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

I’ve read some rumors about it being dependent on the TV set too, some TVs will pass the Apple TV’s data, some won’t. I’m anxious to see if my Vizio’s will. And keeping my eye open on potential HDMI switches that will generate an eARC signal, so I can get TrueHD signals to the Arc.

The biggest problem is Sonos jumping on the ARC/eARC bandwagon as the only way to get full hd sound to the an $800 sound bar. When the beam came out the single hdmi port made sense because its their entry level sound bar so simplicity is key for that market —heck they optical adapter even made sense because being limited to 5.1 was fine on a non Atmos device. That was a decision I could honestly get behind.

This device costs double that and is targeted towards a completely different market and they had 7 years to get things right since the playbar. Unfortunately without an hdmi pass through or any sort of eARC emulation on the Arc soundbar there is no way for the sound handshake to happen even with clever use of matrix switches or hdmi splitters. To make things worse ARC implementation by display manufacturers has always been spotty at best with many not properly supporting ‘common mode’ connection which is the ARC mode that allows for DD+ compressed Atmos. This means the vast majority of people wont be able to take advantage of the features they are offering on this soundbar. Bought a nice house with an older hdmi cable running through the wall —good luck getting eARC, got a cable run to the longer than 7-8 meters —you likely won’t get a common mode connection to support DD+ compressed Atmos, use a AV receiver as part of your home theater setup for hdmi switching and 12v triggers —yep not gonna be supported, own a pro grade display panel —screwed because they often don’t have speakers and this no ARC port, own a projector like an increasingly large number of home theater enthusiasts —once again you’re up a creek because projectors don’t concern themselves with audio and thusly don’t have an ARC/eARC port.

I agree that Sonos will decide to support what the decide to support and that’s rightly their decision but they have a lot of long time customers and home theater integrators that are going to be very disappointed when they realize there is no way to get the new Atmos sound they where waiting on so patiently because Sonos decided to fractions of a cent an extra hdmi port would have cost them. Sonos could have even released an optional an add on dongle that could be bough separately that plugged into the hdmi port of the soundbar and do an eARC handshake and pass the video out of a pass though hdmi port. Alas, now I will be scanning amazon every few weeks stuck hoping some entrepreneurial Chinese company see this gap Sonos has left and produces a device that can fix this shortcoming.

it's like Sonos doesn't want to directly compete with anyone else. They know exactly what they are doing. They are trying to carve a new niche where there really shouldn't be one - a user who knows what Atmos is and wants it, but is also a noob and doesn't concern themselves with other entertainment products and is happy to just use Arc connected to their brand new tv to watch Netflix. It's a really odd Niche but ok

most audio manufacturers - when they target home theatre they go balls out and do it right so that most or all home theatre customers can use the product and get some value - but with the Arc Sonos wants to do home theatre but also narrow the target market down into a very small niche, cutting off a whole bunch of the home theatre market at the same time.

Yep, it’s really strange. I have more Sonos speakers in my house than I’d care to admit because I love the simplicity, the sound quality is great, the components styling has held up very well over time, and despite the high cost compared to their competitors they are know for giving their components long lifespans allowing people to slowly build mixed systems over time as their wallet allows. I have also already ordered the Arc because I like the new look and I’m assuming it will have better sound even though my projector obviously doesn’t have and Arc hdmi port stranding me with 5.1. I know someone will tell me if I care so much I should just get a hard wired Atmos system but darn it I really love my Sonos gear 

I have to think Sonos is just trying to check off the Atmos feature box and counting on most purchasers being naive and just plugging it in and assuming it’s Atmos sound coming out not knowing any better. That’s really the only option I can think of that explains not including a passthough port or an eARC embedding adapter. Based on the forum posts just over the last day about a sound bar that hasn’t even come out yet I am guessing decent number of people are going to be confused and upset when they learn they aren’t getting a feature the thought they paid for due to limited ports on the soundbar, MAT containers, and codec issues and all kinds of other things they won’t understand and shouldn’t have to.

Assuming the LG TV can pass through the LPCM audio through the eARC HDMI port, how would the Sonos Arc play the Atmos audio track if LPCM is not supported?

The Arc would tell the TV LPCM surround is not supported and then the TV would only output stereo to the Arc I would presume.

If you choose Sonos you’re stuck with the choices Sonos makes. DTS or LPCM surround formats are not supported. To Sonos this must not be a big problem - if it was, they would have fixed it. So the large majority of Sonos users will not own a game computer (LPCM) or a blu ray player (DTS) - so will stream from their native TV apps, for which DD+ and Atmos are more important.

Above it is mentioned the PS4 outputs LPCM - it will also output DD, so the problem is not as big as it is with, say, a Nintendo Switch - I have read this will only do LPCM.

It also depends on the codec conversion of the TV. If the TV can convert LPMC to a codec like DD+ then it can output it to the beam. I don’t think the TVs can pass LPMC via ARC so some sort of conversion would be required. I think the next generation of TVs will probably be more capable of this If not you’ll just get stereo pcm. 

This is disappointing, I pre ordered mine as thought a secondary HDMI to connect the Apple TV was a given. Would an atmos receiver do the trick then ? Apple TV → avr ← ARC 

Since you can only connect the Artc to an HDMI-ARC connection, the receiver would have to have such a connection, that would act as an HDMI-ARC to the Arc. I do not no think this is possible.

If you ar thinking about buying a receiver with this kind of capabilities; I would rather go all out and not bother to go the Sonos route - the Arc is a 3.0 speaker, not a center, so your receiver would act as a (very capable, very expensive) HDMI-switch. If you want Sonos for such a receiver, buy a Sonos Port.

+1 to the other disappointed people here.

I stream primarily via an Apple TV connected to an AVR connected to a television. I was going to buy an Arc and ditch the AVR setup when I bought an eARC TV later this year.

It seems this is not possible, given the LPCM limitations / discussion above. So basically if you are in the Apple ecosystem, and like your Apple TV, as I do, Sonos doesn’t want your soundbar dollars.

I own a lot of Sonos gear, but I find their soundbar product strategy very hard to understand.

Dave Ings