trouble playing music on Arc SL

  • 5 December 2020
  • 7 replies
  • 296 views

Hi,  just picked up a new Arc SL.  I already control my TV and do all my streaming via Amazon Fire TV cube, so didn’t see the need for built in voice assistant.  I got the Arc set up and it works well when I am streaming video via my Fire Cube from Netflix/ Disney/ Hulu.  However, when I try to stream music via my Fire Cube, there is suddenly no sound from the Arc.  

I was under the impression that the Sonos Arc would play anything that was was input over the HDMI arc connection (I.e. if it’s on my TV and outputting via HDMI arc, it should be playing on the Sonos). Is this correct, or is the Sonos arc actively determining which input material it will play (I.e. it will play sound for streaming video, but will deny sound from streaming audio).

I understand I can play Amazon music via the Sonos app, but want to understand why the Amazon Music which is on my TV is not playing over the Sonos.

 


This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

7 replies

The Arc will not play some codecs like DTS etc; but will play PCM stereo/multichannel and Dolby stereo/surround audio, which is supported by many devices these days. However you may need to check that the TV itself passes through the relevant audio from/through its HDMI ports and out to the Receiver (Arc). What TV is it?

It’s an LG OLED C9.  I assume the tv passes through the HDMI arc just fine since Netflix/Hulu/ Disney are all working fine.

Yes that TV will work fine I assume you have the Arc cabled to HDMI-2 eARC - and have turned on simplink and auto-power sync and setup the Arc in your LG connector.

Also on the TV...

  • Set the HDMI-ARC port to pass-through the audio.
  • In the sound-out/additional settings set the HDMI input audio format to Bitstream.

You then just need to setup the Fire Cube audio to output its sound as Dolby Atmos.

https://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-stream-dolby-atmos-surround-sound-on-amazon-fire-tv-devices/

Userlevel 4
Badge +6

It's sending some format the arc can't play. Check for a settings in the app or device to change what it's sending. Have you updated the Arc?

Admittedly, I thought the Amazon Fire devices only did PCM, DD+ or Dolby Atmos (and defaulted to the auto sound out option of ‘Best Available’)  ...so it should work if the Cube is attached to HDMl 1, 3 or 4 on the LG C9 and the ARC is setup correctly on the HDMI 2 eARC connection.🤔?

Looks like it’s something to do with audio settings for the fire cube.  The 4 available settings are PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and Best Available.  I originally had it set to Best Available when I wasn’t getting sound.  When I changed it to PCM I got no sound.  When I changed it to Dolby Digital Plus, I got sound, but it was stuttering.  When I switched to Dolby digital, sound was fine.  
 

if I leave it on Dolby digital, I don’t think I will get Atmos, is that correct?

I have mine (a 4K stick) set to ‘best available’ - I don’t get Dolby Atmos as it’s not on Fire TV (yet) here in the U.K. so we’re waiting for that.
 

It’s ‘odd’ that you don’t get sound when it’s set to PCM as that is the default option for all TV / Receiver audio - Dolby Digital is fine, but I thought the Arc SL supported Dolby Digital plus, but maybe it’s the software App on the fire-cube itself. If you can get ‘best available’ to work I would go with that but you may find you need to power off /on your devices (switch off completely for a minute, or so - not standby) to get them to redo their connection ‘handshake’ as that may make things work correctly.