Hi, I am curious if anybody else has problems with HDMI input on Naim devices. I bought LG CX in December last year and at the beginning everything worked just perfectly. Then with next Naim firmware updates problems started. With current 3.7.1 version the tv does not see HDMI input at all. HDMI is useless, no chance to force tv to send sound via Naim hdmi.
Previously I had problems with Nova HDMI and Samsung tv, but this was an older model of tv, so I expected that with new LG tv problems will end. Unfortunately this was not the case.
If this is common problem do you know if Naim is working on a solution? Of course there is optical input as an alternative, but hdmi is much easier to use and for this reason I chose Nova with HDMI.
Besides the above problem I am very happy with Nova and its sound:)
Yes, you are not alone. Search the forum for HDMI and LG to find lots of posts. Or just search for HDMI alone, as LG is not the only one, Samsung and others just as well, and maybe only particular models and/or particular firmware versions of the TV and/or Naim unit.
The reason is that HDMI ARC is only poorly standardized, so Naim as well as other manufacturers must implement special cases in the software for different TV models.
The general recommendation is that you contact Naim support and tell them your exact TV model. They might want to run tests as well. And in the end they probably have to implement yet another workaround.
Several people have given up and just use the optical out, despite the loss of convenience
Have you tried removing the mains power from both the TV and the Naim. Wait at least 5 mins then plug the TV back in first followed by the Naim. Then go back into the TV settings and try setting the sound output to the Naim again.
I have an LG CX tv connected to my Nova by HDMI. When I switch to the tv, nine times out of ten there will be no sound. When this happens, I go into to the Naim app/Input Settings/TV Input and switch the HDMI Auto Switching off and on again. This invariably restores the sound.
I had no success at all with a 5 year old+ Samsung until I ordered a new HDMI cable from Amazon, just in case the older ones which should have supported HDMI ARC didn’t. The new cable works very well.
Your issue may be different if it worked before and doesn’t now.
I surfaced this nearly a year ago with Support - the brutal part is that it worked flawlessly before the March 2021 firmware update.
I’ve received a couple of responses saying that the engineering team is aware of and working on a fix. That said, we’ve had two fairly substantial firmware updates since then, and no mention of, or fix for the LG OLED HDMI problem in sight.
Especially frustrating because I suspect since they can look at the codebase prior to the issue, and the fact that the janky workaround highlighted ^ by pauleastwood seems to correctly trigger the input signal, I can’t for the life of me understand why it wouldn’t be an easy to implement fix.
I had exactly the same issue. LG TV Worked flawlessly with my Atom for the best part of a year then after an update it no longer worked via HDMI. Unfortunately you will just have to get used to connecting it with optical. Not as slick but at least it works properly and you can rely on it. I got told by tech support that they couldn’t find an issue and that my TV update was the issue.
Agreed Mark, I’d be even more likely to move over to optical and may go that route so I don’t have to go into the app every time I fire up the TV to “force” the input signal to be recognized. That said, yet again, Naim made the strange decision to go with a proprietary RF remote and no IR input on the back so even if I wanted to implement a “one remote solution” I couldn’t…mostly talking about a Harmony Elite as I know there are some “limited” 3rd party driver support for the Unity Range on Control4’s system.
Made all the more annoying because otherwise, its one of the most amazing, enjoyable pieces of tech I’ve owned, and I get great enjoyment listening to music on it every single day.
If it (Atom) wasn’t so damn good on the music front, I’d have moved over to Cambridge or NAD for one of their (seemingly stable…at least where HDMI is concerned) all-in-one streamers months ago.
I remain hopeful that a fix is inbound and once it is, I’ll be turning off the auto update functionality indefinitely until I see that a major feature like a once working HDMI connection is working and stable after said release.
I have to explicitly switch the NDX2 to TV with optical and I don’t see another way because I certainly don’t want it to switch from music to TV whenever I turn on the TV. I made it so that it’s just one press on the remote, which is fine
I had the same issue with my star connected to LG TV. Double checked the connections of LG. Make sure that you connect to the ARC HDMI on your TV. There is only one. Now it works for me.
I don’t have an LG tv however I am using an older Samsung tv. I feel the tv is the problem in the HDMI handshake daisy chain (Apple TV 4K to Samsung TV to Naim).
Often the tv decides not to see my Naim. I turn off all the devices, and un-connect the HDMI then re-connect the HDMI and turn on the tv first, then the Apple TV 4K and then the Naim. After that, things work fine for a few weeks, a week, days or sometime only hours. Then the tv no longer sees the Naim and sound come out of the tv.
Today I installed an HDMI splitter in hopes I could send an HDMI signal to the tv (for video) and another to the back of the Naim (for audio) and take the passthrough from the tv out of the picture…no luck. The splitter worked fine for the tv (as well as on a second tv - both audio and video on each tv) but when connected to the Naim, it saw no HDMI signal. So frustrating.
Is the only real answer an optical connection and two remotes? Because as a video source, the Apple TV 4K does not offer that output. Or has anyone tried an HDMI audio extractor (e.g. Apple TV 4K to HDMI audio extractor w/optical out the the Naim and then HDMI to the tv)?
Thanks Mike S. Glad to know that works so well for you.
Unfortunately that tv optical connection is in exactly the worst place on the back of the wall mounted tv (the wall mount steel covers it). I am also trying to get to one remote for tv viewing and not run another cable through the wall to the tv.
I am not sure if an extractor will control the volume on the Naim (if the Apple TV 4K remote volume is changed). That would be ideal. It would also solve the cabling issue since the Naim and Apple TV 4K are in the same cabinet.
Hi, I have also problems with HDMI input. I have a Unity Atom connected to a LG OLED48C16LA (HDMI). For a while it worked perfectly. Now it doesn’t work anymore…
Does anybody knows if NAIM is fixing this ?
Was there a firmware update to the TV between it working and not working (does the TV update firmware automatically?). Same question re. the Atom. Probably good to contact Naim support and provide the TV firmware no. to them to look into it.
This same thing happened to me when I had my atom. It never worked again but I don’t have it anymore so can’t test. Unfortunately there was both a Naim update, and a tv update between the failure so it wasn’t possible to identify which caused it. Although, I am convinced it was the Naim update as that was the more recent one. The tv had updated weeks before the atom so I’d have thought I’d notice.