From Sonos reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/h7z9gv/hd_fury_is_working_on_an_earc_solution_for_sonos/
HD Fury is working on an eARC solution for Sonos Arc - Full Audio & Atmos from any HDMI sources
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+2
Perfect, done. Thank you.
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.
yeah, they seem to have been a little surprised at the demand for Arcana. From their Discord channel:
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.
Is there any way of getting the Arcana in the UK? Shipping and import tax could be quite expensive.
I think you are no further ahead with a reseller as they will pay duty and mark up the price.
they have options to ship with lower declared value to reduce VAT and dut
And if you order it before it gets to uk you will save because preorder is less exp
This makes a lot of sense to me, and if you need more than one device to input to the dongle, a simple switch will work, without requiring an actual matrix device.
This is true and I think it’s a better product overall. I am little surprised by the move though as the added feature somewhat eliminates the need for, or better stated as ‘fit with’, HDFury’s other matrix/switching products. I’m thinking specifically about their Diva, Maestro, and Vertex2 products. All of these have a dedicated HDMI output for audio receiver’s and subwoofers at a lower video quality, in addition to the HDMI output for video. If you used one of these products, you would not need the extra HDMI output in the Arcana. You actually wouldn’t want to use it for video since it’s at lower video quality.
I suppose though that it reduces the chance that a customers disappointed with the product, if they did not get a proper switch/splitter/matrix to god with the Arcana. Now, single source users need no additional equipment, and multisource only need to find an HDMI switch that does not reduce video quality.
Also, there is no doubt that the device will need an external power source, since HDMI splitting requires additional power. I imagine it with be USB powered so it can connect to the back of a most TVs
The HDFury Arcana is not working for me with the Sonos Arc.
I have an optoma HD142x projector with a PS4 for a blu ray player. I rigged everything together with the correct wiring going to the right ports etc, with a new HDMI cable which supports Dolby Atmos. But it doesn’t work.
I contacted the HDFury support email but got nothing back. I tried they’re chat room support and was very briefly told that you can’t set up the Arc without having a “CEC” supported TV install it all first. I didn’t get any more explanation than that. Well I don’t have a CEC TV or any TV. None of my friends have a modern TV in their house either.
So is my only option to buy a TV to set the Arc up? What happens then? Can I simply switch everything to back to the projector set up and from then on the Arc will eternally work without a TV? What happens if the Arc system resets? Do I need to have a TV too on standby?
I’m not considering buying a TV on top of the 1200 EUR or so I’ve spent on the Arc, Arcana, wall mount and cable. So it looks as though I have to send everything back.
If anyone has a fix for me I would be most grateful to hear it. But I thought I better post this because surely there must be a lot of potential disappointed buyers out there with a projector setup who should know that you need a modern CEC TV to set all this up.
Thanks in advance for anyone who might have any answers to the questions above :)
So HDFury is naming their magic dongle ‘Arcana’.
They are quoting around $122 for Preorder and $159/$169 after that. The price is definitely good for what I need, especially my main source is Apple TV 4K.
No doubt. With already being nearly $2k into this (Arc + One SLs + Sub + Wall Mounts), another $122 to get as much Atmos as possible out of my Apple TV is a no-brainer.
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!
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.
This is probably the key. They realized that they could make the product more user friendly, easier to understand, and, importantly, something that worked out of the box as a stand-alone product if you only had one device to hook up. Which might describe a bunch of people (99% of my viewing is done via Apple TV, so while I’ll probably still get an HDMI switch for the extra functionality, there are plenty of others who may not). All for very little additional cost.
Plus, it’s obvious they’d been getting a lot of push-back on the Discord channel about the total cost of potentially having to Pair Arcana with Diva/Maestro/Vertex2. While those may be wonderful products, they’re not cheap by any means.
There was mention of ‘big players’ getting involved, so perhaps the feature was requested by someone who could commit to a large order, or something of that nature.
One thought that popped into my mind though about this new change though. That being that the majority of TVs being sold today are smart TVs, with multiple HDMI inputs, CEC commands. and at least ARC capabilities. Applying the Arcana solution currently means you give up all that functionality. In order to use the TVs smart apps (or switching capabilities) you would need to get one of HDFury’s more expensive products or Thenaudio’s SHARC + HDMI switch...so a minimum of around $175 USD in addition to Arcana….to use some of what you’ve already paid for (still no HDMI switching at TV or CEC commands).
However, if HDFury would make the HDMI video output port on the Arcana ARC capable...able to receive ARC signal from the TV and pass it through to the HDMI port connected to the TV...then much of the TVs functionality is regained. Smart app audio from the TV would pass to the Arcana and then on to the Arc, for DD+, Atmos. Other HDMI inputs to the TV would also pass through the same connection, so there isn’t a need for an external switch, You would still have the one source where you what TrueHD/eARC that would go into the Arcana, pass video to the TV, and send audio to the Arc.
That sounds simple enough, but I’m not really sure what all goes into being an ARC ‘sink’ device, or to properly switch to the right audio and video combo depending on the current source. Probably more difficult then I think. I would not be surprised if such a feature added $100 to the costs and not really as appealing to consumers.
Also, there is no doubt that the device will need an external power source, since HDMI splitting requires additional power. I imagine it with be USB powered so it can connect to the back of a most TVs
I believe they’ve said there’s a USB-C port on it to provide power. I doubt they’ll include a power supply in the box for the cost they’re going for, but HDFury has been pleasantly surprising me throughout all of this so who knows.
As long as it’s standard/typical requirements for the cable and power supply, no problem.
There was mention of ‘big players’ getting involved, so perhaps the feature was requested by someone who could commit to a large order, or something of that nature.
I could see that. They specifically mentioned in one of the posts that it was a distributor they were talking to so maybe?
One thought that popped into my mind though about this new change though. That being that the majority of TVs being sold today are smart TVs, with multiple HDMI inputs, CEC commands. and at least ARC capabilities. Applying the Arcana solution currently means you give up all that functionality. In order to use the TVs smart apps (or switching capabilities) you would need to get one of HDFury’s more expensive products or Thenaudio’s SHARC + HDMI switch...so a minimum of around $175 USD in addition to Arcana….to use some of what you’ve already paid for (still no HDMI switching at TV or CEC commands).
However, if HDFury would make the HDMI video output port on the Arcana ARC capable...able to receive ARC signal from the TV and pass it through to the HDMI port connected to the TV...then much of the TVs functionality is regained. Smart app audio from the TV would pass to the Arcana and then on to the Arc, for DD+, Atmos. Other HDMI inputs to the TV would also pass through the same connection, so there isn’t a need for an external switch, You would still have the one source where you what TrueHD/eARC that would go into the Arcana, pass video to the TV, and send audio to the Arc.
That sounds simple enough, but I’m not really sure what all goes into being an ARC ‘sink’ device, or to properly switch to the right audio and video combo depending on the current source. Probably more difficult then I think. I would not be surprised if such a feature added $100 to the costs and not really as appealing to consumers.
I feel you, but at the same time I’m kind of looking forward to Arcana being the simplest possible solution to do what I want it to do - give me a way to get Atmos from my external devices to my Sonos Arc. I have no doubt that HDFury could (and probably will, down the road), throw the kitchen sink at this problem and come up with a solution that does everything anyone could possibly want. But I also have no doubt that that will take a lot longer and cost a whole lot more and will be a lot more complicated.
At this point, I’m going to count it as a minor miracle if they actually get Arcana into consumers’ hands by September/October considering that we’ve had our Arcs for a grand total of about 2 weeks now. I’m sure there will be other options that will open up other functionality but if I can just get Atmos from my source to the Arc, I'll, personally, be happy.
(I, personally, will be VERY happy indeed considering that I don’t care a thing in the world about built-in TV apps or CEC control since I never use the apps and control everything with a Harmony Hub - but I may be in the minority).
And just think, this all could have been avoided if Sonos had just stuck one more damn HDMI port on the freaking Arc…. ;-)
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
If that’s what you’re asking
If that’s not what you meant, you’ll have to clarify your statement because I don’t get it, either. ;-)
Further note. Here’s the place where that post occurs, which is not Reddit:
https://www.avsforum.com/forum/37-video-processors/3069170-hdfury-vertex2-owner-s-thread-67.html
Specifically, post 1990 in that thread.
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
If that’s what you’re asking
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.
At this point, I’m going to count it as a minor miracle if they actually get Arcana into consumers’ hands by September/October considering that we’ve had our Arcs for a grand total of about 2 weeks now. I’m sure there will be other options that will open up other functionality but if I can just get Atmos from my source to the Arc, I'll, personally, be happy.
This is the first I’m really seeing a product grow from original inception/need to actual product, so it’s interesting to see how all this develops.
I used to work for a company that manufactured relatively simple consumer electronics products. I’ve seen the process go extremely smoothly and quickly, and I’ve seen the process slog on disastrously for months or years. There’s a lot involved, and HDFury is being surprisingly open about the process. I know just enough about how it works to not sound like a complete idiot, but in general they still have to spin up the printed circuit boards, build and test production samples, cut steel for tooling (assuming Arcana is going to have some sort of plastic housing rather than just being a bare board), make packaging, produce and pack up final units, then start distributing them to users. And they haven’t even finished designing the PCB layout because they literally just made physical board changes and added an entire new feature set YESTERDAY. There’s also a software / firmware component in there and I literally have no idea how that works or what timeframes are like.
Add all of that up, and that’s why I’m saying it will be a minor miracle if any of us have this in hand even before the end of the year, much less by Sept/Oct. They look like they are moving very, very fast and my hat’s off to them for it.
I do use TV apps right now, and firetv. I tend to use the TV apps because I like the interface better, but also will share content across 2 TVs at times, which i can’t do with TV apps. So it may be for the better. And I don’t have a harmony remote, and all these changes are driving me in the direction of needing/wanting one.
I’m the opposite - I’ve used a bunch of streaming boxes (Roku, built-in apps, TiVo, even Boxee if you remember that one from way back) and Apple TV has far and away the nicest, slickest, easiest-to-use interface of them all IMO. The built-in apps always feel like I’m navigating through molasses, no matter which TV I’ve ever tried (and certainly on my Vizio). Apple TV is smooth as silk - and it doesn’t hurt that I’m super tied into the Apple ecosystem in general so all my stuff is there and just works (HomeKit, Siri, AirPlay, Apple Music, Photos, apps, etc.).
As for Harmony, it’s wonderful and it sucks in equal measure. Setup is atrocious, even with the newest Harmony Hub (the iOS app is needlessly slow and confusing). It’s flexible as hell, but you’ve got to WANT to make the thing work. But once it does work, it’s awesome. And you can hand your significant other, kids, or guests a remote that looks like a real remote and has nice big buttons that say exactly what you want to do (“Watch a Movie,” “Watch Apple TV,” etc.). I have two Harmony Hubs in my house, and have set up my Mom/Stepdad, Dad/Stepmom, best friend, and uncle with them as well.
And just think, this all could have been avoided if Sonos had just stuck one more damn HDMI port on the freaking Arc…. ;-)
I understand why it was not included, and would have been shocked given Sonos history if it had, but I would have liked to see it included.
I’m new to Sonos so don't know anything about their history, but from what I see and hear I’m getting a serious “Apple vibe” in terms of how they think and act. And I’ve been an Apple guy for decades at this point so that’s a mentality I fully get, no matter how frustrating it is sometimes.
Sonos made a very conscious decision to have the Arc be as ultra-simple as possible which, in the long run, is absolutely going to be the right call. Within a few years there will be a plurality of TVs out there that support HDMI-eARC and those owners who purchase the Arc will be very happy, indeed as they’ll get the best possible sound by hooking up only a single HDMI cable from their TV to their Arcs. Simple, easy, effective, user-friendly…. if you have the right/newest equipment. Very much the Apple way. ;-)
It’s just causing us pain at the moment because eARC is pretty bleeding edge and we Arc early adopters still want everything it brings to the table. Which is why I’m super glad we’ve got people out there like HDFury who are helping us work around these teething pains.
Speaking of watching this develop in real-time
HDfuryToday at 12:38 PM
@Michiel For the moment consider you will have to use IR learning, we are checking if we can handle cec forwarding and clear that as well. CEC TV > ARCANA > sources will work, CEC TV > ARCANA > SONOS ARC, not sure yet, but we have a few ideas to try before concluding.
So, it sounds like they’re trying to figure out CEC control as part of Arcana. Gotta love these guys!
+2
As a Harmony Hub owner, I’ve never cared about CEC. Would someone mind explaining what they need CEC to do, via HDMI, to care about its implementation here?
For me, it’s PS4/ATV/Xbox/Switch - HDMI Switch - Arcana - Arc and Projector.
Harmony Hub turns on the projector and brings down a screen, usually done by voice. Then I tend to navigate ATV with my iPhone or the Apple Remote App, and obviously use game controllers on the consoles. So the sole use for my Harmony Remote or Harmony App is to adjust the volume, which I used to do on a Receiver, and now will do on an amp (for which I’m going to have to fool my Harmony into thinking I have a TV, then teach the Arc that TV’s volume commands).
Am I right in saying that people care about CEC so they can use TV remotes to control volume via HDMI not IR? Or is there a bigger reason?
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.
Thanks for the update!
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.
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.
I had asked about ARC as well - and they were not too encouraging. I found a 3x1 switch that purports to do ARC - but maybe not in the way I need - that I hope to use with Arcana.
For 29.00 I thought it might be worth a shot - I got last years Sony OLED A8G w/o eARC openbox at big saving and hoped not to spend what I saved over the A8H...
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