Sonos Arc loud pop then audio loss

If you want to interact with Sonos, this community website is not the best for that. You’d be much better off if you were to contact Sonos Support directly to discuss it.

As you probably know, I have, many times. For a long time they didn’t acknowledge the problem, made me go through very time consuming steps like buying other HDMI cables (and I was using what came with the hardware!) as well as factory resets and building the system back up. They also wanted video taping of the problem occurring as proof. Now, they have been at the “we are looking into it” stage for 6+ months. That’s it. That’s all direct support is doing. 
I respect that you are a superfan that wants to defend Sonos. But there are real customers who have been affected for a year+ and we are not even getting communication.

With all due respect, have you tried lately? I called (again) in early October and was told by a very nice operator to ‘change my cables.’ Something Sonos Support told me to do 10 months ago when this first started for me. Something I did even though I knew my cables were up to date. Just more money I wasted. 

I turned Dolby Vision off on the Apple TV and left Atmos on, no issues so far. Any loss of Dolby Vision enhancements are not that apparent to me.

I appreciate Atmos and sacrificing Dolby Vision was not a big trade off for me. 

Could you please explain how you turned Dolby Vision off on the Apple TV. I have mine set to 4K SDR 60Hz with both Match Dynamic Range and Match Frame Rate set to on. It is my understanding at those settings that the Apple TV will match whatever is thrown at it including Dolby Vision. In other words, at that setting, if a movie broadcast in Dolby Vision the Apple TV will match and play it in Dolby Vision. How could I eliminate the Dolby Vision so the ATV will not broadcast in it? Thanks for your help  

 

From your screenshot, you already have Dolby Vision off. Changing the format to 4K SDR 60 is all you need to do. However each time you turn off the AppleTV and turn it back on and play any Dolby Vision source, AppleTV will automatically enable Dolby Vision again and you have to manually change the format each time you turn your AppleTV back on. Which is a pain.

When I play my Xbox Series X I just shut off all Dolby settings Dolby vision and Dolby Atmos.

This issue is almost over a year old with zero support.

I’m thinking of selling my Sonos system and getting the Sony HT-A9 instead with Black Friday sales happening now. 

Thanks for your feedback. Each time I turn on my Apple TV 4K these settings stay stable and from what I understand, they allow for whatever content I run through the ATV to match what appears on your screen. If it’s SDR content, I’ll get it in SDR. If it’s HDR content, it runs in HDR. If it’s Dolby Vision, it will play in DV. Here is a good video showing all of this in real time. It explains it very well. 
 

 

In reading your other posts, I’m a little confused. Have you tried to turn off DV on your Sony TV and had any success watching Atmos through your ATV without the popping issue? I share your frustrations and just wish we’d get more feedback from Sonos Support. Even if it’s to tell us they’ve given up if indeed that’s what’s going on. 

Yes that’s exactly correct, each time you turn on your Apple TV and play Dolby Vision content it will switch to Dolby Vision. I have to manually change the format to 4K HDR to disable the Dolby Vision, while my Dolby Digital setting is at Auto, Atmos Available to play Atmos content without any issue. It is only when Dolby Vision is enabled with Dolby Atmos that the popping error occurs. This “fix” only applies to Apple TV. 
 

One thing to note I never encountered this popping audio loss problem on my Apple TV with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos playing at the same time, until after it was initially caused by my Xbox Series X was connected to my Sony. The Xbox Series X was a recent purchase. After the Xbox Series X caused the error, only then do I now have a permanent the aforementioned issue playing Dolby Vision and Atmos at the same time.

So yes, by setting my Apple TV Video format to 4KHDR when playing Dolby Vision content, that will allow me my Sonos Arc to play Dolby Atmos without any issues. 
It is a nuisance, that when you play any content with a Dolby Vision, once the content begins, you must go into your settings to “disable Dolby Vision” by changing the format to 4K HDR. In order to play Dolby Atmos content without any issues. 

I also have had a PS5 and never encountered any issues.

Turning DV off on my Sony TV made zero difference. The problem still occurs. It is only by turning off Dolby Vision on Apple TV. When I used to play my Xbox Series I have to disable both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. I have since sold my Xbox Series X.

Changing cables and wasting money on top of line cables was a complete waste of time and money on my part as well.

Not true.  I am a very heavy gamer and have Atmos enabled for all my gaming.  I haven’t had the issue since deactivating Auto HDR which forced Dolby Vision

After reading the comments, I’m starting to wonder if this is a TV passthrough thing.   I have a LG C1 for the record

I have a Sony X900H, and please specify about the Xbox Series X, my PS5 plays without any issue. I will clarify for my Xbox Series X the only way I was able to play without issue is to shut off both. And I discovered the Apple TV fix initially from your post that lead me to Reddit. Please clarify the Dolby vision issue as people are getting confused about that. 

People on here seem to be confused about the Dolby vision “fix”. It only applies universally for the Apple TV.

And you’re absolutely right it is the TV pass through as the Sonos Arc is unable to process the signal of both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos content at the same time.

I have also tested this on a Samsung TV in another room which obviously doesn’t Dolby Vision. No issues.

But the same problem occurs now with my LG in the bedroom. With an Apple TV set up in there as well. That’s how I know it’s the Sonos Arc, as once the error is initiated in the Sonos Arc, it is consistently there now. To clarify, had the Xbox Series X not have initiated the Popping Sound loss bug, the Sonos Arc, which had no issues for the past 2 years, which was playing Dolby vision and Dolby Atmos just fine on my LG in the bedroom through an Apple TV, before I moved it to my living room and played Xbox Series X a month ago on my Sony which started this bug/error, and lead me to this thread and Reddit threads.

So to all the nay sayers, it is a Sonos issue. As once the error occurs, it affects the Sonos Arc’s ability to passthrough Dolby Atmos content that also has Dolby Vision. I’ve moved my Arc back to the LG set up in the bedroom and it now has issues playing Dolby vision and Dolby Atmos content. And when I play dolby vision and Dolby Atmos through the installed app on both the Sony and LG native Apple TV App or any streaming apps, same error/bug.

Just ordered both beam and arc to see which is best. With all this going on, should I just return the arc and keep the beam?

I only have a gen 1 Beam myself (no Atmos) but my understanding is that both the current Beam and Arc are affected. 
So I think the real question is whether you’re cool with turning off Atmos. Hopefully we’ll get a fix and then we can turn it back on. 

Oh. Is it only with particular devices? Is the new apple 4k tv that just came out affected? Ps5? TIA