Feeding audio from TV back to 975

I realize my question is not limited to the 975, but that's what I gots. My issue is getting audio from the TV back to the 975. As initially set up, my audio feeds to the 975 were from the DVD player (for DVDs and streaming video, such as Netflix) and my OTA tuner (for antenna TV). I now realize that Amazon Prime is not an option on my DVD player, but my plasma TV has a ton of apps. However, if I try to watch any streaming video thru my TV, I end up having to use the TV's less-than-preferable speakers.

I have the 975 hooked up to the TV with one cable...HDMI. I read that HDMI ARC can transfer the TV's audio back to the 975. Is this my solution? Forget the manuals...I read them. I need someone's advice who has done this.

Thanks loads in advance.

The HDMI ARC is the solution you seek. Make sure the settings on your TV are set to output to the ARC. Someone else had the same issue and it was the TV settings that had to be adjusted.

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I had already explored my TV's settings, and was frustrated on my attempt. That is, I set something that I thought was correct to ARC, for audio output. I will try harder and report my results.

I upgraded my TV to a Panasonic TC-P50TC60, which has a built-in tuner and I finally ditched my aging LG set-top digital tv tuner. When I was using the LG, I was able to connect it through my Outlaw 975 more or less like my DVD player, with a single HMDI from the 975 to the TV. Now that my antenna brings audio and video directly to the TV, I used the HDMI/ ARC connection on the TV and 975 which brings TV audio back to the 975. All is good when watching TV, as audio is controlled by 975, have surround sound, etc. I had to change a setting on 975 setup menu to turn 'on' the HDMI/ARC setting.

However, now my DVD player (simply connected from player to 975 via HDMI) does not transmit audio when playing a DVD. When I turn the 975's setting for its HDMI/ARC back to "off" then the DVD audio seems to work. I have no idea why this is the case. I tried to use a digital coax as an alternative way to get audio from the DVD player to the 975, which seemed to work but when watching TV it would play audio then turn off, seemingly unstable (maybe the 975 was confused by the digital coax?

Anyway, I am disappointed and frankly am fed up w/ not being able to solve this issue w/ using my tv antenna while using my 975 to control everything.

You aren't mapping the ARC and the DVD to the same input, are you?

Sounds like a setup problem.

You need to set this up as two input configurations on the 975.
For TV input it should be set to Video Input: None and Audio Input: HMDI ARC
DVD Input (Mine is on Video) should be set to Video Input: HDMIx and Audio Input HDMIx where 'x' is the port you plugged your DVD into (e.g. HDMI3.

EEman: yes that is my setup, only I used "Disc" for the dvd player (should not matter -- I assume these are all equivalent).

Owl's_Warder: don't think so. mapping is as described above.

I tried instead to route audio from tv back to 975 using optical cable, now both sources (dvd and tv) play fine except optical seems to be only passing stereo back to 975

Does your 975 have the current firmware version? I'm not sure if this was one of the things the update fixed, but if you're not running the latest version it might be worth it to install it.

No, I will try that. If the 975 had a second HDMI output -- would not have to be ARC -- I think that would solve my issue.

While I prefer the relatively simple design approach of the 975 (for many years I used an AMC AV81HTc-DD...pure analog for stereo and a digital chip for Dolby Digital) I may break tradition and just pick up an A/V receiver. My system has to be user-friendly so the fam can use it...I simply don't have limitless time/energy to fix what should be a relatively simple function.

That said, please keep any and all suggestions coming. I appreciate others' experience here.

Call Outlaw they may be able to help. It is possible there is problem with your 975 they can fix.

A couple things, you may need to reboot all your HDMI connected devices. Unplugging them from power. I would start with the TV, then the dvd player, Etc. This would be a simple HDMI reset. If that doesn't work, try resetting the 975.

Please feel free to give me a call, M-F 9:00am - 5:00pm EST, at (866) OUTLAWS.

Spoke to Jim at Outlaw, he straightened me out. I had been messing with the very last option under the 975's "Audio Input" menu ("HDMI Out to TV") and he said to leave it off, that it was not relevant to the ARC functionality. That seemed to work, now I can switch between the two inputs to the TV (Antenna and the HDMI ARC) while retaining audio. I am still experiencing what appear to be handshake issues, so will do a bit of troubleshooting there, but the connections and settings appear to be working. Thanks, everyone!

Thanks for the update! It's always nice to see the resolution on things like that.