Sonos Arc- Dolby Atmos vs Dolby Atmos (DD+)

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I have a new Arc connected to the eArc HDMI port on my Sony A80J. I have an Apple TV 4K.

On my TV- when I have the passthrough setting turned on, and I watch an ATMOS program on my Apple TV, the sonos app shows “DOLBY ATMOS”.

If I turn the passthrough off, the Sonos app reports atmos programming as “DOLBY ATMOS (DD+)”

Am I actually getting different sound here? If there is I can’t really tell.

Is there really a difference when the sonos reports DOLBY ATMOS vs DOLBY ATMOS (DD+)?

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melvimbeAnswer

I don’t think TrueHD, which is usually only found on blueray disks, is relevant here. The source is an Apple TV, which I believe uses Dolby MAT, which Sonos can play. So when your TV does passthrough, it doesn’t adjust the audio at all, and Dolby MAT is sent to your Arc and will label as ‘Dolby Atmos’...see the link I put up earlier.

If you turn off passthrough, your TV will convert the MAT audio to DD+ before sending to your Arc. You still get Atmos, but in the DD+ format...again, see the link.

So I would leave passthrough on, as you’re cutting out the additional processing on the TV side that you do not need.

Danny

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S

Simmz

Prodigy I

If you don't have any devices that can do lossless audio, then it won't harm to keep it off. Think the Sony can do all the codecs so you don't need to worry about converting to lpcm. However I'd try find a solution if possible to keeping earc on and sorting the lip sync issue out.

D

drwpreds123Author

Contributor I

If you don't have any devices that can do lossless audio, then it won't harm to keep it off. Think the Sony can do all the codecs so you don't need to worry about converting to lpcm. However I'd try find a solution if possible to keeping earc on and sorting the lip sync issue out.

Thanks again- that is what I thought. Just to be clear though, the issue I have with the Directv is not a lip sync problem, but just a very annoying 1-2 second audio delay whenever pausing/unpausing live programming or changing channels. For days I tried everything possibly could to fix it with no success until I accidentally discovered that turning that earc setting off completely made it go away. Not sure I understand why but it definitely fixed it. I had the same Directv box with my old TV which was hooked up to a Sonos beam I used before getting my Arc, and it never had that problem.

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