Contributor I

Answered

Why is Sonos Arc having eARC issues?

16 replies
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I have a Sonos Arc connected to an LG CX TV and the two devices aren’t working well together when eARC is enabled. After much, much research into the topic online it appears to be an issue with the Sonos Arc and newer Samsung TV’s too. It appears the implementation of eARC by Sonos and the higher end TV manufacturers attempting to implement eARC is not going so well. I would encourage Sonos to work with LG and Samsung to get this figured out as consumers are spending a lot of money on this high-end equipment and deserve a better experience.

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M

MakeItSoAnswer

Contributor I

Played around with the LG settings this evening and when I changed the setting Digital Sound Out from “Pass-Through” to “Auto” everything was working fine. Non-Atmos sound now showing up as “Dolby Multichannel PCM 5.1” and Atmos content still showing as Atmos, with no DD+ downgrade.

Thank you.

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

What specific problems are you having?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

L

ledzep1

Headliner II

At Sonos Arc launch I had intermittent dropouts with my LG CX, was so annoying. Luckily for me this has been fixed in a firmware, not sure if that was LG or Sonos though.

Apart from a issue with LPCM passthrough, (5.1 output as 7.1) (could just be LG misreporting 5.1 audio as 7.1) its been rock solid throughout the later half of 2020 and 2021.

M

MakeItSoAuthor

Contributor I

AppleTV4K sends out all 5.1 (non-Atmos) content as LPCM now which the CX/Sonos can’t seem to process correctly - very frustrating. As an end user, I can’t tell if the CX is mucking up the pass-through, or if the Sonos just can’t process the stream correctly. The AppleTV seems to think the CX/Sonos is capable of LPCM, so it sends it out in that format instead of DD5.1. Interestingly enough, the CX/Sonos has no issue with Atmos content coming out of the AppleTV as Dolby Atmos in Dolby MAT, which I understand is an enhanced form of LPCM.

to summarize, if I try to play 5.1 non-Atmos content from the AppleTV4K I get no sound. I have to go into the AppleTV settings and manually force DD5.1 to get sound. If I switch the TV from eARC to ARC, everything works better, but all Atmos content gets downgraded to Atmos DD+.

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

Since the Apple TV 4K uses Dolby MAT, Dolby Digital Plus content will play as Multichannel PCM audio through the Arc. If you aren’t getting any sound from DD+ content, your TV’s audio settings might need to be changed. Can you post your current audio settings?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

M

MakeItSoAuthor

Contributor I

Sure. Thank you.

Current settings in my LG CX:

- Firmware 03.23.15

Sound Out: HDMI ARC
HDMI Input Audio Format: Bitstream
Digital Sound Out: Pass Through
eARC: On

Ken_Griffiths

@MakeItSo

Is the DTV Audio setting (audio-in search order) set to ‘Auto’ aswell in the LG TV Sound Settings? If so, I have those exact same TV Settings too, including ‘pass-through’ and eARC set to ‘ON’.

My Arc is connected however to the older LG C9 OLED and an Apple TV4 HD and the audio received is working and showing in my Sonos App (About Box) as Linear ‘Multichannel PCM 5.1’, that’s with the Apple device audio just simply set at its default ‘auto’ settings. So it’s ’perhaps’ not a fault of the Arc/Sonos software.

I was just playing the movie ‘6 Underground’ from Netflix when I tested this just FYI.

Just wondering if this might be an LG CX TV firmware issue perhaps?

M

MakeItSoAuthor

Contributor I

Thank you, but I am not sure what setting you are referring to when you say “Is the DTV Audio setting (audio-in search order) set to ‘Auto’ aswell in the LG TV Sound Settings?”. I don’t see a setting like that in the CX menu.

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

What are your Apple TV audio settings set to?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

M

MakeItSoAuthor

Contributor I

AppleTV settings are:

Change Format: Off
Dolby Atmos: On
Audio Mode: Auto

Thank you

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

Your TV and Apple TV audio settings look correct. Make sure your TV has the latest firmware installed and try unplugging the TV and Arc from power for a couple of minutes and see if this changes anything.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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