Arc - Vizio and Atmos

In general, no, except, as I mentioned, the Samsung Frame, which as far as I’ve seen has not yet been updated by Samsung to properly handle an eARC signal. 

Om here is a other data point.  

My cable box is playing NBA basket  ball is playing it in DD+.

So TV box can send DD+ but apple tv can't?

Depends on the app. And the show. In general, most Apple apps send TrueHD, with Dolby Digital encoded on MAT, which can not be carried by ARC, only eARC. Many other apps, like Netflix, will use DD+, which can be carried by ARC.

I recently purchased the 2020 Vizio M55Q7-H1, Firmware 1.10.15.1-2 connected via ethernet & Sonos Arc.  The following audio settings allow Dolby Atmos to passthrough.  I’ve successfully received Atmos audio on Vizio Netflix smartcast native app.  Also Disney+ & Tidal via a FireStick 4k HDR.  I currently don’t own any other 4k Dolby Atmos streaming player, once I get ATV 4k I’ll update with my results.  So for I’m not having any issues with the TV passing Dolby Atmos.

FireStick 4K HDR

Audio

Surround Sound - Best Available

Advanced Audio - Vol. Leveler (off), Dialogue Enh. (off)

I have a Vizio P65Q9-H and I want to confirm that I’m getting Atmos properly. I’m using a Roku Ultra 2020 to play an Atmos source from Netflix. The TV says source audio is Dolby Audio-DD+ but the Sonos says Atmos. Does this mean I am truly getting Atmos or should the TV say Atmos as well? Thanks.

There are two versions of Atmos, one carried by TrueHD/MAT, across eARC only, and the other across Dolby Digital Plus. If your Sonos controller is showing Atmos, then you’re getting one or the other. 

This is the largest weakness of Sonos. I must not need to have net get right of entry to to listen to the tune on my iphone gambling on my Sonos speakers. So Sonos doesn’t get involve in the political games.

*Moderator edit: removed spam link from post.

I look at it as the largest weakness of various TV manufacturers, not properly implementing the CEC specifications. Sonos implemented it correctly, why didn’t anyone else? 

Conversely, if you’re talking about playing music from your iPhone, not what this thread is about, this is a weakness in Apple’s change, which blocked several companies, not just Sonos, when they made the change so that you can not play ‘from this device’. Fortunately, Sonos designed their newer speakers to be AirPlay 2 compliant, so it isn’t much of an issue at this point. 

Just bought the sonos arc + sub, and I have a 2019 version of the Vizio e70. I’m making this reply to post the information that I spent weeks looking for but could never find. 

My questions were mostly around using the arc with the e70 and Apple TV 4k, and whether atmos would work. I’d read a lot of places that Atmos would not work with eArc, period. And in case you don’t know, my e70 model is just too old to have eArc. 

But it turns out that you can actually see what audio format is being passed to the Sonos arc at least 2 ways. The first (and maybe most reliable (?) way is that if you open the sonos app and go to the Now Playing page for the Arc device, it will show you whether it’s Dolby 5.1, Stereo, Dolby Atmos, etc. The second way is if you press the “Info” button on the remote, it’ll show you lots of useful information like the current resolution, whether its Dolby vision or not, etc., but it’ll also show you a Dolby atmos label if the TV is currently receiving a Dolby Atmos signal. The logo will also show “Audio Out” above the Atmos logo, which makes it clear that the Atmos signal is actually being sent to the sound bar. 

So this seems to confirm that you can get some level of Atmos passed through from the Apple TV through the e70, and finally to the Arc. One thing I know for sure is that the signal will be compressed, because it’s not being passed over eArc.

The one open question that I have is that even though the TV and the sonos Arc sometimes say that it’s playing atmos audio, I’m sometimes skeptical and wonder if that’s actually the case. I wish there were some way to better know for sure…

Other than that, the Arc + sub sounds awesome for their size. The sub is so loud in fact that I actually have to turn it down quite a bit, which is a great problem to have. 

Would love to read any replies from anyone that’s had similar experiences :) 

@bfountain, 

You didn’t mention what audio codecs are in use on the Apple TV 4K - and the TV? 
I think by default ATV-4K uses LPCM which is uncompressed and would require eARC on the Receiver (Sonos Arc) but I think you can switch the Audio to DD+ (Atmos) that is compressed and will go over HDM-Arc/eARC .. but that’s if your TV supports the pass-though of the DD+ codec. A lot of the older TV’s prior to 2018 may not support that format, but depends on the TV.

One option is to sometimes bypass the TV altogether and use an HDMI-eARC audio splitter/extractor like the HDFury Arcana (just as an example) and that should give you the Atmos audio you’re perhaps looking for from the ATV-4K, without having to change your TV. HTH.