I spent a while this morning trying to connect my old TV to my receiver via ARC (Audio Return Channel), just for fun. I had to move some of the connections to other ports (always a joy) and reconfigure the amplifier to use HDMI control – that took a while, but wasn’t difficult.

But when I tried to get audio from a device connected directly to the TV to go to the receiver and thence to the speakers, there was nothing but silence. I double-checked the setup on the receiver, and it was right; then I checked the TV and it was indeed set up to play audio through the sound system.

Finally, I opened the manual for the TV and discovered that it didn’t even mention ARC (probably because ARC wasn’t introduced until 2009 and the TV dates from 2008). Oh. So I guess “playing audio through the sound system” means that the TV would send the audio to the receiver over an optical cable, of which I have none. Good thing I’m getting a new TV. :-)

While I was at it, I also found and removed a couple of extraneous cables that were just lying there, disconnected at both ends. I also discovered that most of my HDMI cables are too old to support 4K video, so I ordered replacement cables.

Beyond that, we took our usual walks and made our usual visit to the Farmers’ Market. We also watched the second half of Benjamin Franklin and really liked it (especially the music).

Hope you had a good Sunday, too!

Our faithful Sony HDTV has been less than faithful the last few weeks; it’s started randomly turning itself off. I bought it in 2008, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

We went to Best Buy today and ordered a replacement – a 55-inch Samsung S95B “quantum dot” OLED set, which should be delivered on Friday. It claims to have Dolby Atmos audio; it would be nice if it was good enough to let me retire my old A/V receiver and simplify things. Or maybe I’ll want to add a soundbar and still keep things simple.

I also made a little progress on other fronts – we watched the first half of Benjamin Franklin and I spent a couple of hours doing even more photo merging and cleaning.

We even managed to get a couple of walks in before the rains arrived this afternoon.

Not a bad day, not at all!