@Airgetlam  - I am in the same boat. I’ve actually boxed up my Arc and I am wondering if I will return it.

Once it’s firing on all cylinders I am sure it will be awesome but as it stands, with my beam, sub and surrounds, I just feel the Arc underwhelms. The Bass is off (known issues) and no Atmos mean it’s advantages over the beam in my room are less clear. I may wait until the Bass issue is resolved, set it up and see make a final decision to see if its pushing enough extra sound to justify my outlay. I don’t always use the Sub as we live in a Semi and have a kid at home and without it the beam is currently providing a fuller sounds.

Also, Vizio may update their firmware to allow DD Plus w/Atmos to push through their TV and voila, I am satisfied. 

Finally...I saw HD Fury may bring out a box which will provide eARC functionality which could saw me. But… added complexity flies in the face of the Sonos simplicity. 

What a shame. Its boxed in the corner or my room looking sad. And I am normally so excited with new tech that it’s time in the box is limited to how quickly I can get it open. If something arrives broken I am normally really disappointed… with the Arc… meh. 

I am also disappointed that my 6 month old TV does not give me any Atmos, in any shape or form, no apps, no passthrough. etc. Come on Vizio! 

Since I don’t fancy a divorce right now, a new TV is out the question!

That could be it. Sonos Arc is almost completely reliant on the TV’s capabilities to pass through audio formats. Feels like we’re definitely all beta testing here, unfortunately. 

I’m sorry to hear that @britishwonderings. I’ve got to admit that, even with all its limitations, the Arc is starting to grow on me. I’m super curious to hear how the Sub 3 will enhance things and am hopeful that I’ll be even happier with the sound once it arrives. I’m starting to think of Atmos as an also-ran - it would be nice to have, but from what I’ve heard with this setup I'm not as upset to be without it as I thought I would be. I guess I was expecting (hoping for) a jump as noticeable as from Dolby Pro Logic to DTS/Dolby Digital, but that’s just not the case. 

Despite the increase in complexity, I could absolutely see myself getting HD Fury’s eARC solution down the line if it works and is reasonably priced. At the very least it would cancel out the available sound format question (except for DTS which is also turning out to be a non-issue for me). 

But good luck to you, and please let us know what you end up doing! 

Got my Arc today. Setup with my Sub (Gen 2) and pair of Play:1’s as surrounds was a breeze. 

Sounds good, but so did my Beam 5.1 setup honestly. Think this may be a bit fuller but hard to tell without A/B side-by-side comparisons. Music does sound a bit better but I didn't have a ton of complaints w/ the Beam 5.1 before either. 

I am getting DD+ out of the all the built-in apps. However, I am NOT getting any Atmos from either Netflix or Prime Video with the built-in apps. I’ve set Speaker to off (vs. Auto) and Digital Audio Out to Auto but no dice. I’m on a P75-F1 (2018 model).

I don’t understand how some seem to be getting Atmos from the built-in apps and others aren’t for similar year models. And the P-Series is the higher-end of Vizio’s lineup, granted 2018 model but per Netflix all 2018 Vizio’s should be supported for Atmos w/ the built in Netflix app.

I will try moving my Apple TV 4K (which is in another room) to see if that works but I’m not hopeful… Pretty dissapointing.

Tried with Apple TV 4K and I’ll I’m getting is DD (not even DD+) and definitely no Atmos. 

At least built in apps are giving me DD+.
 

However, I rented Blade Runner 2049 from the built in Vudu app and that does give me Atmos. Seems to be the only app that does. TV confirms Atmos when I click info and so does the Sonos app system info (Atmos DD+). Will watch it tonight to see how pronounced the effects are. 
 

Clearly the TV and Arc are able to get it done but the apps need to be updated to support it. I’m not sure if that’s something that need to be updated by Vizio or by Netflix/ Prime Video...

Understood. My comments were about the ability to pass Dolby Digital Plus from an HDMI input to the HDMI ARC output. Vizio says it isn’t possible on their TVs. 

According to the Sonos App, it is - at least for the E70-F3. Watching Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D on Netflix right now via Apple TV 4K and this is what the app is showing as the audio signal it’s receiving: 

 

Can you post your settings, cable models, etc for us? Right now, I can’t get my Apple TV 4K to pass DD+ through my M658-G1. Vizio support says it won’t, but it looks like some models of Vizio can. Curious as to why some with Arc can and others with Arc can’t. 

If I use the built in Disney Plus app on the Vizio Smart TV dashboard, it works...wickedly frustrating

I have Apple TV 4K + Sonos Ark+ Vizio P55-F1

While using the ATV 4k i only get Dolby Digital 5.1.  However when using native Netflix app i get Dolby Digital Plus 5.1

I have few questions?

1. Can i get DD Plus 5.1 using ATV 4K?
2. Do i need “8K” cable? does it matter?
3. Any way to get atmos without chnaging the TV?  I feel like an idiot spending $1,900 on Sonos Arc + Sub to not get Atmos.

Here are some answers: 

1. No, and especially not with that model TV
2. Cables Matter, but no you don’t need an 8k cable. However, Cable Matters has a relatively inexpensive 8k HDMI from Amazon that’ll do the trick and carries 48gbps, more than enough for your data stream
3. yes, but I’d recommend then considering something other than Sonos at that point. That TV won’t pass atmos to the Sonos, it’s falsely advertised by Vizio. You’d have to take the Apple TV into a receiver first, like a Denon AVR or Sony AVR, and then video out to the TV and optical audio out to the Sonos. It would be a nightmare of a setup, considering at that point you might as well just go traditional surround speaker setup. There are a few third party devices that’ll help...you’ll quickly find they all limit your Sonos to one input device, you won’t be able to use anything with it but the Apple TV. 

Thank you,

I cannot house full fledged receivers with my setup hence opted for Sonos.   Are there newer TV which will work with Dolby Atmos  for Apple tv 4k and Sonos ark?

There are! 
I’d personally look at the Sony 950 series. They pass through Atmos without issue. 

Any TV should appropriately pass through the correct signal to the Sonos Arc (not Ark)  provided it has eARC. Currently, I’m aware that Samsung has issues with their software on the Frame TV, but all other TVs with eARC seem to be working fine. 

You’re correct. However, start with “any tv with eARC”, buried the lede a bit there. Most TVs do NOT have eARC, but a lot of late 2019 and 2020 models do. That is the key, and almost all Sony models above the 800 series do now. Vizio’s new models do as well, older models do not. 

I can confirm older Vizios (last year’s) do not… I own one, to my frustration. Looking forward to hooking up an HDFury Arcana. 

I also own one, an M658-G1, and it killed me to find out that it advertises atmos…...but only for built in apps. Should’ve guessed eARC would be absolutely necessary. 
 

Switched my setup a bit, and happily enjoying atmos in that room...alas without Sonos :-( 

OP- look into the HDfury Arcana. It’ll do the trick, but beware it’s a single device trick without a switch. 

Ok. So if i buy a TV with eARC, does it mean I don’t need to worry about Dolby Atmos issues?  or are there any more gotchas

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.