Intermittent audio from Sonos Arc to Samsung QE65Q95T


Setup Sonos Arc with One SL and Sub Gen3 on my Samsung TV. Synced up perfectly with HDMI ARC connection and all working great. However for some reason occasionally after shutting down TV for the night, the next day the audio comes on and then stops for a second or so before starting again. This repeated continuously, unless I disconnect and reconnect the HDMI connection or reboot the Sonos ARC. rebooting the TV has no impact, so the problem looks like the ARC. Interestingly if I go to the Sonos Source I don't get any signal from the Sonos when the issue is present? However when it's all working properly, I get signal okay and see the Sonos curved lines screen. 

Diagnostics have been submitted on I'd 1258411113

 

Any help appreciated

 

 

 

 


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91 replies

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Hello @Talvish,

Thank you for your response and I apologize for shifting my focus, I didn’t forget about your situation. 

At this time I am uncertain if the “lost connection” error reflected in your diagnostics are an artifact of the software decoder, of the signal being passed from the TV or of a literal loss in signal contact. 

I do now know that we are consistently experiencing audio issues from Samsung TVs passing Dolby Digital+ with eARC enabled.

Certainly feel free to continue to test and submit data from different configurations if you would like but this is now an issue being looked at by our team.

I would invite anyone reading this thread with the same issue regarding Samsung, eARC and Dolby Digital + to disable eARC within your TV settings for now and see if this resolves this audio issue.

@rrgn, I believe you have something else happening with your set-up and will be with you in a moment.   

 

Hi Jean

 

I am among one of many users on this forum and the Samsung Forum that have trouble with the connection between the Sonos ARC and Samsung TV's around eARC. It appears to be prevelant on the Samsung tvs that have the one connect box - so Frame and Q95T etc. Yes the sound appears to be stable when eARC is disabled, occasionally there is an intermittent cut out though on sound via the TV though which is annoying as it means plugging HDMI out and back in to reset.

The big issue though is eARC. The whole point of Sonos ARC and eARC enabled TV's is to have uncompressed Dolby Atmos playback via the devices. Is this is not functional can you at the very least advise that Sonos is working on a fix with Samsung.

Simply being advised to disable eARC is not a great long term prognosis for this issue, and I know of a few users who have returned products from both suppliers due to this issue. I too an considering this before my return period expires.

Please can you obtain some comfort for users that this issue is identified and you are working on a fix.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

Hello @Mikelev,

Enabling eARC should only be necessary to allow the TV to pass Dolby Atmos (Dolby True HD) but is not necessary for Dolby Atmos (Dolby Digital +).

The issue we are experiencing with Samsung is specifically regarding Dolby Digital + while eARC is enabled rather than issues with Dolby True HD.

In this instance, disabling the eARC will not effect the audio quality but if you change to a true Dolby Atmos source, you will need to re-enable it.

We are aware of and working on a fix for this issue but I do not have any specific information on the status and time-frame for a resolution.     

Hi Jean C

It has been over 6 months since users started reporting this issue and many of us are still facing this.

I have the same issue of intermittent audio cut outs which force us to manually power things off and back on or unplug HDMI etc just to get audio working again.

Is there any news on ways to work around this or any possible software upgrades on the horizon, if not, the advice should be to return the product and find another solution. 
 

Any help you can provide would be appreciated 

So glad I found this thread so I can follow for updates! Samsung Q90T + Arc that mutes/unmutes every two minutes by itself, regardless of input. 

 

My job is QA’ing pre-release hardware so I’m no dummy when it comes to troubleshooting but this is really frustrating. Even after contacting CS I was told that my diagnostic reports showed nothing unusual and they suggested that someone else in the house with a second remote might be doing it… what? I asked how to use my Arc if it shows as normal and they had no solutions and told me just to contact them again when it happens.  –_–

 

Second major issue I’ve had. Love the Arc but it’s surprisingly buggy and not quite fully baked.

Many people seem to have similar problems with the sound. Just bought a new Samsung QE55Q95T and Sonos surround system (Arc, sub and a pair of SL One. The problem mainly occurs after streaming music using Spotify. Then when I go back to watch TV the sound problem occurs, and the sound is intermitting. The ONLY way to fix this so fare is turning of power completely. Not enough to just switch of TV. Happens every other day. I have called support many times now in Denmark and they are just out of this world and no help at all. But yes, I am very disappointed when paying premium price for a system like this.

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Hello @TimCooper

Welcome to the Sonos community and thank you for reaching out with your issue.

Are you able to disable to the eArc setting on your Samsung TV and does this make any difference in the signal connection with your Arc?

You should be able to find this under the Advanced Audio Settings in your TV.

I am seeing that the Arc itself is losing the connection from the Samsung TV whether this is due to the way that eARC has been implemented on Samsung TVs or if its due to a physical connection issue, I’m not yet sure. We have had issues in the past even with the HDMI/ARC implementation on Samsung TVs. In the past have suggested testing Sonos HT devices with the included optical adapter to see if this provides more stable performance.

Please continue to keep us posted on your situation so that we can assist you further.      

 

Hi Jean,  People are reporting similar issues beyond the Samsung TVs (Sony and LG TVs are also mentioned, in addition to sourcing from TV and Apple apps). Seems unlikely a physical connection issue unless it is on the Sonos Arc itself. See here:

https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/sonos-arc-samsung-q90t-sound-cutting-out-anyone-else-6843526

Things seem to be more stable for me at moment though not fully stable. When watching Dolby Atmos content (I have an Xbox One feeding to a QT90), I’m seeing a very brief audio cut-out about once every 20 to 30 minutes now (almost seems like clockwork). This has been regardless of the app being run (Netflix, Disney+, MS Movies & TV). I’ll see if the built-in apps exhibit the same problem (they did when the issue was happening once every minute or so). As a note, the Xbox is up-mixing everything as Dolby Atmos.

While moving to optical is technically an option BUT then there is no Dolby Atmos, which defeats the purpose of this set up.

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Samsung Q95T here with Sonos Arc. I’m experiencing this issue on the second day. Replugging the HDMI cable fixes it, not sure for how long. This along with issue with eArc is making me consider returning the Sonos Arc

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@Jean C. I disabled eArc to get audio. When I did that, I had intermittent audio (1 second skips) on three separate occasion. Only way to fix it was to plug out the HDMI cable from the Sonos Arc and replug it. 
 

In summary: Disabling eArc didn’t resolve my intermittent sound issue. 

Just adding another voice to the Samsung Q95 owners who are having issues. I got an Arc with 2 x Sonos One SLs yesterday and have had a constant issue of sound dropping out every other second across multiple video apps until I unplug and then reconnect HDMI cables. The cables are definitely up to spec and all the firmware is up to date on both Sonos products and the TV.

 

I’ve contacted customer support to say that unless there’s a rock solid solution to this (which seems doubtful) I’ll be reluctantly returning my kit and getting something else instead.

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I’m still having this issue - on both a samsung q90 and a sony bravia vh1.   Both TVs cut out to my sonos Arcs hooked up with eArc enabled.  Its very frustrating

@Jean C. I disabled eArc to get audio. When I did that, I had intermittent audio (1 second skips) on three separate occasion. Only way to fix it was to plug out the HDMI cable from the Sonos Arc and replug it. 
 

In summary: Disabling eArc didn’t resolve my intermittent sound issue. 

Same thing here. Brand new sonos arc and brand new Samsung frame tv. Have to unplug and plug hdmi cable at least three times to get audio working. 

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Hello @TimCooper

Welcome to the Sonos community and thank you for reaching out with your issue.

Are you able to disable to the eArc setting on your Samsung TV and does this make any difference in the signal connection with your Arc?

You should be able to find this under the Advanced Audio Settings in your TV.

I am seeing that the Arc itself is losing the connection from the Samsung TV whether this is due to the way that eARC has been implemented on Samsung TVs or if its due to a physical connection issue, I’m not yet sure. We have had issues in the past even with the HDMI/ARC implementation on Samsung TVs. In the past have suggested testing Sonos HT devices with the included optical adapter to see if this provides more stable performance.

Please continue to keep us posted on your situation so that we can assist you further.      

 

Hi Jean,

 

EARC is disabled. If I turn it on, I get no audio at all to the Sonos ARC. Seems a lot more stable now, but will keep an eye on it and confirm.

 

Would be great to get EARC sorted though?

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@Jean C. I’ll see if I can submit one when we watch something on that TV (never submitted one before but looks pretty straightforward). I thought it was odd too, but while watching Hamilton on Disney+ another movie on MS Movies & TV, it would happen in that range.

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Hi @Jean C. , was there anything of note in the diagnostics I did send?

Regarding your questions:

I haven’t been able to test the TV apps for the 20 to 30 minute issue. When I tried on the weekend, I only had about 15 minutes and there were no audio drops.

I also haven’t tried the Xbox with eARC off recently.

I can try to do these later today.

I can say in the past (I believe prior to the last firmware updates and reboot/reconnect of the Arc), I was getting audio drops much more frequently from the both the Xbox and the native TV apps and it didn’t matter if eARC was on or off. Though I recall at least two cases that when eARC was on that I got audio drops and you could see the TV saying that it was switching from eARC to regular ARC, even though I didn’t do anything.

 

I also want to try a power boot of the Arc again to see how things change but I’ll wait until after doing the above items.

 

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Hi Jean,

powered off tv unplugged all hdmi connections only 2 exist hdmi-1 is my ziggo cablebox, hdmi-4 arc port is sonos arc i waited a couple of minutes then turned tv back on waited then plugged both hdmi connections back, now the tv didn’t see my sonos arc hdmi port but once i turned my cable box on it did & audio played through the sonos arc. Then i turned of the cable box & started netflix via onboard tv app audio was fine S2 app was DD5.1 audio in all good. However after 5 minutes i stopped the netflix app turned of the tv, started tv & netflix app again to replay what i was watching no audio through the sonos arc just through tv speakers.

i can reproduce this by repeating the above sequence of steps each time i stop & restart netflix via onboard tv app the audio via sonos arc is gone just tv speakers. I submitted 733250010 as diag report

 

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@Jean C. , quick update for you. I tried last night to replicate using the Netflix TV app and I didn’t experience an issue. My wife also reported not experiencing an issue while watching Hulu via the Xbox, but I did while Netflix (with a show that was definitely using Atmos, where the show my wife was watching wasn’t Atmos, but the Xbox would have been upmixing). I’m going to run some more experiments today (TV app and Xbox, including a different Xbox) and keep you posted.

 

I was hoping to get on one question answered from my previous diagnostics. You mentioned you could see audio bad audio connections happen, I was curious if it was just the single drop of audio each diagnostic, or was it more than that, but I didn’t notice (because I only heard the one per diagnostic)?

 

I want to say thank you for your constant communication and patience with all of us here.

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Hi Jean,

 

another update & good news your remark that something was highjacking the connection was true, i disconnected my ziggo cable box (Next 4K model) since doing this & watching several shows via netflix onboard tv app no audio fails whatsoever. I also checked another forum site & numerous people have been complaining about the Next 4k cable box & it’s cec implementation not functioning properly. I naturally need the cable box to watch tv channels so have ordered a cec killer switch/dongle which fully disables any cec signals being sent & causing interference with other devices. I will test more during the upcoming week & post these results hopefully it can help others in the forum.

Thanks for helping out here much appreciated.

My Sonos Arc is intermittently loosing sound when turned on with Samsung TV

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Samsung Q95T here with a Sonos Arc connected to the Samsung One Connect box. When eArc is on, there will be no audio. Turning eArc off allows audio to work again. 

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Hello @Mikelev,

Enabling eARC should only be necessary to allow the TV to pass Dolby Atmos (Dolby True HD) but is not necessary for Dolby Atmos (Dolby Digital +).

The issue we are experiencing with Samsung is specifically regarding Dolby Digital + while eARC is enabled rather than issues with Dolby True HD.

In this instance, disabling the eARC will not effect the audio quality but if you change to a true Dolby Atmos source, you will need to re-enable it.

We are aware of and working on a fix for this issue but I do not have any specific information on the status and time-frame for a resolution.     

Same issue with Sonos Arc being intermittent - using a 2020 Samsung Q60T. Streaming services Netflix and HBO Max appear to be fine. However - constant issues with Hulu. Only solution is unplugging the Arc. Using an HDMI cable for connection.

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Hi Jean,

 

happy to report i’ve had no audio drops/issues for the last two weeks so the cec killer/switch on the ziggo next 4k cable box has solved the issue i was having.

On another note i am looking into buying another TV specifically one that supports eArc & i see quite a few issues reported with different tv manufacturers together with the sonos arc are you aware of a fix from sonos that’s on it’s way or can you recommend one was looking at the LG CX or Sony A8 both 2020 models.

 

thanks. Rrgn

 

Same error with Sonos ARC and Samsung The Frame (2020). Report submitted. (955291383)

And...again: 3 seconds sound 1 second silence.  I need to unplug and plug it back again to restore the sound.Sent another diagnostic log (191327650)

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Intermittent sounds keep happening. I have to unplug and replug the power cable of my Arc often to reset it - like 3 times a week. I’m seriously annoyed because I can’t expect my non-techie family members and kids to do that. It has been months!

Samsung Q95T and Arc.