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
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Awesome, thanks for the LPCM support.
However, i own a Xbox Series X since yesterday which supports Dolby Atmos output. So now i’m wondering, what would be the prefered output? 5.1 uncompressed LPCM, or Bitstream - Dolby Atmos?
Atmos of course
Userlevel 7
¿Está activado Simplink (CEC) en la configuración de su televisor?
¿Qué películas/programas específicos has probado en Netflix?
Perhaps some kind of software could take over Windows control of audio output? Check out this thread. It is somewhat related (forcing 5.1 PCM output over HDMI). https://www.reddit.com/r/htpc/comments/77ixil/can_i_force_windows_10_to_output_51_pcm_to_my/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
The software is Equalizer APO. Never used it, no idea if it would work but there has to be a way on PC to do it somehow.
So i did alot of reading. No point in getting that software as all PC games output to 5.1 PCM. I’m lost here. So frustrating. I got E-Arc, LG TV that supports HDMI 2.1 and Sonos Arc but it wont ouput 5.1 PCM on the PC.
Any update on the LPMC would be most appreciated, just got Arc and I’m very disappointed it doesn’t support it :(
Same here. How on earth was this not integrated to begin with??
Considering a return.
Thanks for the update. It certainly has improved things. However, with my UHD 4k Blu-Ray Player (Panasonic UB 820), I have DTS set to PCM. It only still plays in Stereo PCM 2.0.
My Nvidia shield and Apple TV pays DTS titles with PCM 7.1 which is great, but very disappointed that the Blu-ray player does not. Any ideas?
I may be wrong but you are telling the player to output in plain old stereo 2.0, set the player to bitstream and see what you get.
Well, not sure about the “ofcourse”.
Bitstream means compression, LPCM 5.1 is uncompressed.
I have been wondering the same, I only game on the xbox so thinking LPCM may be better, but LPCM 5,1 or 7.1 ?
I’m still not understanding the above suggesting people hold off on the firmware update, why can’t folk just quickly switch the Apple TV to output Dolby Digital 5.1 (when required)?… the ARC doesn’t support the LPCM codec yet anyway and the link above shows some ATV 4K Apps outputting Atmos in any event.
I didn’t see that as a good reason to not update the TV firmware.
In any event the TV itself has Netflix, Prime Movies, Disney+, Rakuten TV Apps (built-in or available from LG store), which all support DD+ (Atmos) anyway.
I can’t get surround to work with my PS4 or my Switch with the new update to the sonos Arc. I have a new LG 55’ NanoCell witch has eARC according to the specs in the web. I get Atmos perfectly when using Netflix etc.
In the TV settings for the PS4, I have the HDMI input format to PCM and the output to Passthrough. In the PS4 I have set output to PCM. I only get stereo in the Arc.
In the Switch, same story, I have selected surround in the console but only get stereo in the ARC. Same settings on the TV 
I have tried rebooting everything with no effect. I don’t know what else to do.
You want input to be bitstream, not PCM. Output Passthrough.
I can’t get surround to work with my PS4 or my Switch with the new update to the sonos Arc. I have a new LG 55’ NanoCell witch has eARC according to the specs in the web. I get Atmos perfectly when using Netflix etc.
In the TV settings for the PS4, I have the HDMI input format to PCM and the output to Passthrough. In the PS4 I have set output to PCM. I only get stereo in the Arc.
In the Switch, same story, I have selected surround in the console but only get stereo in the ARC. Same settings on the TV
I have tried rebooting everything with no effect. I don’t know what else to do.
You want input to be bitstream, not PCM. Output Passthrough.
So the output of the PS4 should be Bitstream too? Maybe I’m not getting something, I understood that now that we have PCM multichannel support in the Arc, we’d want to have PCM all along, in the PS4 and in the Arc.
+1 for another customer with Sonos ARC + AppleTV + LG 2020 nanocell TV and no Dolby Atmos sounds.
I have a LG 55NANO866 and I have Atmos…? What are your settings on the tv?
Don’t you long for the days when the only options for a coffee were black or white, and for audio formats Stereo or DD5.1?
lol, very much.
Hi folks. Thanks for reaching out and sharing your thoughts here. I understand where you all coming from and as Ryan’s response we will be adding Multi-Channel LPCM support to Arc as part of a future software update. We don’t have the exact timing to share at this point and will keep you all posted when we do. All threads are being addressed and checked here so creating a new thread is not necessary as this has been forwarded and being worked on. Ryan’s response has just been marked as the best answer for you to easily see and know that we addressed it.
Appreciate your patience and understanding. We and the community are always here to help.
The problem is with this is that it's pretty much the same response you gave 4 months ago…
From your customers perspective you've done nothing over the last 4 months. Saying it's "going to be added" doesn't exactly instill confidence when we are already 4 months down the road and you have nothing to say or show for it.
In the other thread on this subject you will find a response from another Sonos staff member that confirms it’s in active testing and will be added in a firmware before end of year.
I can’t get surround to work with my PS4 or my Switch with the new update to the sonos Arc. I have a new LG 55’ NanoCell witch has eARC according to the specs in the web. I get Atmos perfectly when using Netflix etc.
In the TV settings for the PS4, I have the HDMI input format to PCM and the output to Passthrough. In the PS4 I have set output to PCM. I only get stereo in the Arc.
In the Switch, same story, I have selected surround in the console but only get stereo in the ARC. Same settings on the TV
I have tried rebooting everything with no effect. I don’t know what else to do.
You want input to be bitstream, not PCM. Output Passthrough.
So the output of the PS4 should be Bitstream too? Maybe I’m not getting something, I understood that now that we have PCM multichannel support in the Arc, we’d want to have PCM all along, in the PS4 and in the Arc.
I’m not sure about output on PS4, but you want bitstream on input on tv and pass through on output. Otherwise it will flat it down to stereo. I believe PS outputs LPCM in bitstream.
Well, not sure about the “ofcourse”.
Bitstream means compression, LPCM 5.1 is uncompressed.
That’s not really correct. Bitstream means that the sound is not decoded and needs to be decoded by the audio system. This can be however uncompressed audio like DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD. If you don’t want to lose Atmos, you need to use Bitstream on the XBox as Atmos metadata is not included in LPCM. For games though I would recommend to use LPCM to prevent any audio sync issues.
Yes me too. I am not sure how the Sonos is doing PCM if it does not support PCM but don’t care as the atmos Dolby sign is displayed and I am now happy.
Well, not sure about the “ofcourse”.
Bitstream means compression, LPCM 5.1 is uncompressed.
That’s not really correct. Bitstream means that the sound is not decoded and needs to be decoded by the audio system. This can be however uncompressed audio like DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD. If you don’t want to lose Atmos, you need to use Bitstream on the XBox as Atmos metadata is not included in LPCM. For games though I would recommend to use LPCM to prevent any audio sync issues.
Im going to use LPCM 5.1 as I only play games, should I check “let my receiver decode audio” as well?
Thanks
Okay, probably a super-dumb question from a new Arc owner:
My cable set top box only has two options for audio output - “DD 5.1” and “Stereo”. When I set it to “DD 5.1” and look at the Audio Input information in my Sonos app, it states the input is “Multichannel PCM”. Based on this thread, does this really only mean that the Arc recognizes that the input is in Multichannel PCM, not that it is actually able to do anything with it other than output it in stereo? (Before you ask, just putting my ear up to the bar, I can’t tell for sure whether there is some faint 5.1 distribution going on or if the bar is instead outputting only in stereo but the soundscape seems wider due to the multiple Arc speakers.)
Thanks,
Mike
Needs this update! Hopefully it’s not too far away.
Oh I see. PCM works fine after LG firmware just not lpcm for high sq and Sonos need to fix that as promised. Is that correct.
I got the physical Apple TV and Dolby on new firmware. Guessing via pcm not lpcm. Is that correct?
You have PCM sound issues while the Sonos app shows 5.1? That doesn’t track with any of the issues mentioned here that I saw. If the issues are with PCM 7.1 showing then yes, we all have had the same issue, check out the last few pages. You need to force your device (PC, assuming this is what you are gaming on?) to output in LPCM in 5.1. In my experience with PS, if you do that and the Sonos app says 5.1 PCM it should be good to go. There also seems to be another possibly unrelated issue with the LG CX. A few guys above are having issues with 5.1 signals showing as 7.1 (in app) that at least for me, do not exist (Sony TV). If you can’t force 5.1 on your PC, maybe just use DD. That is what I did with my PS4 before I swapped to PS5 and the option to override and force a configuration output showed up.
12.2 is out now, where are release notes?
Ah ok, if you only play games then LPCM is probably the way to go (there might be games with Dolby Atmos, but I’m not a big gamer myself anymore). I think the “let my receiver decode audio” is only for Bluray playback isn’t it? But I would disable that as well, if you only play games.
Not a clue I think I have always had it enabled, but I think it is just for the movies come to think of it.
Thanks to everyone for the feedback so far. Support for multi-channel LPCM is in active development. We'll be testing over the next few months to be part of a future software update. We will update the community once it's available.
A few months?
I just got an LG BX and have my Arc plugged into the eARC port - yet when I play any Dolby Atmos content via my Apple TV 4K I get no sound (tried heaps of combinations of settings to no avail).
From what I understand this is due to the arcs lack of LPCM support. So my Arc will be a very large brick until this update is released in a few months?
You could perhaps ‘switch’ audio codec in the Apple TV settings to Dolby Digital 5.1. I believe that should keep things going with surround sound until the multichannel LPCM update arrives.
Okay I’ll give that a go, thanks mate! At least I’ll get some kind of output for now :)
You should be able to receive Atmos from the apps within the TV itself if you want to receive the full sound until the codec is updated. Not ideal, but better than having to wait for the update to be completed.
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
Best news ever for an early Arc adopter
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