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Hello.

Background

I have a 2016 Sony Z9D TV that only has ARC.  I love the TV and don’t want to change it just to get eARC.  As part of a home renovation, I am about to get rid of my traditional surround system in place for a Sonos ARC 5.1 system (ARC+Sub+2 One SLs).  The TV has 4 HDMI ports of which only 2 are HDMI 2.0 compatible (other 2 are 1.4) and unfortunately tone of the HDMI 2.0 ports is the ARC port.  I want to keep the system as simple as possible so that my family can use it without getting a university degree but still want Atmos.  My family mostly uses Apple TV (4k), PS5, and cable tv - although I have other inputs that I use less often (Nintendo Switch, HTPC etc) and this will go through a cheap HDMI switch.  I never use the TV’s internal apps because the OS is slow. (The TV has google assistant built in which makes automation easy if I use Google Assistant on Sonos Arc).  

Plan

So my plan is as follows.  Purchase the HD Fury Arcana and the Sonos System.  Plug the Apple TV 4K into the Arcana and Arcana into the TV ARC port.  The other inputs will be as is (not too fussed about getting the full audio experience from the PS5 anyway).  I don’t want to route the HDMI switch into the Arcana because I like the picture settings to default to Game mode when the PS5 is attached and movie mode when the ATV 4K is attached.  

Questions:

I know the Arcana works but its not 100% bug free from what I read.  So here are my questions:

  1.  Has anyone tried powering the HDFury Arcana via the TV’s USB port.  I heard the benefit is that the HDFury re-cycles once you turn it on so everything works smoothly that way (i.e a fresh HDMI handshake every time you turn the TV on).  If so, what has been the experience?  Does the Arcana take a long time to boot?
  2. Volume control and CEC.  Will I be able to use the Sony TV remote to control the volume in this scenario - not just for the ATV 4K (which I think you have to change the volume to receiver) but for the other HDMI inputs?
  3. I heard in some circumstances the Audio cuts out or screen blacks out for a few seconds when changing sources?  Does this also happen within certain apps (such as when you are scrolling through Netflix content and you get a pause in audio for every preview)?
  4. How often do you think I have to update the Arcana OS?
  5. Does anyone foresee any other issues I may have with the set up I have outlined above?

One other question not related to the Arcana.  If I am watching Youtube music videos, does the Sonos system recognize that as “Music”?  I.e it will deploy the full setting to the rears for music purposes?

 

Thanks in advance for anyone’s help.

 

 

  1. Others will have to answer about USB, but, plugged into the wall, the Arcana generally boots instantaneously when the system turns on. 
     
  2. I think at least everything hooked up to its own hdmi via CEC should work even with the Arcana. I don’t have as many components as you (ATV 4K and BluRay machine), but both items activate the TV, Arc, etc, when turned on. I can’t speak to how well CEC will work with components on the switch (or even if a switch works well with the Arcana). 
     
  3. The Arcana definitely blanks out a great deal when switching between inputs and programs—definitely turn off the “auto play” previews on Netflix. You may not have the issue quite as much since, with a 2016 TV, you probably will not be dealing with HDR, which adds to those delays. 
     
  4. The Arcana, once you figure out what you want from it and how it works, is a set it and forget it device. They’ve issued updates very rarely and HDFury warns you not to update anything unless you have to (usually that’s if Sonos issues a game-changing update). One nice aspect of the Arcana is it is easy to roll updates back, too.

Vis a vis YouTube music videos, YouTube is in stereo PCM, so your rear speakers should pick up signal (like an old-school Dolby stereo surround configuration). But it won’t trip the Arc’s music mode since you’d be sending through a TV signal.

Hope this helps! 

 

 

 

I’ve got the same setup, albeit with a different TV. The Arcana works fine powered through my TV’s USB, although there is a slight delay between switching it on and the output coming through. We’re talking about 5 seconds…you get used to it. I’ve never had a problem with mine so I’ve never bothered to update the firmware, especially as it doesn’t connect to the internet, so no security updates needed. 
 

I exclusively use my AppleTV but don’t get any blanking between apps or content. 

Thank you both very much for your responses.  Much appreciated.  The Arcana is an expensive device and there are one or two cheaper alternatives but they are not as widely reviewed and not as tested as the arcana especially in conjunction with Sonos soundbars.  So I will take the plunge.  Can’t wait to try everything I’ve my renovation ends after 2 months. 

You’ll be pleased. I was originally put off by the cost, but having spend £2,000 on a Sonos system it’s definitely worth it. The only settings I changed was to remove the UI when it first boots (so you can really forget about it) and the forced DolbyVision. It’s obviously not DV but I’ve found the colours pop a lot more. 

Yeh My TV does Dolby Vision natively and my TV scales everything very well picture wise. I just want it to do the one thing…. Extract audio from my ATV 4K to the Arc and feed the ARC volume controls and audio from the TV to the ARC.  I feel the more you ask it to do in terms of scaling etc is only going to increase the likelihood of things not working.

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