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Hi

i‘m hoping someone can help with the issue(s) outlined below as trying to go between potentially three different support companies in Sonos/Apple/Panasonic is proving difficult.

So I have myself a new Sonos Arc which has replaced Sonos Playbase as part of surround sound with sonos sub and two play ones.

My TV is a Panasonic Viera from 2017 with an Arc port (not eArc) on HDMI2. Model 58dx700b. My Sonos Arc is currently attached via hdmi not with the optical adapter.

I also use an Apple TV 4K on hdmi 1 port along with basic aerial into aerial tv point for freeview.

My issues are as follows.

1. Despite having reset everything notably the TV to factory settings and re attached the Arc, whilst I can get sound when using Apple TV I can only get the normal TV sound once I have switched input source to hdmi 2 for the Arc and switch back to TV source again. If I switch the TV off and come back to it half an hour later I have to repeat this. I did briefly try with optical adapter and didn’t have this issue but would ideally like to use hdmi. I have ensured that Viera link is on and home cinema is selected as speaker source under TV and hdmi settings.

2. The bigger issue is audio delay when using Dolby sound with Apple TV noticeably with speaking lip sync issues. It appears my TV hdmi and TV sound settings are auto/bitstream/pcm only. I cannot find an ‘off’ setting? If I play a Dolby sound film I know I cannot get atmos sound, but I do get Dolby digital 5.1. The sound quality is amazing apart from the audio delay. If I change my TV speaker settings to PCM the delay doesn’t appear, but the sound quality is very good rather than brilliant In terms of surround as Dolby 5.1 isn’t being outputted. If I change my TV sound setting to auto/bitstream I seem to get 5.1 (definitely on bitstream) but the audio delay. I think I’ve messed around and changed the apple tv matched content settings to both on and off but doesn’t seem to work or make any difference. I think this is an Apple TV only issue as freeview tv doesn’t have delay it would appear when I change audio settings to bitstream.

Can anybody help please? Would a switch or splitter help? And how would that work with aerial Freeview?

thanks in advance


1. Despite having reset everything notably the TV to factory settings and re attached the Arc, whilst I can get sound when using Apple TV I can only get the normal TV sound once I have switched input source to hdmi 2 for the Arc and switch back to TV source again. If I switch the TV off and come back to it half an hour later I have to repeat this. I did briefly try with optical adapter and didn’t have this issue but would ideally like to use hdmi. I have ensured that Viera link is on and home cinema is selected as speaker source under TV and hdmi settings.

In the Apple TV settings, switch off HDMI-CEC that should resolve your issue. the Apple TV settings, switch off HDMI-CEC that should resolve your issue.


2. The bigger issue is audio delay when using Dolby sound with Apple TV noticeably with speaking lip sync issues. It appears my TV hdmi and TV sound settings are auto/bitstream/pcm only. I cannot find an ‘off’ setting? If I play a Dolby sound film I know I cannot get atmos sound, but I do get Dolby digital 5.1. The sound quality is amazing apart from the audio delay. If I change my TV speaker settings to PCM the delay doesn’t appear, but the sound quality is very good rather than brilliant In terms of surround as Dolby 5.1 isn’t being outputted. If I change my TV sound setting to auto/bitstream I seem to get 5.1 (definitely on bitstream) but the audio delay. I think I’ve messed around and changed the apple tv matched content settings to both on and off but doesn’t seem to work or make any difference. I think this is an Apple TV only issue as freeview tv doesn’t have delay it would appear when I change audio settings to bitstream.

Can anybody help please? Would a switch or splitter help? And how would that work with aerial Freeview?

thanks in advance

Yes an audio extractor would solve the issue. The second issue is the TV is not processing the 5.1 Audio quickly enough through its ports. One way to deal with this is to bypass the TV. The Apple TV would need to connect to an audio extractor/splitter. It’s video then goes to the TV and the audio passes through and goes direct to the Arc, without delay. You would need to set the Apple TV 4K to output DD 5.1 in that case and this can be done quite cheaply.

There is however a more expensive way to also split/extract the ATV 4K audio and that is to use an HDFury Arcana device, which will give you Dolby Atmos audio on your Arc from your ATV 4K - you can read more about that here:

https://hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/

Thanks Ken

The HD fury is too expensive for my budget right now.

what I am confused with regards the set up I have using Apple TV and freeview aerial is the single sonos arc hdmi port.

so with an extractor and bypassing tv what is the set up which allows both atv and freeview to play through arc?

I can get that ATV —->hdmi—->splitter—→ one hdmi output to Sonos arc and one to tv? Is that right? At this point the arc hdmi port is occupied so how does tv aerial going to tv get sound to Sonos Arc?

would using optical adapter help anything?

Apologies if I’m being dense.

 

Perhaps see the video that goes with this product, which will hopefully answer your questions

https://www.amazon.com/OREI-60Hz-Audio-Converter-Extractor/dp/B07T6CDPQJ/ref=sr_1_4

This is just an example by the way and just to add that I’m not affiliated in anyway to the product and am not recommending it. It’s just one example of many on Amazon.

Hope that assists.

I will just add most folk use the optical output from the extractor to the ARC, so you may find you need to use the Sonos optical adapter that came with your Arc, but it depends on which extractor you choose to buy. It is a much cheaper option than the Arcana ..and I personally think DD5.1 sounds fine. I would save money and put it towards a newer TV with eARC support further down the line.

The only thing I’m not clear on is the UK aerial/Freeview source as it would appear the Sonos arc connects to the extractor as does Apple TV so I can see how that would work.

the aerial would have to go direct to tv so how would that tv sound get to the Sonos arc given the only other item connected to the tv would be the Apple TV which in this instance would not be the source?

 

thanks for all your help btw

The only thing I’m not clear on is the UK aerial/Freeview source as it would appear the Sonos arc connects to the extractor as does Apple TV so I can see how that would work.

the aerial would have to go direct to tv so how would that tv sound get to the Sonos arc given the only other item connected to the tv would be the Apple TV which in this instance would not be the source?

 

thanks for all your help btw

The same way it does now, via the TV’s HDMI Arc port (audio return channel) from the TV through the extractor  and out to the Sonos Arc. In the video example shown, the optical-out port on the extractor would connect to the Arc’s HDMI-ARC port via the Sonos optical converter. 

That’s clear thank you very much 

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