Just plug your laptop in the AVR like you do your BD player. Then in Windows/MacOS set the sound to come from HDMI. If you have an Nvidia GPU it will be Nvidia audio for example as the GPU is the one which outs from HDMI port.
Just to be clear, is this the same HDMI port with which you connected the TV to AVR?
Yes, that will also be a great test.
I dont think arc can be tested with a laptop
Actually for testing ARC he has to plug in the hdmi out of the AVR to the hdmi in of the laptop/graphics card and play some media on the laptop and the sound should come without any other hdmi cables being connected between them.
That's because it's not needed from a PC. ARC is needed only if you don't have an HDMI out from the source like a TV for example. A PC can just use HDMI out to pass full-fat PCM audio.
So I actually want to test if that port itself is working and not ARC. If he can get audio from the PC via PCM to the receiver's port to which he connected the TV, that would be good.
This is the HDMI out port in the AVR. So what you are suggesting is to send an input audio to the AVR out however the PC port will output both video and audio so will this work? As ARC is designed to only accept audio when there is no video and otherwise to send only video to the display.
No, you can configure the HDMI port in Windows for example to only output audio signal. I currently only have an Nvidia card to test, but you can absolutely do that at least on Nvidia card.
Maybe it is possible but I am not sure this is the safe way to test the ARC functionality on a AVR. Further will it work where the laptops have integrated graphics ?
Point 2 -
I had connected to laptop hdmi port and to AVR - hdmi arc port (same port used for tv arc)
Will depend on the integrated graphics used. It's technically possible.
This is what I am worried about. If the port gets too much voltage the HDMI output port of the AVR may get non-functional.
Correct, i wouldn't even think of trying this method really, specially if the Hdmi board gets fried in the marantz, then the OP has to get the Hdmi board replaced.
That won't check the audio part. An ARC port in an AVR has video out and audio in support.
All HDMI compliant devices work on +5V rails. Unless you're using a device which uses a bad power supply, that won't happen. It will just fail handshake if you do something unsupported.
I agree on that, have you experimented the method u mentioned? if so on which avr did you try this?
No, not really. But in the past I've tried connecting HDMI out to out (PC to laptop) and it didn't burst anything. It just didn't work as handshake failed.
Yes that would be the right way to do it, as Hdmi Boards on avrs especially Marantz are very sensitive to voltage, there have been members blowing their Hdmi board on their avrs cause of Set top boxes & their cheap Hdmi ports.
I see. In that case experiments can be rather costly.
Do Marantz and Denon warranty cover surge voltage related issues?
If you are under warranty the Distributor will replace normally.
