Guys, I need recommendations for a suitable HDMI cable.
I bought a 5 meters HDMI 2.0 cable (18Gbps) that I'm using to connect my PS4 Pro, but something odd is going on.
Legend:
--> HDMI directional connection
HDMI ARC connection
Chain A:
PS4 Pro --5m HDMI 2.0 cable--> LG OLED55C7 Naka Elite 7.2
Chain B:
PS4 Pro --5m HDMI 2.0 cable--> Naka Elite 7.2 LG OLED55C7
Now, Chain A works perfectly; however, given that the audio passthrough is being handled by the LG OLED55C7 ARC, that means only 1Mbps audio can be passed to the Naka Elite 7.2, so it's pretty much just compressed lossy DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1. I don't get to revel in the glory of lossless audio formats like DTS-HD Master Audio or 8 channel LPCM.
On the other hand, Chain B is able to handle the lossless good stuff, and theoretically pass the video through to the OLED55C7. Moreover Chain B is what the Nakamichi Shockwafe manual recommends when it comes to connecting the PS4 Pro to make full use of the Nakamichi Shockwafe. Unfortunately, the video passthrough is unstable to the point of unusable. It is very odd in that should I immediately fire up Monster Hunter World (which supports 4K HDR), it might flicker for a moment while negotiating the 4K HDR handshake, but once that sweet sweet HDR logo shows up on my OLED55C7, the signal seems to stay connected and I can play MHW no problemo. Yet if I were to switch back to the HOME screen of the PS4 Pro, and fire up Hulu or Plex or anything else in 1080p that shouldn't even stress the HDMI cable to its 18Gbps limit, it would start to flicker and lose the video signal. I'll still hear the sound coming out of the Elite 7.2 but the video is gone. If I switch the input away (be it the OLED55C7 input or the Shockwafe input) and switch back, it'd renegotiate the signal and I'll get video again for a brief moment (just a few seconds), and it'll flicker again and lose the video passthrough.
In an attempt to identify what exactly is causing this issue, I have substituted the 5m cable for a shorter cable, so Chain B goes:
PS4 Pro --1.5m HDMI 2.0 cable--> Naka Elite 7.2 LG OLED55C7
This was able to sustain the connection, although occasionally that flicker and then loss of video happens at the beginning but doing that input switching back and forth would force the devices to renegotiate the signals and then it's all good. So I know what you're thinking, seems like it's the 5m HDMI cable at fault, right? Well, no, not exactly, because when I ran Chain B with Nvidia Shield TV:
Nvidia Shield TV --5m HDMI 2.0 cable--> Naka Elite 7.2 LG OLED55C7
It worked beautifully without any issues. I was watching 4K HDR remuxes through Plex from a remote server Direct Playing with DTS-HD Master Audio and it was glorious. HDR was on, audio was lossless and full 8-channel instead of 6-channel Neural:X upmixed to 8-channel. Like I said, Direct Play. And at no point did the signal cut out.
So this leads me to think whatever handles the 4K HDR passthrough in the Shockwafe isn't that robust and is particularly sensitive to everything downstream. My guess is that the PS4 Pro and the cable are both serviceable, but neither one is outstanding, so when it hits the Shockwafe, it bugs out, whereas with the Shield, since the Shield is outstanding, when coupled with a serviceable cable, the Shockwafe was still able to work with that. Nevertheless, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has connected his / her PS4 Pro to the Shockwafe with a long cable, so can any other Shockwafe owner be kind enough to recommend me a cable to work with? I do need it to be at least 4 meters.
Thank you!