I was about to pre order one until I saw it won't work with the play:1s I'm currently using as rears with my beam. Quite disappointed since I only brought it as set around 9 months ago.
I missed the bit where it said P:1s can't be used. Where is that?
Hi
will the arc be included in your trade up programme if you already own the playbar?
The playbar isn’t a legacy product, and not eligible for trade up. However, if you have a legacy product to trade, or already have a discount, it’s good for any single item in the store….unless this is a new exception?
Ryan, do the upfiring speakers play a role with non-dolby atoms content? For example, when streaming music or playing dolby digitial content?
I read that for non atmos content the upfiring speakers put out low end (like a sub)
I was about to pre order one until I saw it won't work with the play:1s I'm currently using as rears with my beam. Quite disappointed since I only brought it as set around 9 months ago.
I missed the bit where it said P:1s can't be used. Where is that?
It has been confirmed that is not the case - the information just mentioned current available for sale units. Units currently being used for surrounds - going back to Play:3 even - can be used.
Ryan, do the upfiring speakers play a role with non-dolby atoms content? For example, when streaming music or playing dolby digitial content?
Yes. Arc performs an up mix for content that doesn’t include full audio, while it may not be noticed depending on the content that’s on, it may be very audible at times too.
Hi will the arc be included in your trade up programme if you already own the playbar?
You can use Trade Up credits from any Trade Up that you’ve done for available devices. So if you’ve done a Trade Up for a Connect, Connect:Amp, or Play:5 gen1, you can apply that credit to a purchase of Arc. Playbar is not a legacy product and is fully compatible with S2, so it isn’t available for Trade Up.
The Arc looks like a great product. Great to see that Sonos has chosen to get with the program for Home Theater and include eARC and full Dolby codec support.
That said, unfortunately, I will not be ordering one soon. While not entirely unexpected, the lack of HDMI in/out in favor of eARC makes it impossible for me to implement. I own a projector, that I will not be replacing anytime soon, that doesn't even do ARC, let alone eARC. There aren't many TVs that have HDMI 2.1 with eARC yet and it's almost guaranteed it will take a few years for it to come to projectors - there is just no need, bandwidth-wise. For the time being consumer projectors are max. 4K and eARC is not that big of a deal since most people that project, use an A/V receiver.
I was hoping against hope that Sonos might go with HDMI in/out like some other Atmos soundbar manufacturers have, but when I saw on leaked renders how slim the design was and how small the I/O panel, I gave up thinking I would buy this soon.
TL;DR: very excited about this new product, but sad I will not be able to fit it into my use case.
Hey Ryan,
can you confirm you could use Symfonisk lamps as part of the surround sound setup.
thanks
Graeme
The Arc looks like a great product. Great to see that Sonos has chosen to get with the program for Home Theater and include eARC and full Dolby codec support.
That said, unfortunately, I will not be ordering one soon. While not entirely unexpected, the lack of HDMI in/out in favor of eARC makes it impossible for me to implement. I own a projector, that I will not be replacing anytime soon, that doesn't even do ARC, let alone eARC. There aren't many TVs that have HDMI 2.1 with eARC yet and it's almost guaranteed it will take a few years for it to come to projectors - there is just no need, bandwidth-wise. For the time being consumer projectors are max. 4K and eARC is not that big of a deal since most people that project, use an A/V receiver.
This is a good point. Although you could utilize an optical connection through an extractor, you’re not get getting the full benefit of the product. Hopefully, someone will come out with an extractor/splitter that device that can convert HDMI into an hDMI-eARC signal at some point.
TL;DR: very excited about this new product, but sad I will not be able to fit it into my use case.
This is a good point. Although you could utilize an optical connection through an extractor, you’re not get getting the full benefit of the product. Hopefully, someone will come out with an extractor/splitter that device that can convert HDMI into an hDMI-eARC signal at some point.
I actually bought my Playbar because I moved into this house that had the projector installed. Previous owner used an A/V receiver. I wanted a Playbar to integrate with the rest of my Sonos system. So I did my research and bought a splitter / extractor.
But that was only 2.5 years ago. I love Sonos and was looking forward to this announcement, but I just can't justify the investment in an Arc if I can only connect it by optical and have it do DD5.1, no matter how much better it sounds.
A break out box like you described would be great, but nothing like that seems to be around, also not for regular ARC. Maybe we'll see them popping up in the coming months as people want to transition to using eARC but don't want to replace their TV yet.
A normal HDMI switch with ARC would work, you’d get Atmos from that. It doesn’t have to be eARC.
I did a little research as the TV I bought last year still didn’t have eARC.
Looks like for full uncompressed Dolby Digital TruHD Atmos you need eArc.
But with regular ARC you get Dolby Digital Plus (compressed version) Atmos. This makes it compatible with most TVs after about 2016.
I just played Disney+ on my TV and say it is coming in as DD+ as I would want (but TV transcoding to DD for the Beam).
The Arc looks like a great product. Great to see that Sonos has chosen to get with the program for Home Theater and include eARC and full Dolby codec support.
That said, unfortunately, I will not be ordering one soon. While not entirely unexpected, the lack of HDMI in/out in favor of eARC makes it impossible for me to implement. I own a projector, that I will not be replacing anytime soon, that doesn't even do ARC, let alone eARC. There aren't many TVs that have HDMI 2.1 with eARC yet and it's almost guaranteed it will take a few years for it to come to projectors - there is just no need, bandwidth-wise. For the time being consumer projectors are max. 4K and eARC is not that big of a deal since most people that project, use an A/V receiver.
I was hoping against hope that Sonos might go with HDMI in/out like some other Atmos soundbar manufacturers have, but when I saw on leaked renders how slim the design was and how small the I/O panel, I gave up thinking I would buy this soon.
TL;DR: very excited about this new product, but sad I will not be able to fit it into my use case.
Can you not just simply add one of these type of devices (see below link) to your projector setup and get full Dolby Digital Atmos immersive surround sound from external devices, like Apple TV 4K, or Amazon Firestick 4K etc; and play the Atmos audio direct to the new Sonos ARC and it’s bonded surrounds and sub?
I believe you can even use the Sonos Amp and third party ‘passive‘ speakers too for the Rear channel surround audio.
See this LINK
Ryan S. - Any issues with pairing the Sub gen 2 to the Arc? Any decreased functionality now? Just ordered 2 Arcs and want to make sure I don’t need to upgrade my subs yet.
I did a little research as the TV I bought last year still didn’t have eARC.
Looks like for full uncompressed Dolby Digital TruHD Atmos you need eArc.
But with regular ARC you get Dolby Digital Plus (compressed version) Atmos. This makes it compatible with most TVs after about 2016.
I just played Disney+ on my TV and say it is coming in as DD+ as I would want (but TV transcoding to DD for the Beam).
Yes most newer TV’s (2015/2016+) should support ARC with Dolby Digital Plus/Dolby Atmos (compressed audio at around 1mbit). Most streaming services are using this, and devices like the Apple TV also using Dolby Digital Plus via HDMI/ARC. What is interesting is Lip Sync correction can be included in ARC depending on the TV, so since the ARC supports it, that should work assuming your TV supports it.
Luckily for me, my 2019 Sony 950G, actually supports eARC! eARC supports uncompressed audio at around 37mbits, so high bite rate and object based audio like TrueHD can be passed via eARC, and Lip Sync is mandatory based on the design of eARC. HDMI 2.1 is not required for eARC, some TV’s can have eARC without HDMI2.1, but if a TV does have HDMI 2.1 it will have eARC.
A normal HDMI switch with ARC would work, you’d get Atmos from that. It doesn’t have to be eARC.
Not if your video device doesn't do any kind of ARC. The onlyly thing the ARC function on those switches does, to my knowledge, is to direct the ARC coming back on the HDMI out, towards the multiple HDMI-Ins.
Those switches don't create an ARC signal on the inputs if there is none coming back from the video device.
At least mine doesn't, I have a Beam that I use as a PC speaker. I hooked it up to my switch, turned on "ARC"... Nothing.
TL;DR: very excited about this new product, but sad I will not be able to fit it into my use case.
Can you not just simply add one of these type of devices (see below link) to your projector setup and get full Dolby Digital Atmos immersive surround sound from external devices, like Apple TV 4K, or Amazon Firestick 4K etc; and play the Atmos audio direct to the new Sonos ARC and it’s bonded surrounds and sub?
I believe you can even use the Sonos Amp and third party ‘passive‘ speakers too for the Rear channel surround audio.
See this LINK
Am I missing something reading this link? This looks like a splitter, duplicating the full HDMI input. The Sonos Arc is expecting a signal over ARC or eARC, not over the normal HDMI audio channel.
Ryan S. - Any issues with pairing the Sub gen 2 to the Arc? Any decreased functionality now? Just ordered 2 Arcs and want to make sure I don’t need to upgrade my subs yet.
Hope you love them! No issues to worry about at all. Arc will need products to be running Sonos S2, which the Sub gen2 is fully compatible with.
Ryan S. - Any issues with pairing the Sub gen 2 to the Arc? Any decreased functionality now? Just ordered 2 Arcs and want to make sure I don’t need to upgrade my subs yet.
Hope you love them! No issues to worry about at all. Arc will need products to be running Sonos S2, which the Sub gen2 is fully compatible with.
Awesome. I’m all Sonos S2 compatible so ready to rock there. Excited to hear the latest!
The Arc looks like a great product. Great to see that Sonos has chosen to get with the program for Home Theater and include eARC and full Dolby codec support.
That said, unfortunately, I will not be ordering one soon. While not entirely unexpected, the lack of HDMI in/out in favor of eARC makes it impossible for me to implement. I own a projector, that I will not be replacing anytime soon, that doesn't even do ARC, let alone eARC. There aren't many TVs that have HDMI 2.1 with eARC yet and it's almost guaranteed it will take a few years for it to come to projectors - there is just no need, bandwidth-wise. For the time being consumer projectors are max. 4K and eARC is not that big of a deal since most people that project, use an A/V receiver.
I was hoping against hope that Sonos might go with HDMI in/out like some other Atmos soundbar manufacturers have, but when I saw on leaked renders how slim the design was and how small the I/O panel, I gave up thinking I would buy this soon.
TL;DR: very excited about this new product, but sad I will not be able to fit it into my use case.
Wouldn’t devices like this that split the HDMI cable work for projector etc.
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15258
Today I use two Play:3 as surround to my Playbar. Would the Arc have comparable sound as this setup, or is my setup today better? Sadly the Play:3 are not compatible with the Arc for surround use..
The Play:3s are compatible as surrounds for the Arc. And it will be a pretty big improvement from the Playbar to the Arc.
I will say it is very frustrating that your FAQ completely contradicts this. It complete infers that you need a new Sonos One (or SL), AMP, or a a brand new Sonos Five. It makes no mention of any “S2” compatible rear speakers.
Also when you go below the FAQ to “Product Manual” and click “Arc product manual” you get an error message, “AccessDeniedAccess Denied56C71B41BF4B010DDKzGdnbTlTryMk70YHx70fZyqa5a9rYCF5eE9sW2tOH/p8DIAhageO/JBlZFlRHMVtaEukxXBS8=” so I can’t even check to see if the product manual says otherwise about surround speakers. Seems like a big miss on your teams part… Lots and lots of posts in the Reedit about people not wanting to place pre-orders because it doesn’t support Play:1’s or Play:3’s as surrounds because that isn’t clear on that page and now you have conflicting communication.
What is frustrating is a did a pre-order and ordered a new surround set (2x One SL’s plus a sub) plus new stands for the SL’s based on this incorrect information on the FAQ that my current Play:3’s wouldn’t work.
Now I am not sure if I should cancel the order, of if customer service can just adjust the order, or if I should just keep set. Clearly the SL’s have more CPU and memory than the older Play 3’s, not sure if that will have any effect on the Arc at all, but the Play 3’s should still have a bigger sound stage than the SL’s...
I can’t believe there’s no HDMI passthrough. I have an expensive OLED TV from just a few years ago that doesn’t support Atmos or eArc. So, I’d have to buy a new TV to get the best sound with Arc.
Hey @Downl1nk_1, sorry for the confusion. Hopefully those folks on Reddit get the right information that it will work with just about anything that does work as surrounds today with the Playbar/Beam/Amp (excluding the original Connect:Amp). The team’s already working on the FAQ answer to clarify now. Probably will take a cache clear tonight before the fix goes through.
@jgatie I hope so, but the ordering page has the following on it.
Ryan S confirmed above that the Play:3 can be used for surrounds, so the much newer Play:1 is probably good to go.
Sorry for the confusion @Codefish and @lucasSWE, they’re looking into that FAQ right now. Generally they don’t include products on the Sales FAQ that we don’t sell currently.
The team’s working on getting the product manual link fixed as well.
Regarding using a splitter with ARC (or eARC), I think @Sjoop1985 is correct. I don’t think those will help in anyway. Remember, the Arc is essentially a video source, even though it doesn’t seem that way. The HDMI port on the Arc is OUT going into the HDMI IN on a TV. This is why you’ll see a Sonos screen saver when you turn your TV to the HDMI input the Arc (or Beam) is connected to. In turn, ARC means the TV sends audio back upstream along the same cable to the Arc.
So then look at HDMI splitters. Often those splitters are 2 or more HDMI inputs to 1 HDMI output. So they work great for connecting 2 video sources, like cable TV and blu ray to a TV (or projector) through a single HDMI port on the TV. If such a splitter device was ARC capable, how would that apply to the Arc? The Arc is a video source, so it would be one of the 2 or more HDMI inputs to 1 TV. If the TV is ARC capable, that means it could send a single back upstream through the switch to the Arc...when the switch is selecting the Arc as the input device. If the TV or projector is not ARC capable, then how would an audio signal get to the Arc? Nothing is generating the signal.
Other HDMI splitters have 1 HDMI input going to 2 or more HDMI inputs. That’s ideal if you want to have your cable TV signal go to 2 TVs for example. Applying this to the Arc again, the Arc is a video source.so it would send it’s screensaver signal to 2 TVs, theoretically, and could receive the ARC audio signal back up stream from either (both?) TVs. That seems like it would work. Now lets say that neither of the TVs in this connection are ARC capable. Where is the audio signal generated from? Not from either TV and there isn’t any HDMI input device (other than the Arc) at all for the splitter to possibly generate an audio signal, much less send it to the Arc.
What would be needed is a device that somewhat duplicates what a TV does. It would need one or more HDMI inputs. With these inputs, it would need to send the video portion of the signal to a TV or projector through an HDMI out. It would then need to send an ARC signal to specific HDMI-ARC input that’s connected to the Arc. These device would effectively need to fool the Arc into think it’s a TV, accepting it’s screensaver input and sending out the audio stream (which again, it gets from other HDMI inputs) back to the Arc...just like a TV would.
So, I haven’t seen this device, because it’s not going to be your typical HDMI splitter/extractor.
I’d taken the assumption, without checking, that if those switches were pulling the audio stream off to optical, that they had the electronics in them to pull it off and send it back on the ARC channel, like a TV does. Sorry for the mistake, Sjoop1985. One does wonder how expensive that circuitry is, and when someone will do such a thing, I’d think there is a fair number of people in your boat.
I may have linked wrong product but I’m talking about a splitter 1x2
1 input - 2 HDMI outputs - full video and audio on both
One to TV (it ignores the audio portion)
One to Sonos Arc (it ignores the video portion)
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15258
I don’t see anything in the description or the manual that leads me to believe it creates an HDMI-ARC or eARC signal.
