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Hey all - 

 

I FINALLY got ATMOS working correctly with my new Sonos-based home theater setup using an Xbox Series X and a newly purchased Samsung QN90A series television (85”).

 

It took me days to get it synced right and get rid of an audio delay in the whole setup, especially with dialog. Here’s how to pull it off. The important part is that you have to configure things to let the ATMOS/surround sound signal go straight to the ARC for decoding instead of the TV trying to help along the way (causing audio delays and other issues).

 

Home Theater Setup:

 

Xbox Series X → QN90A TV via HDMI 4 (the only HDMI 2.1 port on the TV)

HDMI 3 → Sonos ARC (the only port on the TV that supports eARC)

(Not that I’m using two PLAY:1’s as surrounds and a SUB as well)

 

Samsung QN90A settings:

  • eARC set to auto
  • Audio set to Pass-through IMPORTANT (NOT auto or PCM)
  • ATMOS turned on

Xbox Series X settings:

  • ATMOS for home theater (HDMI)
  • IMPORTANT: in other audio settings, MAKE SURE PASS-THROUGH IS TURNED ON. Otherwise you’ll still get dialog delays even if the TV is set up properly.

All of that sounds simple in hindsight, but I spend days trying every combination of stuff, and even was hooked up through an HD Fury Arcana for a short time. This method gets the audio perfect, highest quality ATMOS, and synced up about 98% as nicely as the Arcana does.

 

Hope it helps someone else out there! I googled the crap out of this when I was setting things up and couldn’t find anything solid out there.

Nicely done.  I have an older Samsung with only 2 HDMI inputs, 1 of which is eARC.  I remember it taking me a while to figure it all out (sonos & xbox series 😵 , and even had the Arcana as well until I got it to work without it.

 

Glad to see you made it work since I’m upgrading to the QN90A myself and sending the older Samsung to the kids’ loft.  I have been staring at pics of the inputs on the back of the QN90A wondering how I was going to make it all work, so I’m glad you posted this!  Thank you for the great explanation!

Still can’t get it to work. Exact same set up as you with a qn90a 98” - I see the pass thru setting but it is greyed out.

Help! Literally 1 second delay between video and audio.

This guide was perfect. I have a QN90B and followed this guide and it works flawlessly. The QN90B has four HDMI 2.1 ports with one of those an eARC port. Series X is plugged into HDMI 1 and Sonos Arc is plugged into HDMI 3 (eARC). Used your settings and enabled Atmos through the Dolby App on the Xbox. Perfect sync, no delay. 

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