Don't have eARC? Get Atmos w/ HD Fury "Arcana" - Pre-orders now LIVE!

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Prominent Collaborator I

Just posted this over on the HD Fury Discord, FWIW:

For anyone looking for a simple, inexpensive HDMI switch, I can confirm that this ROOFULL 5 port switch works beautifully with Arcana:

It’s handled everything I’ve thrown at it so far from both an Apple TV and Nvidia Shield

Dolby Vision, HDR 10, Atmos, TrueHD, all confirmed.

And, interestingly, it doesn’t seem at all picky about cables. I just used whatever I had lying around to test it out and it all worked swimmingly.

Can’t speak to the auto switching as I’m controlling it from a Harmony Hub (which works great here) but overall I’m very pleased. Will update here if I run into any issues But for the moment I can recommend.

FYI to all.

Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!

D

DuranDoranMartell

Avid Contributor III

I am excited and curious to hear what Atmos sounds like at last.

So far I have only been able to hear Atmos on a handful of Netflix series, and I don't really think tv shows are the best showcase for state of the art audio technology.

I am sitting on unwatched UHD blu rays of Blade Runner, 2001 and Gravity and cannot wait to see if Atmos is the real deal or just the emperor's new clothes.

Can’t speak to the auto switching as I’m controlling it from a Harmony Hub (which works great here) but overall I’m very pleased. Will update here if I run into any issues But for the moment I can recommend.

FYI to all.

For the Harmony Hub, was the switch listed for easy setup or did you have to train Harmony to use it?

Also, I saw HD Fury’s comments regarding cables working fine on Discord. I think the discussion of what cables work and don’t work (same with switches) gets over simplified a bit. There really is two factors in picking a switch or cable to work in your setup. The first is, is the product have the right specs for your needs. 18 gbps is great, however, if you don’t have any sources or TV/PJ that requires it, you don’t absolutely need it. Is it a good idea to get it for future proofing? Sure, as the cost difference usually isn’t that different, but if you already have cables/switches than nothing wrong with using what you got.

The other factor is product reliability. There are lots of high quality brands out there and some that’s not so good. Depending on your setup, the extra cost for the higher quality is usually worth it. Again though, if what you have works for what you need in terms of specs, use what you got.

Danny

Prominent Collaborator I

For the Harmony Hub, was the switch listed for easy setup or did you have to train Harmony to use it?

I plugged in ROOFULL and the model number and the Harmony added it no problem. Sees it as “ROOFULL AV Switch” and gives direct access to each of the five inputs (e.g., no cycling through - if you select input 3, it goes directly to input 3, which is nice).

Also, I saw HD Fury’s comments regarding cables working fine on Discord. I think the discussion of what cables work and don’t work (same with switches) gets over simplified a bit. There really is two factors in picking a switch or cable to work in your setup. The first is, is the product have the right specs for your needs. 18 gbps is great, however, if you don’t have any sources or TV/PJ that requires it, you don’t absolutely need it. Is it a good idea to get it for future proofing? Sure, as the cost difference usually isn’t that different, but if you already have cables/switches than nothing wrong with using what you got.

Yeah, I saw that too. I’ll test a little bit more but honestly I rolled my eyes a little when I saw the response. I get that HD Fury is super concerned about this stuff because it’s literally what they do, but for 99.98% of people (ESPECIALLY Sonos Arc customers who just want stuff to work), as long as it works it works. The Apple TV / Shield reports that it’s sending Dolby Vision, the TV reports that it's displaying in Dolby Vision, the Sonos app reports that’s it’s receiving Atmos - what’s the problem? If I didn’t have an Arcana telling me the MHz of the signal I wouldn’t know anything more than what my equipment is reporting, so I don’t feel like getting too wrapped around the axel about it.

The other factor is product reliability. There are lots of high quality brands out there and some that’s not so good. Depending on your setup, the extra cost for the higher quality is usually worth it. Again though, if what you have works for what you need in terms of specs, use what you got.

Normally I’m in complete agreement with you. I almost never regret spending MORE money to get something better. If I end up regretting a purchase it’s usually because I cheaped out. As for something like this, however, it either works or it doesn’t. And if it works it was a great value at the whopping $38 I paid for it. I’m sure HD Fury’s switches are wonderful, but they’re also 10x the price and massive overkill when all I need is to hook up three devices to an Arcana. I can re-buy this thing ten times over if it breaks - and I really kind of doubt it will.

Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!

For the Harmony Hub, was the switch listed for easy setup or did you have to train Harmony to use it?

I plugged in ROOFULL and the model number and the Harmony added it no problem. Sees it as “ROOFULL AV Switch” and gives direct access to each of the five inputs (e.g., no cycling through - if you select input 3, it goes directly to input 3, which is nice).

Very Nice. I actually got Vertex 2 along with Arcana, and I’m not looking forward to getting it controlled by Harmony. I know it will work, but you have to send an email to Harmony and such like that.

Also, I saw HD Fury’s comments regarding cables working fine on Discord. I think the discussion of what cables work and don’t work (same with switches) gets over simplified a bit. There really is two factors in picking a switch or cable to work in your setup. The first is, is the product have the right specs for your needs. 18 gbps is great, however, if you don’t have any sources or TV/PJ that requires it, you don’t absolutely need it. Is it a good idea to get it for future proofing? Sure, as the cost difference usually isn’t that different, but if you already have cables/switches than nothing wrong with using what you got.

Yeah, I saw that too. I’ll test a little bit more but honestly I rolled my eyes a little when I saw the response. I get that HD Fury is super concerned about this stuff because it’s literally what they do, but for 99.98% of people (ESPECIALLY Sonos Arc customers who just want stuff to work), as long as it works it works. The Apple TV / Shield reports that it’s sending Dolby Vision, the TV reports that it's displaying in Dolby Vision, the Sonos app reports that’s it’s receiving Atmos - what’s the problem? If I didn’t have an Arcana telling me the MHz of the signal I wouldn’t know anything more than what my equipment is reporting, so I don’t feel like getting too wrapped around the axel about it.

What I find interesting is that HD Fury tends to have a different attitude with switches than they do with cables. They generally have no comment on switches and say that any cheap one will do. I suspect it has more to do with before Arcana, HDMI switches were not normally part of their customer’s setup. Not really a point of failure. Cables are, and they have surely had people with issues, blaming an HD fury product, when the cable was the issue. I suspect they will start talking about recommend switches soon when people start reporting issues with what they suspect to be an Arcana issue.

The other factor is product reliability. There are lots of high quality brands out there and some that’s not so good. Depending on your setup, the extra cost for the higher quality is usually worth it. Again though, if what you have works for what you need in terms of specs, use what you got.

Normally I’m in complete agreement with you. I almost never regret spending MORE money to get something better. If I end up regretting a purchase it’s usually because I cheaped out. As for something like this, however, it either works or it doesn’t. And if it works it was a great value at the whopping $38 I paid for it. I’m sure HD Fury’s switches are wonderful, but they’re also 10x the price and massive overkill when all I need is to hook up three devices to an Arcana. I can re-buy this thing ten times over if it breaks - and I really kind of doubt it will.

I wasn’t trying to imply that your switch wasn’t high quality, as I actually think it is. Price wise it’s actually double the price of what Amazon recommends, and it’s worth it I think. You say you cheaped out, but you actually did not. The reason I went with HD Fury’s vertex 2 is because I actually wanted a matrix instead of a switch and intend to use many of the features you can’t get in other products. If I did not need that, I would have gotten the same sort of switch you did.

Danny

Prominent Collaborator I

Very Nice. I actually got Vertex 2 along with Arcana, and I’m not looking forward to getting it controlled by Harmony. I know it will work, but you have to send an email to Harmony and such like that.

Ugh. That does not sound appealing. :-(

What I find interesting is that HD Fury tends to have a different attitude with switches than they do with cables. They generally have no comment on switches and say that any cheap one will do. I suspect it has more to do with before Arcana, HDMI switches were not normally part of their customer’s setup. Not really a point of failure. Cables are, and they have surely had people with issues, blaming an HD fury product, when the cable was the issue. I suspect they will start talking about recommend switches soon when people start reporting issues with what they suspect to be an Arcana issue.

They are also in direct competition with these cheap switches, even though they don’t have anything directly comparable. If HDFury had a basic, no frills switch in the $50 - $75 range, I would have gotten it in a heartbeat just for the level of support.

And yes, I’m sure they’ve gone round the bend on cable issues as they seem very knowledgeable about them despite not being a cable company. I was fully intending to buy new cables to go with this new switch since I knew I just had a bunch of old HDMI cables lying around which is why I found myself very surprised when everything seemed to “just work” when I plugged in whatever old cables I had.

I wasn’t trying to imply that your switch wasn’t high quality, as I actually think it is. Price wise it’s actually double the price of what Amazon recommends, and it’s worth it I think. You say you cheaped out, but you actually did not. The reason I went with HD Fury’s vertex 2 is because I actually wanted a matrix instead of a switch and intend to use many of the features you can’t get in other products. If I did not need that, I would have gotten the same sort of switch you did.

Oh, I have no idea of the long-term quality of this switch. It could be complete garbage! ;-) But there were quite a few really good Amazon reviews FWIW so we'll see.

But, if I get a couple of years out of it, I’ll be happy. It does exactly what I need - no more, no less - so if it keeps doing that I'll have nothing to complain about. My setup is now simple enough that something like the Vertex would be utter overkill so I’ll be okay.

One piece of irony that struck me over the weekend hooking everything up, however, is that I've now got an utter rat’s nest of HDMI cables behind and under the TV as opposed to the relatively clean setup I had before the Arcana and the HDMI switch. The Sonos product managers who specifically designed the Arc to be a simple, easy, single cable setup are going to lose their minds when they see these setups. ;-)

Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!

Very Nice. I actually got Vertex 2 along with Arcana, and I’m not looking forward to getting it controlled by Harmony. I know it will work, but you have to send an email to Harmony and such like that.

Ugh. That does not sound appealing. :-(

I should add that it may not be that necessary, since Vertex 2 has auto switching. However, I’m not exactly sure how that will work if I intend to have two sources feeding two different sinks, as I think I likely will at times.

They are also in direct competition with these cheap switches, even though they don’t have anything directly comparable. If HDFury had a basic, no frills switch in the $50 - $75 range, I would have gotten it in a heartbeat just for the level of support.

I would have as well, but HDFury is adamant that they don’t want to make the products other brands can make. Personally, I think they should make the easy money and leverage the quality brand name they’ve developed.

One piece of irony that struck me over the weekend hooking everything up, however, is that I've now got an utter rat’s nest of HDMI cables behind and under the TV as opposed to the relatively clean setup I had before the Arcana and the HDMI switch. The Sonos product managers who specifically designed the Arc to be a simple, easy, single cable setup are going to lose their minds when they see these setups. ;-)

I’ve found that zip ties and a label maker have become essential materials in my setups lately.

Danny

Prominent Collaborator I

I’ve found that zip ties and a label maker have become essential materials in my setups lately.

Cable management has NEVER been my strong suit. Worse, those few times I actually DO take the time and effort to actually make things nice and clean, inevitably I completely end up ripping it all back out a couple of months later because I changed equipment. So, it all just gets hidden away behind the TV and we do. not. speak. about. it. ;-)

Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!