Contributor I

Question

Sonos Arc Ultra and Sky Q

19 replies
487 views

Hi,

I’ve seen this question has been asked couple of times but didn’t find any answer which would resolve the issue.

My current setup is quite old Sony Bravia KD55XD8005 with ARC port, Sky Q 2TB UHD box and Arc Ultra.

Sometimes when I change channels on Sky or starting a movie, sound would drop and I need to switch back, or hit pause/resume, or unplug/plug HDMI cable to get the sound back.

I notice this happens when audio output is changing as some channels are with Dolby Digital 5.1, some are Dolby Digital 2.0 and most movies are Dolby Atmos.

I’ve been speaking and Sonos support and they suggest to replace both HDMI cables (from Sky to TV and from TV to Arc Ultra) but I don’t think this is the issue because I’m using original cables and as I said, it only happens when audio output is changing.

It's also worth mentioning that I had same setup with Sonos Arc (before upgrading to Arc Ultra) and didn’t have any issues with it.

So I’m thinking it’s something to do with Arc Ultra rather than cables.

I downloaded latest software/firmware for all 3 devices (TV, Sky box, Sonos)

Any idea what could be and how to fix it?

Thank you.

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Show previous replies

J

JBB69

Contributor I

I have tried the optical cable into the soundbar and the same issue persists.

Z

Zoran L.Author

Contributor I

After trying lots of different things I gave up.
They’ve changed something in new Sonos Arc Ultra. It’s either hardware or firmware which is doing handshake between TV and soundbar.

This TV being 9 years old (it’s 2016 model) I understand it’s hard to support all TVs and sometimes you need to drop support for old models.

It would be just nice that they’ve acknowledged this instead of pushing blame to Sky or Sony.

I went and bought a new TV (LG G5) where everything works as expected. None of the issues I had with old Sony.

Airgetlam

As far as I’m aware, Sonos doesn’t support TV models, they support the CEC standards. If the TV isn’t supporting those standards, it won’t work properly. But I’m glad you were able to resolve your issues.

Bruce

Z

Zoran L.Author

Contributor I

As far as I’m aware, Sonos doesn’t support TV models, they support the CEC standards. If the TV isn’t supporting those standards, it won’t work properly. But I’m glad you were able to resolve your issues.

That’s fair point, but then again, as said before, my TV didn’t have any issue with Sonos Arc, it’s only with starting to happen with new Sonos Arc Ultra.

So they must have changed something on new version.

Airgetlam

Not to argue with you, but it does beg the question about Sony altering the way they support the CEC standards, otherwise it wouldn’t have been ‘fixed’ by your purchase of the LG C5. But I’m not an engineer, and I don’t know what differences there are between the Arc and the Arc Ultra. I’d think it’s all the same code, but it may have different chips in it. Only engineers who look at the specifics would know.

Bruce

Z

Zoran L.Author

Contributor I

Not to argue with you, but it does beg the question about Sony altering the way they support the CEC standards, otherwise it wouldn’t have been ‘fixed’ by your purchase of the LG C5. But I’m not an engineer, and I don’t know what differences there are between the Arc and the Arc Ultra. I’d think it’s all the same code, but it may have different chips in it. Only engineers who look at the specifics would know.

I hear what you’re saying but I just follow the pure simple logic. Had this TV for 8 years and Sonos Arc for the last 4 years. Never had issues.

And if my setup stayed the same, if I didn’t change anything but only Sonos by upgrading to Sonos Arc Ultra, then logic would say that something changed on Sonos end, not on Sony’s.

Having everything working fine with new LG TV (2015 model) makes me think that new Sonos “upgraded” something which might have issues with old TV models during handshakes.

As you said, maybe there are some new chips inside which don’t work well with old (Sony) TVs.

Airgetlam

Don’t know, honestly. There could be a firmware update to your TV that you weren’t familiar with, it has certainly happened to me in the past. But it could equally be Sonos, although I’d give that a much lower chance, given that there haven’t been, at least to my knowledge, any changes to the CEC specs for Sonos to change, and both the Arc and the Arc Ultra seem to be working on so many other’s systems. But personal experience is hard to refute, so…

As I said before, I’m delighted it’s working as expected now, and you got a new screen out of it ;)

Bruce

J

JBB69

Contributor I

@Zoran L. I am with you in thinking that the Sonos Ultra is the problem here with the way it works with TV’s that do not have an eARC connection. I borrowed a Samsung TV that is 10 years+ old it is didn’t work consistently either.

It is so annoying as when it does work it is excellent.

Z

Zoran L.Author

Contributor I

@Zoran L. I am with you in thinking that the Sonos Ultra is the problem here with the way it works with TV’s that do not have an eARC connection. I borrowed a Samsung TV that is 10 years+ old it is didn’t work consistently either.

It is so annoying as when it does work it is excellent.

Yeah, I’m start to think that issue might be with eArch/Arc support in Sonos Ultra.

(old TV as Arc and new one is eArc)

There isn’t much you can to about it really. Either hoping that they’ll release some firmware update in the future which might fix this or get a TV with eArc.

I didn’t have any issues with eArc so far with Sonos Ultra.

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