Sky Stream/Denon AVR issue - Puck won't stay on UHD

[BriM]

Hi All,

Having a weird issue that I cannot solve (I had worked around it by connecting straight to the TV and using ARC, but the current lip-sync issues are making that hard to deal with). My Sky stream puck reverts to 1080p multiple times per day.

My setup is as follows:

LG Cx OLED <- Denon AVR <- Sky Puck. These are controlled by a harmony device to ensure everything is powered on in the correct order.

Things I've tried:

1. Replacing all cables

2. Changing all ports

3. Changing HDMI modes, between the AV rendering and full passthrough.

Nothing works. The Sky stream puck is the only device that has issue with this setup - everything else behaves, and my old Sky Q box was perfectly happy with this arrangement for years.

Anyone have any suggestions on how I can fix this?  I'd worked around this by using ARC, but recent updates seem to have made lip-syncing using this method appauling. My next step is to just tell sky that this isn't fit for purpose, but I'd like to give it a fair chance before I do that.

Thanks!

[Mister_Dalek]

Make sure all HDMI cables in the chain are of the same spec & speed. 
Make sure the TV and Denon are fully powered on before the puck is turned on. 
Turn off HDMI control on the puck if you are using a Harmony remote. 
Try using a CEC blocker on the puck. I found my puck was sending spurious CEC commands even when in standby which prevented my Denon AVR functioning correctly. The CEC blocker helped with this. 
I still found the puck to be pretty dreadful though, very unreliable, so cancelled. 

[CoffeeDrinker]

@BriM  What model of Denon AVR are you using?

[BriM]

Thanks - I've checked/changed pretty much every cable, and validated the cables with another device.

I haven't tried a CEC blocker - did that help in your case at all?

[BriM]

@CoffeeDrinkerIt's an AVR-X2300W - whilst it's not the newest, it's HDCP 2.2 compliant, so should work (and Sky Q was happy enough with it).

[CoffeeDrinker]

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@BriM wrote:

@CoffeeDrinkerIt's an AVR-X2300W - whilst it's not the newest, it's HDCP 2.2 compliant, so should work (and Sky Q was happy enough with it).

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The 1080p reset sounds as though something upstream, either your TV or AVR, is mistakenly telling your Stream puck that the highest resolution that can be catered for is 1080p. Whilst your setup might well have worked flawlessly with Q, Stream boxes can also output Dolby Vision etc (albeit from non-Sky sources), so the HDMI negotiations Stream attempts will be different from Q.

it sounds like you've checked all of the usual physical check, including swapping device orders (from Stream > HDMI > AVR > HDMI > TV to Stream > TV > ARC HDMI > AVR.

It might be worth checking that both your TV and AVR firmware is up to date as everything should work using Stream>AVR>TV, with your X2300W more than capable of 4K pass though.

I'm using. Similar setup to yourself, using a Denon X3500H, which is only a couple of years newer than your own AVR.

[Mister_Dalek]

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@BriM wrote:

Thanks - I've checked/changed pretty much every cable, and validated the cables with another device.

I haven't tried a CEC blocker - did that help in your case at all?

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The CEC blocker did stop the puck from interfering with other devices attached to my Denon AVR. I also used a Harmony remote so didn't need HDMI control turned on. I never had any trouble with it defaulting to 1080P though. 

Sky even refunded me the cost of the blocker (about £11) after I complained about it. 

EDIT - I've just looked at the specs for your AVR and it states that it is not Dolby Vision or HLG compliant. Sky Stream needs to see a HLG capable TV for it to be able to output UHD with HDR. It looks like the AVR is preventing this signal passing through to the TV from the puck, therefore dafaulting it to 1080P. 

You'll need to either upgrade the AVR to one with full HDR passthrough, or connect the puck direct to the TV and suffer the lip sync issues by the look of it.