HD Fury is working on an eARC solution for Sonos Arc - Full Audio & Atmos from any HDMI sources

You are correct on the above, but….what if your sources are a cable/sat box, fireTV, and a blueray player with an ARC capable TV?  Your TV should be able to process the audio from the cable box and firetv and send it to Arcana through the ARC port.  As you stated, your limited by the TV’s capabilities, but the two sources directly connected aren’t beyond the TV’s capabilities.  The Blueray would connect to the Arcana directly, because it is beyond TVs capabilities.  Basically, something like the diagram below.

I am not 100% sure this work, since I can’t test it obviously and have not see a demo setup this way.  It should work in theory though.  I showed the same diagram on the discord channel, so perhaps I can get an answer on that.  They may not want to talk about it though, as it’s a somewhat complicated setup and much of what could go wrong is out of HDFury’s ability to address...if an issue is between source and TV for example.

Hrm….. that’s an interesting thought, @melvimbe, and one I’d honestly not considered as I’ve only been thinking about Arcana in terms of devices that outstrip the TV’s audio capabilities (in my case an Apple TV 4K and a Blu-ray Player). I’ve only been thinking of it in terms of what HD Fury has been describing - multiple external HDMI sources going into an HDMI switch before going to the Arcana. 

With “super powers” I knew that Arcana could now send audio from the built-in tuner / built-in apps back through Arcana to the Arc, but hadn’t thought about adding additional HDMI devices directly to the TV to then send audio the Arc via the TV’s HDMI-ARC port.

I guess it depends on whether the tv (or HDMI-ARC) would support that. I mean, by default that’s how HDMI-ARC works, so… it should? Maybe? Possibly? 

Will be interesting to see what HDFury has to say about it. 

EDIT: Actually, I see their response now on Discord. Looks like this WILL work. Not my use case scenario, but a major plus for flexibility and functionality for those that do!

So, @Briinthesky, it looks like Arcana CAN work like you’re hoping. Kind of. If you have a setup that can take advantage (like @melvimbe’s diagram describes). 

I’d question the TV’s ability to pass eARC, not just ARC, as implied in the graphic. If it only passes DD ARC, and not DD+ or  eARC, then there’s no point for the Arcana to be in the equation.

Since my Vizio TV won’t pass any DD+ from an HDMI input, it would not work for me. 

No, in this scenario (the graphic), the TV is still the limiting factor. You would only get the max of what the TV is capable of from whatever device(s) are connected to it. So if the TV could only do DD+ (sans Atmos) from the Fire Stick, that’s all that would be passed to the Arcana and on to the Arc. 

The TV would basically become a switcher for devices that you are either happy with the current level of audio from and/or for devices that can’t do more than a certain amount (like a cable or satellite box that probably maxes out at DD5.1). 

Gotcha. And wanted to emphasize that point for others who may not have cottoned on to that issue. As I said, it’s a non starter for me, because my TV will only pass DD through an HDMI input. 

cottoned?

Bruce, what are your sources?  I know ATV4k, and that would need to directly connect to Arcanna, not sure what else you use.

You’re old enough to know that phrase… cottoned on, as in understood? I suspect it’s probably a corruption of ‘caught on’, but who knows. I suppose I could look it up, or contact the folks at ‘A way with words’.

My issues are my damn TV from Vizio. I have been told, and confirmed by experimentation, that it will not pass anything beyond DD when the input is an HDMI port. Since I choose not to use the internal apps which report watching habits back to Vizio, that leaves me with the two, and possibly three inputs I want to run through the Arcana device. And this is a 2019 Vizio model. Had I but known that a Sonos was going to go eARC, that might have been something I’d paid more attention to. 
 

That being said, this isn’t Sonos’ fault. I made my bed, I need to lie in it. Which means I’ve preordered the Arcana, and will shop for a switch as soon as the Arcana ships. I’m interested in hearing what Atmos does for me, but I’m also aware of how limited the amount of Atmos encoded stuff there is out there. Trying to be realistic about the whole thing. Not expecting that suddenly everything I watch on DirecTV will be Atmos encoded, even F1 and Baseball/Football. 

Edit:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/cotton-on

Hoping someone might be able to help confirm if the Arcana might be the right solution for me.

Reading all the posts and the FAQs on the HDFury site it feels like it should work, but I’m not that technical so after a bit of extra help to confirm before pre-ordering.

I’m in the UK and have recently purchased a Sonos Arc, but my 2015 Sony Bravia android TV only has HDMI Arc so looking at options to get Dolby Atmos without having to buy a new TV.

I have the following connected sources:

• XBox One S (for Bluray/UHD content, plus Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ apps)
• Sky Q satellite TV (with some UHD content)
• Apple TV (may soon be upgrading to Apple TV 4K)

As I understand it, if I couple the Arcana up witha an appropriate HDMI splitter then it should allow me to get Dolby Atmos (form the relevant sources) as it effectively takes the limitations of the TV (no eArc or DD+ passthrough) out of the question?

Also, a more minor point, but with the Arcana + splitter set-up would I still get sound from integrated apps on the TV or anything connected to the TV (like a Amazon Fire stick)?  I know I wouldn’t get Dolby Atmos from these integrated apps and they wouldn’t be my primary source (as would use the Apps on the Xbox one/Apple TV 4K), but just keen to understand if I’d still get sound through the Sonos Arc this way.

Finally does anyone know what sort of import tax there would likely be for pre-ordering the unit for delivery to the UK?  Looks like it could push the price up a fair bit, but still looks like it might be worth it.

Many thanks in advance.

Mark

@markcdodd :

Arcana + splitter should work for you. If you connect Arcana to the TV’s ARC output, you should be able to get sound from the TV. 
 

I can’t help you with the tax estimate.

It would be nice if by the time they are delivered they have got it to the point where you just plug it between the TV and the ARC without the need for a switcher.

 

Not sure I understand what you mean here.  Arcana has one HDMI input for sources.  If you need more to pass more than one source through Arcana to send audio to the Arc, then you will need an HDMI switch.  If you only have one source, then you do not need a switch.

 

I think I understand what @Briinthesky is saying. I think they mean it would be nice if you could still plug everything into the TV first so the TV is doing the input switching. Then the Arcana would go between the TV and the Sonos Arc. 

If that’s what you’re asking @Briinthesky, unfortunately there’s no way that would work. By the time the audio has reached the TV, you’re limited by the TV’s capabilities which is what we’re trying to avoid in the first place. In this case, the Arcana is basically tricking the Sonos Arc into thinking that the Arcana is the TV (and one that has full eARC capabilities and doesn’t try to do any additional audio processing). So it HAS to come before the TV in the chain (and really, it’s more complex than that because it’s technically splitting the signal but it’s also now, thanks to the super powers, RECEIVING audio from the TV’s ARC port as well - super confusing). 

If that’s not what you meant, you’ll have to clarify your statement because I don’t get it, either. ;-) 

 

You are correct on the above, but….what if your sources are a cable/sat box, fireTV, and a blueray player with an ARC capable TV?  Your TV should be able to process the audio from the cable box and firetv and send it to Arcana through the ARC port.  As you stated, your limited by the TV’s capabilities, but the two sources directly connected aren’t beyond the TV’s capabilities.  The Blueray would connect to the Arcana directly, because it is beyond TVs capabilities.  Basically, something like the diagram below.

I am not 100% sure this work, since I can’t test it obviously and have not see a demo setup this way.  It should work in theory though.  I showed the same diagram on the discord channel, so perhaps I can get an answer on that.  They may not want to talk about it though, as it’s a somewhat complicated setup and much of what could go wrong is out of HDFury’s ability to address...if an issue is between source and TV for example.

 

 

 

 

Hi

Yes you are correct, what i was suggesting was it would be nice if you could leave everything connected to your (Arc capable) Tv and just plug the hdmi into the Arcana and then the Arcana into the Sonos ARC