Sonos Home Theater set up Skipping, bluetooth & Arc HDMI - PLEASE HELP!

Agree, there is absolutely no reason to connect the TV by HDMI-ARC and Bluetooth at the same time.  Matter of fact, there is no reason to connect the TV via Bluetooth at all.  Bluetooth is stereo only, which defeats the purpose of having a multi-channel soundbar for TV sound. 

To be clear, bluetooth and arc hdmi were not connected at the same time. When I received my arc ultra and sub 4, I originally connected them to my tv via bluetooth (this is how my other samsung and yamaha soundbars connect to my tv’s). The skipping was present when connecting via bluetooth. 

The long term plan was to always hook up arc hdmi, but I am in the process of hiding everything between the wall so this was set up yet. 

I then disabled the tv speaker bluetooth connection and connected via arc hdmi hoping this would solve the issue. But no, the skipping was actually worse. 

Sound quality is great, and I love Sonos for that, but the functionality is awful. 

i have disconnected and reconnected so many times I lost count. I will reach out to Sonos Support. 

Everything is up to date, everything has been disconnected and reconnect several times, I have even reset my router, and returned all products to factory settings. 

Issue is still present regardless if it is hooked up via bluetooth or arc hdmi. 

I get the impression that you have not ‘bonded’ the Era100s as HT surrounds, but are currently ‘grouping’ the Sonos rooms together - if that is the case, then increase the audio buffer by setting the ‘Group Audio Delay’ feature to a higher setting in the Home Theatre settings - select medium, high, or max and perhaps see if that may resolve the skipping issue that you are experiencing.

Assuming your connections are: TV HDMI eARC > Arc Ultra 

• What is the source of the audio?
• Are there other HDMI devices connected to the TV?
• What is the brand/model of your Wi-Fi Mesh?
• How many satellite nodes are in the Mesh (you might call them extenders)?
• Is your ISP provided equipment a combo router/modem (i.e.one box)?
• Is the Mesh using a wireless or wired backhaul
• Do you have Airtime Fairness enabled? It should be disabled.
• Do you have band steering enabled? It should be disabled
• Is the Wi-Fi encryption set to WPA2, WPA3 or WPA2/WPA3? It should be WPA2/WPA3.

Thanks for all the knowledge and support. 
 

I reset everything to factory settings, power cycled everything and still had issues. 
 

I then moved my WiFi node from near the entertainment center (where my tv and sound bar are located) to the other room and have NOT noticed skipping since the move (small sample size). 🤞

2 hdmis are connected but currently not being used (Xbox and switch)

main source of audio for soundbar and sub are through arc hdmi

my entire home network is custom and newly upgraded. Here are details: 

ISP is Xfinity - 1 gig, wpa2

WiFi modem: arias s34 surfboard

mesh network: tp link deco BE95 (2), wireless backhaul, WiFi 7, quad band 

Home size 1600 sq ft

I always find it odd that interruptions could be associated with the WiFi connection. Not certain it is in this case, but in your details, you list the details of the speed received by your ISP device, and not the speed of the WiFi received by your Arc Ultra. Which is a lot harder to measure. You might, at least temporarily, as a test, connect the Arc Ultra to your LAN to actually see if that is part of the problem. The cable is probably ugly, but it’s a good temporary test. 

Moving the WiFi source, despite the small data set, is instructive, and points to possible wifi interference. I’m still at a loss why that makes any difference, when the Arc Ultra is receiving the signal via the HDMI cable.

I would still 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, they 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.

You mentioned that you have a WiFi modem: arias s34 surfboard in additon to your  tp link deco BE95 (2), wireless backhaul, WiFi 7, quad band. 

The Wi-Fi portion of your arias s34 surfboard should be turned off or placed in Bridge mode. Otherwise, you are broadcasting two Wi-Fi signals. That can cause major issues as your device and/or Sonos maybe bouncing between them.

It’s a modem only no WiFi with arias s34 surfboard modem. WiFi comes only from the deco mesh system.
 

unfortunately skipping is back connected to arc HDMI
 

any other suggestions? 

Thanks so much for everyone’s help! 
 

I am confused why the skipping is happening as well. I thought it for sure hdmi arc would solve this. 
 

moving the WiFi router to another room helped for a bit but but skipping is back. 
 

something tells me its the arc ultras connection to the sub. If I disconnect the Sonos arc ultra and sub, no skipping with just tv audio. So it’s not my WiFi or streaming it’s 100% the arc and sub. 
 

Driving me crazy. For $2k, functionality misses 100%.

I will reach out to Sonos support tomorrow. Hopefully they can help. 

Are any of the HT devices connected via Ethernet?  If so, disconnect the Ethernet.  The bond between the Arc/Sub is meant to be wireless.  It sounds counterintuitive, but an Ethernet connection can take a few more hops than the private, one-way, direct connection of the wireless bond, which can cause the stuttering you are hearing.

No arc ultra and sub 4 are connected via bluetooth to each other then the arc ultra is connect via arc hdmi

Time for a bit of explanation. The sub is bonded to the Arc Ultra. They communicate over a hidden 5Ghz channel that is not part of your network. The only time Bluetooth comes into play is during discovery/setup. Furthermore the Bluetooth in use is called Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) which is not used to transfer audio. BLE becomes disengaged for all practical purposes after Sonos is setup.

Also regarding your Surfboard the DOCSIS standard may need to be updated.

Another, question…does your TV not have a HDMI eARC port? If it does that is where your Arc Ultra and TV should connect.