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Panasonic TX-65JZ1500 and Arc Audio Drop

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I’ve had a new Panasonic TV for two weeks. Connected to Arc via eARC using certified HDMI cables. The Sonos room comprises the Arc, wired to router, a Sub (wireless) and two wireless play 1s.

There is an annoying issue where the audio drops on the Arc for about five to ten seconds intermittently. It happens once per day, though for the first time it happened twice yesterday, within 30 mins of each other. This is mostly when watching live TV. As it is only once per day, it is quite hard to replicate and test on orther sources (apps on TV, NVidia etc.).

This issue did not happen on the replaced TV; one of the reasons for the new TV was to utilise eARC.

Any ideas? If a Sonos tech is available, the diag is 808361536.

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Corry PAnswer

Sonos Staff

Hi @loobar23

Thanks for your post!

There doesn’t seem to be any issues reported in the diagnostic - the relevant logs look no different than if you were just changing channels.

I recommend checking the TV for software updates, and also unplugging it from power for a couple of minutes.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

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Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @loobar23

On iPlayer UHD, it seems only certain devices have this working, and mostly are TV manufacturers. There is no UHD on iPlayer on the Shield - for eg Wimbledon was in UHD on the Panasonic but not Shield or Fire.

I had no idea it made a difference - it seems a bit strange, seeing as the BBC don’t make TVs or other devices to be considered first-party. The AI-upscaling on the Shield should be able to take a HD feed and make it look like a UHD feed, however - it should simply be a case of enabling the setting on the Shield.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

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loobar23Author

Avid Contributor I

Ken, thanks for the info. I have indeed done that, though I did not unplug the TV and Sonos after doing so. So I might as well try that. Its frustrating to test, as it could require the TV to be on for one hour before doing it.

On iPlayer UHD, it seems only certain devices have this working, and mostly are TV manufacturers. There is no UHD on iPlayer on the Shield - for eg Wimbledon was in UHD on the Panasonic but not Shield or Fire.

Slightly wrong - the Firestick 4K Max supports UHD on iPlayer.

Ken_Griffiths

The iPlayer UHD supported devices are listed here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/questions/supported-devices/uhd-supported-devices

I understand their UHD trials have been ongoing (on/off) since 2016. My LG TV is supported, but I’m somewhat surprised it’s not available on either the Amazon 4K Stick, or the Nvidia Shield?

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loobar23Author

Avid Contributor I

Yes indeed, its bizarre. I have a Shield, Firestick 4K and 4 Max. The max has UHD programs available, the others do not. The iPlayer app on the Panasonic TV also has UHD available.

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loobar23Author

Avid Contributor I

Hi Corry, the conclusion of the senior tech is that the fault is with the TV, no suprise there. And the conclusion of Panasonic is that the fault is with the Sonos Arc. And no suprise there either.

Unfortunately there is no stock to swap the TV, so would have to go back. for a refund, which is unfortunate as the picture quality is excellent.

The issue only ocurrs with live FreeView TV, and the inbuild apps. No issue for attached devices such as Fire or Shield. I want to use the inbuilt iPlayer app as BBC have released UHD content, so it makes sense to use that as the pic quality is excellent.

It does not seem to have the issue on the satellite reception, but the TV lacks Freesat EPG so is not a great solution.

Did the Sonos Engineer get you to disconnect all ‘other’ TV HDMI-connected devices (Shield/Cable box etc?) to eliminate it was not those devices attempting to steal the CEC focus away from the TV/eARC connection?

If that’s not been tried, I would perhaps give that a go, particularly as the issues reported are intermittent, which is a classic sign for that type of problem - it is easy to solve too.

After removing all other connected devices, I would also power off the TV and Arc at the wall for 3 minutes, before testing, as that will resolve any HDMI handshake issues. See if the TV inbuilt Apps then work without issue.

so I removed anything from HDMI 1 & 3, namely a Shield and a Firestick. No outage issues last night, though did not have the TV on for hours, but it was on for at least 90 mins on a mixture of live TV via Freeview and iPlayer.

Later when messing around with the native Plex TV app (only every use Plex via Shield or Fire) the Arc lost connectivity altogether. I think that might be a red herring; the app was struggling to play any 1080p or 4K movies, and I won’t use the native Plex app as it is nowhere near as good as the Shield for eg. Just seemed an odd occurance. Rebooted TV and nada, but removing and re-inserting the Arc HDMI cable re-engaged the sound via the Arc.

Ken_Griffiths

so I removed anything from HDMI 1 & 3, namely a Shield and a Firestick. No outage issues last night, though did not have the TV on for hours, but it was on for at least 90 mins on a mixture of live TV via Freeview and iPlayer.

Later when messing around with the native Plex TV app (only every use Plex via Shield or Fire) the Arc lost connectivity altogether. I think that might be a red herring; the app was struggling to play any 1080p or 4K movies, and I won’t use the native Plex app as it is nowhere near as good as the Shield for eg. Just seemed an odd occurance. Rebooted TV and nada, but removing and re-inserting the Arc HDMI cable re-engaged the sound via the Arc.

Rather than keep rebooting the TV/Arc, perhaps try toggling off/on the "TV Autoplay" option instead in the Arc Room Settings in the Sonos App, or perhaps see if the TV icon at the bottom of the Music Services Tab (music icon) brings back the TV audio, or look to the TV settings instead and try toggling the TV Digital Sound Out audio between ‘Passthrough’ or ‘PCM’ and ‘Auto’ and maybe leave it on passthrough if the TV has that option. See if those things bring back the audio rather than having to reboot everything.

Also the fact the native Plex App is struggling to play, doesn’t sound right either, like there is a network related issue… is the TV wired to the LAN or using a wireless connection?

I use Plex on my LG TV and that App seems fine to me, at least on par with what’s on the Shield and I use multiple Plex servers here.

So my thoughts are if using a WiFi connection maybe just check the router settings and if necessary, put the 2.4Ghz Band on a fixed non-overlapping channel such as 1, 6 or 11 and if the router allows set the channel-width to 20 MHz only and try that with the TV… or cable the TV to the LAN if practicable, or check it’s cable if already wired.

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loobar23Author

Avid Contributor I

OK...worked it out. The Panasonic Plex app doesn’t like .265 video format. Trust me to pick only those to test last night. Works fine with .264.

Ken_Griffiths

OK...worked it out. The Panasonic Plex app doesn’t like .265 video format. Trust me to pick only those to test last night. Works fine with .264.

I did just check my own plex servers here and I did notice there was a server update. (for my Linux server) so that maybe worth a quick check too, perhaps?

Ken_Griffiths

Anyhow if the intermittent audio interruption issues do go away, I would then add the (HDMI connected) devices back to the TV over the next few days, just one at a time and see if any devices in particular perhaps causes the issue and (if possible) switch off CEC on that one device only (remember to power off everything when you do make that change and disable its CEC feature) and try to perhaps identify the problem device and just leave CEC, on that problem product, disabled.

Hope that you do manage to find the answer to this, going forward.👍

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loobar23Author

Avid Contributor I

OK...worked it out. The Panasonic Plex app doesn’t like .265 video format. Trust me to pick only those to test last night. Works fine with .264.

I did just check my own plex servers here and I did notice there was a server update. (for my Linux server) so that maybe worth a quick check too, perhaps?

Plex is up to date, am running from a Synology NAS. Just had a look online, the Panny Plex app does seem a bit naff - plenty of people saying its not working with .265. As I say, I will only use the Shield for Plex though, so to send through Dolby TrueHD without any issues etc.

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