Avid Contributor I

arc ultra loses hdmi sound

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My new arc ultra has anvannoying problem that did not occur on the sonos amp it replaced: whenever the tv switches audio format (say, from dd 2.0 to dd 5.1) the soundbar goes silent. Occurs 80% of the times more frequent on apple tv) and makes the whole experience a nightmare.

My tv is correctly set up to passthrough audio. Only workaround seems to force audio to pcm, which is of course not a solution. My tv is a sony bravia a8g, an older (but great) model with no earc.

Is there any hope? Went through troubleshooting with customer service but no luck so far.

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vhnevans

Lyricist II

Had a long chat with Sonos support today running various tests, and they came back to say its working fine their end so suggested contacting Sky and see what they had to say. Needless to say after 30 minutes someone picked up the ticket at Sky, but in the last hour radio silence so I guess they are not interested.

Q

qmaurAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Quick update. I spoke with Level 2 support earlier today. They have been quite helpful and they can see issues in the diagnostics. Interestingly it seems like the arc ultra is reporting a earc timeout, which is odd because my tv doesn't even have earc.

I will keep posting updates here. Hopefully we'll get at the bottom of this.

C

Calstonbaskett

Lyricist III

I don’t think Sky can be blamed. Other users are reporting similar problems from Apple TV and Xbox.

My system worked perfectly with an ARC and the problem only started with the upgrade to the Ultra. I only have SkyQ and AppleTv. Apple TV has no problems

I spoke with Sonos whose comment was that they don’t guarantee support for anything other than the TV as being the source.

I offered to try swapping back to my old ARC as I still have it in another room but Sonos support were not interested as the believe the problem is the set top box

C

Calstonbaskett

Lyricist III

Quick update. I spoke with Level 2 support earlier today. They have been quite helpful and they can see issues in the diagnostics. Interestingly it seems like the arc ultra is reporting a earc timeout, which is odd because my tv doesn't even have earc.

I will keep posting updates here. Hopefully we'll get at the bottom of this.

I also only have ARC not eARC. Anyone having problems with and eARC setup??

C

Calstonbaskett

Lyricist III

Quick update. I spoke with Level 2 support earlier today. They have been quite helpful and they can see issues in the diagnostics. Interestingly it seems like the arc ultra is reporting a earc timeout, which is odd because my tv doesn't even have earc.

I will keep posting updates here. Hopefully we'll get at the bottom of this.

I also only have ARC not eARC. Anyone having problems with and eARC setup??

The timeout feels right but in my case sometimes it’s instant i.e pause for a second and restart or sometimes just change channel

V

vhnevans

Lyricist II

I don’t think Sky can be blamed. Other users are reporting similar problems from Apple TV and Xbox.

My system worked perfectly with an ARC and the problem only started with the upgrade to the Ultra. I only have SkyQ and AppleTv. Apple TV has no problems

I spoke with Sonos whose comment was that they don’t guarantee support for anything other than the TV as being the source.

I offered to try swapping back to my old ARC as I still have it in another room but Sonos support were not interested as the believe the problem is the set top box

The only thing I would say about that is that I played Netflix content through the app on the Sky box and it was fine, but when I went back to planner and recordings the issues started straight away. I am think that its something in the program codecs perhaps that is throwing it out. I have also tried Netflix and YouTube on the smart apps on the TV and again no issues, so I think its program content and how the ARC connection is switching between channels/recordings. I have even had it happen where the sound drops out if I dont switch, but just fast forward or rewind through the same program.

Very odd all round as had no issue with my Onkyo system.

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vhnevans

Lyricist II

Just to add to this conversation, when I switch the Sky box to the Normal (non Dolby) sound option in the Audio section of Sky the sound seems to work ok (or at least it seems to be on the times I have tried it), so its got to be the Dolby issue. I could leave it at that but when you spend the money like I have for this sound bar you want what you have paid for.

C

Calstonbaskett

Lyricist III

Just to add to this conversation, when I switch the Sky box to the Normal (non Dolby) sound option in the Audio section of Sky the sound seems to work ok (or at least it seems to be on the times I have tried it), so its got to be the Dolby issue. I could leave it at that but when you spend the money like I have for this sound bar you want what you have paid for.

I’ve forced my Tv to PCM and that works but as you say what is the point in a £1000 soundbar that you can’t use for surround sound

Q

qmaurAuthor

Avid Contributor I

I don’t think Sky can be blamed. Other users are reporting similar problems from Apple TV and Xbox.

My system worked perfectly with an ARC and the problem only started with the upgrade to the Ultra. I only have SkyQ and AppleTv. Apple TV has no problems

I spoke with Sonos whose comment was that they don’t guarantee support for anything other than the TV as being the source.

I offered to try swapping back to my old ARC as I still have it in another room but Sonos support were not interested as the believe the problem is the set box

I have even had it happen where the sound drops out if I dont switch, but just fast forward or rewind through the same program.

I have that too. But in my case I can see that sometimes, as you press pause, the audio switches back to stereo (presumably for the appletv ui) and then switches back to dolby when you resume streaming.

Q

qmaurAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Just did the latest firmware update (82.2-59204) and that doesn't help.

Anybody had any luck with an earc-enabled switch?

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