Projector use with Sonos Home Theater Speakers

  • 12 May 2020
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I found this on another site wherein a member asked Sonos to clarify the use of Sonos Home Theater speakers with a projector. It also contained a note on the Arc regarding Dolby Atmos material. Take it for what you like...just FYI.  Cheers!

 


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Thanks for sharing Aj!

I saw that one on Reddit too and reached out to the agent involved, as that isn’t really the best answer and isn’t accurate on some things either. There’s nothing unsupported about projectors with the Arc.

The Sonos Arc is designed to get audio from an HDMI ARC or eARC connection, and if that’s not available, you can use the included Optical to HDMI adapter that is included.

To get Atmos content, you'll need HDMI ARC from a source that's able to pass it through, and the content that you're playing has to be in a format with Atmos audio content.

As to the original poster, he has a LG HU80KA projector which says it has an HDMI-ARC connection on HDMI 2 according to the manual, so connecting the Arc there should work. However, it doesn't specify if the projector is capable of passing Atmos content. Generally this is the sort of question best asked of the developer for the device connected to the Sonos Arc, to make sure it is compatible with an Atmos soundbar. The Sonos Arc will play any Atmos content that comes in with Dolby Digital Plus or over HDMI eARC with Dolby MAT or Dolby TrueHD.

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I was curious if there is any way to have an AVR play a role. In all my research there isn’t an AVR that does the eARC in the way the Sonos Arc needs, but since most projectors don’t have ARC or eARC, it is killing any use of the Sonos Arc for this segment.

Ryan any chance you know of any way to have the Sonos Arc work over hdmi with an AVR or some other adapter? 

 

If not, would be great of Sonos could release an adapter just like the optical adapter.

 

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From what we’ve seen, AVRs that are not typically ARC sources, they are usually what’s called an ARC sink, just like the Sonos Arc, so you generally wouldn't be able to hook up Arc to an AVR. What you’d need is a device that is an ARC source, of which it’s usually mostly TVs, though some projectors claim to be able to do it. I’ll pass along the suggestion of an adapter to the team, but no promises on if that’s possible.

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From what we’ve seen, AVRs that are not typically ARC sources, they are usually what’s called an ARC sink, just like the Sonos Arc, so you generally wouldn't be able to hook up Arc to an AVR. What you’d need is a device that is an ARC source, of which it’s usually mostly TVs, though some projectors claim to be able to do it. I’ll pass along the suggestion of an adapter to the team, but no promises on if that’s possible.

Thank you. Very much appreciated! 

Userlevel 7

From what we’ve seen, AVRs that are not typically ARC sources, they are usually what’s called an ARC sink, just like the Sonos Arc, so you generally wouldn't be able to hook up Arc to an AVR. What you’d need is a device that is an ARC source, of which it’s usually mostly TVs, though some projectors claim to be able to do it. I’ll pass along the suggestion of an adapter to the team, but no promises on if that’s possible.

Totally agree with @Ryan S 

It gets a bit complicated with an AVR. First the source would need to be a high-end 4K player. The AVR would need eARC input and eARC output to a properly equipped eARC speaker or TV. However, AVR’s typically want to send that type of signal to speakers wired to it’s terminals. 

Sending the signal from the AVR to the TV and then to the Sonos Arc IMO would be the working setup.:thinking:

To use the Sonos Arc I’d rather invest in a TV with eARC and connect the appropriate source to the TV.