I hope this comes out soon and is not too pricey! 

I am presuming that with a switch/splitter/matrix + this dongle CEC command would still get passed across the connections/devices. I ask as I like the convenience of their ATV controlling volume, power etc. 

1st world problem I know. 

If sonos can fix some of the issues with Arc’s sound, having this as an option in the near future would push me to keeping the Arc. 

As it is, it’s boxed in the corner waiting for news before I wall mount it and replace my beam. 

I have a sub and play:1 surrounds, Bass fix and a dongle like this to allow me the joy of Atmos … well it will finally sound epic as I expected! 

Maybe?  CEC commands require a connection between the TV and your ATV.  If you’re using a switch or a matrix, that connection is only going to be there if the switch/matrix is currently set with the ATV as the current input.  So if you’re currently watching cable tv, for example, then your ATV isn’t connected to the TV and thus CEC commands won’t work….unless the switch/matrix has some sort of way passing on the CEC commands regardless of what the current HDMI input is.

IR commands of course, should work without issue.

@melvimbe - thank you. That makes sense and I kind of figured that you’d need to on the relevant input for CEC to work, and that would be fine, in fact probably desired. 

Thanks!

I agree that that would likely be desirable.  I have CEC commands between my TV and xbox, where the xbox will shut down after X time of inactivity.  There’s been a few times where I start using xbox, then switch to another source.  After a time, the xbox shuts down and turns the TV off with it via CEC command, even though I’m on a different input. I’m guessing the same would happen with your ATV.

Yes, oddly enough our ATV is our primary source of entertainment so I have not noticed it shutting down the TV on another input. But I have noticed the other way, we’ll play some Xbox and then watch TV only for everything to turn off some time later when the Xbox shuts down. So I think it would be desirable!

So HDFury is naming their magic dongle ‘Arcana’.

Arcana for the win!

Gotta say, this is the most excited I think I’ve ever been for a dongle.

Very impressed with the speed and transparency from HDFury on this. I started following it on their support Discord channel and they’re answering questions and giving updates about it multiple times a day. Obviously they’re trying to get a product to market and make some money, but there’s a definite fan boy vibe happening as well IMO. They seem to genuinely dig this stuff which is fun to see. 

If Arcana works as promised, I think it will just about be the holy grail for me to be able to get maximum sound performance out of my Arc + Apple TV 4K setup and, importantly, get Atmos from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Disney+.

My only disappointments can’t be helped by Arcana, namely that Hulu on Apple TV bizarrely only supports stereo 2.0 (in 2020? WTF?), and Apple TV itself doesn’t support Dolby TrueHD which rules out Atmos from Plex Blu-ray rips. Hulu will hopefully get its act together and support 5.1 on ATV sooner or later, and since Apple is rumored to be coming out with a new Apple TV soon maybe it will support TrueHD (maybe, possibly?).

But, Arcana would also let me hook up a UHD Blu-ray player or an Nvidia Shield if I really, seriously need a TrueHD/Atmos fix on BD/Plex so the option is there at least. 

Again, excited and ready to buy day one!

HD fury hinted some news through the AVS forum this morning. The are approximating that the dongle will be $100 if preordered, $150 afterwards.  Not sure if those prices will stick, but I would guess that pre-ordered will be discounted. It’s not their first product and have likely done that before.

Also stated that they will have packaged deals for Arcana with one of their matrix/switches.

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/195-soundbars/3153792-hdfury-arcana-earc-adapter-sonos-arc-bose-700-soundbars-3.html

I’m making a habit of checking that thread everyday.

Also worth noting, HDFury isn’t pushing their own products too hard, openly stating that for some people their source may have a separate audio output already, or a cheaper Amazon HDMI splitter is all they need.  

Good catch, @melvimbe. I glanced at that post this morning, thought they were only answering technical questions, and missed the bit about the money. $150 isn’t a bad price for this, but at $100 pre-order they’ll get my cash instantly. 

Their stuff seems super nice… but damn it’s expensive. From what I can tell the cheapest splitter they’ve got which will work is the Integral2 which only has two inputs and is still $250. So a combined Integral2 + Arcana solution is setting me back $350 at least and only lets me hook up an ATV and a BD player. On top of what I've already paid for the Arc/One SLs/Sub/One Wall Mounts, this whole enterprise starting to get spendy fast. 

That is good to see, and there’s quite a few 4 input HDMI matrixes (sp?) on Amazon in the $50 - $100 range that claim to support Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. The issue is going to be finding something that actually does what it says it will AND will play nice with the Arcana. 

I would pre-order in a heartbeat. Any ideas where the best place is to keep an eye on these things? I’m worried I will miss something on the thread! 

Between these two locations you should stay up-to-date - the HDFury team seems to be heavily active in both: 

AVSforums topic: 

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/195-soundbars/3153792-hdfury-sonos-arc-earcadapter.html

HDFury Support Discord (look in the “straight-from-the-lab” for the moment though they say that an Arcana channel will be opening soon): 

https://discord.gg/XWzPRRP

OK, thank you! 

And since many of us may well need a splitter/matrix has anyone got experience with any of these devices. There seems to be so many options. 

I was looking at this: https://www.amazon.ca/HDMI-Matrix-4x2-4K-60Hz/dp/B086WWZJLW/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=EZCOO&qid=1592850522&sr=8-3

Looks good other than no CEC (Needs a firmware update?!)

Any recommendations out there? 

You should be able to describe to this thread so you get notified whenever there is an update.  Or you could ckeck the AVS forums thread, or HD Fury’s website.  I think there will be at least a couple weeks of preorder, so I wouldn’t worry too much.

Besides making sure what ever device you settle on handles the video and audio properly, I also want to make sure that it’s easy to control.  I don’t want to use a cheap remote or have to getup on the couch and switch manually (gasp!).  It seems like HD Fury’s stuff works with universal remotes.  I’ll need to understand how that works better before making a decision.

Agreed, I don’t want to spend a fortune to make this work. Also, I don’t want to add too much complexity - when I am not at home my family just want this to work. It’s amazing how in trying to keep it simple Sonos have forced me to add complexity. 

Once we all have eARC TV’s maybe then things will be simple but for 2020 some more inputs would be nice!

That looks like a valid option to me.  The lack of CEC isn’t an issue, and if you aren’t using smart apps, lack of ARC passthrough isn’t either.  I don’t care for remote. 

One thing worth noting is that for our use case, output 1 and output always need to be the same source.  So if you want to switch from input 1 to input 2, you’ll need to switch both outputs, otherwise video and audio will be different source.    For that reason,  traditional matrix may not be the best option, unless you can lock the outputs to the same input or something.  A separate switch and splitter may also be a better option.

Most of the matrixes I’ve been looking at seem to include an IR remote, which will work well for me. I’ve been a Logitech Harmony user for a LONG time because it makes my complex setups easy for the wife and guests to use (I set them up for friends and family for the same reason). As long as there’s an IR input, I can teach my Harmony Hub the codes and we’re off to the races. 

Good to know.  Don’t have a harmony remote myself right now, but think it might be about that time.  I assume then you could right some sort of macro/routine so that output 1 and 2 always match?

The Harmonys have always been pains in the ass to set up, but they make up for the annoying setup by being pretty damn flexible. Yes, you can create “sequences” within “activities” that can have pretty much as many steps as you want. For example, you could have a “Watch Apple TV” activity that does the following: 

• Turn on television
• Turn on Apple TV
• Set television to input X
• Set matrix output 1 to Y
• Set matrix output 2 to Z 

And since we’ll probably lose CEC volume control of the Arc by adding the matrix / Arcana, the Harmony can control the Arc’s volume via IR as well. 

Ideally, whatever matrix you / we choose will have a “discrete IR code" that will allow you to directly select an input per output (e.g., an IR code that tells the matrix “set output 2 to input 3”). If not, the Harmony can cycle through inputs until it lands on the right one. It’s not an awesome way to do that because it can get “out of sync” and be a pain to fix, but it can work. 

(Super-ideally, the matrix will also have the ability to simply set both outputs to whichever input is selected which would render this last bit moot) 

Off-topic for this thread but I’m trying to get my Arc controllable via IR with the Harmony Hub and can’t work it out. If you have a moment to look here I’d be very grateful.

https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/logitech-harmony-volume-control-in-an-activity-6843475

I’ll take a look @tomwhitaker, but I’m currently controlling my Arc volume via CEC through the TV so I’ll have to add the Arc as a device to my Harmony Hub first to be able to be able to speak intelligently about it. 

Arcana sprints closer to reality. Preorders coming in about a week. Pre-order price point of approx. $100 (full price approx. $150). Sounds like they need to reach at least 400 orders to go into production. 

To get on the list and see some more proof of concept videos, go to their Discord channel: 

https://discord.com/channels/314050739771146241/570996082557976577/724788312967086120

This is ridiculous.  I’ll be spending close to $400 or $500 just to get uncompressed ATMOS.  Not worth it.  I wouldn’t mind spending $200 but beyond that is crazy.

Depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.

If all you want is to get full range audio from a single external source (like an Apple TV), you can get away with just the Arcana and a cheap amazon splitter. At pre-order prices that should only cost about $150 total. 

if you’ve got multiple external sources, you’ll need a matrix that has multiple inputs and at least two outputs which can still be had for around $50 on Amazon so your total would still be in the $150 range. 

where things get spendy is if you want full range audio from multiple sources AND From the TV’s built in apps. For that you’ll need one of HDFury’s expensive devices like Vertex2 and yes, then you’re spending several hundred dollars total. 

Unfortunately, this is where Sonos Arc owners find ourselves. The Arc is what it is and, short of purchasing a new TV with eARC capability the Arcana dongle is the only known solution for getting full range sound to the Arc. If you want the Arc but don’t have an eARC TV, buying a new TV or buying the Arcana are going to be your only real options to get Atmos from external sources. Otherwise, there are many other less expensive options than the Sonos Arc on the market that provide Atmos and much greater input flexibility for a lower price. 

Any recommendations on a splitter or matrix?  My budget is around $50 - $75.

Not yet, no. I’m looking for a good one myself. I need a matrix that has four inputs, two outputs, and can handle Atmos, Dolby Vision, HDR10 and can be controlled by IR. I’m looking around and following others’ research on HDFury’s discord channel. Will report back here when I find something I like.