I received the Sonos Arc yesterday and I am struggling with my Xbox audio.

My Xbox HDMI goes into my 2019 Sony Bravia 4K TV and  the TV audio goes out by HDMI-ARC to the Sonos Arc in.

When I calibrate The Xbox for Dolby Atmos I lose the sound on my Xbox. It goes completely silent. An error on my Xbox says my audio receiver does not support this audio.

I don't know what the problem is but I have a few possibilities:

1 - the tv doesn't support atmos? (It has Dolby digital plus sound setting, which is correct, I beleive)

2 - The atmos signal doesn't "pass-through" the TV to the Sonos Arc.

3 - the HDMI cables aren't a recent enough version (they are probably 1.4)

4- there is a problem with the calibration of my TV or Xbox

It could be any of these things or none of them, so it's frustrating. 

I have a first generation 1080p Xbox One, but from what I read that shouldn't matter. Atmos is available across the Xbox One platforms.

(I also purchased the Dolby app for Xbox which makes it more frustrating because I am out 15£) 

Any solution is going to cost me money. Do I buy an audio receiver? Do i create a matrix of hdmi splitters and switches? 

Honestly I am not even sure I can hear a different with Atmos. I'm not sure if I am hearing it at all or just imagining 3d sound.

Also cannot get my Xbox One X to output Atmos.

Whenever I select it I get an error and it switches back to Dolby Digital.

I have done more research.

Apparently this is a common problem. Most TVs won't pass Dolby Atmos through from an external source such as an Xbox or Blu Ray player into a sound bar. You will only get Atmos when it is 'native' to the TV, such as from broadcast, cable or TV app.  

From what I can tell, this problem isn't technical- it's legal. Pass though has been purposefully blocked by TV manufacturers and Dolby, I assume to prevent piracy?

Atmos has been designed to transit only from device A to device B, it cannot go from device A through device B into device C except where a few TV manufacturers have flouted the rules. Unfortunately this isn't something you can find in technical specs so you just have to get lucky.

Most Atmos sound bars will include an HDMI output so that an external players such as Blu Ray could go straight into the soundbar first, and the video signal would then be sent to TV from the sound bar. Unfortunately the Sonos Arc does not include an HDMI out.

Considering the best audio signal you can get is still blu ray, and the best use of Atmos currently comes from console gaming, its an unfortunate design flaw for the Sonos Arc.

I am hoping that industry changes their restrictions and this problem is resolved soon. Or that hackers find a workaround.

I am not sure but there might be a work around if you have the Sonos Amp or Port? I am not sure if they support Atmos passthrough to Sonos speakers.

There are plenty of TVs that pass through Atmos.

Can you name some or point me to a list?

Update: here is the list I found. Atmos passthrough only available on 17 out of 93 TVs reviewed. Most of them being either Samsung or LG.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/tests/inputs/5-1-surround-audio-passthrough#:~:text=5.1%20audio%20passthrough%20allows%20you,to%20a%20receiver%20or%20soundbar.&text=We%20also%20test%20passthrough%20over,%3AX%20object-based%20formats.

Hello!  I will try to save you time here.  The issue is the audio codec used by xbox, playstation, and apple tv 4k.  When you switch to atmos they use LPCM.  LPCM is not recognized by the ARC.  There are a few threads that mention this issue.  Sonos has stated they are working on it without an ETA.  Dolby digital 5.1 should work but not atmos/true hd until Sonos provides a software update.  Good luck and join the folks waiting like myself.

Hi, I can confirm that atmos does work with Xbox one x, with my LG OLED55CX and Sonos Arc. LG passes atmos through to Sonos Arc (also I get atmos via Dolby TrueHD though my tv has earc) via the Xbox blu-ray app.  My Xbox is set to HDMI Audio bitstream and Dolby Atmos For Home Theater (HDMI ONLY)’ option is ticked, the TV set to pass through. On the Blu-ray app settings I have it set for let my receiver decode the audio, which I turn off for dts audio tracks.  Sonos app confirms it’s getting Dolby atmos signal. I also get atmos via the Xbox Netflix app.

The Xbox One X, uses a bandwidth flexible format called Dolby MAT 2.0 (same as the Apple TV 4K)
 

If you have a TV that has eARC (example: Sony 950G) you will be completely fine… In this case you will receive Dolby TrueHD Dolby Atmos (uncompressed “lossless” audio) when watching a Blu-ray movie, and Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) (compressed “lossy” audio) Dolby Atmos when playing a game that is supported or watching streaming apps on the Xbox One X. Only Blu-ray movies support TrueHD. 
 

If you have a tv that only has ARC, that is all dependent on the TV, and if (big if) if can pass/transcode Dolby Digital Plus with meta object data, then it MIGHT pass the lossy version from the Xbox to the sound bar. It will NOT get the Dolby TrueHD track when playing the Blu-ray movie, and will default to DD+ or standard Dolby Digital 5.1. Typically only TV’s that support Dolby Atmos with their built in apps might (again might) do this. Either way, they will not pass Dolby TrueHD because you will need eARC to pass the lossless audio. 

Also to add, you need to setup the Xbox correctly, and you need to download and install the Dolby Atmos Xbox app, and your TV also needs to be setup correctly. That is always the tricky part, as every TV requires different things to be turned on within the system to get this to work. 

Just for context, I have my Xbox one X working perfectly (and my Apple TV 4K) in beautiful Dolby Atoms on my Sony 950G (yes I have eARC)

Wondering whether the Arcana will enable xbox to feed Dolby Atmos to the Arc. I only have ARC, no eARC.

@Downl1nk_1

Hi. Not sure about your eARC comment fully.  I have an eARC 2020 LG 75 Nano that I bought at the same time as the Sonos Arc, and it doesn’t give me ATMOS on the Xbox One X or Apple TV 4K when connected to the Sonos Arc.   As you said, there are many people with same situation and same TV as I.

With the tv internal speakers I get Dolby ATMOS with the Xbox but not on the Apple TV 4K (neither internal nor Sonos Arc).  I am just using the internal LG apps for AppleTV+ and Netflix and on my Xbox I just keep it at Dolby Digital.   

Maybe it has do with the LG firmware update that everyone mentions that it no longer works on internal speakers.   Tired of trouble shooting this for sure.

Hello

Same TV, just curious, do you use the same audio settings for games as well?

I use my xbox for gaming mostly but have started to use it for blurays as well, particularly DTS ones.

Thanks