@dbphd I recently had to deal with this same issue on a Samsung TV. The solution was to turn off all the CEC/eARC toggles, then turn them back on again. There are two toggles in the "Audio" section and one hidden in the "General" section of the Samsung TV settings. That last one was the reason this project took me way too long.
I ultimately prefer HDMI vs tosklin for audio out from a TV because the former allows me to use one remote to power everything on/off, adjust volume, and search for content. I have 3 devices (video streamer --> TV --> audio system), and I love using the remote from the video streamer to control everything.