Question

LG C8 + ATV 4K seems to work great with Sonos Arc — Should I upgrade to C9?

  • 27 June 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 1540 views
B

So I just got my pre-ordered Sonos Arc yesterday, and it seems to play fairly well with my LG C8 and Apple TV 4K using the ARC HDMI port. Having read various threads before the Arc launch, I was getting nervous that a lot of stuff wouldn’t work at all without eARC. So when I saw that the LG C9 (which of course has eARC) was on a really good sale a couple of days ago, I went ahead and ordered it. 

In the meantime I’ve been testing the Sonos Arc with my C8 and I’m getting Atmos from Netflix and purchased iTunes content — which is most of what I was hoping to get. 

My only issues so far are that I had to manually set the audio out to “Bitstream (Dolby)” instead of “Linear PCM” to get 5.1 sound on my PS4. And Plex on the Apple TV seems to be converting TrueHD audio to regular DD 5.1. 

So what I’m sitting here wondering is if the LG C9 and its eARC port is going to deliver something I’m not already getting on my C8. Will it be able to deliver LPCM from my PS4? Or will it play more nicely with Plex? If not I might just cancel the order, since Netflix and iTunes content already seems to be working as intended with Atmos. 

I’ll also be getting the PS5 when it’s released, and not sure if that might be a reason to get eARC..? All in all after doing a whole LOT of reading on Reddit and other places, I’m still not sure what benefits there are to eARC over ARC unless you’re trying to play uncompressed TrueHD sound from a 4K Blu-ray player, which I at least am not planning to do. 

Hope someone can shed some light :)

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3 replies

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Arc compatibility with TVs is frankly a s-show right now, so if you have a working system with your current TV I would sit tight and wait for Sonos/LG/Apple to all get their ducks in a row before changing a thing.

However as the new TV is on its way, assuming you can return it easily, its worth a try.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
S

Do you get any lipsync / audio delay issues when playing atmos content from the TV:s own Netflix app?

B

I decided to try out the C9 as it was possible for me to return it within 30 days, even after opening and testing it.

It seems to work the same in all the areas that I tried the C8. In addition, when getting Atmos from the ATV it no longer shows (DD+) in the system information portion of the app! This is when the TVs digital sound out is set to “Pass Through”. I don't know if there's any meaningful difference there, but thought it was worth posting in case anyone else finds this thread. 

In addition, to my eyes and ears, it seems like lip sync has improved quite a bit from what I was seeing on the C8.

 

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