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Can't get Dolby Atmos from blu-ray player to Beam Gen 2

  • 22 September 2023
  • 4 replies
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T
Userlevel 1
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I’ve got a Beam Gen 2 with a pair of Play 1’s for surround, using a Samsung QE49Q60 TV. Dolby Atmos works just fine via streaming services (ie ‘Rings of Power’ on Amazon) and sounds great. When I check the Sonos app on my phone, I can see that the soundtrack is playing in Atmos.

Problem is, I can’t get Atmos out of either of my available blu-ray players. The one I use for this setup is a Samsung UBD-K8500. 5:1 works just fine, but playing, for instance, the 4K disc of ‘Dune’, the Dolby Atmos soundtrack only comes out as 5:1.

Checking the sound settings on the TV, the ‘Dolby Digital+’ option is greyed out.

I tested with our living room blu ray player - a Panasonic DMP UB900, and things were even more disappointing. Various changes to the settings got me no further than a stereo output for pretty much any disc I tried - and in every case the only option in the TV’s sound setting was to output for PCM.

The Beam is connected to the eArc input on the TV, the players via HDMI to the TV.

Looking online, I’ve seen a few mentions of the Panasonic player supporting Atmos, but I’m not sure about the Samsung player.

Any ideas where I’m going wrong here - or would a more recent player (both of mine date to about 2016) be more likely to deliver the Atmos joy?

All suggestions/advice gratefully received!

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Best answer by GuitarSuperstar 22 September 2023, 14:36

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4 replies

G
Userlevel 7

Based on my research, your model TV is not equipped with eARC. eARC is required to get Dolby Atmos audio from a Blu-ray player. You either need to get a new TV with eARC or add an eARC adapter like the HDFury Arcana that will allow your Blu-ray player to bypass your TV’s limitations and send audio directly to the Beam.

https://hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
T
Userlevel 1
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Thanks for the quick response, Superstar! I thought I’d seen eARC mentioned in the documentation for the TV (because of the way it’s fitted to the wall, I can’t actually get a clear look at the connections to see for myself!).

I’ll check out the Arcana option - thanks for the recommendation!

Just out of interest, do you know why the Beam will play Atmos from streaming services playing on the TV, but not from blu rays playing via the TV?

G
Userlevel 7

Blu-ray discs use a higher quality version of Dolby Atmos via the Dolby TrueHD audio codec which is “lossless” and has less audio compression. This higher quality audio requires an eARC connection. Streaming services use a lower quality version of Dolby Atmos via the Dolby Digital Plus codec which is “lossy” and uses more audio compression due to the limited bandwidth available when streaming. This doesn’t require eARC.

Check your TV settings for an “HDMI-eARC Mode” setting. If you don’t see it, your TV isn’t equipped with eARC.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
T
Userlevel 1
Badge +3

That’s very much appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to reply - this certainly explains why I was going round in circles with this problem. Cheers!

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