Sonos Arc Owners: What has been your best Atmos audio experiences from your Sonos Arc?


Userlevel 7

Many Sonos Arc owners are new to Dolby Atmos and are experiencing this immersive audio in their homes for the first time. Going by your personal experience, which Dolby Atmos films or TV shows have sounded the best through your Sonos Arc? It can be from a Blu-ray, UHD 4K Blu-ray, or a streaming app.

A few that I have read about, but haven’t personally experienced yet (my Arc is on backorder) are:

  • Blade Runner 2049 (Blu-ray & UHD 4K)
  • Gravity (Diamond Luxe Edition Blu-ray)
  • Mad Max: Fury Road (Blu-ray, UHD 4K)

What are some of your favorites?


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25 replies

Userlevel 4
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Opening scene of a Star is Born is pretty great.  Arena concert scene -- applause coming from everywhere.  

Userlevel 4
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Dolby Atmos music via Tidal is very very impressive.

Userlevel 4
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Dolby Atmos music via Tidal is very very impressive.

What app do you use to stream it?  Something through the TV?  You cant play it wirelessly, can you?

 

EDIT:  Firestick works.  Very cool.

Userlevel 7

Any specific albums on Tidal that you recommend?

Userlevel 4
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Hi - i am accessing Tidal via the Amazon Firestick 4k. There are limited albums on Tidal, more playlists etc. Some tracks are ok, some just blow me away.

Prince - When Doves Cry, Doors - Riders on the Storm and Marvin Gaye - what's going on, are very good but you could spend a lot of time just playing all sorts.

Userlevel 1
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The Dolby Amaze Atmos trailer is pretty fun. 
 

 

Userlevel 4
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The Dolby Amaze Atmos trailer is pretty fun. 
 

 

Just downloaded it.  It is incredible!  So cool.

Userlevel 7

The Dolby Amaze Atmos trailer is pretty fun. 
 

 

Just downloaded it.  It is incredible!  So cool.

Here’s a great source for Dolby Atmos trailers:
https://thedigitaltheater.com/dolby-trailers/

Userlevel 2
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First man. Especially from the lift off scene onwards. 

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I downloaded the amaze ‘lossy’ file but I can’t get it to play. It says the sound is unsupported. I have the Sonos Arc and brand new Samsung 55” QLED … any ideas? I’ve not yet got to experience Atmos as don’t have a 4K Blu-ray player or Netflix premium. But have Disney Plus and also can’t get Atmos on that. Any help appreciated. 

Userlevel 4
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I downloaded the amaze ‘lossy’ file but I can’t get it to play. It says the sound is unsupported. I have the Sonos Arc and brand new Samsung 55” QLED … any ideas? I’ve not yet got to experience Atmos as don’t have a 4K Blu-ray player or Netflix premium. But have Disney Plus and also can’t get Atmos on that. Any help appreciated. 

Sounds like your eARC isn’t working.  Try the DD+ Atmos version.  There have been many issues with the Samsung eARC functionality this year (lots of threads here on it). 

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Is this a fault with my TV or a firmware issue that I have to maybe wait for? 

Userlevel 7

Is this a fault with my TV or a firmware issue that I have to maybe wait for? 

What specific Samsung model do you have?

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Samsung 55” QLED. Just bought it, Thibk it’s a 2020 model. It’s £1099 on the Samsung site. 

Userlevel 4
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Samsung 55” QLED. Just bought it, Thibk it’s a 2020 model. It’s £1099 on the Samsung site. 

We’d need to know the model number to help you.  But it’s probably a firmware issue. 

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Samsung 55” QLED. Just bought it, Thibk it’s a 2020 model. It’s £1099 on the Samsung site. 

We’d need to know the model number to help you.  But it’s probably a firmware issue. 

2020 55” w70t QLED 4K hdr … 🙏

Userlevel 7

Samsung 55” QLED. Just bought it, Thibk it’s a 2020 model. It’s £1099 on the Samsung site. 

Is it the Samsung Q70T? If it is, make sure HDMI eARC is set to 'Auto' and the Digital Output Audio setting is set to 'Auto' or 'Passthrough'.

Also, be sure you download the “Amaze” trailer directly from Dolby: https://www.dolby.com/about/support/guide/dolby-atmos-trailers/

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Samsung 55” QLED. Just bought it, Thibk it’s a 2020 model. It’s £1099 on the Samsung site. 

Is it the Samsung Q70T? If it is, make sure HDMI eARC is set to 'Auto' and the Digital Output Audio setting is set to 'Auto' or 'Passthrough'.

Also, be sure you download the “Amaze” trailer directly from Dolby: https://www.dolby.com/about/support/guide/dolby-atmos-trailers/

I got it working! So I made 2 mistakes, I first downloaded the trailer earlier (from the link you sent) but used the ‘for mac’ download and it didn’t work. I then downloaded it from another site that had lots of trailers and could only get the picture to work. But after your reply (and thank you) I suddenly thought I should have downloaded the PC files instead, to my USB from the official site. I did that and I just had Dolby Atmos activated and confirmed in the Sonos app. Sounds amazing. One thing, my rear speakers are on stands behind my sofa … I’m sure it would sound even better if the speakers were above my head (or if the sofa was more forward, which I can’t do).

I may look into wall mounting the speakers.

Thank you, 🎸S⭐️

Userlevel 2
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I downloaded the amaze ‘lossy’ file but I can’t get it to play. It says the sound is unsupported. I have the Sonos Arc and brand new Samsung 55” QLED … any ideas? I’ve not yet got to experience Atmos as don’t have a 4K Blu-ray player or Netflix premium. But have Disney Plus and also can’t get Atmos on that. Any help appreciated. 

Dolby atmos isn’t lossy. It’s Dolby TrueHD. To play that you need eArc plus HMDI 2.1 out on your TV and a HDMI 2.1 cable. Atmos can also be played as Dolby Digital Plus (when streamed) in which case you need HDMI and a (I think) HDMI 1.4 cable. See https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4844?language=en_US

I don’t know about Disney plus but I’ve played atmos on Netflix and Apple TV fine. Your issue is usually caused by an older HMDI out port or low performance cable. 

Dont don’t need a 4k blu ray player, just one which can output TrueHD and obviously a disc with Dolby Atmos (eg First Man, regular Blu Ray). Good luck!

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I downloaded the amaze ‘lossy’ file but I can’t get it to play. It says the sound is unsupported. I have the Sonos Arc and brand new Samsung 55” QLED … any ideas? I’ve not yet got to experience Atmos as don’t have a 4K Blu-ray player or Netflix premium. But have Disney Plus and also can’t get Atmos on that. Any help appreciated. 

Dolby atmos isn’t lossy. It’s Dolby TrueHD. To play that you need eArc plus HMDI 2.1 out on your TV and a HDMI 2.1 cable. Atmos can also be played as Dolby Digital Plus (when streamed) in which case you need HDMI and a (I think) HDMI 1.4 cable. See https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4844?language=en_US

I don’t know about Disney plus but I’ve played atmos on Netflix and Apple TV fine. Your issue is usually caused by an older HMDI out port or low performance cable. 

Dont don’t need a 4k blu ray player, just one which can output TrueHD and obviously a disc with Dolby Atmos (eg First Man, regular Blu Ray). Good luck!

The TV is brand new (2020 model) and it the Sonos arc comes with it’s own HDMI cable. I have got it working with the official Dolby trailer, ‘Amaze’ (I was using an unofficial one prior) but can't get it working with Disney Plus. Is it true that you can’t get Atmos through the TV apps? I just read that Hamilton on Disney Plus in the UK is Dolby Atmos but I just tried it and it’s not even coming out as 5.1 

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OK guys, I upgraded my Netflix subscription and Atmos works perfect - the issue lies with the Disney plus app - it’s doesn’t confirm in the Sonos app that it outputs in atmos but does with netflix. Just shows pcm 2.0 (or something like that) on Disney - I’m still getting full surround and it does sound good. But just tried the sound with Dolemite is My Name on Netflix and it sounds wicked.

Userlevel 7

OK guys, I upgraded my Netflix subscription and Atmos works perfect - the issue lies with the Disney plus app - it’s doesn’t confirm in the Sonos app that it outputs in atmos but does with netflix. Just shows pcm 2.0 (or something like that) on Disney - I’m still getting full surround and it does sound good. But just tried the sound with Dolemite is My Name on Netflix and it sounds wicked.

Unfortunately Dolby Atmos isn’t currently supported on Disney+ on Samsung TVs. Hopefully that will be fixed one day with a firmware or Disney+ update. But according to this forum discussion, you can get Atmos audio through Disney+ through certain external devices: https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/tv/dolby-atmos-on-disney-plus/td-p/1851349

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I posted about this same issue. Dolby Atmos is apparently not currently supported on Disney+ on Sony TVs either (Android TV OS). 

I am also not getting Atmos with Amazon Prime video, so not sure what the problem is there.

Netflix Atmos works perfectly for me as well, by comparison. 

Userlevel 6
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Dolby atmos isn’t lossy. It’s Dolby TrueHD. To play that you need eArc plus HMDI 2.1 out on your TV and a HDMI 2.1 cable. Atmos can also be played as Dolby Digital Plus (when streamed) in which case you need HDMI and a (I think) HDMI 1.4 cable. 

This is oddly phrased. Atmos is just spatial metadata passed over another audio codec. It can be passed over Dolby Digital Plus (a “lossy” codec used on all streaming services) or Dolby TrueHD (a “lossless” codec basically only used on Blu-ray / 4K Blu-ray). Either way, it’s Atmos. 

The Arc supports Atmos over either. In a nutshell: 

Dolby Digital Plus + Atmos

  • Type: Lossy
  • HDMI-ARC: Yes
  • eARC: Yes
  • Available on: Compatible streaming platforms and content

Dolby TrueHD + Atmos

  • Type: Lossless
  • HDMI-ARC: No
  • eARC: Yes
  • Available on: Blu-ray Disc, UHD Blu-ray Disc 

 

 

 

 

 

Userlevel 6
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I love Dolby’s Universe Fury demo, available here: 

https://developer.dolby.com/tools-media/sample-media/video-streams/hd-video-streams/

I’ve always been a sucker for this type of big, bombastic “THIS IS” style of audio demo. The Leaf and Amaze trailers are cool, but I love how this one really draws your ear to specific points in space, letting you know what it’s really doing before pulling out the big, rousing musical finale with the pretty stock photography. 

Well worth a download and fun to show people new to Atmos. :-)