Contributor I

Arc/Atmos - TV support for passthrough from Apple 4k?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
May 7, 2020
129 replies
32419 views

I’m a little confused. I have an Apple 4K going into a TV that’s older than a few years. Will the Atmos sound from the TV be pushed through the TV via the eARC/eHDMI connection even though Atmos isn’t native to the TV itself?

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jgatie

I’m a little confused. I have an Apple 4K going into a TV that’s older than a few years. Will the Atmos sound from the TV be pushed through the TV via the eARC/eHDMI connection even though Atmos isn’t native to the TV itself?

If your TV is older than a few years, it has no eARC. eARC is barely on many brand new TV’s. As for HDMI-ARC, if your TV has HDMI-ARC capability, then it is able to pass Atmos/DD+.

ETA: There are really no “Atmos native TV’s”, except for a few units that have built-in Atmos speakers. Atmos is a codec, and only requires the TV to have ARC (DD+) or eARC (TrueHD) for support.

M

MarkyMarkFunkyBunchAuthor

Contributor I

Thanks! I’d love to upgrade to the the Arc but was unsure of my potential benefits. My Beam is underpowered for the room and my Playbar is under-featured.

Yes, my TV has HDMI-ARC but not eARC.

With the Apple 4K, this will be an excellent addition then. Thanks for the reply.

jgatie

Thanks! I’d love to upgrade to the the Arc but was unsure of my potential benefits. My Beam is underpowered for the room and my Playbar is under-featured.

Yes, my TV has HDMI-ARC but not eARC.

With the Apple 4K, this will be an excellent addition then. Thanks for the reply.

You do want to make sure your TV supports Dolby Digital pass thru. There’s’s a list (though not comprehensive) here: https://www.rtings.com/tv/tests/inputs/5-1-surround-audio-passthrough

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Marc_51

Enthusiast II

I think the ATV will only output Uncompressed original audio via LPCM which I don’t think the Arc supports (it’s not mentioned anywhere). At least my ATV 4K only outputs LPCM or downmixed to DD5.1 / 2.0.

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Naekyr

Enthusiast II

I think the ATV will only output Uncompressed original audio via LPCM which I don’t think the Arc supports (it’s not mentioned anywhere). At least my ATV 4K only outputs LPCM or downmixed to DD5.1 / 2.0.

Its a strange ommision but perhaps an intended one.

It seems the Arc is designed for people who just watch Netflix/Apps on their TV and not for any who actually plugs any devices into their TV since it would appear many many popular devices are unsupported because they output LPCM sound.

Airgetlam

At the end of the day, any Sonos speaker can only play what is handed to it. If the source device isn’t feeding the TV the correct data, or the TV isn’t feeding the correct data to the Sonos, there really isn’t much Sonos can do about it.

Bruce

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Naekyr

Enthusiast II

At the end of the day, any Sonos speaker can only play what is handed to it. If the source device isn’t feeding the TV the correct data, or the TV isn’t feeding the correct data to the Sonos, there really isn’t much Sonos can do about it.

That’s not true. Why is it that most other manufacturers doesn’t have this problem. I will never believe this “there is nothing we can do”. Its an HDMI soundbar, it can handle every type of device sound output ever made if the on board processor is not useless.

LPCM is not even proprietary, there is no licensing fee so no DTS excuses will work here either.

Only explanation is laziness

Airgetlam

The Sonos can handle everything that they say it can, if it gets to the Sonos device properly. I’m confused as to why you think they should be able to play data that isn’t presented to them. Would you be so kind as to clarify your statement?

Bruce

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Naekyr

Enthusiast II

The Sonos can handle everything that they say it can, if it gets to the Sonos device properly. I’m confused as to why you think they should be able to play data that isn’t presented to them. Would you be so kind as to clarify your statement?

Ok, so why is it that when I present the Arc with LPCM it doesn’t play LPCM? You said it can play what it is given, I will give it LPCM so it must play LPCM.