@JSACHMO,
If you’re not overly bothered about Atmos audio Input to the Sonos Arc, maybe look at using an optical splitter, together with the Sonos optical-to-hdmi adapter (supplied with the Sonos Arc) and just split the TV optical output audio to both your Sonos Arc and your Bluetooth TX, or other headphone transmitter.
Here’s one example with three optical outputs:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Optical-Splitter-TOSLINK-Support-Blue/dp/B081YWFRDH
Another with two optical outputs:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/PROZOR-Toslink-Splitter-Converter-Blue-Ray/dp/B08DK6DS6Y
Note the above are just examples I came across, but I suggest you research the matter before making any purchase. I’ve not used such devices to truly comment on them further.
Does anyone know of something that will preserve the eArc signal to an Arc/Beam to get Atmos but to also split the audio hdmi to optical / headphone jack.
I have a bit of a similar edge case in that my son is deaf and has cochlear implants we have a TV streamer that can connect via optical / audio jack directly to his implants and at the moment we are using the optical splitter solution as described above, but that means we do lose out on Atmos when watching TV content. This allows us to mute the beam when he’s watching his kids stuff, but as a family we can listen to the audio from the Sonos and he gets the audio directly into his implants via his streamer.
For the benefit of @JSACHMO, this is the one we have and its been working flawlessly for two years - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08DKVBPQL (this isn’t stocked at the moment, but the second link @Ken_Griffiths gave looks to come from the same factory)
In the grand scheme of things it’s not the end of the world but I just wondered if anyone has come across a solution that can split the signal and preserve the Atmos for the Beam. It would be amazing if manufacturers thought more of the deaf and hard of hearing when designing their devices (and this is not to have a pop at Sonos, I feel this could be a development that TV manufacturers could do to provide two digital channels of audio out from their TVs).
It’s unfortunately part of the CEC specifications ( or was, last time I looked at them), so all systems that use CEC (Sonos as a ‘sink’, but the computers that control everything in each TV set all use this), so it may be worth petitioning the consortium that controls CEC.
I don’t think, by any stretch, that your request is, at this point, unusual, just that the engineers, when setting it up, just didn’t think of the issue.
And no, I’m not familiar enough with all hardware to know a way around this issue. I think at best, turning off CEC, which on many sets reactivates the optical circuitry, can provide a secondary non-hdmi output, to which you might hook up secondary audio equipment. But then that’s not HDMI easy, either, and not all TV sets work that way. YMMV.
@JSACHMO . I have just faced a similar issue and wracking my head for a proper solution , but as an interim I have set up the TV to feed audio using optical output to our Oticon TV adapter, and then fed the Sonos Beam using the Optical Out from the Oticon TV adapter to the beam using the HDMI optical adapter . (All very Heath Robinson) . There is an All Together function on LG but I haven’t worked out how this works or even if it allows audio to Hearing Aids and also Sonos Soundars. LG categorically stated today only one channel for audio unless it is optical and TV , which is the only option for 2 audio feeds .
That’s a ‘function’ if the CEC spec, which all manufacturers use to carry HDMI audio. When generated, years and years ago, apparently no thought was given to the possibility of multiple audio ‘sinks’. So, if you have a soundbar attached via ARC, you can’t add headphones.
