Picture stutters/freezes with Sonos Arc

D
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Hi all,

After selling off all of my Sonos speakers (Four 5’s, a bunch of 1’s, and a few IKEA bookshelf speakers) several years ago Ive decided to jump back on into the fold with a new Home theatre setup.  Just recently purchased an Arc, Sub, and Move and have been very happy with the sound quality.  I’ve been having a far better experience this go around than I did several years ago.  I am having one issue though that I can’t figure out…

 

l have an Apple TV 4K (Latest Model) connected to a 2022 Samsung Frame TV of which I have the Arc connected to with paired Sub.  All are connected correctly.  Arc is connected to the earc port while Apple TV to another HDMI and with high bandwidth cables etc…. Also, I do have Input signal plus turned on for all inputs on the TV.

 

The issue I’ve been having is that when watching video content the picture freezes intermittently for a very brief period.  Probably a half a second or so.  Maybe even less.  Audio is fine and sounds great stays in sync and keeps playing as if nothing went wrong.  Just the picture freezes ever so briefly and then starts playing correctly again as if nothing happened.  Almost like a brief stutter.  Happens about 4 times during a 2 hour movie I would estimate.

 

As for content, It happened while watching Black Mirror on Netflix through the Apple TV as well as the movie Guy Ritchie’s Covenant rented through the iTunes Store on Apple TV.  Both are 4K, Dolby Atmos.  I can also confirm that the Sonos App showed Atmos as playing at the time as well.  

 

Anyone have any suggestions or guidance?  Hopefully a fix as I’ve been very impressed so far (Current issue not withstanding) and was looking forward to adding some 300’s to the set up down the line.  Thanks for reading!

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11 replies

melvimbe

Sonos should have no impact on the picture quality at all.  I would contact Samsung about the issue, perhaps apply firmware upgrade if one is available.

 

Understood that everything worked fine before adding Sonos, so it would seem maybe Sonos is the problem, but the TV is now doing something different actually….taking in the video (maybe a different input than previously) and sending audio via eARC.  It needs to handle that without stuttering.  Hopefully, they have a fix for you, or can recommend a setting change.

Danny
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Much thank for the reply.  I posted the issue in a Samsung Frame Tv forums as well hoping for more insight.  

Up until now I had my Apple TV paired with 2 HomePods for audio.  While I did have some audio lag issues with them and an Xbox (with Atmos set for the audio format) connected they did work perfectly with the Apple TV.

I also never had any video issues whatsoever on any devices until the Arc was added though which is what led me to think it may be the Arc.  Probably a combination of devices but hoping someone can offer suggestions for a fix.

Thanks again!

Airgetlam

The HomePods would not have been using ARC or eARC. I would concur with @melvimbe ‘s analysis. 

Bruce
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Thanks for the reply!

But the Apple TV was and would have been.  Specified for it to be plugged into Earc on the frame in order for it to get audio return channel allowing audio from the other inputs such as the Xbox to play on the HomePods.

Obviously, now the Apple TV is not connected to the earc while my Sonos Arc is.  Apple Tv is connected to one of the other hdmi inputs and HomePods are out of the mix.

Maybe I am misunderstanding.

buzz

Is the NETFLIX connection wireless or via Ethernet? Other than receiving audio over the HDMI-eARC connection, ARC has very little interaction with the TV. If the link to NETFLIX is wireless, there could be some wireless interference issues.

D
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Thanks.  Using the Netflix app on the Apple TV.  Apple TV is connected via Ethernet.

buzz

Check for silly things. I once was troubleshooting a situation where the network speed was significantly less than expected and everything was wired. After lots of head scratching I noticed that the network cable connecting a local switch to the network had been damaged by some construction. The SONOS system figured out that there was no network connection and shared its wireless connectivity with the switch. This path was much slower than the wired connection.

In your situation a quick reality check would be to disconnect the HDMI connection to ARC and use the TV’s speaker. A variation would be to power down ARC.

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

Like others have said. The Arc is a soundbar. The HDMI connection is only getting audio from your Frame sent to the Arc. The video is still being sent to your Frame via whatever box or video steaming service being used. IMO it’s coincidental that the Video issue started when the Arc was connected. The Frame is where to troubleshoot.

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
D
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Thanks.  I agree it seems the Arc shouldn’t mess with the video at all.  Only thing is that it only happens with the Arc in the mix.  I have tested with only using the tv speakers and there doesn’t seem to be any issue.  I will be testing more with and without the Arc but the behavior does seem to be pretty consistent.

buzz

What happens if you dumb down the audio format to stereo?

D
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Thanks Buzz.  I will have to test more thoroughly with the different formats as I can’t say for sure wether it was happening with stereo or plain old 5.1 in addition to the Atmos content.

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