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I’ve got a Beam Gen 2 connected to an LG BX via eARC and an Xbox Series S, and I’m struggling to find a configuration that works well for both TV and Xbox content.

If I set Digital Sound Out to “Auto”, TV content is great, but the Xbox will claim my setup doesn’t support Uncompressed 5.1 or 7.1. Dolby Digital can be selected but this unfortunately has a bad delay that seems to be either a widely known issue with the Xbox or a widely known issue with LGs depending on who you ask, so I can’t do much about this.

If I set Digital Sound Out to “Passthrough”, I can use 5.1/7.1 on the Xbox with no delays, but then I have a problem with TV content where if I pause and resume anything, it takes a second or two for the sound to come back. No delay is introduced, just a break in the audio so I miss a few words and end up having to rewind a bit.

Other settings: eARC = On, DTV Audio Setting = Auto, HDMI Input Audio Format = Bitstream.

Any ideas where the problem is here and if there’s a combination of settings that is going to work for the Xbox and the TV? The setting is buried under too many slow menus to constantly change it, so my best option at the moment is just to use Stereo on the Xbox and hope Dolby gets fixed eventually, but it’s a little unsatisfying.

When the TV is set to Pass Through and you pause, resume, and experience the 1-2 seconds of no sound, how much time has passed since you paused the content? Do you experience the 1-2 seconds of no sound if you resume after only 30 seconds? What about after 4 minutes?

The Beam will go into standby mode when it doesn’t detect an audio signal after 3 minutes. The 1-2 seconds of no sound could just be the Beam waking up from standby mode which is completely normal. If this is the case, setting the TV to Pass Through is the best option.

Pausing for even a second or two will cause the audio gap so I don’t think it’s the standby. 

Not sure if this is significant, but experimenting a bit, I’ve noticed that when I pause on Auto, the Sonos app continues to show the audio input (typically Dolby Multichannel PCM), whereas on Passthrough, the app shows no audio input while its paused. So it seems like maybe it is taking a second to reacquire the input? Is that normal?

Not sure if this is significant, but experimenting a bit, I’ve noticed that when I pause on Auto, the Sonos app continues to show the audio input (typically Dolby Multichannel PCM), whereas on Passthrough, the app shows no audio input while its paused. So it seems like maybe it is taking a second to reacquire the input? Is that normal?

I’m not certain, but it may have something to do with the fact that the TV is doing an audio conversion with the Auto setting. That’s why you see “Dolby Multichannel PCM” rather than “Multichannel PCM”. The latter is what you want to see displayed in the Sonos app from non-Atmos content on the Xbox.

Evidently there is a processing delay along the audio path. The stream is restarted immediately, however, filling buffers and completing protocol handshakes then requires a couple seconds. I would place BEAM at the bottom of the stack when attempting to assign blame, but if this is a handshake issue all units share blame at some level.

Do you experience the startup silence if you use xBox Dolby Digital? I’m simply curious, I’m not suggesting that this is a viable operating mode.

Full disclosure: I’m not an Xbox user or anything more than a casual LG user. If you are willing to get your hands dirty with some tech, here is an FLIRC article that could stimulate some thought. FLIRC supports Xbox. I didn’t see any indication that FLIRC supports LG, however, other platforms, such as HARMONY support LG. Note that HARMONY is fading from the market. A plus is lower prices, a minus is waning support. There are other DIY universal remote platforms. The approach would be to generate a long list of commands and pauses that bludgeon through the Xbox/LG processes with a single button press.

Do you experience the startup silence if you use xBox Dolby Digital? I’m simply curious, I’m not suggesting that this is a viable operating mode.

 

Yes, the Xbox setting makes no difference, but its the TV’s built in apps that I’ve been having the problem with so I wouldn’t have expected it to. Actually I installed Netflix on the Xbox and it doesn’t have the pausing issue, which I guess points to this being LG’s problem.

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