Arc doesn't work with Samsung TV Q95T : If you want Dolby Atmos avoid Samsung Flagship TV's

E
Userlevel 2

I bought a New Samsung TV and Sonos ARC Soundbar last week: 

Samsung TV Model QE65Q95TATXXU

Software Version : 1115.5

Connected Sonos Arc to the eARC port 3 on the TV and the Arc only delivers any sound when the eARC is switched off (no Sound on Automatic). The Sound output on the TV is only recognising the ARC as connected to HDMI when it should recognise it as connected to the eARC HDMI port. The Dolby ATMOS compatibility button makes no difference when on or off. Pass through setting makes no difference. Dolby Atmos (DD+) is recognised by the SONOS App when playing directly from Netfix App on TV, this means the TV and SONOS ARC are not talking to each other and not recognising the eARC signal (it should say DOLBY Atmos not DOLBY Atmos DD+). Checked all connections and have rebooted both TV and Soundbar with no success

Not ideal when the TV and Sound Bar cost over £3500, I just want it to work and thats what should be delivered by SONOS.

Spoke to SONOS Support (Xander P) and these are the quotes from him:

It does look like there may be some issues arising when the eARC function on the TV is enabled. DD+ is capable of carrying a compressed ATMOS signal, so you should still be able to experience ATMOS from your Arc. In the mean time however there's no fix for this.

I'm not able to give you a solid answer right now unfortunately, however the Arc is known to work with other TVs so my inclination would be that this is a Samsung issue. We are certainly aware of this however and we are reaching out to Samsung in order to get this resolved.

I would expect this to be fixable via a Firmware update, however I can't guarantee this unfortunately.

We are reaching out to Samsung in order to get this issue resolved. Due to the huge number of TV models and manufacturers, issues such as this do sometimes arise - in any case we are looking in to getting it resolved and we are happy to assist any customers which are affected by this issue.

So basically SONOS are blaming Samsung because the ARC works with other TV's. No firm promise of a fix, not very impressed with SONOS at this point as Samsung could be classed as a major supplier of global premium TV's and you would have thought that SONOS would have ensured their premium soundbar would work with the new Samsung Flagship range, but apparently not.

Suggest SONOS and Samsung get their act together and sort out the issue.

92 replies

H
Userlevel 1

Hi Krishma M - thank you for the update!

The Samsung ‘The Frame’ series for 2020 is also impacted, model LS03T.  Mine is the 55”, but it should apply to all sizes. 

M
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

Hi,

I read through the posts and other forums online to see a lot of people with this issue.

I just purchased the 65 inch Q95T (in Europe) which has the “one-connect” box. I paired this with a Sonos 5.1 setup (1x playbar, 1x sub(gen 2), 2x Sonon One (for surround)). Currently have the Sonos Arc waiting for me at the store for pick-up to exchange the Playbar (within the return period). Reading this now, I am heavily doubting to get the Sonos Arc and replace the playbar, which works perfectly now with the tv and PS4 Pro. I wanted the Sonos Arc because it has HDMI eARC and supports more codecs than the playbar. 

 

In your experience, after installation, do you at the minimum get the same level of sound as with the Playbar and is the problem only an issue with Dolby Atmos? Or do the 2 products not work at all together( Sonos Arc & Samsung Q95T)?

 

I read one user had the issue disappear after a restart, but that seems very strange if so many other users face the same problem. 

I am not too fussed if the Atmos part is the only thing that does not yet function 100%, but i want to make 100% sure it will still work and sound amazing on anything not Atmos.


Thanks for any advice and opinions. 

Hi CvH7

Its a bit more complicated than that i'm afraid. So HDMI ARC works with Sonos ARC, and you are able to get DD5.1 and Compressed Atmos via this route where the source allows it (Netflix for example). When you enable eARC on the Q95T, you get no sound from any source, even uncompressed versions such as from ultra 4k blu.

So this is an issue on eARC working at all, and it should when connected to an eARC device. Both Samsung Q95T and Sonos ARC are eARC devices so they should be able to talk to one another, and currently for myself and other users, thats not happening.

Its not down to codecs or content either, with eARC enabled as auto, it should play sound from all sources, and have the ability to play uncompressed sound. 

That being said, the ARC is very impressive when coupled with a Sub and rears - if anything too impressive. This issue is around the investment in eARC and I firmly believe is an issue with the one connect box.

Hope this helps.

M
Userlevel 1

It’s amazing that when you spare no costs and buy both brands “flagship”/”top of the line” products because you want the best quality of these two brands, that it does not work together…. hell of a way to spend over 4 grand just to be stuck with customer service teams on both sides.

It would appear the Samsung/ Sonos comparability issues relate to geography. I have a new 2020 Samsung Q80t, ARC, Sub Gen 2 and two One SL’s and am using eArc and receiving Atmos sound. I live in Canada and we do not get the One Connect box here. 


 

That suggests it’s not geography but the presence of the One Connect box, like everyone seems to already suspect. Another very unhappy customer here, unable to get the products working together...

Krishma M
Userlevel 5
Badge +13

Hi folks. Just to let you know that we are aware of the issue when eARC is enabled on their Samsung 55Q95T, DD+ Atmos content from inbuilt apps or different sources within the TV will not receive audio (unable to output). If one turns off eARC, the TV will successfully pass DD+ Atmos to Arc. The issue occurs when using external devices with eARC turned on (PlayStation 4), also with all inbuilt apps, Netflix, YouTube, Disney+ . For now, disable eARC on the Samsung 55Q95T TV for Inbuilt DD+Atmos Content and we’ll let you know here once we have an available update as our internal teams are currently working on a permanent fix. We’re always here if you have any questions.

Help others find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question.
I
Userlevel 2

Hi folks, we’ll surely let you know once we have an available update and resolution. We’ll do all our best here. Just let us know if there’s anything we can help with. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Dear Krishma,

 

Yes, it would be very helpful if you could inform us on your progress please:

• Have you established what the root cause of the problem is? If so, what is it? If not, which are your best theories to date?

 

• Do you believe, given the information that is available to you at this time, that the problem will be fixed? 
 

• If so, how will the problem most likely be fixed and what is your best informed guess on within what time frame the problem will be fixed?

 

May I kindly ask all forum users who would like these questions to be answered, to state this in the forum.

 

 

T

I recently bought a 2020 Samsung Frame and was experiencing the same issues with the Arc (also connected to Apple TV 4K box) but have discovered that powering all devices ON/OFF seems to resolve the issue and I get sound with eARC set to Auto. I have tried to power cycle devices individually but for now can’t find the culprit it only seems to work if I power off everything. If I put the Frame in Art Mode and play music on the Arc and then try to switch back to TV in the Sonos app I lose sound and have to power cycle everything again. Annoying but at least I can use this little workaround(??) when I want to watch Atmos movies and for regular TV viewing I disable eARC on the TV. Wondering if others can try to see if this works the same for them?

H
Userlevel 1

@Raffles001

https://www.hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/

Any questions, just ask. Pre-order finishes soon. Beta testing has been going on a while now and it works well. 


While I appreciate the product you are sharing, it should not be needed for this use case.  Samsung created and marketed these sets with eARC capabilities - it just isn’t working.  The product you share is intended for setups where eARC does not exist. 

Samsung should fix this, not the consumer spending more $ on gear they shouldn’t need.

B

According to this thread on Samsung’s support site, they are working on a fix.  Recommend people chime-in there as well:  https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/tv/potential-major-issue-with-2020-samsung-tv-s-with-one-connect/td-p/1857527/page/2

 

Samsung has an updated posted as of today! My TV (Frame 75”) wouldn’t auto download so I manually downloaded and installed on a flash drive. Everything appears to be working as expected eARC auto is turned on and working!!

M
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

Just has a response from the Presidents Office at Samsung stating “our AV team has advised that they are indeed in contact with Sonos and awaiting response from their technical team. As soon as a response is received from them, I will be in touch with you. “

So Both sides are definitely aware and need to work together - come on Sonos!

D
Userlevel 1
Badge

My setup is a Samsung Q95T and the Sonos Arc. For some reason my Q95T is only picking up the Arc as a HDMI Receiver despite the fact that the supplied HDMI cable that came with the Arc is plugged directly into my TV's HDMI3 eARC port. 

 

As my TV is unable to pick up the fact that I have the Arc plugged in as an eARC Receiver I cannot enable the option to allow audio pass through, which I believe is causing audio delay.

 

Samsung have told me that the problem does not lie on their end and have advised that there is nothing they could do to fix it themselves, they've just sent me to Sonos

 

I purchased the TV and the Arc together because I was excited about the fact that they would work well via the New HDMI eARC input, experiencing such terrible audio delay isn't really what I expected after spending so much money. If I'm unable to get this fixed I'd rather return the Arc and get my money back.

R

So, its taken over a month to get any formal response to the obvious issue from Sonos. (Samsung still have their heads in the sand). I suppose we should be grateful that its now recognised as a problem but to be honest this should have been sorted out by proper pre launch testing by Sonos especially with major brands such as Samsung.

Just be aware that very recent Samsung TV update (TV is a Q95T 65”  on 1304 Firmware) messed up my Sonos settings again and the ARC was being recognised as a NOW TV app rather than the soundbar! I solved this by replacing the Sonos HDMI cable with a full spec 8K cable which immediately recognised the Arc. Unfortunately the eARC on /off problem still remains.

If this wasn’t such a good product (The Arc and the TV) I would have sent them both back however I can remain patient until a solution is found and I also have a Fury Arcana on order (which will solve all the problems without input from Sonos or Samsung).


I have exactly the same setup and even bought a 8k lead (like yourself) to replace the cheap looking lead supplied by Sonos.

im a novice when it comes to the tech etc, can you tell me what a Fury Arcana does to resolve the issue, if so it could be a route for me to follow.

again like yourself I have invested a lot of money to start changing the TV and Sonos Arc as I still think it’s the best, hopefully the bugs will be sorted and I can sit back and enjoy my purchases.

C
Userlevel 1
Badge

It’s amazing that when you spare no costs and buy both brands “flagship”/”top of the line” products because you want the best quality of these two brands, that it does not work together…. hell of a way to spend over 4 grand just to be stuck with customer service teams on both sides.

E
Userlevel 2

So, its taken over a month to get any formal response to the obvious issue from Sonos. (Samsung still have their heads in the sand). I suppose we should be grateful that its now recognised as a problem but to be honest this should have been sorted out by proper pre launch testing by Sonos especially with major brands such as Samsung.

Just be aware that very recent Samsung TV update (TV is a Q95T 65”  on 1304 Firmware) messed up my Sonos settings again and the ARC was being recognised as a NOW TV app rather than the soundbar! I solved this by replacing the Sonos HDMI cable with a full spec 8K cable which immediately recognised the Arc. Unfortunately the eARC on /off problem still remains.

If this wasn’t such a good product (The Arc and the TV) I would have sent them both back however I can remain patient until a solution is found and I also have a Fury Arcana on order (which will solve all the problems without input from Sonos or Samsung).

M
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

Update from Sonos as follows:

Hi Mike,   Thanks for the information.

The behavior you have reported and have experienced has already been notified directly to Samsung developers for further investigation. 

Sonos and Samsung engineers are working together to get this issue resolved as soon as possible.

- Once there is an update, we will make sure to notify the affected customers.

Thanks again.   With best regards,    Olivier H. Sonos | Customer Care | Contact Us
C
Userlevel 1
Badge

Update from my side, Samsung released a new auto-update of the firmware and after this update I turned the e-arc to “auto” and for the first time using this setting, there was sound!

I tried a few “Atmos” enabled content on Netflix, and various other sources and everything worked fine without any sync issues. 

So far everything is still working, and I also have not experienced the intermittent audio loss (yet).

Fingers crossed this will stay like this and the problem is solved for good.

H
Userlevel 1
Badge

I am pleased to say that after reading CvH7 helpful comment and downloading the Samsung TV update, I disconnected the optical cable, plugged in the hdmi cable to e-arc and voila it works! No lip sync issues with Sky Q  and sound works well on Netflix etc. Thanks all!

C
Userlevel 1
Badge

glad to hear others are able to get it working as well.

So far, I have had 2 instances where the sound dropped and in those cases i switched the e-arc back to off, that way I could get sound again.

then turning the TV off and turning e-arc back on again, the sound was working fine.

not sure why it drops sometimes, but perhaps some glitches still. Hopefully it remains working for the most part

H
Userlevel 1
Badge

I have to connect my Samsung Q95 T with the Sonos Arc using the optical cable. I am also using Sky Q which doesn’t help. All sorts of lip sync issues which are fine with the optical audio cable but of course defeats getting the Dolby Atmos. I have kept the Sonos Arc on the basis that it’s still slightly better sound than the TV but my plans to buy the additional Sonos system speakers are definitely on hold. Would I recommend anyone to buy a Sonos Arc? No!

I’m puzzled that this issue doesn’t appear to feature in any of the Youtube videos reviews.

Krishma M
Userlevel 5
Badge +13

Hi @Imagination, thanks for reaching out with the Sonos Community! We greatly appreciate you being a part of the Sonos family. It is our pleasure.

To all, please confirm if your TV is a Samsung with eARC support and ensure the TV's firmware is fully up to date. Below are the known affected Samsung TV's:

​Samsung 55Q95T​
​Samsung QE75LS03T​
​Samsung QA75LS03TASX​
Samsung QA65LS03TAWXXY

 

If the TV model isn't listed in the table above and you have the same problem, please let us know.

Workarounds

  • Turn off eARC within the TV's settings when playing Dolby Digital Plus ( Atmos) content from either externally connected HDMI devices or inbuilt Apps. Please check here for more information on how to disable it. Please note that this can vary from model to model. If you can't find the setting, reach out to Samsung.
  • *Note As Dolby TrueHD Atmos content is not affected, if you utilize True HD (Atmos) content from an external device ( such as Blu Ray / Xbox etc) you will need to turn eArc back on when playing this content.

And just to let you know that we have reported the issue to Samsung and are assisting them in resolving the issue. We encourage all customers with the same problem to report the issue to Samsung also. 

Please let us know if there’s anything else we can help you with. We and the community are always here.

Help others find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question.
E

same issue here, Q95T Sonos Arc full SETUP, Spent 8 hours on the phone! One company blames the other. Good job sonos and Samsung. clap clap..:clap:

C
Userlevel 1
Badge

Hi guys. i’m thinking of getting the Q95T and ARC. And i’m wondering does the one connect box supports hdmi 2.1 and hdmi eARC or do i have to connect the cables directly to TV?  

I have the same exact TV and the ARC. The ARC and one-connect box I have connected with a 2.1HDMI cable as the one-connect has 1 e-arc functional port and 3 “normal” HDMI ports for other devices (PS4, TV box, whatever). Nothing goes directly to the TV except for the “invisible” cable running from the TV to the one-connect. Hope this helps

B

The update enables you to turn on EARC but the audio stuttering is now worse. Samsung needs to fix this.

I
Userlevel 2

Unfortunately, although the Frame has eARC, it has the same problem as the Q95T. The best theory to date is that all Samsung 2020 models with the one connect box (which includes the Frame)are effected.

G

I have been having the same issue with Q95T and ARC connected to hdmi 3 e-arc. I just spoke with Samsung support and they asked me to under General> external device manage > input signal plus> enable the blue dot on all hdmi sources. 
 

this resolved the issue now the sound works fine with e-arc enabled and atmos compatibility enabled.

 

I hope this works for you all.

Airgetlam

Moderators, this belongs in the Home Theater area of the forum.

Bruce

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