Hi all, I have a 2019 Frame TV (I think just ARC, not eARC). Do any of you know whether the issues described above happen with this slightly older TV?

Thanks!

No this particular issue is just for the newer ones with EARC 

I got a Sonos Arc, a sub, and two satellites in December.  With our new 2020 Samsung 65” Frame TV it never worked, sound cutting in and out constantly.  In the beginning I spent way too much money on HDMI cables trying to get stable audio.  Eventually I did an online chat with Sonos support, learned that the “Check for updates” in the Samsung menu is useless, downloaded and applied a firmware update available on the Samsung website, and still no joy.

Monday I called Sonos support and spent about an hour and 40 minutes on the phone going through lots of “try this-es” and various intervals on hold.  Just after 8:30 EST she told me my case would be escalated and I would get an email.  Sonos has a nice system for this, I used the web link they provided to schedule a call-back which I got last night.  At exactly the scheduled time I got a call and within 15 to 20 minutes my Arc was updated with their patch.  The difference was immediate, no more audio drop-outs verified by continued functionality today.  For the first time in two months it works as it should.

The customer care engineer wondered aloud how many other manufacturer’s devices were experiencing similar problems with the Samsung Frame.  He commented that Samsung had non implemented the HDMI-CEC specification correctly and that this Sonos patch was a work around (something to do with disabling the screen saver on the HDMI channel, the black-and-white pattern you can see if you ever switch the TV to the eArc port).  He took diagnostic dumps before and after the patch, said that Samsung was interested in any information about this issue that they could acquire.

As of now mine is working as it should.  No one likes spending over an hour on the phone with tech. support but I do understand the necessity of pre-qualifying whether or not to escalate an issue or not.  First level support does need to document this requirement and yes, no one likes to spend their evening doing so.  For me it was worth it.

Despite the problems I did find Sonos support to be excellent.  Both online and by phone, they do spend the time with you.  I never did contact Samsung support, it looked like quite a wall to climb to get there.

After three phone calls I finally got an agent who would escalate to “engineering”. The engineering rep was extremely helpful, patch applied yesterday, and so far no issues. I'm very optimistic. I was having to reboot every single day. So far so good! Build 61185070.

I was finally able to get through to level 2 of jumangi myself.... Took just over an hour while level 1 gathered my info and sent me up the chain. They applied the update (in my case build 61185070) and so far so good. 

Hi All….just wanted to close this out and say that I too was given the patch via support.  An engineer emailed me and installed it.  Everything seems to be working great over 5 days.  Very pleased at Sonos for taking care of this even though its “Samsungs fault” of course.  

Will miss you all.  

Has anyone heard any indication that this release will be pushed to the general public anytime soon?  I’m tired of having to turn my Sonos off all the time but I also don’t have three hours to spend on the phone with tech support.

This patch obviously works and I don’t understand why it hasn’t been released.

exactly my words. Why not generally release the update ? Is there a compromise with other functionalities with this patch ?

Speculation: this is a work-around for whatever Samsung is doing wrong, and it doesn’t work with everyone else (who are doing things correctly with eARC), therefore cannot be pushed to everyone. I assume Sonos are waiting for Samsung to push the real fix to everyone’s TVs.

I contacted Sonos via the online chat and it took all of 5 minutes to have the patch applied, stated I had a frame and an arc and that I was aware the engineers had a patch available, they applied the patch straight away without any further questions. So now the problem has gone, however I have noticed that if I stream at is content the atmos logo doesn’t appear in the Sonos app. Has anyone else with the patch experienced this, is it possible that the patch disables atmos and that’s the temporary fix?

Well put. I’m having the same problem. I was on the phone with a Sonos first-level support rep last month. He took me through a series of checks and basically confirmed ever was set up as it should be.
 

I have the Frame 2020 65” connected to an Arc via eArc capable HDMI cable. Audio drops out when switching from, say, Terrestrial TV to Netflix, or waking the TV from Art mode. Like others, the only way to correct this was by power cycling both devices at the wall switch. Needless to say, what a pain in the a$$!  So far I’ve managed to fend off my wife’s assertion to return the lot for a refund, but my defences are weakening.

So you called Sonos and asked for the patch to be applied to your Arc?

No patch that I’m aware of. 

Hi @Cosimo F,

If you’re still experiencing this issue with your Frame TV and Sonos Arc, I would encourage you to reach out again to our customer care team to get the patch applied as it may not have been available when you contacted them the first time.

Let me know if you have any other concerns.

If there’s a patch, why weren’t customers notified? Surely this is widespread enough to warrant broad communication. 

That’s the first time anyone has mentioned this.  I certainly hope this isn’t the case.  I only purchased the Arc because it DOES support Atmos.  Have you looked at the detailed screen of the app when playing Atmos content to see what’s listed there?

So doesn’t appear to be a fix for the problem at all. I hope it’s not downgrading the ability to view Atmos content. That would really be an issue for me and consumers generally. 

In the Sonos app, go to System | About my System. Scroll down. You should see that it’s streaming Atmos. If not, the patch has done something. 

In the Sonos app, go to System | About my System. Scroll down. You should see that it’s streaming Atmos. If not, the patch has done something. 

When watching Jack Ryan on Amazon prime (which I’m sure used to be ATMOS) it comes up with Dolby Multichannel PCM 5.1. I’m almost sure when you click on the Sonos acr audio control the ATMOS symbol used to appear however it doesn’t now. 

Streaming services (especially Prime) seem to be weird with Atmos currently. At 1st only s2 of Jack Ryan was in atmos  (and I think only the 1080p version not UHD) but now I don’t think either is. You used to be able to “hover” over an episode and it would say 5.1 or Atmos. I think this is a prime thing and not a Samsung or certainly not a Sonos thing.

From my external 4k BD player I DO get full uncompressed atmos and it shows up as TrueHD Atmos in the sonos app. (I DO have the newer patch as referenced in this thread and I have NOT had one single drop out since application).

Yeah, Jack Ryan isn’t in Atmos anymore, don’t think. Don’t believe Prime does Atmos anymore. I get the Atmos icon watching some NetFlix shows. That’s how I check. 

Ah right that makes sense, sorry for the unnecessary concern! I also must say I haven’t had a single dropout since the patch.

That’s a  relief. Going to call support to have this done.