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

FYI, getting your name on the list means that you’ll get an email when it’s available for pre-order.  If enough of ‘us’ are on that list, I’m sure we’ll get this thread updated with the link soon after it’s available.  In other words subscribing to this thread should be good enough if you don’t want to join discord.

Also, I think the concept videos are available through the links below.  They do not work for me while at work, so can’t say the links work for sure.

https://streamable.com/xj2fbf

https://streamable.com/5fqwg6

https://streamable.com/n7gih7

I signed up to Discord today but can’t find out how I actually get invited to their server. Keen to show how desperate I am for this. 
 

As a projector owner I’m really relieved on cost. I don’t need access to TV apps’ audio and I was expecting any HDFury device to come in much more expensive. 
 

If I had a non eARC TV I’d be looking at all of them is complexity, plus any other benefits of a new TV, and thinking that $400 might be better spent on a TV upgrade. But given the huge appeal of an all-Sonos household and the fact that projectors and ARC aren’t regularly partners, I feel we’ve really lucked out getting this support so soon. Well done to everyone who asked!

Discord is rather confusing, for me anyway.  Once you have your account setup, you’ll need to enter the ‘server’ you have an invite too.  You should be able to paste the discord URL back on page one when they ask for the server, and that will get you in. But as stated, it’s not necessary to preorder, it only allows you too see some discussion and get your name on the mailing list.

You’re right that the total cost of getting this to work is definitely something to consider, but  if you have a larger TV, $400 is much cheaper than a replacement TV, especially if your current TV isn’t old.  Even then, you’ll have the ability to use this device and setup in other rooms when you do upgrade your TV or projector to eARC.

I noticed the device below is often talked about in Discord or the AVS forums.  It seems like a good way to get the Arc connect out of your TV, that you can then feed to a switch or matrix to feed the dongle (and TV for other sources) to the Arc, if TV apps are important to you.  That may ultimately be cheaper than the HDFury equipment, but not as elegant.

https://www.amazon.com/Thenaudio-SHARC-Converter-Processor-384kHz/dp/B083QPCNQN/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=thenaudio&qid=1592935480&sr=8-1

Perfect, done. Thank you. 

ARCANA CHANGES

Looks like the HDFury team is making some changes to the Arcana design to make it both simpler and more powerful (a good combo, IMO):

After some internal discussions, we came to some considerations that we quickly want to submit to your approval.. or not... this below suggestion should not delay anything more than a couple of days. (estimated max 4 days extra delay) Concretely, ARCANA can gain new super power... if you want to... For some extra $ (max 10) we can provide a video output to Arcana, which means that people who plan to use it with a single source that does have any audio out, won't need any splitter to do so and the device will work on its own as standalone, out of the box. But this is just a small part of the new super power that can be gained here... Others benefits that this could bring:

- Arcana would be able to allow DV content playback from HDMI source on HDR10 display

- Video output could be tweaked at will (downscaled, hdcp converted, chroma/color depth/color space modification etc...)

- HDR metadata could be tweaked in real time

- OSD info possible if wanted

tl:dr - They’re adding a video output to Arcana so it won’t require a separate splitter after all

Plus they’re saying that preorders will begin this week for the first 400 units and that they’re anticipating 2-3 months for production from the time they pull the trigger. They’re still gauging interest over on their support Discord channel (https://discord.gg/XWzPRRP) if you want to get your name on the notification list. 

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

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.

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.  

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. 

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.