HELP!…HD Fury Arcana + Sonos Arc = inconsistent TV audio

Y

Set-Up: Panasonic GZ1000, Sonos Arc, Arcana, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Sony Blu-Ray UBP-700
 

I recently (and frankly, stupidly) bought an Arcana to pass through audio to my Sonos Arc in an effort to get full access to DTS capabilities.

 

I was originally using a HDMI splitter for blu-ray, PS5 and Nintendo. But the Arcana didn’t like that. So now I have PS5 and Nintendo going straight to TV and Blu-ray passing through Arcana. (Bye-bye PS5 DTS)

 

One of the benefits (loosely termed) of the Arcana is that it can relay TV sound through the port back to the Sonos. This worked in theory…but not consistently. Sometimes no audio. Sometimes only worked once i loaded up native Netflix app. If I go straight to PS5, no audio. But if I reset TV, load up Netflix, then switch to PS5 channel, I get audio. Clearly a handshake issue between the TV and the Sonos through the Arcana. 
 

Essentially meaning I had to remove TV audio from the situation completely, and now I have TV audio going straight to the Sonos and have to manually swap cables on the Sonos when I am watching blu-ray. So now the Arcana is being used ONLY for the blu-ray with its own designated connector to the Sonos and I have to manual make that change any time I want to use it. Liveable, but a massive pain in the fact that most of my set up is in hidden cables, so each change over is a bit of an exercise in inconvenience. Plus it means the kids can’t just stick on movie on without me being there to change it all over.

 

I have spoken to HD Fury’s less than adequate customer service, and they have no answers; blaming the Panasonic or the Sonos. So I thought I’d ask here and see if anyone has experienced anything similar and found a solution?

 

FYI, TV and Sonos work perfectly together when connected directly. It is only when relaying back through the Arcana that handshake problems arise.


NOTE: any sarcastic or unhelpful comments can be filed in the “bite me” pile. So please only reply if you have something helpful to contribute. 👍

10 replies

G
Userlevel 7

You should consider getting a ROOFULL HDMI switch to connect your three devices to the Arcana. I use an older model ROOFULL switch to connect an Apple TV 4K, Roku Ultra, and Panasonic UB820 Blu-ray player to an Arcana connected to my Arc and Panasonic plasma TV.

The ROOFULL switch is used by many Arcana owners and works really well:

https://a.co/d/fq2mhxw

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
Y

Thanks @GuitarSuperstar, what happens with any native apps you have on the tv? Do they return ok back down to the Sonos? Assuming maybe you don’t have to worry about that if using Apple TV?

Y

@GuitarSuperstar i have been using the Kinivo 550BN 4K HDMI Switch, and on paper that looks the same as the ROOFUL? But it was not passing through any DTS to the Arcana (or at least not consistently), so I removed that and went straight to a direct connection. Does the ROOFUL work ok with DTS output?

G
Userlevel 7

Thanks @GuitarSuperstar, what happens with any native apps you have on the tv? Do they return ok back down to the Sonos? Assuming maybe you don’t have to worry about that if using Apple TV?

The native apps on the TV will be unaffected by the Arcana or HDMI switch.

 

@GuitarSuperstar i have been using the Kinivo 550BN 4K HDMI Switch, and on paper that looks the same as the ROOFUL? But it was not passing through any DTS to the Arcana (or at least not consistently), so I removed that and went straight to a direct connection. Does the ROOFUL work ok with DTS output?

On paper, the Kinivo switch should work. But if you are having issues with it, it wouldn’t hurt to try the ROOFULL switch especially since so many Arcana users, including myself, have had success with it. 

I’m assuming you want to get DTS audio from Blu-ray discs. Have you considered setting your player to convert DTS to PCM so you get lossless Multichannel PCM audio from DTS-encoded discs instead? Multichannel PCM is higher quality audio than lossy DTS Digital Surround.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
melvimbe

It sounds like you have two separate issues really, I’ve I’m understanding you correctly.  The first is that your HDMI switch isn’t passing the audio channels through correctly.  I’d agree with @GuitarSuperstar that’s probably best fixed by replacing with a different/better switch.  I don’t have experience with ROOFUL, but have little doubt that it works well.

But fixing that doesn’t resolve your second issue, Arcana not passing ARC audio from the TV onto the Sonos Arc. I don’t use this feature on Arcana, as I just use an Nvidia Shield for streaming apps rather than the TV.  So I guess that would be my recommendation.  Get a firetv stick, shield, appletv, roku, or other streaming box instead.

Danny
Y

I’m assuming you want to get DTS audio from Blu-ray discs. Have you considered setting your player to convert DTS to PCM so you get lossless Multichannel PCM audio from DTS-encoded discs instead? Multichannel PCM is higher quality audio than lossy DTS Digital Surround.

Unfortunately so far as i can see the Sony BDP 700 will only let you choose between PCM, Bitstream or Auto. So I assuming that when it passes through the Arcana it is using bitstream and outputting at DTS for DTS films. Whereas if i locked in PCM, I will only get 2.0 (HD Fury customer services were adamant that Sonos will not accept PCM 7.1...go figure), and then obviously Atmos and other bitstream outputs won’t work. So I have to leave it to Auto setting. Basically, I just wish Panasonic would release a firmware to allow the arc port on my tv to be eArc and I could avoid all of this crap.

G
Userlevel 7

I’m assuming you want to get DTS audio from Blu-ray discs. Have you considered setting your player to convert DTS to PCM so you get lossless Multichannel PCM audio from DTS-encoded discs instead? Multichannel PCM is higher quality audio than lossy DTS Digital Surround.

Unfortunately so far as i can see the Sony BDP 700 will only let you choose between PCM, Bitstream or Auto. So I assuming that when it passes through the Arcana it is using bitstream and outputting at DTS for DTS films. Whereas if i locked in PCM, I will only get 2.0 (HD Fury customer services were adamant that Sonos will not accept PCM 7.1...go figure), and then obviously Atmos and other bitstream outputs won’t work. So I have to leave it to Auto setting. Basically, I just wish Panasonic would release a firmware to allow the arc port on my tv to be eArc and I could avoid all of this crap.

Sonos supports LPCM audio when connected to a TV with eARC or when using the Arcana.

When playing DTS-encoded discs, set the Digital Audio Output setting on the Blu-ray player to PCM. Keep this setting on Auto when playing Dolby discs. Go ahead and set Audio DRC to Off so there isn’t any compression.

Also, on the Arcana under the Audio menu, set the “Add PCM 8ch” setting to ON.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

I had a similar issue with the Arcana Fury device, but it was fixed by updating the firmware.  Can you check if your firmware is up to date?

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Basically, I just wish Panasonic would release a firmware to allow the arc port on my tv to be eArc and I could avoid all of this crap.

ARC to eARC is needs better hardware: no firmware update can do that unless the hardware is somehow already in there.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
Dean22222
Badge

Would you mind if I as for help on this thread as well, as I am having similar problems.

 

I have a Panasonic OLED tv the 55FZ800 - beautiful picture but no atmos, so I upgraded my Beam Gen 1 to a Gen 2 = as well as a HDFURY Arcana.

 

I won a ATV4K, Shield Pro, and an Xbox Series X all going though a switch. All this seems to work well, I can get atmos from the Apple TV and I get the best possible sound (and picture from the other inputs).

 

my issue is that I get no audio from the Live TV channels, or from a Wii that doesn’t go through the switch. The arcana display is saying something like - “select format from TV” - so I can only guess the arc pass thru isn’t working?

 

I have all the VIERA LINK SETTINGS SWITCHED TO ON on the TV.

any ideas please?

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