Sonos Arc and Samsung Q900 Dolby Atmos Support

Theoretically you should be fine. This set seems to support Dolby Digital Plus over ARC which, depending on your source, should allow it to pass Atmos to the Sonos Arc.

If you’re using built-in apps, you’ll probably be in luck based on what early users have been saying so far; if you’re using an Apple TV 4K or some other streaming box the answer is a giant who knows. Many of us are in this same boat (I’ve got a Vizio E-Series that I’m very curious to find out if it will be compatible)  

(The biggest difference between ARC and eARC is that eARC is part of the newest HDMI 2.1 spec, very few TVs support it, but it has enough bandwidth to pass uncompressed Dolby TrueHD / Dolby Atmos signals to devices that can support it like the Sonos Arc)

Good luck, and if you pull the trigger make sure to report back to us your results! 

So good news and bad; I’m in New Zealand, I got the arc today, and have the Samsung Q900R which I stupidly purchased for more money than I have ever spent on a tv on the promise of earc update being imminent several months ago. Dolby Atmos works with Netflix which appears to be the only Samsung app that supports it (I have tried Disney plus and amazon to no avail) but when I play games or uhd movies in my Xbox due to the lack of arc it will not play any Atmos. I expected this to be the case and will not be purchasing a Samsung tv ever again as for a 2019 8k flagship tv not to have this basic functionality is very very poor. 

I had to play around a lot to get Netflix working, little trick, go to amazon prime video, play something, go to settings change the audio setting to Dolby digital plus, then go back into Netflix and then some shows had the Atmos logo. Disney doesn’t work and neither does amazon, nor my Xbox etc. basically the native Samsung apps are crap and we can’t get round this using an external device as there is no earc 

Better than nothing, I had hoped Apple TV 4K would work as that would solve some more problems with Disney plus and amazon, seems it’s only the LG panels that can decode the mat to dd plus from reports so far. Wish I’d got an LG tv, the Q900 has turned into an expensive nightmare, especially if rumours about it not supporting the future 8k streaming codec turn out to be true 

External streaming devices should be in DD+ and should not require eARC, ARC should do it.  If it’s not working, then your TV isn’t passing it through.

You stated that external device couldn’t replace native Samsung apps, which implies streaming since that’s what Samsung apps do.  Streaming sources, internal or external are going to be DD+.  My understanding is that that’s even true on ATV for non-Apple apps.  According to Sonos, they do support MAT.   

Dolby TrueHD and DTS are codecs found on physical media, so therefore those will come through external devices as you stated.    However, the statement that anything coming from an external device (HDMI) is going to require an eARC capable TV in order for the Arc to get atmos format audio is incorrect.

Slightly changing my words but I see your point. In my case my other streaming device is the Xbox one but this will not recognise the arc as an Atmos device without earc from my tv and unless I’m missing something there is no option for direct connection. So the Xbox downgrades any uhd, game or streaming app to Dolby 5.1, Smart drive above and several articles have pointed to the fact that Apple TV won’t work with a number of tvs as it doesn’t process that codec, so it’s up to the tv to change it to something the arc can read. So what streaming device can I purchase to work through regular HDMI on my tv that will pass Atmos from Disney plus and amazon prime please? 

I did some digging and as far as I understand Samsung botched the native apps Atmos support with it’s latest firmware upgrade (for the 2019 line of TVs). So until Samsung fixes this and or also enables eARC with a firmware upgrade or Sonos Arc supports LPCM the Sonos Arc cannot be used to it’s full potential on the Q900R - which this thread is about.

I should have read this forum before, got my Sonos Arc today and as most of you have stated above, no Atmos. When I use Apple TV Tidal app to stream Atmos songs, Apple TV shows an error stating it can only output sound in Stereo. I also pre-ordered the HDFury Arcana, hoping that it would fix all issues.

@jgchiriboga It absolutely did! I was blown away by the simplicity of the device and the way it is able to deliver Dolby Atmos audio stream to the Sonos Arc. I am using the Apple TV 4K connected directly to Arcana. In addition, there is a setting for LLDV > HDR, whereby the Apple TV detects and provides the Dolby Vision option for me on the Apple TV as an option. The image and colors are so much better with this option turned on. If you haven’t purchased it yet, I highly recommend getting it. It also fixed any previous lip-sync issues that were apparent on streaming channels. 

@JamieHeyward If you want PS5 and all of your external sources to output Atmos quality audio to the Sonos Arc, then you will have to use an HDMI switch placed before Arcana. Your setup would be Apple TV 4K / PS5 / Computer / etc to HDMI Switch > Arcana > eARC out (from Arcana) to Sonos Arc and HDMI Arc Out (from Arcana) to the Arc input on the TV/One Connect Box. 

In my case, the majority of content is streamed through Apple TV 4K, so the Arcana is used directly connected to that source. The Arcana is also able to do sound retrieval from TV ARC input to eARC i.e., Sonos Arc system. Therefore I have sound from inbuilt Samsung apps as well as Nintendo Switch connected to One Connect Box coming from the Sonos Arc.

Hope this helps.