Hi.  Please would you confirm how the HDMI-optical converter fits into this?  Are you referring to the connector supplied with the Arc?  That is designed to convert optical into HDMI-ARC.  Is the audio output from the Feintech digital optical? (It appears so from diagram, in which case I’m not sure why it isn’t working.)

It’s a bit of a shame to be using the optical anyway, as that cannot carry Dolby Atmos of TrueHD audio.

Hi John. Thanks for your reply. Yes, it is the HDMI-Optical dongle supplied with the Sonos Arc. I’m using the also supplied HDMI cable to connect it from Feintech Optical Out to Sonos. Not getting any sound from any of the sources Apple TV or Fire TV connected to ARC inputs on Feintech. I have written to Feintech as well for perhaps any firmware upgrades that I may need. Any suggestions on what I can try?

Yeah. For now I am just trying to get sound out. hehe. I just ordered the HD Fury Arcana. That should solve the problem of Dolby Atmos. I hope. 

Which sources have you tried?  Anything on the feintech you need to set to use optical out?  In About My System, in the Sonos app, what does the ‘Audio in’ say?  (Probably silence!)

Edit - sorry, you have already answered re sources

You are obviously tech savvy, so I am embarrassed to ask if you have taken off the tiny protector that I am guessing comes on the converter’s optical connection?  But this frequently has been the issue with optical cables!

Hahah. Yes. Of course. It shouldn’t even go in with the plastic protector on the Optical connector.

You’d be surprised at how many people force it in with the protective cap still on.  We’ve had quite a few over the years.

For diagnostic purposes you could run the optical and connector from the TV to the Arc and put the Fire TV in one of the TV HDMI ports.

The Epson 7100 projector doesn’t have any optical out, unfortunately. Previously I was running an optical out to an optical in on an older Bose receiver via another HDMI switch. I’ve got my Apple TV connected to that one with the optical out to Sonos. Still no luck. I read some other posts with Feintech working with optical out, but for Beam. Maybe the optical out to HDMI connector for Arc has other compatibility issues? I’m hoping the HDFury 4k Arcana would now solve the problem and also bypass the optical connector’s limitations. Feintech’s own support wasn’t much help at all. 

Has anyone found any other solution to using Opitcal out?

My suggestion was purely to eliminate some possibilities, as a diagnostic experiment. For that it doesn’t seem relevant to me that the projector has no optical out.

So, the TOSLINK/optical is working now. Here’s what happened. And I believe SONOS needs to address this shortcoming. 

I had a few years old Sony Bravia TV lying around. I decided to connect it to see what the “TV Setup” option does in the settings of the Sonos App for the Sonos Arc system I bought.

The TV Setup would always fail with the projector. The projector would show HDMI connected to the Sonos Arc in the Epson HDMI menu, but the Audio Out part of the TV Setup on the Sonos App would always throw errors. So the TV Setup was never successfully completed earlier.

Now, after I connected Sonos to an HDMI TV (not projector) and completed the TV Setup process successfully, I decided to reconnect the Apple TV source using the Feintech HDMI switch again with the Optical Out+HDMI dongle from Sonos. Voila! I now have 5.1 (Expanded EDID) on the Sonos Arc system using Optical Out from my HDMI switch.

So It shows me that only a successful TV Setup on the Sonos App fixes the Optical Out compatibility. It’s not a Feintech issue or another. 

This seems to me to be a software problem with Sonos. Is it a software bug then? Can anyone confirm or comment on this analysis?

 @John B what do you think?

Just to add if you’re looking for a similar HDMI switch/extractor that supports Atmos Audio - then Feintech also sell this product:

https://feintech.eu/en/collections/hdmi-topseller/products/feintech-vax04101-hdmi-earc-pass-switch-4x1-for-soundbar

It works similar to the HDFury Arcana, but with a built-in HDMI switch.

Hey Ken. I will be returning the Feintech once I get the HDFury 4k Arcana. I’ve had too many problems with TOSLINK/Optical connectors to solve the audio issues. Not to mention their limitations with Dolby Atmos. I didn’t have a good experience with their support, either. Anyway, I have till Monday to decide once I get the Arcana in hand to test it out. I will be getting a separate HDMI switch to connect multiple sources. But Arcana’s ability to support/extrapolate to full eARC using HDMI (along with Atmos and more) seems more acceptable to my needs. 

But thanks for the suggestion. 

I’m just wondering if simply toggling on ‘TV Autoplay’ in the Arc’s ‘room’ settings perhaps might have achieved the same outcome?

See ‘Settings/System/>Arc Room Name]/TV Autoplay’… it might be worth testing that next time if you ever have to setup the Arc again with the projector.

Hey Ken. Those options were greyed out until I had a successful TV Setup run with the old Sony Bravia. So I have a strong feeling this issue is in Sonos’ court to solve. 

Did you have the Projector powered ‘on’ and playing audio-out to the ‘Sonos Optical-to-HDMI’ adapter and that in turn, plugged into the original Sonos 1.4+ HEAC supported HDMI cable to the Arc, as it should have recognised the Adapter was in situ, unless the Feintech device is a part of the problem here?

The test for me would be to see if it works when plugged in directly to a TV’s optical port and to see what happens in that particular case too, which is the ‘typical’ use for the setup with the Sonos adapter.

There must be (many) hundreds of people using the various Sonos soundbars with the ‘Optical-to-HDMI’ adapter and I’ve not seen folk in the community here mention they needed to get things working by initially plugging their Sonos device into a TV HDMI Arc/eARC port first to get the audio later playing over the optical connection… so I’m guessing something else is playing a role here and wondering if it’s something to do with either the Feintech audio extractor, or the Projector.. otherwise there would have been dozens of complaints in the community about the soundbar setup issue… at least those are my initial thoughts.

Yes, of course it was powered on. And also correct on the other assumptions. Epson TW7100 doesn’t have an optical out. As most projectors actually. But that it suddenly started working after I completed the “TV Setup” process on the Sonos app using another TV seems to say something significant.

And no, I can’t speak to how many people may have this issue with this particular setup. Or how many people bother to visit these forums to find out a solution for these problems. That is for statisticians to solve. 

@anipalooza,

If you do decide to keep the current Feintech extractor and ever have to setup the Arc again with it in situ, then it will be interesting to see if the same thing happens next time around.

Also if you do want to report your findings to Sonos Support Staff, you can contact/chat to them via this LINK to make them aware. HTH

Thanks for the link. I’ll see how the HDfury performs. I shouldn’t have bought the Feintech product I did. Your suggestion for the other Feintech product seems more suitable for my setup with Sonos. And an alternative to HDFury perhaps, Also, thanks for the support link. I will certainly write to them and see if perhaps they have an explanation to what potentially tons of users may be facing. Cheers. 

FWIW… albeit perhaps a bit late now if you’ve ordered the Arcana, but there is also another alternative audio extractor device/combined HDMI switch (with Arc/eARC support) that some here in the community use aswell in place of the of the Arcana, or the Feintech VAX04101A - so here’s a link to that one too from a company called OREI, just for your info…

https://www.orei.com/products/dual-hdmi-earc-audio-extractor-converter-4k-60hz-18g-hdmi-2-0-arc-support-hda-931

Got the Feintech VAX04101 today. It’s doing a great job. Have got FireTV 4K, AppleTV 4K and PS4 attached to the three inputs. Works great. Esp for getting Dolby Atmos. I think this is the best solution. Should be said that TOSLINK/optical out options using an HDMI switch/splitters are not the best way forward for connecting SONOS with a projector (or TV) without eARC. 

I have the VAX04101 and it works really well for me too.

I just did the setup with my BENQ projector using AVFABUL 4K splitter switch and the setup was smooth. I am receiving a quality sound from my sonos Arc and 2 One SL’s. If it is atmos sound or not I do not know yet.

Here is the link
https://www.amazon.com/Splitter-Bidirectional-Soundbar-Duplicate-Downscale/dp/B0BFPWF6T7/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=avfabul&qid=1675383527&sprefix=avfa%2Caps%2C286&sr=8-8