For those of you who are interested in the stretch goal features for Arcana, the current preorder count is at 715.  HD Fury is promising their dev team will get the green light when/if they get 800 preorders.  So it seems like that is likely to happen in the next two weeks.

HDFury also mentioned in their Discord channel that they have a ‘big announcement next week… really BIG’.   Tied to this “haven’t you wondered why SONOS arc demo video with proto isn’t available yet...there must be a reason to that  you guys will be very happy very soon’

Because I love to speculate, this could mean…

1 - Stretch goal features, or some of them, are already working, that’s displayed in the video?

2 - Arcana will have some other feature that was not previously advertised, that’s displayed in the video?

3 - Arcana will be delivered sooner then originally thought?

What’s an accountment?

A typo.  Fixed.

The count has now jumped to 728.  I guess people either are more confidant that the stretch goal features will be completed, or what to get in before the price jumps $20-$40 once 800 pre-orders are in.

edit:  That last part is incorrect actually.  After 800, price goes from $155 to $165.  Once product is shipped, price goes to $179-$199.

https://www.stereo.net.au/news/hdfurys-4k-arcana-solves-compatibility-woes

demo: https://streamable.com/dltres  I think this is the video refered to previosly, so there may be some hint to a feature not yet mentioned previously.

Also, do not buy via the link below.  They are not authorized, and way overpriced.

https://www.ezyhd.com.au/shop/arcana-earc/

Buy here:  https://www.hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/

per HD Fury posted on Discord last night ‘next week a new era will for Arcana no matter what’.

Danny, you continue to be a rockstar. And now I want to go watch Blade Runner 2049 again.…

Thank you for the ongoing updates, sir!

The preorder count is now at 761.

Make that 766

Could make it to 800 my Monday?

Hdfury is going to make announcement soon on discord just need to press the on one of his post should be in the next 15 mins.

Only five more clicks on to go before the big announcement for Sonos Arc owners! Surely there are five people on this community forum that can help! 
 

https://discordapp.com/channels/314050739771146241/724421828701061161/736726289402036276

The announcement was that the stretch goal functionality has been implemented.

– Ability to forward CEC volume control from source to SONOS Arc
– Ability to forward CEC volume control from TV to SONOS Arc
– Ability to retrieve ARC from TV ARC input and forward it to SONOS Arc

Video below is a demo of these features in action.

https://streamable.com/k6ylwv

I asked the following additional questions:

1 - Do CEC power on/off commands from source to TV get passed through? 2 - Do CEC power on/off commands from Arc to TV work? (Done via Arc voice control) 3 - Do CEC switch input commands from Arc to TV work? (Done via Arc voice control)

Awaiting answer.

And the count is 787.  All that means now is the price jumps to $165.

They’re up to 795 pre-orders which, as @melvimbe stated, really only means a price jump at this point since they’ve now demonstrated the “super powers” they were going to start working on at 800 units as already working. 

So… now just begins the waiting game to receive it. They said that they’ll announce a shipping update by mid-August. I’m hoping that they’ll be announcing shipping units at that point given how quickly they’ve been moving. 

Fun times! 

811. Price is now $165.

So HD Fury is now saying the following.

Shipping of the first 1000 pre-ordered units is expected before October 1, 2020.
Shipping of pre-ordered units above 1000 is expected before November 1, 2020.
This section will be updated on a daily basis to keep you informed on the delivery date and the total number of pre-orders: 

The pre-ordered unit count is now at 837, so there is now another reason, besides price, to consider ordering now rather than waiting.  I had assumed that sometime in October/November, or at least before Christmas, that the device would be shipped out to resellers in fairly large quantities, and would be available on Amazon like other HD Fury products.  Not so sure on that.

yeah, they seem to have been a little surprised at the demand for Arcana. From their Discord channel:

when we started this we though it would be hard to get 400pc, now we prolly won't have enough if pre orders exceed 1000, all that is cause of people like you and others who kept posting around to make it a reality. so all credits go to such "behind the scene" work

>8:15 PM]

you guys, the SONOS Arc owners community, did very well.

>8:15 PM]

Without any official statement from SONOS, without any major news article, etc... you did very well.

Yes, it is rather interesting to see how demand can spread rather fast without any sort of formal advertising.  Part of that is because Arcana is a unique item that fits a need that can’t be filled by anyone else, but it definitely seems as though to power of user communities (here, AVS, reddit, discord, etc) is rather strong.  I’m guessing that there original sales estimates were based on sales from previous devices, that although unique and fit needs, not as necessary as Arcana is.

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.

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.