Shield Pro and Arc Ultra Dolby Sound Briefly Cutting Out

I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, their lawyers get sensitive about GDPR.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

Support is likely your best bet but you could try a few things to see if they make a difference.

Check what format your stereo stream is, if it is lossless, HD or UHD then it is using close to what an Atmos stream does. If it isn't then select a source that is and see if the issue returns.

Check the Network section of Settings for each speaker to see the quality of the link. Might be an issue with one poor link causing issues.

I have the same problem with a Shield Pro and TCL C765 and a Samsung HW-Q60OF soundbar. The problem is excactly like yours. It works fine when the Shield is connected to the soundbar directly but not when it is connected to the tv. Did you find a solution?

OK, so after a few calls with the Sonos support group the Arc Ultra is working fine using just the TV with the Arc Ultra. I still get sound glitches when passing sound from the Shied Pro through the TCL TV to the Arc Ultra. I can connect my Shield Pro directly to the Arc Ultra using the HDMI port but then I would have no way to get video signal to the TCL TV, so that is rather pointless ...

Can you split the HDMI output from an Nvidia Shield Pro to both a TV and an Arc Ultra?

Why would you? To my knowledge, the NVIDIA Shield Pro doesn’t output an ARC signal that the Sonos Arc Ultra needs to be able to “play” sounds. That signal comes (usually) from the electronics in the TV.

I have the same problem with my arc ultra and sonos ones as surround connected to a TCL QM8K. Mine takes 10-15 minutes to become an issue. I submitted a diagnostic to Sonos during the issue and was told everything looked ok. Same temporary fix by pausing or rewinding 

I moved the arc ultra to a LG G4 and played the same video files (4K MKVs via Plex) and had no issues (hours of play time).

My arc ultra using eARC from my QM8K has issues with ANY device that outputs Dolby Atmos. I used to have issues with Netflix doing Dolby digital 5.1 but that seems to have fixed itself at some point. (Xbox one X, PC with AMD or Nvidia GPU, and I tried a second Shield Pro)

I've submitted a claim with TCL and done all kinds of diagnostics and have not gotten closure (going on 8 months now).

I can "fix" the issue by forcing all multichannel audio to be PCM but that defeats the purpose of getting an arc since you lose all spatial information...

Hey, sorry to be late to the party. Since you and I have similar TV’s and set ups I have a few suggestions. If you are using your TV only as a Screen and use the NVIDIA Shield Pro as your streaming device, then you should factory reset your device to “Basic” set up.

Next, in your Tv’s menu in the “Channel & Inputs” section, make sure you are setting your HDMI ports to “Auto” in order for it to determine which format is going to work best for sending signal back to your Arc.

In your NVIDIA shield settings make sure you have “Dolby Audio Processing” which can be found under Advanced Sound Settings “OFF”! The Arc should do the processing for Audio not the Shield. Leaving this setting on might cause a double processing causing a latency that usually results in audio clipping on stuttering.
You might also want to run a internet speed test on the shield to ensure its not getting inconsistent data along the way (unlikely but possible).

I think most importantly, make sure your Sonos Devices are all up to date in the app and you are running the latest Device software and app version.

Hi Don,

Thanks for the reply and all the info! Unfortunately I've had those settings set the way you suggested (and tried them on and off etc) but still have the issue. 

I believe this is an issue from TCL not working with sonos very well... I purchased another TCL (QM6K) and a sonon beam gen 2. They experienced the same issues and swapping TV and Sound Bars they all had issues. 

TCL did offer a FW to try but it made the issue present on Dolby Digital content (Netflix on the shield) which makes me think it's their issue and they do have some control over the eArc handshake.

Also to update my initial post it takes 4-5 minutes to become buggy.

They are sending a tv tech out to take a look and I'll update back if anything changes. If there are any other suggestions I'm happy to give them a go but I think I've exhausted most of them 

Thanks,

-Carson

Hey Carson, have you tried streaming 4k dolby atmos content only through your Google Tv? ex:logging into netflix thru the tv and streaming. Does this cause the same issue?

Don,

Unfortunately I don't have any 4K streaming services. I'm running a plex server and also putting 4K/Blu Rays into an Xbox and having it passthrough that way. Gaming in atmos on the Xbox has the same issues as well. The TVs internet and codec library doesn't handle plex well. I also believe all streaming services use Dolby Digital as the base coded where the Blu rays will use Dolby True HD and be uncompressed. So the streaming services may work but aren't apples to apples. Maybe I'll try to find a free trial to use and see if that changes anything.

When I have a PC connected and set windows to atmos I have the same issue are these are the common use cases. 

Thanks