Sonos Arc and LG OLED C8

I’m no expert, but based on some Reddit threads and Apple’s support info, the *usual* way many 5.1 soundbars have been working is to connect the Streaming Box (ATV or Roku or whatever) to an HDMI In port on the sound bar. Then, connect an “HDMI-OUT/ARC” port to the HDMI-ARC port on the TV. This how all streaming boxes (including the Vizio bar I have) have had to do this because previously there was no such thing as eARC.

Thus Sonos’s design approach isn’t going to work for most people, without buying a new TV. Sonos doesn’t sell TV’s. so it’s not like they’re trying to up-sell new equipment... They’ve just locked out everyone who doesn’t have an Atmos-capable TV (only available from 2018). I can’t really understand their approach.

While I absolutely love pretty much everything I’ve read about the Arc and it looks to be almost exactly the soundbar solution i’ve been looking for for a while, I agree wholeheartedly with this even though Sonos obviously doesn’t. TVs aren’t disposable commodities for most people, even those of us lucky enough to have disposable income to spend on expensive toys like 4K TVs.

I just bought my new TV (a 4K Visio E70-F3 w/Dolby Vision and HDR10) late last year. I didn’t know or care that it was a 2018 model and even though I agonized over the features (OLED vs. LCD? Is Dolby Vision worth it or is HDR10 good enough? Number of local dimming zones? VA vs IPS panel type? etc.) and I’m a technology enthusiast (much to my wife’s and bank account’s chagrin) I had absolutely no idea that “eARC” was a thing coming down the pike that I should even be considering. Hell, after doing a little research I found out that not a single Vizio TV from either 2018 OR 2019 supports HDMI 2.1 / eARC (can’t tell about the 2020 models and they’re not even out yet anyway).  

And since this TV was a replacement for a glorious old Sony KDS-60A3000 that I absolutely loved and had for over 10 years before the light engine went kaput, my wife would be rapidly dialing divorce lawyers if I told her I wanted to ditch our beautiful new TV and buy a new one just because of a soundbar. 

I certainly understand Sonos’ stance - they want ultimate simplicity and they’re building for the future. Unfortunately, right now, “ultimate simplicity” and “bleeding edge technology” aren’t exactly compatible with each other. 99.9% of consumers aren’t going to understand literally any of what will be required at the moment to make this work correctly. And maybe they won’t care. Probably they won’t care. But the people for whom this IS appealing and are willing to spend the $$$ to make it happen do care - a lot. And having just one extra HDMI port to act as a passthrough would fix just about every issue that this type of customer (myself included) is worried about. 

But I’m not Sonos product development and they didn’t ask me. Plus, I’m buying one anyway to see if/how it will work with my system (Apple TV 4K / Vizio E70-F3), so they’re getting my money either way (at least for a little while). 

Guess we’ll all see shortly how it all works out! 

Side rant: I would love for some engineer to explain to me why there isn’t enough bandwidth on the Audio Return Channel for HDMI 2.0(a) to support just about any audio format ever when there IS enough bandwidth for HDMI 2.0(a) to support pushing a 4K image (over 8 millions pixels) with over a billion possible colors per pixel 30 times (or more) per second from one device to another. That limitation blows my mind. 

@Highfalutintodd I endorse your comments completely. At the $700+ price point, a second HDMI port with pass-through seems a necessity, especially on a soundbar that’s interned to be used without an AV Receiver!

I may wait a bit to see how this shakes out. But. if it had another HDMI, I’d be buying the Arc right now instead of complaining here.

Regarding ARC/eARC: I’m no audio engineer, but the problem is probably hardware related. ARC was an ad-on to HDMI, eARC provides not just more bandwidth, but different protocol. (HDMI is so locked-down! Devices verify the capability of the device at other end when establishing a connection.) Similar to the difference between 100Mbps and 1000Mbps ethernet. If your hardware don’t support it, you’re SOL.

Ah-ha. I knew I’d read about this somewhere. This is a good explainer on ARC/eARC and has a table that says eARC requires HDMI cable with Ethernet! Didn’t know that.

https://www.whathifi.com/us/advice/hdmi-arc-and-hdmi-earc-everything-you-need-to-know

Bonus. though I can’t vouch for this info.

https://www.trustedreviews.com/how-to/hdmi-earc-sonos-arc-4035031

@Saguaro7 Those articles are interesting reads to be sure. Not knowing enough about how HDMI functions (hardware vs software) I have to wonder if eARC is legitimately a hardware upgrade or if it could potentially be firmware updatable - e.g. reconfigure the firmware to send these signals using these pins via this protocol. I’m sure some engineer will read this and laugh their head off at my ignorance but it does make me wonder (although all of the other features in HDMI 2.1 make me think maybe it is hardware but what do I know). At the very least it’s probably a chipset change but even then that still makes me wonder if it could be firmware updatable. 
 

Alas, this is all just conjecture and speculation and TV manufacturers aren’t in the habit of adding new features to old TVs because they, of course, want to sell you a new TV. But since I’m not going to be in the market for a new TV for quite some time, a fella can dream 😎

@Saguaro7 If this article (https://hdguru.com/firmware-updates-for-earc-begin-to-arrive/) is to be believed, then yes, eARC IS firmware upgradable…. IF the TV supports HDMI 2.0(b) and IF the manufacturer built it to be upgradeable: 

So what is eARC? It was originally introduced as one of seven core features that will be included in the upcoming HDMI 2.1 standard, but while that standard continues to await chipsets and testing protocols for implementation in commercial products (probably starting to arrive in the second half of 2019), the eARC portion can be added now to some HDMI 2.0b based devices via a firmware update, provided manufacturers have made this part of the equipment design.

Poking around, I see that, of course, my TV’s HDMI port is 2.0(a). 

How any of these standards groups or consumer electronics manufacturers think that consumers should be able to keep track of any of this is beyond me. I know it’s not the same thing, but I can’t help but be reminded of this old xkcd cartoon: 

Pretty sure my 2018 LG C8 is also 2.0(a). <sigh> I think I read elsewhere that no update is going to be available from LG. xkcd: excellent as always.

I have the LG B8 getting atmos/dd+ from my apple tv and on Netflix but Disney+ not working on the inbuilt app or the apple tv.
Big improvement over the playbar IMHO

I also get atmos on tidal so keeping my tv 😊

I currently have the LG C8, Apple TV and a Samsung Soundbar...the LG passes Atmos to the Samsung, so I assume it will pass it to the Arc….my Arc was shipped on Wednesday!

Yes it should though it is dd+ atmos not true HD atmos but it still blows me away!
Even 5.1 is improved IMHO 
Hope you enjoy it 👍

Does anyone have any experience of any non-Sonos soundbar connected to LG Oled and Sky Q combo? Am interested to know if the pass through audio direct to the soundbar and then into the tv fixes the sync issues from the sky box. I have now had a Beam and an Arc and both have the same sync problem 

TIA