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

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220 replies

melvimbe

I’ve heard others say that TrueHD is noticeably better than DD+ in general.  I don’t really know if that’s psychosomatic or if it’s actually better.  The other aspect of this, particularly when atmos gets thrown in, is that you quickly get into the territory where the rooms acoustic characteristics plays a very large role.  Trueplay helps with this a lot, but when you’re counting on audio reflecting off walls and ceilings, you’re going to have rooms where it sounds great and others where you can’t hear much difference between TrueHD atoms and DD 5.1.

For me, I do notice some difference with atmos audio coming through, but not as much as I originally thought.  I am overall happy with it, and like the improvement over the playbar, for sure.  

Danny
Airgetlam

 

 

 

Given how quickly time seems to be passing these days, september 15 will be here before I can blink and turn around twice! ;-) 


Is it September 15 yet?

Bruce
N

Anyone know of any Arcana for sale anywhere? Pre orders from HD Fury are backed up to December. 

N

Thanks. 
When you placed your order did you request the ‘low value, less tax, no packaging’ invoice or the ‘real value, normal tax’?

M

Hello, could you please help me with choosing the right splitter for connecting my new Sonos Arc and a projector? Should I get a HDfury product?

 

The a/v source will be coming from a PS4 or Windows PC. It would be great to have a possibility to play audio from a 3.5 jack as well.

Thanks in advance

H
Userlevel 6
Badge +7

Pre-ordered!

 

-JR

Awesome! Now begins the wait! :sunglasses:

Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!
I
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Couple questions to make sure I am understanding this product: 

1.   It takes source input such as ATV4K and sends audio directly to the soundbar and splits the video to the TV? So, in a sense this turns tv in nothing more than a monitor.  So with this internal split of audio and video, is it still sending audio to TV? 
       

2.   Any modern day 2.0 capable HDMI switch work?

B
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

I’ve heard others say that TrueHD is noticeably better than DD+ in general.  I don’t really know if that’s psychosomatic or if it’s actually better.  The other aspect of this, particularly when atmos gets thrown in, is that you quickly get into the territory where the rooms acoustic characteristics plays a very large role.  Trueplay helps with this a lot, but when you’re counting on audio reflecting off walls and ceilings, you’re going to have rooms where it sounds great and others where you can’t hear much difference between TrueHD atoms and DD 5.1.

For me, I do notice some difference with atmos audio coming through, but not as much as I originally thought.  I am overall happy with it, and like the improvement over the playbar, for sure.  

Yeah, that’s why I’m not getting too worked up about it all. On paper, I’m sure TrueHD blows DD and DD+ out of the water in terms of sheer specs. In reality, though, I’m willing to bet it won't matter all that much. If you’ve got a serious (and seriously expensive) home theater system that can wring every bit of sound out of it, I’m sure TrueHD is amazing. For the rest of us, even “plain old” Dolby Digital is still really damn good. 

I still think most people don’t understand just how damn good all of these audio codecs are these days. Dolby and DTS and others have been working on these compression algorithms and making psychoacoustic magic for decades now and they’ve gotten ridiculously good at it. 

Plus, there are so many variables at play. Even if there’s a subtle difference like the TrueHD mix simply being a little LOUDER than a Dolby Digital Plus mix for the same movie, it could cause a person to perceive that the TrueHD mix is better (or vice versa).   

But, again, I’ll be happy to be surprised. Maybe TrueHD will blow me out of the water. Regardless, I’ve got really, really good sound quality that’s making me quite happy. ;-) 

I agree it will come down to set up, room shape and size, then ears!

Whatever happens i am sure there will be some slight difference, however the big thing for me is the difference the Sonos ARC has made. it is a truly awesome bit of kit despite the odd little niggle like lack of DTS and only one hdmi

H
Userlevel 6
Badge +7

Couple questions to make sure I am understanding this product: 

1.   It takes source input such as ATV4K and sends audio directly to the soundbar and splits the video to the TV? So, in a sense this turns tv in nothing more than a monitor.  So with this internal split of audio and video, is it still sending audio to TV? 
       

2.   Any modern day 2.0 capable HDMI switch work?

  1. Correct, for all intents and purposes the Arcana acts like (and makes the Sonos Arc think that it’s plugged into) an eARC TV. And Arcana is built specifically to pass any and all sound formats the source (Apple TV, Roku, BD player, etc) is capable of directly to the Arc with no modifications.

    As for the question about sending Audio to the TV, you’ll want to go red through the Arcana FAQs on the HD Fury website, but I think the answer is no. They are working on functionality to be able to take the audio FROM the TV (e.g. from the tuner or its built in apps) and send it to the Arc via Arcana, but they’re not promising that until/unless they can get at least 800 pre-orders. 
     
  2. Theoretically, yes. Make sure to get a well reviewed one that supports features you want (e.g. Atmos, Dolby Vision, HDR10, etc). HD Fury makes some apparently awesome ones but the price tag isn’t cheap. Many can be found on Amazon but buyer beware of course. There are big discussions about this on the HD Fury Discord support channel that I haven’t followed yet. I figured I’d let others do the grunt work of figuring out what works and then follow in their footsteps. 😎

    One note: if you only have a single external source you want to use you won’t need a switch - Arcana will work out of the box for one source  

Hope that helps!

Arc + Sub 3 + One SLs = Awesome and Loving It!
H
Userlevel 6
Badge +7

I agree it will come down to set up, room shape and size, then ears!

Whatever happens i am sure there will be some slight difference, however the big thing for me is the difference the Sonos ARC has made. it is a truly awesome bit of kit despite the odd little niggle like lack of DTS and only one hdmi

Agreed! While DTS support wouldn’t suck, nor would more HDMI ports, that would make the Arc a different product. And it’s a pretty damn good product as it is. :-) 

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

First of all, thanks for this post and pointing out this product! Defenitely looking for such a solution. Below my 2 cents.

I was at the point of pre-ordering as well, but as I understand from their ‘Getting Started’ tab https://www.hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/, they have some sort of graduated scale in what they will adapt in the product (as I understand they call this their Stretch Goal). 
The most basic option would entail only splitting the audio from the video. In that case there is no ARC loopback from the TV through the device to the Sonos ARC. Also no CEC for control purposes.

The website also states: “Our Dev Team has a roadmap and a specific approach to make this a reality; there is no guarantee that it will work, but the outlook is VERY promising.”. Well that does sound promising, but I think I’ll just wait until the product is released and tested. I’d rather pay 199 USD instead of 155 USD with the guarantee of a working product.

Last but not least: I might be in the wrong here, but the whole idea of ARC vs eARC is the bandwidth right? Not being able to pass both 4K video and Atmos over TrueHD through HDMI 2.0? That makes me worried about the HDMI 2.0 specification on this product. Especially considering they specifically note 18Gbps, the speed of HDMI 2.0. And even if it does work, it’s definitely not future (8K) proof. Just something to consider.

S
Userlevel 1

First of all, thanks for this post and pointing out this product! Defenitely looking for such a solution. Below my 2 cents.

I was at the point of pre-ordering as well, but as I understand from their ‘Getting Started’ tab https://www.hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/, they have some sort of graduated scale in what they will adapt in the product (as I understand they call this their Stretch Goal). 
The most basic option would entail only splitting the audio from the video. In that case there is no ARC loopback from the TV through the device to the Sonos ARC. Also no CEC for control purposes.

The website also states: “Our Dev Team has a roadmap and a specific approach to make this a reality; there is no guarantee that it will work, but the outlook is VERY promising.”. Well that does sound promising, but I think I’ll just wait until the product is released and tested. I’d rather pay 199 USD instead of 155 USD with the guarantee of a working product.

Last but not least: I might be in the wrong here, but the whole idea of ARC vs eARC is the bandwidth right? Not being able to pass both 4K video and Atmos over TrueHD through HDMI 2.0? That makes me worried about the HDMI 2.0 specification on this product. Especially considering they specifically note 18Gbps, the speed of HDMI 2.0. And even if it does work, it’s definitely not future (8K) proof. Just something to consider.

They commented on HDMI 2.1 on their discord. They will not implement that until later in 2021 since there are no sources that output 2.1 so that it can be properly tested. I think that is fair, there are too many companies rushing out the latest standards with sub-par implementations of it only to put you as a consumer in a position where it might not work the way it should.

D
Userlevel 1
Badge +2

Has anyone got a switch to recommend for connecting multiple devices to arcana? Ideally one if they even do one where it switches automatically to keep things simple?

I
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Couple questions to make sure I am understanding this product: 

…..

  1. Correct, for all intents and purposes the Arcana acts like (and makes the Sonos Arc think that it’s plugged into) an eARC TV. And Arcana is built specifically to pass any and all sound formats the source (Apple TV, Roku, BD player, etc) is capable of directly to the Arc with no modifications.

    As for the question about sending Audio to the TV, you’ll want to go red through the Arcana FAQs on the HD Fury website, but I think the answer is no. They are working on functionality to be able to take the audio FROM the TV (e.g. from the tuner or its built in apps) and send it to the Arc via Arcana, but they’re not promising that until/unless they can get at least 800 pre-orders. 
     
  2. Theoretically, yes. Make sure to get a well reviewed one that supports features you want (e.g. Atmos, Dolby Vision, HDR10, etc). HD Fury makes some apparently awesome ones but the price tag isn’t cheap  

Hope that helps!

Perfect.. thank you very much

H

Hi, 

I am about to buy Arcana to solve Arc audio issues but if Diva does everything that Arcana do, then I might want to get Diva for extra features. So my question is, can I use 4K Diva 18Gbps to solve the audio issues that Arcana suppose to fix?
My second question is, does Arcana or Diva add any latency due to processing. I'm asking because I want to use these devices for gaming purposes.

Edit: Also, in the Arcana features it’s mentioned: “Allow DV content playback from LLDV capable source on any HDR10 display for improved picture quality”. I wonder how this feature works? Is there a web interface for setting up these kinds of settings like in Diva?

Thanks,

melvimbe

Have you contacted HDFury?

I downloaded the latest firmware update (v. 23 Sept) and it seems to be working correctly now. I will see if it happens again and contact them if it does.

Seems like Discord is the best way to contact them but I don't use Discord.

I would guess that it wasn’t so much an issue with the firmware as it was a need for Arcan to reboot.

 

On Discord, it’s pretty difficult to keep up with right now due to the high traffic volume. Discord makes more sense for low traffic, but a mess when gets more.  Too difficult to search through, too many repeated questions and answers, and it results in frustration.  But I get that a small company like HD Fury can’t afford to run their own full forum though.  You can reach them on the AVSforums though, as they respond there.

It would be nice if HD Fury could post here, but I’m sure Sonos would have issues with that.  Not so much that HD Fury would be a problem, but it opens the door for every other vendor who wants to sell products to Sonos customers.

 

Has anyone got a switch to recommend for connecting multiple devices to arcana? Ideally one if they even do one where it switches automatically to keep things simple?

 

I’m using HD Fury’s Vertex2 and it does seem to do autoswitching pretty good so far.  However, it’s probably overkill for most people’s needs...perhaps me as well.  Not sure what other devices can do auto-switching well.

Danny
J

Here is my current setup: Samsung TV with no eARC. There are 3 HDMI In Connections and 1 HDMI-ARC on the Samsung "One Connect Hub" device vs directly on the TV. My Sonos Arc Soundbar only has one HDMI port, which is currently connected in the HDMI-ARC port. I have my NVIDIA Shield TV Pro connected to the HDMI port.

I ordered the HDFury Arcana, but it’s not clear how I should connect these devices.  Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

H

Hi, 

I am about to buy Arcana to solve Arc audio issues but if Diva does everything that Arcana do, then I might want to get Diva for extra features. So my question is, can I use 4K Diva 18Gbps to solve the audio issues that Arcana suppose to fix?

 

 

Diva will not resolve the issues Arcana fixes. Diva does not have the capability of generating an eARC signal the way Arcana does.  Really, Arcana is the only device that isn’t a TV that can generate an ARC or eARC audio signal, and it does so without an extra processing and and such which can cause the audio and video to be out of sync.

HD Fury has hinted at the possibly that the next generation of their Diva/Vertex/Maestro products will have the Arcana functionality built in, but that next gen seems to be rather far off, at least a year I imagine.

 

Thanks for your detailed reply. The reason I asked about whether Diva supports the same feature is that I saw this on the Diva’s product page:

Diva allows any HDMI source (Blu-ray, UHD Blu-ray, media players, satellite receiver, game consoles, PCs, etc.) to be shown on any of the connected displays and any sources Full HDMI audio to be played on ANY AVR.
World First: Diva is also capable of extracting full audio from any TV ARC or eARC (HDMI2.1) up to Atmos High Bit Rate over True HD and forward it via 720p/1080p HDMI to ANY capable AVR input!

And also:

Full Audio port: Full HDMI/ARC/eARC Audio extraction via 720p/1080p self generated stream to feed any AVR input

 

J
Badge +1

Hi all -- wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I have an Arc set up with a sub and two Play:1s, then an apple TV 4K conntected to an arcana and then to the Arc and my (non-eARC) TV. Everything seems to be working fine, and when I go to the AppleTV settings, it now says “Atmos available”. However, when I go to play Atmos movies, I don’t see any indication on the sonos app that it’s actually playing atmos sound. When I check the “about my system” report, it says it’s dolby digital 5.1. 

 

I was under the impression with Appletv that it would automatically output Atmos if available, but is there some other setting I need to change?

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Airgetlam

Why not contact HDFury directly with your question?

Bruce
H

Why not contact HDFury directly with your question?

I emailed them and I’m waiting for their response. Meanwhile, I asked the same question on avsforum as well.

H

@melvimbe Perfect and clear explanations. Correct me if I’m wrong. Since I’m going to use the Arcana/Diva with an AVR I think both can fix my problem. Either use Arcana connected to AVR’s Arc output or use Diva connected to one of the AVR’s inputs. But since I still need to use my TV’s remote and rely on its CEC to control my AVR, I think it’s a safer bet to stick with Arcana + ARC path.

S

I was tempted by this, but by the time I add postage and tax I am at $250 Canadian. So I am going to hold off and see if Vizio update their firmware as my TV is a 2019 model. I get Atmos from USB’s plugged into the TV (DD+) so it can do it. It passes DD+ from my Roku but not atmos. So it’s almost there, if they chose (ha!) to do it. 

I am curious how it works for those of you that get it. 

The problem isn’t with your Vizio...it’s your Apple TV. Sonos Arc is backwards compatible with HDMI ARC and Dolby Digital + and your Vizio TV will pass that fine. Its the fact that Apple TVs will only pass Dolby True HD which your Vizio TV can’t pass and this capability likely won’t be given in a firmware update. 

M
Userlevel 1
Badge

Hi all -- wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I have an Arc set up with a sub and two Play:1s, then an apple TV 4K conntected to an arcana and then to the Arc and my (non-eARC) TV. Everything seems to be working fine, and when I go to the AppleTV settings, it now says “Atmos available”. However, when I go to play Atmos movies, I don’t see any indication on the sonos app that it’s actually playing atmos sound. When I check the “about my system” report, it says it’s dolby digital 5.1. 

 

I was under the impression with Appletv that it would automatically output Atmos if available, but is there some other setting I need to change?

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

What are you using to play the movies (Netflix, iTunes etc).  Also what does the OLED screen display on the Arcana?

J
Badge +1

iTunes. I’d read that Netflix was having difficulty in general after the latest update. I think I was trying Spiderman into the spiderverse and Mad Max Fury Road as two Atmos movies I’d purchased. 

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