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probem with audio format with Sonos Beam gen 2 and apple tv

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Hi I’ve just bought a Sonos beam gen 2 and I have some compatibility issue with audio format.

My setup is a Samsung h7000 (2014), an Apple TV 4K and a Sonos beam gen 2. The beam is connected with the HDMI Arc port on the tv.

The problem is that when playing movies from the Apple TV I only get PCM and DTS neo 2:5 as option in the Samsung audio menu. If is use internal tv app I also get Dolby 5.1. The Sonos app report the format correctly as selected in the TV)

Things change if I use the audio encode option on the Apple TV. If I choose to encode audio to Dolby 5.1 I get the option Dolby 5.1 also on the TV, but I get no audio, just silence.

What’s happening here? Could change something if I connect the beam with the optical audio on the TV? I’m not trying to get Dolby Atmos, just Dolby 5.1

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GuitarSuperstarAnswer

Lead Maestro

Because you have an older TV from 2014, more than likely it is not capable of passing through 5.1 audio from external media devices connected to the TV. I have a Panasonic plasma from 2013 that has the same limitation.

You should consider getting the HDFury Arcana eARC adapter that will allow your Apple TV to bypass your TV’s limitations and send audio directly to the Beam which will result in Dolby Atmos, Multichannel PCM, or Dolby Digital audio playing out of the Beam. I use it with my old TV and Sonos Arc and it works great.

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

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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GuitarSuperstarAnswer

Lead Maestro

Because you have an older TV from 2014, more than likely it is not capable of passing through 5.1 audio from external media devices connected to the TV. I have a Panasonic plasma from 2013 that has the same limitation.

You should consider getting the HDFury Arcana eARC adapter that will allow your Apple TV to bypass your TV’s limitations and send audio directly to the Beam which will result in Dolby Atmos, Multichannel PCM, or Dolby Digital audio playing out of the Beam. I use it with my old TV and Sonos Arc and it works great.

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

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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EriksatieAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Hi @GuitarSuperstar and thanks for the answer.

I’m not particularly interested in Dolby Atmos, is there a cheaper option to the Arcana that could solve the problem? A simple hdmi splitter to send the Apple TV signal both to tv and to the beam could work?

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GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

Hi @GuitarSuperstar and thanks for the answer.

I’m not particularly interested in Dolby Atmos, is there a cheaper option to the Arcana that could solve the problem? A simple hdmi splitter to send the Apple TV signal both to tv and to the beam could work?

There are two less expensive devices similar to the Arcana, but they don’t work as well:

FeinTech VAX04101

OREI HDA-935

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

E

EriksatieAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Hi @GuitarSuperstar and thanks for the answer.

I’m not particularly interested in Dolby Atmos, is there a cheaper option to the Arcana that could solve the problem? A simple hdmi splitter to send the Apple TV signal both to tv and to the beam could work?

There are two less expensive devices similar to the Arcana, but they don’t work as well:

FeinTech VAX04101

OREI HDA-935

the Feintech seems like a good option, and it’s easily available here in Italy. Why the FeinTech is not as good as the Arcana? has some problems or less features?

Airgetlam

If you’re not interested in Dolby Atmos, you could easily use a normal HDMI switch- like device, which pulls the Dolby Digital information off to an optical port, then use an optical connection to the adapter Sonos makes to connect optical inputs to the ARC port on the Beam.

Lower cost, too. Many relatively inexpensive HDMI switches offer this.

I’m not familiar enough with the three devices to help in any understanding of which is better, but have had no problems on my side with the HD Fury Arcana.

Bruce

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EriksatieAuthor

Avid Contributor I

If you’re not interested in Dolby Atmos, you could easily use a normal HDMI switch- like device, which pulls the Dolby Digital information off to an optical port, then use an optical connection to the adapter Sonos makes to connect optical inputs to the ARC port on the Beam.

Lower cost, too. Many relatively inexpensive HDMI switches offer this.

This sound like a good option, more sooner then later I will change my old TV, so I don’t want to spend that much. but if I understand correctly, with this type of solution I would not get audio from the TV when I’m watching regular TV. is there a solution for this? will the HDMI switch take the audio back from the TV and send to the optical port?

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

the Feintech seems like a good option, and it’s easily available here in Italy. Why the FeinTech is not as good as the Arcana? has some problems or less features?

I say that “they don’t work as well” primarily because the Arcana is by far the most widely used option of the three. It has been well documented online that the Arcana works. I have read very little about the FeinTech simply because there are just far less users. But from the few instances I have seen the FeinTech mentioned in this forum, it seems to work fine. The OREI is a newer product and seems to have the most issues of the three products, so I would avoid this one.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

Airgetlam

I’m not sure I understand your statement of “ would not get audio from the TV when I’m watching regular TV.”. You would indeed not get any sound when watching something from one of the TV’s smart apps, if it has any. You’d only get sound from external feeds, such as a cable box, or Blu-ray player, etc, that have external HDMI sources. Anything you’d normally connect to the TV’s HDMI ports would connect to the external switch, and feed the optical cable to the Beam, and the video would go to the TV set.

You might be able to get the sound from smart apps on the TV if you were instead to ignore that switch, and plug in to the optical port on the TV set directly. That age of electronics, sometimes optical ports had more function than ARC ports did. But your owner’s manual, or a call to Samsung might give you better information.

The real question, which would be answered by either that perusal of the owner’s manual, or contacting Samsung directly, is why an HDMI connection of X type (Dolby Digital) is not being passed through properly on both outputs, either the optical or the HDMI ARC one.

@GuitarSuperstar ‘s solution, which I concur with, is to pull the audio out before it reaches the TV. I have a similar issue with my Vizio TVs, where they don’t pass Dolby Digital Plus, only Dolby Digital. But then I never use the onboard “smart” apps, either, just my Apple TV or Microsoft XBox, so I feed the signal through an HD Fury Arcana, as suggested. However, since you appear to have an ARC port, there is a way on shown the HD Fury website, to get data from your “smart” apps on the TV to play on the Sonos Beam, it just requires a more roundabout method, including additional switches.

At the end of the day, given the age of your TV, it might be worth it to just upgrade the TV, and not mess with all of this.

Bruce

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EriksatieAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Can be the HDMI cable a possibile cause?

it’s an Amazon basic cable marked with “high speed with ethernet”. My tv is full hd, not 4K, and the Apple TV output is set accordingly. Could the cable limit the audio output format?

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EriksatieAuthor

Avid Contributor I

I’m not sure I understand your statement of “ would not get audio from the TV when I’m watching regular TV.”. You would indeed not get any sound when watching something from one of the TV’s smart apps, if it has any. You’d only get sound from external feeds, such as a cable box, or Blu-ray player, etc, that have external HDMI sources. Anything you’d normally connect to the TV’s HDMI ports would connect to the external switch, and feed the optical cable to the Beam, and the video would go to the TV set.

You might be able to get the sound from smart apps on the TV if you were instead to ignore that switch, and plug in to the optical port on the TV set directly. That age of electronics, sometimes optical ports had more function than ARC ports did. But your owner’s manual, or a call to Samsung might give you better information.

The real question, which would be answered by either that perusal of the owner’s manual, or contacting Samsung directly, is why an HDMI connection of X type (Dolby Digital) is not being passed through properly on both outputs, either the optical or the HDMI ARC one.

@GuitarSuperstar ‘s solution, which I concur with, is to pull the audio out before it reaches the TV. I have a similar issue with my Vizio TVs, where they don’t pass Dolby Digital Plus, only Dolby Digital. But then I never use the onboard “smart” apps, either, just my Apple TV or Microsoft XBox, so I feed the signal through an HD Fury Arcana, as suggested. However, since you appear to have an ARC port, there is a way on shown the HD Fury website, to get data from your “smart” apps on the TV to play on the Sonos Beam, it just requires a more roundabout method, including additional switches.

At the end of the day, given the age of your TV, it might be worth it to just upgrade the TV, and not mess with all of this.

“would not get audio from the TV when I’m watching regular TV”: I mean if with a simple HDMI switch I would be able to listen to audio coming from tv (tv tuner mainly, the apps are too old to be usable), while having the Apple TV, the beam and the tv connected to the switch, and probably the answer is no, because there’s no ARC audio return in that kind of cheap switch.

BTW I’ve ordered a FeinTech VAX04101 on Amazon, let’s see if it solves my problem and the setup is stable and easy to use, or it will go back and I will take into consideration to upgrade the tv (but it’s a much bigger expense).

Everything would have been easier if the beam just had a second HDMI port to connect the TV...

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