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Expensive Sonos Beam Paperweight? Known Sonos Beam & Samsung UHD TV HDMI e-ARC & Optical Issues from Several Customers for Months/Years

It would seem that if there is a known HDMI e-ARC and optical HDMI converter issue between Samsung UHD TVs and Sonos Beams and Arcs (two products) by numerous customers that have been reported and remained unresolved for months and years, then by this point some type of an official definitive resolution or determination would have been made so as to not waste the time of frustrated customers or tech support.

If Samsung TVs are definitively incompatible then please just say so I can return my new TV. I have also contacted Samsung tech support about this issue. No word yet. One would think that senior management and software engineers would have elevated this to determine if there is a software, HDMI-CEC firmware, newer HDMI e-ARC cable or other solution. The optical adapter doesn't help either. 

 

Below are greater details into the issue I have been having.

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@SamsungSupport @Sonos HELP! After hours of tech support & researching, Samsung UHD TVs seem to have numerous HDMI-CEC a-ARC compatibility issues where other HDMI devices interfere w/ Sonos Beam soundbar. Fix firmware now & help all customers PLEASE. 

 

I have enjoyed the TV UNTIL I spent over ten hours on Sonos tech support and hours scouring the internet on Troubleshooting forums on Samsung and Sonos to confirm that Samsung TVs specifically have known issues with HDMI-CEC e-ARC compatibility with the TV sending an audio signal to the Soundbar. The Beam works otherwise with all other wifi synced speakers and only connects to the Samsung TV for a few minutes before dropping. HELP! Firmware update? CEC settings? I have turned on HDMI eARC Anynet settings, played with Auto signal detection settings, of course plugged it into the designated e-ARC input, changed HDMI cables, ordered a Samsung compatible ARC compatible HDMI cable on Amazon (it's on its way), and plugged and unplugged other HDMI devices in case they were interfering. The other HDMI devices once connected to the TV AFTER the Beam is connected to the eARC input do seem to immediately make the Soundbar drop audio after a few seconds. 

 

 

cajamo,
I assume PCM audio works fine for the TV, so why not just buy a simple audio splitter/extractor and bypass the TV with say your Cable TV box and something like a FireTV/Apple TV etc and solve your problem that way. Using PCM for the TV and 5.1 Dolby surround sound for everything else you have connected.

It’s clearly a TV issue, as the Beam will play the Audio as soon as it receives it and I suspect the TV can’t pass the compressed Dolby audio quickly enough out through its ports. Sadly there’s no mandatory requirements for lip-sync with either the optical port or an HDMI-Arc port either, its only mandated in the HDMI-eARC standard which manufacturers are ‘perhaps’ getting around by using audio pass-through, in some instances. Effectively that has a similar effect to adding an audio splitter/extractor to the setup anyway.

So rather than get frustrated, I would suggest using an extractor/splitter and just for good measure to assist you, I have linked a few quick suggestions below, but you may need to do more research before selecting your own device. There are plenty to choose from at Amazon and other reputable online retailers.

A few audio splitters/extractors randomly selected (I’m not recommending, nor am I associated to, any of these products, so please treat as examples only)...

Hope that assists you to get your TV audio lip-sync issues resolved.

Thank you @Ken_Griffiths for the very detailed and thorough suggestion. Though I’m not thrilled about having to resort to an auxiliary device, if it can fix the problem, then so be it. Had I known this beforehand about Samsung TVs, I would have opted otherwise. 

Thank you @Ken_Griffiths for the very detailed and thorough suggestion. Though I’m not thrilled about having to resort to an auxiliary device, if it can fix the problem, then so be it. Had I known this beforehand about Samsung TVs, I would have opted otherwise. 

I ‘believe’ Samsung and Sonos may have been in contact with each other over some of the HT connection issues, so I would perhaps also keep a regular lookout for any Samsung TV firmware and Sonos software updates ...and see if those may help too.

I am glad to report that it is working now. After various online website and app chat diagnostics reports, I was impatient and called the Sonos 800 number and I believe the tech support person's name was Lara. We spent almost 40 minutes on the call and she carefully had me isolate each separate HDMI device. From my end, I had the Sonos Beam SOLELY connected to the Samsung HDMI e-ARC input and it worked fine. In this instance, when one lowered the TV volume, instead of "TV Speakers" being the icon displayed with the volume changing displayed on the TV screen, the HDMI (Receiver) was the icon displayed. And since the only physical device connected at all (via HDMI) then it was the Sonos Beam, I could clearly and only hear sound from the Sonos Beam, could change the volume also using the Sonos S2 App and the TV remote, and no sound was ever dropped in and out. Then we connected the Google Chromecast via another HDMI, and the Sonos Beam still worked. Lastly, we connected the Comcast Xfinity cable box via another HDMI, and it still worked. 

 

Mind you: unplugging and replugging the power cords and HDMIs for all of these devices had not worked for me before. Only when I solely had the Samsung TV play video and audio through a native SmartTV app. For whatever reason, the order of connecting these devices seemed to have made a difference for me. I wanted to share this with others since this has been a huge pain in the butt, I was about to return one or both products, and none of the other community tech support postings seemed to have a solution posted for the last several months. 

 

Lastly, before this was resolved, and the Beam was only successfully playing music with other synced wifi Sonos speakers via Spotify, the S2 App would not allow me to finish the "TV Setup" connection either via HDMI ARC nor the Optical-HDMI adapter. After this was resolved, that S2 App "TV Setup" option went through automatically. I'm a happy camper now. Took awhile but wanted to share this possible solution with others. 

I’m stuck In the same situation. Have a playbase and Samsung TV. Playing a source other than the tv (such as Sky Q or DVD) with Dolby sound and there is a significant delay. 
 

So i bought an optical splitter and feed direct from Sky to playbase. Works will and with a remote i can switch back to tv. 
 

I will never buy another POS Samsung TV. 

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