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I have a TCL 65R635 (Roku) television and am trying to figure out why, when setting audio to passthrough, it only sees two formats available to passthrough to the Sonos Arc: Dolby Atmos and DTS Digital Surround.

 

The problem is that I am trying to get my PlayStation 5 to output audio in either Linear PCM 5.1 or even at least Dolby Digital Plus, but because the tv only sees those two as the formats the Arc accepts via passthrough, it reduces Linear PCM to stereo channels or Dolby bitstream to just Dolby Digital, not plus or TrueHD.

I am struggling to understand where the problem is here. My interpretation is that my tv is becoming a gatekeeper to what audio formats can be passed through to the Arc, communicating that to the PS5, and the tv sees the Arc only accepting two audio formats via eARC.

Can anyone help me understand how the Arc can communicate via eARC that it can accept Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and Linear PCM 5.1 so the corresponding devices will output appropriately?

I believe your TV is just detecting the highest quality Dolby and DTS audio formats the Arc supports which is Dolby Atmos and DTS Digital Surround. This doesn’t necessarily mean you are limited to these two formats.

What exactly are you playing on the PS5? Video games? Streaming apps? Blu-ray discs? Do you have Output Device on the PS5 set to HDMI Device (AV amplifier) and HDMI Device Type set to AV amplifer? What is Audio Format (Priority) currently set to on the PS5?

The PS5 is for gaming. I have tried setting outputs on the console to TV, Receiver, and Sound Bar. When the PS5 is set to Linear PCM, it sends a stereo signal no matter what. I have the Sonos Arc connected to the tv via eARC. Something is preventing the PS5 from sending Linear PCM in 5.1 to the Arc. With the TV’s audio set to passthrough, something is specifically communicated back to the PS5 that the maximum audio codec it can receive is Linear PCM stereo or Dolby Digital (but not Dolby Digital Plus), when priority is set to Dolby bitstream.

Is there an eARC setting on the TV you can toggle on/off? If so, make sure it is turned on.

Set the TV to Passthrough, and on the PS5, set Output Device to HDMI Device (AV amplifier), HDMI Device Type to AV amplifer, and Audio Format (Priority) to Linear PCM. If these settings only result in stereo PCM audio, your TV may not be able to pass through LPCM audio. I have read about other TCL users experiencing the same problem. I would contact TCL directly to confirm.

eARC is enabled. When the TV is set to passthrough, the lowest quality Dolby and DTS is chosen from sources to be sent to the Arc. You might be right: the TCL unit I have might not be capable of Linear PCM passthrough. On the website, I noticed after out discussion that the units support “Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Atmos.” (Though DTS works on passthrough from the PS5 to the Arc.) Otherwise, not sure why it defaults to Dolby Digital rather than Dolby Digital Plus, which is one concern, when set to passthrough.

When the TV is set to auto rather than passthrough, it just locks in Dolby Multichannel PCM 5.1 so I can only hope that is a channel via eARC that carries the highest quality Dolby codec available.

Why did you flag your own post as the Best Answer when it doesn’t solve the issue? I am still pursuing this issue with TCL and Sonos. 

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