Working of HDMI ARC

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Questions on HDMI ARC

In moving around some old but excellent Panasonic TVs, including a plasma, I found that the headphone jack of the high end plasma from 2011 does not cut out TV speakers when active speakers are wired to it. A later 2018 budget Panasonic TV did just that and I was able to use just the Firestick remote to control sound levels from the external speakers with the TV speakers bypassed, therefore silent. By using the headphone jack on that budget TV. A lot of googling teaches that this 2011 behaviour is normal for Panasonic and not to be defeated.

Now, on the 2011 plasma, I have to dial down the TV speakers to zero and bump up the volume on the active speakers via their controls. Clunky, but two remotes now needed because the addition of the TV speakers degrades the overall sound quality.

On the other hand, the plasma of 2011, has 4 HDMI inputs, of which one - HDMI 2 - is said to be HDMI ARC. Not “e Arc”, just ARC.

Questions now: if I wire a Atmos capable Firestick to HDMI 1, and a atmos capable sound bar to HDMI 2 on the TV, the HDMI ARC one, via the correct cables, will I get the bar to play atmos effects from streamed content that has it?

Will there be lip sync - regardless of what make the bar is?

Will the Firestick remote control bar sound levels?

Will the TV speakers be bypassed?

Thanks!

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ratty

Whether or not 4K looks better than 1080/HD will depend on the subtended angle of vision. At the recommended angle of 40 degrees the difference is observable. https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-size/size-to-distance-relationship

(If the screen is on the opposite wall of the average-sized living room it would have to be pretty huge to tell the difference.)

And with any current Sonos solution you’d also be ditching (or dividing off) your S1 system, as all require S2.

K

KumarAuthor

I could live with S2 just for the TV - it need not group with the main S1 set up, but I can’t see sense in dumping a big plasma TV that is in perfect working condition; And maybe I should just look for a pair of active speakers that can be voice controlled for volume and stick to my tried and tested way of TV plus speaker pair; then I don’t need the hassle of two remotes, the firestick one will suffice. Lip sync is also guaranteed to not be an issue. No atmos, but I can live without that.

jgatie

https://www.avsforum.com/

K

KumarAuthor

And maybe I should just look for a pair of active speakers that can be voice controlled for volume and stick to my tried and tested way of TV plus speaker pair; then I don’t need the hassle of two remotes, the firestick one will suffice. Lip sync is also guaranteed to not be an issue. No atmos, but I can live without that.

To close out this thread with thanks for the usual excellent advice from the usual excellent gurus - even if of no direct benefit to Sonos. I got a pair of Elac DCB 41 powered speakers that have both RCA audio in and one HDMI ARC jack. Wired via that to the TV HDMI ARC port, with Echo Dot wired to the RCA jacks, there are no lip sync issues and sound levels controllable from the TV remote that also controls the plugged in Firestick. And excellent SQ for music from Spotify via the Dot.

The speakers have a rare set of input connectivity options - the RCA line in can be switched to Phono. And there is an optical audio jack as well.

No Atmos of course.

Outside this room, the 5 zone Sonos set up is still going strong, although now managed via wired Echo Show devices.

K

KumarAuthor

This one should be of interest to all: my research into HDMI ARC took me down the rabbit hole of TVs doing their own thing with signal processing, affecting things like how remote controls work and how lip sync is often an unpredictable problem, once the TV speakers are not to be used. And then there is the alphabet soup of all the different codecs and audio formats.

Back in the day, building a quality sound set up from separates from different makes was said to not be for the faint of heart or light of pocket - looking back, that was child’s play compared to sorting out all this chaos.

Perhaps Sonos should put out a Sonos TV on the market, that for sure will play nice with Sonos sound gear - just an extension of the thinking that made them bring the first play 5 to the market. Should not need a ground up approach - do something like Ikea does with Sonos.

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