can disable HDMI-CEC. But that will also disable ARC. And you will have to add another cable to get audio from the TV to the receiver.

The best solution is for Tivo to implement enough of the HDMI-CEC spec to keep the TV from deciding to change the receiver's input.

There are other threads complaining about the lack of HDMI-CEC support in the Tivo. I am detailing a real world problem that this is causing. This is going to become more and more of an issue as people buy new TVs that support HDMI-CEC.

Here is another thread with further explanation and additional work arounds:
http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Harmony-Remotes/ARC-Anynet-on-Samsung-TV-Switches-Inputs-Automatically/td-p/643198/page/3


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## anthonymoody

CEC is a **** show in my experience. It's a "standard" in the sense that there are guidelines, but implementation from mfr to mfr can result in all sorts of wonky behavior - and that is where devices are CEC compliant. It gets even more annoying with devices like the TiVo which aren't.

Thank god for Logitech remotes.


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## monkeydust

I had the same problem on my Denon/Samsung. I had to turn that functionality off on my TV.


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## gfgray

I am Denon / Samsung also. Maybe this is a "feature" when you mix these two brands... I wish someone made a little adapter to add CEC functions to a non-CEC device (and charged less than $50)


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## knox

Adapter? here you go:
http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/products/104-usb-hdmi-cec-adapter.aspx


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## jay_winter

Knox -- This could be earth-shaking news!

Are you saying this thingy can make a TiVo box look like an HDMI 1.4 CEC device? Have you tried it?

Thanks.


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## ss-stingray

My Samsung did this also this week. Don't know why after having the roamio and tv for months. I went to TV menu and saw an unchecked box for a set top box. After checking box TV stopped changing to antenna . Weird ??


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## geogolem

ss-stingray said:


> My Samsung did this also this week. Don't know why after having the roamio and tv for months. I went to TV menu and saw an unchecked box for a set top box. After checking box TV stopped changing to antenna . Weird ??


I think this is happening because the TIVO lacks HDMI CEC support...

I am having the same problem.. and cannot find a solution. very annoying.


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## aaronwt

HDMI CEC is one of the first things I disable in my devices when I set them up. I use Harmony Remotes to turn things on/off and change inputs so I have no need for it anyway.


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## HoustonMidtown

I had the same issue with my Sony....I just moved the HDMI cable to a different port and the problem went away..


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## nooneuknow

There is one vendor I recall selling HDMI cables with the HDMI-CEC wire specifically not connected, just to deal with incompatibilities, and products not complying to HDMI-CEC specs on voltage levels.

If a market exists enough, that such a cable exists, it says a lot about problems people are having with what that cable eliminates.

If I worked in tech support (hypothetically), I'd much rather send a customer such a cable, than walk them through disabling it through all the different TV menus...


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## aaronwt

But if a person can't figure out how to turn it off in the menus, then they must be one of the "VCR flashing 12:00" people. All people need to do is read the instructions.


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## nooneuknow

aaronwt said:


> But if a person can't figure out how to turn it off in the menus, then they must be one of the "VCR flashing 12:00" people. All people need to do is read the instructions.


As somebody who used to work in support, and knows many people, personally, of the flashing VCR type, I can assure you there are plenty of people who only open the manual to initially set something up (if even then), then throw it in the trash (or some location that will remain unknown for the next x years).

As I often must remind myself (and remind you), not everybody has the skills and mindsets that we do. I may not open some manuals, before setting up, but never throw them away, and do try to keep their locations known.

Those who don't sell their old electronics, to offset the cost of the new stuff, tend to discard everything but the actual product, and what they needed to set it up (if they even set it up, as opposed to having somebody else do it for them).

Of course, I doubt the classes of people you seem to think are extinct, would ever know such a cable existed, without it being provided for them (and still may not know why that particular cable works for them).

TiVo users are an odd lot, when it comes to what walks of life have them. A working TiVo is actually easier for the technology-impaired, than a VCR, when the power goes out. There's a valid reason why TiVo asks everybody to power cycle everything, before providing other support. It's insulting and irritating to us who are both experienced, and up to date with things, but necessary.

While I don't work in support anymore, I don't miss it (some of the stories I could tell would sound like prank calls to you). Although, if you let people know you can be a source of support, it can become an unpaid, ongoing role.

Perhaps the folks who have no idea how the magic picture box and magic tapeless recording device works, who never even change the TV input, will be extinct in a few decades, but that only covers 1st world countries. 

ETA, from another HDMI-CEC thread:


nooneuknow said:


> HDMI-CEC being bastardized by trademarked names, not adhering to the voltage level specs, often making only same-brand devices play well together, has been a plague on HDMI-CEC.
> 
> As I've mentioned in a few threads, you can buy cables with the HDMI-CEC wire not connected, specifically to address issues with bastardized implementations and incompatibility.
> 
> It seems most useful for situations where you want HDMI-CEC enabled, but a particular device is causing problems. I'm not the member who found the cable exists, but seem to be catching all the grief for saying it exists (implications that there's no reason for it to exist, and/or it's just so easy to reconfigure devices to not need such a cable, etc).
> 
> I know it's not the answer to the thread title, and what the OP is looking for.


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## gfgray

If I wasn't clear in the original post, I need ARC because I don't have an audio-only cable running 50ft to my receiver. Disabling CEC also disables ARC.

For those of you who don't understand why we are complaining, after a couple seconds, the TV tells the receiver to switch to "TV Input", but it leaves the TV on "HDMI Input". Result: after turning the TV on, everything works fine until a few seconds pass, then no video and no audio until the receiver is manually changed back to "HDMI Input". It is maddening.

Pulse-Eight still does not have a 3rd party solution.... Hopefully Tivo will implement HDMI-CEC in their 4k box so that Tivo will play nicely with other equipment if for no other reason.


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## fred2

gfgray said:


> If I wasn't clear in the original post, I need ARC because I don't have an audio-only cable running 50ft to my receiver. Disabling CEC also disables ARC.
> 
> For those of you who don't understand why we are complaining, after a couple seconds, the TV tells the receiver to switch to "TV Input", but it leaves the TV on "HDMI Input". Result: after turning the TV on, everything works fine until a few seconds pass, then no video and no audio until the receiver is manually changed back to "HDMI Input". It is maddening.
> 
> Pulse-Eight still does not have a 3rd party solution.... Hopefully Tivo will implement HDMI-CEC in their 4k box so that Tivo will play nicely with other equipment if for no other reason.


I wonder if this is PART of my problem. I use a Harmony remote (older not sure 720???). My TV is using ARC to connect to a Yamaha receiver (that is the only connection between the tv to receiver (receiver to tivo). Using the Harmony I "turn on" the TV (tivo is on obviously). I use the receiver although I don't think I have to turn it on (arc?). For a few seconds all is right but then I lose the audio (but NOT the video) I see it change the hdmi port. I've added a few seconds (milli seconds??) to the Harmony command string to re-establish the correct hdmi. So, I get audio/video for a bit, then the audio cuts out, then the command is sent again and audio reestablished. But on occasion the audio stays off and I have a harmoney button assigned to "fix" the hdmi.

I did a bunch of fiddling to get this working and could not figure out what was blowing the audio. I worked it over and over and there was nothing in the command string to break the audio/hdmi port but it was broken nonetheless. Until I finally threw in the delay and another "this hdmi (stupid!)" command.

I see this cec in Tools for the tv but the only things it shows is a dvd player. I really don't know what cec does or NOT!


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## JoeKustra

fred2 said:


> I see this cec in Tools for the tv but the only things it shows is a dvd player. I really don't know what cec does or NOT!


So read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#CEC

I never use it.


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## gamo62

TiVo has always been behind in technology. They still don't have a 4k solution. So the lack of CEC support doesn't surprise me. They're more interested in adding tuners and storage, than they are in keeping up with technology. Case in point. How long did it take for them to FINALLY add Amazon prime?


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## Jim-Sarasota

It's Aug 2017, HDMI-CEC still does not work correctly.
Samsung UN60F7050AFXZA LED TV
Yamaha TSR-5810
TiVo 1TB Bolt


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## kpeters59

Try changing the order that the equipment turns on in the Harmony setup.

-KP


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## Worf

HDMI-CEC doesn't work properly in 2017 either. Doesn't matter what you own. Unless you own the same brand for your entire system, it will not work correctly.

Interoperability remains poor for CEC. If you have it working, you must've done something right in life. But then it could all break down tomorrow. Best to just disable it and have Harmony control it as it was meant to do.

And it will probably avoid sudden changes in the input as though things were possessed. Yes, you can not get CEC to work as it should, but at random times, it would mysteriously work.


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## Sparky1234

Manually set up TiVo and turn off CEC on newer Samsung TVs, circa 2014 and later...


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## aaronwt

Worf said:


> HDMI-CEC doesn't work properly in 2017 either. Doesn't matter what you own. Unless you own the same brand for your entire system, it will not work correctly.
> 
> Interoperability remains poor for CEC. If you have it working, you must've done something right in life. But then it could all break down tomorrow. Best to just disable it and have Harmony control it as it was meant to do.
> 
> And it will probably avoid sudden changes in the input as though things were possessed. Yes, you can not get CEC to work as it should, but at random times, it would mysteriously work.


HDMI CEC works properly in my setups. I use it in my UHD and HD setups. It works as expected with my Mitsubishi TV, Sony speaker bar, ROku, and Sony BD player in my HD setup.
And it works properly with my Sony UHD TV, Onkyo receiver, ROku, and Sony UHD BD player in my UHD setup.

TiVo doesn't use HDMI CEC so i don't need to worry about using HDMi-CEC with my TiVos.


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## Worf

aaronwt said:


> HDMI CEC works properly in my setups. I use it in my UHD and HD setups. It works as expected with my Mitsubishi TV, Sony speaker bar, ROku, and Sony BD player in my HD setup.
> And it works properly with my Sony UHD TV, Onkyo receiver, ROku, and Sony UHD BD player in my UHD setup.
> 
> TiVo doesn't use HDMI CEC so i don't need to worry about using HDMi-CEC with my TiVos.


Consider yourself lucky that you got it working. You situation is highly unusual and you are doing something right in life. Or have done sufficient magic incantations that it works.

More often than not, things generally go wonky and it makes things like ARC impossible to use (ARC requires CEC to be enabled to operate). At best, nothing happens, at worse, you deal with the TV and receivers changing inputs randomly every 20 minutes, or other general strangeness.

Then again, maybe you just jinxed yourself. It is one of those mysterious technology things where sometimes breaking the rules makes it work inexplicably.

No, I won't ask how well it works, since your set up, in theory, you could take the the TV remote, and use it control the playback of the BD player (when that's selectoed), or the Roku, or do the same from the BD player - use its remote to control the TV. Or if you just have it so it powers up and powers down stuff appropriately and the transport controls don't work.


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## Don Knight

gfgray said:


> If your receiver switches to TV Input (instead of staying on the input that the Tivo is connected to) after several seconds after turning your TV on, this is the explanation. The Tivo does not support HDMI-CEC. When a TV that supports HDMI-CEC does not detect that a HDMI-CEC compatible device is connected, it will tell a HDMI-CEC receiver to switch to TV Input.
> 
> You can disable HDMI-CEC. But that will also disable ARC. And you will have to add another cable to get audio from the TV to the receiver.
> 
> The best solution is for Tivo to implement enough of the HDMI-CEC spec to keep the TV from deciding to change the receiver's input.
> 
> There are other threads complaining about the lack of HDMI-CEC support in the Tivo. I am detailing a real world problem that this is causing. This is going to become more and more of an issue as people buy new TVs that support HDMI-CEC.
> 
> Here is another thread with further explanation and additional work arounds:
> http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Harmo...tches-Inputs-Automatically/td-p/643198/page/3


My Denon AVR-1912 does the same thing - switch to TV mode after a few seconds on sat/cable. I found the workaround. Navigate through the on-screen menu to locate "HDMI Control on/off" and select off. No more problem!


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## aaronwt

Worf said:


> Consider yourself lucky that you got it working. You situation is highly unusual and you are doing something right in life. Or have done sufficient magic incantations that it works.
> 
> More often than not, things generally go wonky and it makes things like ARC impossible to use (ARC requires CEC to be enabled to operate). At best, nothing happens, at worse, you deal with the TV and receivers changing inputs randomly every 20 minutes, or other general strangeness.
> 
> Then again, maybe you just jinxed yourself. It is one of those mysterious technology things where sometimes breaking the rules makes it work inexplicably.
> 
> No, I won't ask how well it works, since your set up, in theory, you could take the the TV remote, and use it control the playback of the BD player (when that's selectoed), or the Roku, or do the same from the BD player - use its remote to control the TV. Or if you just have it so it powers up and powers down stuff appropriately and the transport controls don't work.


I got a new TCL TV last month. HdMI cec is working great with that as well. Along with an Onkyo receiver. I switch to the internal apps and the receiver automatically switches to TV. And I can get DD+/Atmos over the ARC.

So that's LG, Sony, Mitsubishi, and TCL TVs where I've found HDMI CEC to work properly with my devices over the last 6+ years I've been using HDMI CEC.

One situation where HDMI CEC can cause issues is when you use both hdmi outputs from a UHD BD player. Where one goes to the TV for video and one goes to a receiver for audio. But when one cable is used for both audio and video from the UHD BD player it can work great.


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