Sonos Arc Samsung Frame TV eARC not working

At this point nobody’s sure where the problem lies. There have been report with other TV model as well: Sony, LG, etc.

Other threads have been describing similar issue:

Oh for sure, most TV makers failed miserably in their HDMI 2.1 support out-of-the-box, and eARC support (as well as Xbox Series / PS5 devices with their HDMI 2.1 features) showed many flaws in multiple TV firmware versions. Slowly the TV makers are fixing their stuff, but I am unaware of any fixes required on the Sonos side to date. It is unfortunate that Sonos did not get the TV makers more involved before the release of the Arc though, as they surely knew of the most common issues. However Sonos support has been severely downgraded this year, and perhaps this is another side-effect of that.

I ordered an HDFury Arcana and it arrived today.  It worked right out of the box, plug and play with my 2020 Frame TV and Sonos Arc, without any special configuration needed.   For me, it was an easy decision to spend $200 to fix this issue instead of spending countless hours reading forums and stressing about possible updates, etc.  I would have gladly spent even more than that to buy a Sonos Arc or Frame TV that just works.  I totally understand the frustration about it being expensive though.

The Arcana seems to have resolved the sound cutting in and out, at least for now, and I will keep an eye on it over the coming days.  Best of all, it also resolved the lip sync issues I was having, where the video was before the sound.  I only need one HDMI input, for my cable box, so I’m not concerned about being limited to only the single HDMI input.

Also, the Samsung built-in TV apps like Disney+, etc., still work perfectly fine.  Somehow the Arcana knows when you’re using these and automatically switches the input to the TV through HDMI ARC.  Pretty impressive.

Now I’m just hoping this works as a long term solution.

Here’s an update after I sent my email to the CEO:

Thanks for contacting Sonos, my name is Brian and I'm a supervisor here. Our CEO Patrick Spence forwarded this email to me in order to provide you further assistance here. We appreciate your comments and comprehension on the matter, we have brought this problem to Samsung's attention and we are still working together to find the best solution to it.

Even though we don't have any other information to share at the moment, we'd like you to try the following steps:

1- Ensure the TV is running the latest firmware version available, you can visit Samsung's website here and make sure to enter your TV model.

2- In case your TV isn't running the latest version on the website, please make sure to update the firmware on the TV and let me know if the problem persists.

3- In case you are running multiple HDMI  connected devices to your TV and inbuilt apps, try unplugging them and see if that resolves the problem.

Please reply to this email once the steps above have been tried and make sure to include your TV model and firmware too in order to continue investigating. We appreciate your help and preference.

Regards,

The highlight is that they are acknowledging that they are still working together with Samsung for a solution.

Moreover, I’m now able to fix the sound skipping issue by playing with the advanced sound configuration on the TV by toggling back and forth the eARC mode and the Dolby Atmos toggles. Before that I had to unplug and replug the HDMI cable.

Just burned 40 minutes on the phone with support on this, they seem completely unaware. Tried to let the guy know about this thread but he really just wanted to follow the script - telling me to reconfigure my TV, change the HDMI cable, use optical instead. So frustrating - I used the Beam before this and never had a single issue, this is breaking every few days even with a nightly reset via a smart plug. 
 

what a terrible, terrible experience. Sonos’ inability to support their products when things go wrong is infuriating. 

A quick update on using the the Arcana with my Samsung Frame and Sonos Arc.  After a day, it’s still working well.  There are a few quirks though:

It takes several seconds or so after turning on the TV for the sound to work.  The will skip once or twice, then start working.  Also, some technical words and settings from the Arcana show at the bottom of the TV screen after turning on, for a second or so.  Presumably there are a lot of commands going back and forth between the devices when first turned on.  Then it works fine after that. 

When turning the TV off (into Art Mode), the sound continues playing for a few seconds after the TV turns off, then, the sound turns off on its own.  It’s a little strange but not really a problem.

I’m also pretty sure I’m not able to receive Dolby Atmos sound through the built-in TV apps, when using the Arcana, although I’m not entirely sure and will try a better HDMI cable.

Overall it’s working fine and it’s great to avoid the lip sync issues and intermittent sound cutoff issues.  Hopefully Samsung and Sonos work out a real fix soon though.  It’s just incredibly frustrating and unbelievable that there isn’t a fix for this.

My experience with the Samsung Firmware update (on a Samsung Frame 2020 65”) to 1460.9 is that it at least fixed part of my problem. 

Previously when putting eARC to auto would totally block any sound coming out of the Sonos ARC. (eARC had to be switched off). After the update today it is possible to have it set on auto.

As I rebooted everything after the firmware update I am not able to tell whether the intermittent sound is also gone. However, what worked for me to fix that without having to unplug cables was to go to Settings>Audio>Advanced Settings and then toggle Dolby Atmos compatibility off and back on again. After that I am able to watch without any sound problems (including Dolby Atmos content) as long as the system does not go into stand-by mode.

Don't know if it matters: my TV is connected to LAN, Sonos ARC is connected to wifi.
I am using the HDMI cable that was delivered by Sonos with my ARC.

Following this thread as we have similar issues. 
we have 50” Frame connected to an arc, sub and pair of 1’s. 
When it works it is awesome. 
we do get intermittent switching between hdmi and e-arc in the sound output. I had a little suspicion that it was connected to the Alexa system we have which turns off all the devices in the room each night - I’ve removed the Sonos from the Alexa (don’t use Alexa for the Sonos anyhow). Will keep track to see if it improves. 
 

Just emailed him. Will update if I get a reply. More people should raise the issue via email. 

Bumping comments in solidarity with everyone having these sound issues. Former Geek Squad installer and I’ve tried everything to fix the sound issues to no avail. 

Do better Sonos. Do better Samsung.