Are you really not supporting multichannel PCM on the newly announced Arc?
Why? It’s not a licensing issue this time.
It seems like there is always something missing with your home theater products.
Best answer by Ditte
View original
Page 2 / 14
5 months later and a $800 soundbar / $2k TV with a Switch outputs stereo. It’s embarrassing.
Its embarrassing that Nintendo are too cheap to pay for a Dolby license, for sure.
Yeah but no one EXPECTS that from Nintendo, they are never leading edge on any graphical or sound technologies. I expect Sonos to be plug and play and support standards out of the box. Their whole selling point is that’s it’s premium sound and easy to use.
But to your failed point, my Apple TV also outputs Stereo too because of this. It’s completely unacceptable and quit trying to defend their shortcomings.
When I play movie tracks that has Dolby Digital 5.1 content on Sonos Beam the Sonos app says Dolby Digital 5.1 however if I play the same movie tracks on ARC it says Dolby Multi-channel PCM 5.1. I am using Netflix/Amazon Prime/Disney app on the Samsung Q70T TV. Does anyone noticing this? If I play a movie with Atoms content, the ARC detects Dolby Atmos.
On Samsung Q70T TV - If I change HDMI-eARC Mode from Auto to Off, then I see the the Sonos receive Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 signal. For Dolby Atmos content, I am seeing Dolby Atmos (DD+). If I change HDMI-eARC Mode to Auto, then the content which has Dolby Digital 5.1 changes to Dolby Multi-Channel PCM 5.1 and for Dolby Atmos content, I am seeing Dolby Atmos.
The issue turning off the HDMI-eARC Mode is not allowing the pass-through of audio content format from other sources like Xbox one X. What ever content I play on Xbox the output is showing as Dolby Atmos (DD+).
Is this a bug in Sonos ARC?
I am not sure which format is better? Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Multi-channel PCM 5.1 or Dolby Digital Plus signal ?
Depending on the type of connection your TV negotiates (eARC or ARC) only certain formats are available to you. Dolby Multi-channel PCM (Dolby MAT) is only available over eARC so when you disable your TV’s eARC, you will be downgraded to DD+ or DD.
I spent like an hour this morning trying to work out why the Nintendo switch was not outputting 5.1 to my brand new Arc.
I was checking the TV, the cables, TV settings the lot. But… i never looked at the ARC because lets be honest, who would have thought in a million years that the Arc would not support LCPM a format that has been around since the dawn of multi channel auto.
Really disappointed, should have just stayed with the Sono Playbar that was there… lol
I know just own a really expensive set of Stereo Speakers..
Hi Rubeo, I can’t speak to specifics on why it wasn’t included, but I’ll make sure the team knows people are asking for it. Thanks for reaching out!
This is the biggest take away I’ve had so far from the announcement.
I do a lot of gaming on my PC and PC games are nearly all using multi channel uncomrpessed audio. So if this new soundbar is unable to take that multi channel audio and then upmix it into atmos output then I can’t buy it. I’d love to upgrade for Atmos, but it sounds like my PC games will still just have 2 channel audio on this new soundbar.
Can you confirm if this is the case, or will the Arc upmix multi channel PC gaming sound into surround sound/atmos?
With the Playbar if I plug my PC in, then the Playbar only outputs 2.1 and the my rear Sonos play 1 surrounds dont output any sound at all. All I want is for the Arc to output Atmos and the rear Play 1s to make some sound instead of sitting dead quiet
I know for a fact that nearly every dolby atmos AVR on the market will upmix multi channel sound from a PC into Atmos or Dolby TrueHD. Surely Arc should be able to do the same
After being on the “Support Line” for an hour asking why my Nintendo switch wasn't putting our surround sound and not getting an answer, I thought I’d try the forums and lo and behold straight away the issue is here. How has this not been sorted after 4+ months?
This is rediculous the switch has sold MILLIONS. Sonos pull your finger out and sort this out. And while you at it train your support staff to be able to deal with stuff instead of just reading from a script for an hour. Pathetic. I would have stuck with my receiver if I knew this was going to be the result of switching.
Yep I’m another voicing my annoyance that LPCM has been left out. It’s free and is used across all gaming consoles as default. There is no logic behind why it’s not supported by the Sonos ARC especially with eARC
Userlevel 7
+26
Thanks for sharing all of your feedback everyone. We will be adding Multi-Channel LPCM support to Arc as part of a future software update. We don’t have exact timing to share at this point and will update this thread when we do.
This is some bloody excellent news! That was a concern for at least a decent chunk of my non-streamed content.
Thanks, Ryan. Although you’ve said you don’t have exact timing - what we talking speculation-wise… weeks, months, years?
The team has a lot of work to do, and this isn’t the only thing on their list. After coding, it has to go through testing and all of the other release steps, so it’ll take some time. But we’ll let you know if we have a timeline that we can share.
Userlevel 2
Still waiting here Sonos!
First time Sonos customer here. I spent $1700 total on an Arc, Sub (Gen 3), and two Symfonisk bookshelf speakers as rear channels. It’s utterly astounding that all these months later, there *still* isn’t even an ETA or timeline on this.
Can we please get an update here?
It was an incredible oversight the most basic digital audio format wasn’t automatically supported at launch and it’s becoming increasingly absurd that the situation hasn’t been urgently rectified.
Considering the device already supports dolby mat, lpcm with additional metadata, this should not be hard to implement.
Looks like this might be out next month 
https://twitter.com/hopelesswriter1/status/1318444581004992514?s=21
It better is. Playstation 5 wont support atmos and will need LPCM
Same disappointment here. Google Stadia currently outputs only multichannel PCM as its surround offering so it’s very frustrating to see this unsupported. I don’t see the point in an upgrade here right now.
So I decided that I'm returning my Arc.
It didn’t make me fall in love with it, because of the silly issue here described, and I feel that €900 speaker really should.
I may consider revisiting this when LPCM is supported, but not gonna hold my breath.
- 04.80.03 :
“The device codec capability configuration (EDID) for the LPCM codec changed from 2 channels to 8 channels, so the 2019 models can Pass-Trough multi-channel PCM audio via eARC”
-
OFFICIAL CHANGE LOG: Apple AirPlay function improvement - (the rest of changes mentioned below are UNOFFICIAL, extracted from the firmware itself)
-
WebOS version updated to v4.8.0-52203
-
The device codec capability configuration for the EAC3 codec changed from 6 channels to 8 channels.
-
The list of CA certificates was updated.
-
Media server 8K video playback support added.
-
The max size of the saved EPG data was increased (size of the volume increased by 10MB).
-
Airplay application was added to the list of apps that are kept alive.
-
Built-In App-Updates:
WebOS Browser App (Chromium) updated (internal version didn't change).
LG Advertisement App updated.
-
Firmware updates of the following modules:
WIFI
Audio DSP
HDMI 2.1
Multichannel PCM support would have been the final push I needed to upgrade from my Beam. All video games consoles and devices benefit from multichannel PCM (even for those with live Dolby output options - the lag/delay is unbearable).
No doubt the Arc sounds better. But I can’t justify the extra cost only to continue to play my games in stereo.
Of course, you can just swap back and forth in the settings depending if its Atmos and non Atmos content but its just more the hassle. But its a personal preference I guess.
However to flip your question around, what is the benefit to update the tv to LPCM support if its not supported by thh Arc yet? (unless of course you have another soundbar/receiver that support LPCM 5.1).
Pre-update it all worked seamlessly, the update actually makes it less functional until the Arc is also updated.
Userlevel 1
This becomes ridiculous, we spoke here about the flagship soundbar. What's going on ??
Any updates from Sonos on fixes for the LPCM issues, there was a tweet a while back that they are in active testing for the fixes. I guess they want to be sure any firmware in testing is working correctly, but jeez do they take there sweet time to fix things, this Sonos ARC will be ancient the time its working correctly.
Sonos is there any updates at all for the thousands of us waiting ?
Thanks
Hi all,
We hear you. With a software update today, Arc now supports multi-channel LPCM, bringing new immersive sound experiences for gaming, Blu-ray discs, and more. To get support for multi-channel LPCM on Arc, download the latest Sonos S2 update from the app store and then update your system in the Sonos S2 app. After updating the app, go to Settings > System > System Updates > Check for Updates.
All the best,
Ditte
NO LPCM for any of the other HDMI Sonos devices?
Multichannel LPCM requires high bandwidth (eARC). So ARC-only speakers can’t do LPCM.
Userlevel 2
Another vote here as well.. seems like it shouldn’t be something we have to ask for
Userlevel 2
Can we please get a status update on this? 5 months is a real long time for this feature..
Looking forward to this being supported.
Userlevel 2
This seems a strange omission. The Beam can do multichannel PCM but the Arc cannot? This might save me some money and prevent me from buying an Arc as I would want surround sound from the Nintendo Switch.
Same boat here. I’ve seen reports that some TVs may work, while others might not. I look forward to testing on my own Vizios, but even the wider soundstage of the Arc appeals to me.
Page 2 / 14
Reply
Enter your username or e-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.