Sony A9G and ARC, sound cuts

  • 23 October 2020
  • 11 replies
  • 1163 views

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I have replaced my Playbar with an Arc. I am using a Sony A9G. All devices fully updated with latest firmware. The ARC is connected via eARC. The ARC is hardwired via ethernet to the router.

The issue I am having is that sometimes the sound completely cuts out on the ARC. This is - only - happening when using apps like Netflix and Kodi. If I switch to TV the sound returns but stays away if I go back to Kodi or Netflix.

I followed two approaches in solving this, both not guaranteed to work, and it is very annoying if you have a wife looking at you with that typical look ‘why did you have to replace the device when the playbar worked flawlessly’ … and I can't blame her. 

1st workaround:

  1. I rebooted the TV completely and the sound returned. This worked once.

2nd workaround

  1. I had to switch - via the Sonos app - from TV Sound to playing a song from Spotify.
  2. When I then played a movie on Netflix the sound did not return on the Arc. There is also no way to manually force the Arc via the Sonos App to use the TV Sound again.
  3. I then selected TV in AndroidTV and the sound returned again.
  4. After that I selected Netflix again, and also there the sound now returned here as well.

I never rebooted the Sonos Arc. So something is really not working well and I am not sure if this is related to the Sony A9G or the Sonos Arc. Anyways it really damages the overall user experience of the product.

What is not helpful either

  • There is no way to reboot the Sonos Arc from the Sonos App. My cables are nicely tidied up and put away so unplugging the device is not an easy task.
  • There is no way to force TV Sound from the Sonos Arc, after you selected a song on a music service like Spotify

 


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11 replies

Userlevel 6
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Hi @famschopman, thanks for reaching out and for the detailed post about your concern. Sorry to hear about the audio dropouts on your Sonos Arc. So that I can check the status of your Sonos system, I’ll ask you to submit a diagnostic report to investigate further what could be causing this issue, Also, to check if there is something wrong with your Sonos system. You may reply to the thread with the confirmation number to assist you with this issue.  

Let me know your thoughts with the advice above.

The Sonos community is always here to help.

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Do you need the diagnostics report when the situation occurs, or do you need the report based on the current ‘as is’ configuration of the system? Glad to help where I can.

 

One other thing.

Looks like many other's are sharing the same experience accross a wide range of TV brands. One of the things you might want to dive into if this is AndroidTV related.

Switching to TV and then back to the Netflix/Kodi app seemingly resetted the situation. So either the Arc has issues with the signal switch (because TV probably outputs a different codec than Netflix/Kodi) or AndroidTV is being in the middle causing issues. That would be a viable theory if the televisions mentioned by other Arc owners also run AndroidTV.

Userlevel 6
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Hi @famschopman, thanks for the update and the information that you provided. It would be great if you can provide diagnostic reports on your current configuration and when the issue is happening. So we can compare. We are looking into this concern for the Sonos Arc working with Android TV for outputs or codec concerns. 

Let us know what you have in mind with the advice above.

The Sonos community is always here to help.

I have to say I have the exact (and I mean *exact*) same setup.  Same TV, Arc connected via cat5… heck the same wife I think.  Yes, I have the same issue.

The Arc reports “silence” when I switch to the Sony android TV “Home” screen and Netflix has no sound.  Seems to happen most often with Netflix.  Fairly easy to reproduce… just keep watching movies on Netflix with Atmos… switch back to the STB/TV… then go back to the Android TV screen.  Silence.

Reboot the TV fixes it… switching to PCM audio also “fixes” it… but why did I buy an Arc to use PCM with Netflix??

 

Userlevel 6
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Hi @fenwayfool, Thank you for reaching out and welcome to the community. Sorry to hear that you’re having the same issue on your Sonos system. Since you already tried some troubleshooting steps and the issue still occurs. I’ll ask you to submit a diagnostic report to investigate further what could be causing this issue. You may reply to the thread with the confirmation number to assist you with this issue.  

Let us know what you have in mind with the advice above.

The Sonos community is always here to help.

Thanks for the response, Simon.  I will upload a diagnostic report next time it happens.  I have a theory as to the cause.  Since I have disabled the sony feature “sound mode sync” I have not been able to get it to happen.  Interesting that I still don’t hear the “beeps” when navigating the android TV menu… but the sound for Netflix works fine and registers as dolby Atmos (when the movie supports it).  Something funky going on there.

 

Userlevel 6
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Hi @fenwayfool, thanks for the update. We'll wait for the diagnostic report so we can check what could be causing this issue.

Please, feel free to let me know if you require any further information.  

The Sonos community is always here to help. 
 

I am having the exact same issue. I have the Sony a9g and arc surround connected through earc. Sound randomly cuts out while using built in android video apps like Hulu and Netflix. Only way to get it back is by restarting tv.

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Hey Ctobin1, you can perhaps also try this? After I changed the Digital Audio Out to Auto 2, I haven't yet experience this issue anymore. Rest of settings also in the photo, just the basics.

 

 

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Any reason why you have Pass through mode set to Off?

Tengo el mismo problema. es muy frustrante sonos arc con sony a9g

no se si devolver todo mi configuracion y usar solamente sony parlantes.

pero me encanta como suena sonos