Arc audio failures

  • 28 December 2021
  • 10 replies
  • 247 views
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I recently got a new Samsung TV, a new Apple TV 4k, and a Sonos Arc.

Quite frequently the Arc audio does not work and I have to fiddle with things to get it operating again.

This seems to happen whenever I walk away from the room and things go to sleep. When coming back from sleep the Arc audio will not work unless I back out of whatever app I was in on the Apple TV and go back into the content. Sometimes doing this 1 time will get the Audio back and sometimes it can take many times.

The other time it happens is when a TV series switches episodes. The Arc will be playing and when the next episode starts there will be no audio. Again, exiting the content and returning to it may or may not start the Arc audio again.

Occasionally, starting any movie in a given Apple TV app will also have no audio from the Arc. Exiting and restarting the movie might fix it, but sometimes not and I have to try playing multiple different movies, trailers, etc. to get the Arc “going again” and then the movie I want to play usually starts playing its audio through the Arc.

I’ve been living with it, but it seems like something that shouldn’t be happening. :) 

I keep all of my hardware firmware and software as up-to-date as possible. This has been happening despite several firmware/software updates of all three pieces of hardware.

I purchased new, 8k capable cables too hoping that might do the trick, but it didn’t make any difference.

I also tried various suggestions in other posts about this I could find and had no luck yet. Tweaks for the AppleTV and the TV configurations related to audio, etc. At one point I reconnected all the HDMI cables too as someone suggested.

Once the audio stream is playing, it is great and stable until it is stopped or ends.

I got the TV and Arc at the same time (about 3 months ago) and this has been happening since I got them.

This is pretty sporadic in most of the Apple TV apps I use (Prime, Netflix, etc.), but I have noticed it happens very frequently when I’m watching Paramount+ TV episodes. Between almost every episode it stops playing audio and I have to fiddle with things for sometimes up to a minute to get it working again.

TV: SAMSUNG 75-Inch Class Neo QLED QN85A Series - (QN75QN85AAFXZA, 2021 Model) w/ latest firmware https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08V3XGHNY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cables: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S1CGQ9Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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10 replies

Ken_Griffiths

Perhaps try switching off HDMI-CEC (remote control) feature on your connected TV peripherals, like Apple TV and see if that resolves your issue. My thoughts are that the CEC protocol on those ‘other’ products are stealing the ‘focus’ away from your Arc (perhaps?)

Ken_Griffiths

Sometimes powering off (not standby) all devices in the HT setup for 3 minutes and powering them on again in the following order can sometimes help to fix this issue too:

  • TV
  • Audio Extractor (Arcana or VAX04101A) if used
  • Arc & Surrounds
  • Any HDMI Splitter
  • Connected Peripherals (Apple TV etc.)
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Thank you for the feedback. I’ll give these suggestions a try. 

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Perhaps try switching off HDMI-CEC (remote control) feature on your connected TV peripherals, like Apple TV and see if that resolves your issue. My thoughts are that the CEC protocol on those ‘other’ products are stealing the ‘focus’ away from your Arc (perhaps?)

I tried this first before power cycling everything. It didn’t seem to make a difference.

Trying the power-cycle suggestion next. Finding a good time to do this is not easy around here!

Ken_Griffiths

Perhaps try switching off HDMI-CEC (remote control) feature on your connected TV peripherals, like Apple TV and see if that resolves your issue. My thoughts are that the CEC protocol on those ‘other’ products are stealing the ‘focus’ away from your Arc (perhaps?)

I tried this first before power cycling everything. It didn’t seem to make a difference.

Trying the power-cycle suggestion next. Finding a good time to do this is not easy around here!

If the problems continue and switching off ‘CEC’ on the connected TV-devices doesn’t solve the issue either, then maybe submit a Sonos diagnostic report next time it happens, note it’s reference, and contact/chat to Sonos Support Staff via this LINK.

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I got around to powering everything off and back on in the specified order. 2nd stream I watched had no audio until I exited the stream and resumed it a few times (as per my usual routine when this happens). Bummer!

Will submit a diagnostic and open a support ticket today or tomorrow.

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Two rounds of troubleshooting with Sonos tech support revealed the Sonos Arc, etc. are working as expected and it’s likely my Samsung TV or possibly the Apple TV. 

Does anyone know or can recommend the HD Fury to possibly fix something like this? It doesn’t look like it’s available currently from the manufacturer, but I’d buy it or something similar in a heartbeat if it got rid of this issue. 

Ken_Griffiths

Two rounds of troubleshooting with Sonos tech support revealed the Sonos Arc, etc. are working as expected and it’s likely my Samsung TV or possibly the Apple TV. 

Does anyone know or can recommend the HD Fury to possibly fix something like this? It doesn’t look like it’s available currently from the manufacturer, but I’d buy it or something similar in a heartbeat if it got rid of this issue. 

I don’t think it will be the Apple TV, simply because you have already tried that with HDMI-CEC switched off, according to your earlier post - I personally thought it might have been the ATV stealing the CEC focus.

Did the Support Staff suggest you consider an extractor, like the Arcana, or Feintech VAX04101A? I’m not sure what difference that would make if the issue persisted after CEC was switched off on the Apple TV.

Does the issue continue to happen if you un-cable the Apple TV from the Samsung TV? 

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I’ll make sure I tried the HDMI-CEC thing correctly. That’s simply disabling CEC on the ATV, right? I will make sure I did this correctly and re-test.

Something else of note - when this no audio thing is happening, the TV UI interface noises are also not coming through the Arc.

I could disconnect the ATV, but I don't really have another source to play through things to see if it helped! At least none that I have any familiarity enough to accurately reproduce this. I guess I could use a streaming app on the TV itself, but I’ve yet to set up any of those and don’t really ever want to if I can avoid it. I prefer my TV to be as dumb as possible :D 

The support staff did not recommend such a device. I asked if it would be a magic bullet, but they were noncommittal, which is understandable.

When they were running remote diagnostics, they could see the audio stream details when audio was playing, but when the TV wasn’t sending audio to the Arc, this details were just blank - which was curious, but makes sense I guess.

Ken_Griffiths

Yes, I would perhaps try switching off the ATV CEC feature again (Settings/Remotes & Devices/Home Theatre/Control TV & Receivers’) set the control to ‘off’ - you will find you can then only control the ATV with its own remote only.

Maybe just power off (not standby) the TV and ATV for a couple of minutes and bring them back online and then see if things work for you.

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