I cannot believe you guys removed the optical input on the Arc Ultra. I had a playbar (which function just dandy by the way) with optical input and bought your hype about how much better the arc Ultra is and I’d get a discount to upgrade. You neglected to mention that the optical input from my system would no longer function and I basically bricked my entire freaking system because I have a Samsung Frame that connects to its controller 25 ft away and brings in optical back to the speaker. You EVEN CHANGED THE FREAKING POWER PLUG and I had to tear my whole TV off the wall just to change out the damn power cord. WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?!?!? Guys I can’t begin to tell you how pissed I am right now. I’m going to have to call the sound people who set this up and pay HUNDREDS of dollars just to straighten this crap out. I swear I would love to get my hands on the genius who did this. Especially without putting it ANYWHERE to warn people.
The Arc Ultra can connect to the TV’s optical port using the Sonos Optical Audio Adapter:
https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/optical-audio-adapter
But with this connection, you will not be able to play Dolby Atmos audio.
Thanks, but the Samsung Frame TV has a control box that has a single cable running from the TV to the box. The box has 4 HDMI ports and a digital optical audio out. My box is located in a closet 25 feet from the TV. Apple TV plugs into the back with HDMI, Blue Ray same. Audio out was optical before and went all the way back to the Playbar along with the Samsung cable for video. I could play anything anywhere, inside, outside, other rooms and now I can’t even get the dang thing to recognize the HDMI inputs. The adapter is the wrong male/female variety to adapt to the optical. It is looking like I may have to send the Ultra back and get my money back. The reason I am so pissed is none of this is mentioned ANYWHERE. And now I’m sitting with a $1000 speaker that I can’t use or I’ll have to call the video company that installed all this stuff to see if they can straighten it out. Cannot TELL you how pissed I am right now with zero backward compatibility and no warning……
Hate to break it to you, but there is no optical port on the Beam, or the Arc. The last time Sonos put an optical port on one of their devices was years and years ago, with the PLAYBASE, back before ARC became a standard. In order to supply people who stayed with the old standard, they developed the optical to ARC connector, as
Someone had to say it - but you got there first 
Hate to break it to you, but there is no optical port on the Beam, or the Arc. The last time Sonos put an optical port on one of their devices was years and years ago, with the PLAYBASE, back before ARC became a standard. In order to supply people who stayed with the old standard, they developed the optical to ARC connector, as
I think you’ve forgotten about the Ray… but as you say, ARC/eARC is now the expected connection method.
Bring back SCART!
Bring back SCART!
And Betamax video tapes?
Does the Frame TV not have an eArc port??
Samsung recommends using eArc port for connecting Samsung Sounbars to their TVs:
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00088262/
If it was me I would get the ‘sound people’ who setup the TV to run some HDMI cables along side the optical cable from the Samsung unit in closet back to the TV so you can use the ARC/eARC capabilities of modern soundbars from Samsung, Sonos, etc.
Samsung recommends using eArc port for connecting Samsung Sounbars to their TVs:
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00088262/
If it was me I would get the ‘sound people’ who setup the TV to run some HDMI cables along side the optical cable from the Samsung unit in closet back to the TV so you can use the ARC/eARC capabilities of modern soundbars from Samsung, Sonos, etc.
There are no ‘sound people’, the OP is obviously trolling.
Mr T, et al. Thank you SO much for the brutal honesty. You are exactly correct. I have no one to blame but myself, but being incapable is not entirely correct. I’m usually pretty capable, just didn’t do my due diligence this time. Trusting a manufacturer to maintain compatibility through their line will get you in a hole every time….That’s what I get for seeing the “new shiny” and not reading the fine print. Guilty as charged. Now I get to pay the installer to fix what I have definitely screwed up.
Que sera….I’ll let you guys know what the solution turned out to be…..but please don’t laugh. I just don’t have the bandwidth lately to keep up with all the new stuff….
Trusting a manufacturer to maintain compatibility through their line will get you in a hole every time….That’s what I get for seeing the “new shiny” and not reading the fine print.
It was a bit unfair though, for you to have a go at Sonos for moving with the times in your original post. Without moving with the times, they wouldn’t have developed the Arc Ultra - though if they didn’t, it wouldn’t be there all new and shiny and tempting you, and this thread would never have existed. 
Hope you get things sorted soon.
You are correct there, both counts. I hope so too. One rather expensive phone call tomorrow and I am sure it will get sorted out this week…..hopefully.
Why don’t you perhaps just continue to use the existing optical cable connection and slot in the Sonos optical adapter at the Arc-Ultra end of the setup?
You just need to use a ‘female to female’ optical coupler, as per the below link:
https://www.amazon.com/SatelliteSale-Digital-Toslink-Optical-Coupler/dp/B09QXZ16RL
That’s assuming you’re happy to live with DD/DTS 5.1 compressed TV audio and are not bothered about Atmos uncompressed/compressed TV audio.
Setup would be as follows:
TV—>Optical cable—>Coupler—>Sonos Adapter—>Arc Ultra
It’s a much cheaper option which you could perhaps easily do yourself.
@Ken Griffiths, now THAT everyone, is a helpful optio!
Thank you Sir!
@Ken Griffiths, now THAT everyone, is a helpful optio!
Thank you Sir!
That helpful option was given to you in the very first reply to your OP.
The adapter HDMI to optical was, not the little female to female adapter. The Sonos adapter is not useable without the F to F adapter because it goes the wrong way.
The adapter HDMI to optical was, not the little female to female adapter. The Sonos adapter is not useable without the F to F adapter because it goes the wrong way.
I am genuinely puzzled by this “goes the wrong way” thing. The adapter is designed to allow an optical connection from the TV to input into the HDMI-Arc / eARC port on the Arc Ultra (or Arc, or Beam). This is precisely the sort of backwards compatibility that you are berating Sonos for not providing. Anyone with an older TV that offers only am optical connection can connect to the Arc Ultra (or Arc etc). Why does this not work for you? If it is something to do with the Samsung One Connect box then I hardly think Sonos can be faulted for not covering that base.
But the most puzzling thing of all is why you have bought Sonos’ top-of-the-range Dolby Atmos soundbar but propose to connect it in a way that makes Atmos impossible?
I think the tone of the responses was pretty mild compared with the shouting and invective in your original post.
I don’t know why you don’t just buy a 10M HDMI cable and use that between Arc Ultra and the Samsung connect box.
Note that an “F Connector” is designed to be used with coaxial cable, not optical cable.
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