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I’m experiencing a problem with Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar and judging from the posts I found on the internet I’m not the only one.  There have been others experiencing the same or very similar issue with their Samsung, Sony and LG tv’s.

My TV is Samsung QN90A.   

The problem is that that Sonos does not let my TV switch away to TV speakers or other connected bluetooth earset.  After the switch is made, it temporarily succeeds and then again the sound is routed to Sonos after a few seconds.    I’m connecting over HDMI eArc output from my TV. 

 

I have tried using Sonos cable, my own Anker high speed cable and the same thing happens.  With my Sennheiser Ambeo Plus soundbar, no such problem exists.  I can succesfully toggle between the different sound outputs on my TV.  What’s even more upseting, is that Sonos provides no power button.  So the only options are either to turn it off from the outlet or turn off CEC in the TV menu to accomplish this.

You’re fighting with CEC, not with Sonos or Samsung. CEC allows a single audio sink on a system, because both Sonos and Samsung are using CEC (and specifically the ARC section of it), the TV won’t handle more than one speaker. Which is why you have to turn off CEC to use the earset, or internal speakers.

Neither Sonos nor Samsung ‘own’ CEC, they just implement the standards as they apply across all TVs and speakers. Based on your comment about the Sennheiser, my guess is they don’t use CEC.

You could try calling Samsung directly, but they’ll be liable to tell you they’ve just implemented the industry wide standard. Same with Sonos. 

Thank you for some hints, but this doesn’t make logical sense to me.  

 

  1. I’m not trying to use multiple audio devices.  Just one. (even though technically Samsung like other manufacturers supports using both internal and external speakers in the special sound mode for its own soundbar)
  2. As I understand Sennheiser does implement CEC
  3. It seems like Sonos is either buggy and not honoring the protocol correctly and improperly “stealing” the connection, when it shouldn’t or if they are implementing it to the letter, should have accommodated Samsung TV’s which can have this deficiency or have a separate feature that allows you toggle part of the CEC protocol that turns this off
  4. Disabling CEC on my TV, is the only way to route sound to other available devices (Optical, Internal, Bluetooth headset), but this no longer enables to select HDMI output the soundbar at all.  LIke it doesn’t find it.
  5. Logically this makes no sense, as the user has to be in control of where the sound is routed from the TV, not some external device dictating it.
  1. You are, comparing the TV’s speakers, the earsets, the Sennheiser, and the Sonos. As long as you’re using CEC via HDMI-ARC/eARC, you can use one, and not more than one. Some TVs don’t disable the optical output when they use CEC (HDMI-ARC). That depends on the TV manufacturer, not Sonos. 
  2. If so, the TV would kill the internal speakers. Or any other HDMI-ARC connected audio sink. 
  3. We’ll need to disagree here. Sonos implements CEC per the specifications.
  4. Yes, that’s the way the specifications for CEC are written. Check my original link, and follow the information there to the specifications.
  5. The device connected by CEC (HDMI-ARC/eARC), if you read the specifications, report several things to the CEC system that exists in the TV, that they exist as an audio sink, and which formats they can use. It’s up to the TV to send volume commands to the audio sink to process the commands. 

Thanks Bruce as while this wasn’t the issue I was having, it answered a problem I was having with audio out from a LG OLED TV.  

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