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I don’t have a TV. I’ve bought a Sonos arc ultra, gen 4 sub and era300. I have a FeinTech VAX04101A hdmi switch to connect fire stick, Blu-ray player and ps5 to Sonos arc ultra and projector. Projector only has normal hdmi and not eARC but Sonos app wants eARC output from source which I don’t have. Does that mean I can’t connect my sources to Sonos? I need it to work with hdmi not eARC hdmi, is that impossible?

No, it isn’t possible for the Sonos to work with HDMI audio. On the other hand, your Feintech device I think has an ARC/eARC output which the Sonos can connect to. Just look for the ARC/eARC output on your Feintech, and connect that to your Arc Ultra.


Thank you. It’s a FeinTech 04201. Connecting outputs to PJ and ARC Ultra (ARC Ultra in the eARC output) Sonos didn’t recognise eARC so wouldn’t connect.
I then tried connecting Sonos to INPUT 1 (eARC) which the Sonos recognised and accepted but then I can’t play anything.
FeinTech said it should work but connecting the eARC out to Sonos isn’t recognised. Any clues?


You’ll probably need to push FeinTech for more assistance to setup their device properly.

FYI, the ArcUltra will function using a simple HDMI port however you’ll not have the following functions:

  1. Two-way communication between it and TV which requires HDMI ARC/CEC
  2. No Dolby Atmos which requires HDMI eARC which also has CEC capability.

Thanks. How do I set up the Sonos to use a simple HDMI port? On the Sonos app it prompts me to connect to eARC and then when it’s not recognised it prompts me for optical adapter (which I won’t have from fire stick etc).


By plugging the Sonos Arc Ultra to HDMI in (eARC) rather than HDMI out (eARC) I’m now getting the fanfare from a Blu-ray player but when it gets to the movie the Sonos app says unsupported audio. Any ideas? Probably best I check with FeinTech on Monday I guess.


Solved. Thanks for all your help. I assumed the Sonos had to be connected to the output of the hdmi switch rather than an input, then trying the AUTO/STD/COPY got it to work. Just very difficult to process all that when each way I tried the Sonos app was saying “eARC not selected, connect to eARC HDMI on your TV” after each attempt.


But the message was right though (if not very helpful)?


Yes. But as you say, unhelpful, I found it very difficult to troubleshoot and work through the many options. With hindsight this was a FeinTech set up issue I didn’t understand but there’s not much guidance out there for setting up without a TV and the symptom (to me) was the Arc Ultra not finding an eARC input.
To be honest, the sound bars and home cinema systems are very TV centric, I wish there was an idiots guide to setting up with projector only/no TV. I’d probably have jumped in sooner if it was easier to find out what’s needed for my type of set up.