Perhaps the best ‘features’ of the Arcana is that it completely removes a TVs audio capabilities from your setup.  Even if your TV currently works for with the Sonos Arc and the TV sources you have now, you will not need to hope everything works fine when you add additional source to your setup.  There should be quite solid information available on what sources and streaming apps work with Arcana/Arc.  I suspect it won’t be long before there are more users of Arcana than any specific TV model.  I also believe from what I’ve seen that if there is an issue with a source and Arcana, HD Fury is much more likely to address the issue than any TV manufacturer.

At heart, Arcana is designed to do one core function: get full range audio from an external source to the Sonos Arc so that people with incompatible TVs could get Atmos on their Arcs without having to buy a new TV. HD Fury has been exceptionally transparent during the product development process and we’ve gotten to see - and even vote on - the inclusion of new features as they went along. CEC control was one of those. Sound loop back from the tv was another. They even added the splitter functionality fairly late in the process. Originally you were going to need an external splitter to make it work as well. 

if CEC and loop back are important to you, yeah, maybe you should wait to see if it gets added. For many of us, those features will be nice to haves but not deal breakers (I don’t need either, for example). 

As for 18Gbps / 2.0 / 8k - nothing in tech is future proof. Nothing. Something newer, faster, different, better, cheaper will always come along. And Arcana is far from the last word in solutions to the problem it’s solving - but it is the first, which is why we’re excited about it. Based on HD Fury’s track record, I’m sure they’ll keep coming out with adapters and solutions as needs change. 

The latest I’ve heard is shipment for preorders is still September 15th, moved up from October 1st.  HDFury did send out beta units to a handful of testers last week, with many of them already arrived at the testers, so I would not expecting shipping to take too long on these.

I am, indeed! My Arcana beta unit arrived on Tuesday and have been testing it since. 

The good news is that it does what it says on the tin - it lets you get Atmos from external sources. 

The only issues so far (that I’ve seen) have been regarding CEC control and, to be honest, I don’t particularly understand the intricacies of what all’s happening. What I CAN say is that HD Fury has been ridiculously responsive to concerns and have already pushed out no fewer than 5 firmware updates to correct issues in the last three days. For example, I was having an issue with the Apple TV remote not controlling the Arc volume, but a firmware update later all is well. 

I’d say we’re in the “fine tuning” stage in that it absolutely works as intended, but CEC is such a mish-mash of poorly implemented functionality across various devices that HD Fury is having to see how Arcana works in the real world with a variety of equipment and adjust accordingly.

I would just like to say thank you to @Highfalutintodd and @melvimbe for their  particularly informed, thoughtful and perceptive comments about the Arcana and the issues it addresses,  over the last few weeks.

Can't wait to get mine!

Oh, I am hour one pre-orderer for Arcana and I’ll be MORE than happy to take my TV out of the audio loop here. But got to deal with it the way it is for the next couple of months. 

Re: lip sync - yes. From the Arcana product FAQ:

Can Arcana solves lip sync issue from eARC TV to SONOS ARC?

Yes! There is one thing people tend to forget, so far there is absolutely no TV that we know of that will modify its own internal EDID based on what CDS it can read from the connected eARC RX. It simply downmixes or re-encodes (with delay) the incoming audio according to what eARC RX can handle. This is why when connected to an eARC TV, the SONOS Arc can have serious lip sync issues. All that will be fixed with Arcana.

Re: connections - Basically. It’s more complicated than this, but you can think of it as a splitter that’s taking the  signal from an external source or switch, sending the video to the TV then sending the audio via eARC to the Sonos Arc. It will make the Arc think it’s plugged into an eARC TV and takes your TV’s audio capabilities out of the equation. 

This is an entirely reasonable approach and nobody could blame you for it.  But i shall just point out that if everyone takes the same approach then failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy - pre-orders never hit 800 and so the extra features never get built.

I think I expressed myself badly. I just meant that if nobody preorders until they know whether the addional features will be included, the additional features will not be included, because the 800 target won't be hit.

Just announced today: the first 1900 units sold (pre-orders are close to 1100 now) will ship on September 15!

Thanks @melvimbe  - very helpful. Would I be right in saying that it would also help the SkyQ give full lossless Atmos as currently I only get DD+ Atmos  ? as my TV is limited to DD+ pass through. 

“Lossless” Atmos is only available on Blu-ray Discs, not streaming services. 

Atmos is just spatial metadata passed over another audio codec. It can be passed over Dolby Digital Plus (a “lossy” codec used on all streaming services) or Dolby TrueHD (a “lossless” codec basically only used on Blu-ray / 4K Blu-ray). Either way, it’s Atmos. 

The Arc supports Atmos over either codec. In a nutshell: 

Dolby Digital Plus + Atmos

• Type: Lossy / low-bandwidth
• HDMI-ARC: Yes
• eARC: Yes
• Available on: Compatible streaming platforms and content

Dolby TrueHD + Atmos

• Type: Lossless / high-bandwidth
• HDMI-ARC: No
• eARC: Yes
• Available on: Blu-ray Disc, UHD Blu-ray Disc 

Side note: A lot of people seem to get all worked up over “lossy” vs “lossless.” I honestly wouldn’t worry about it. Most audio you listen to day in and day out is “lossy” - streaming music services (Apple Music / Pandora / Spotify / etc.), streaming video services (Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, etc.), every DVD you’ve ever heard, many Blu-ray Discs, satellite radio, etc. etc. And ALL video you watch is “lossy.” 

“Lossy” doesn’t mean “bad,” it just means some data has been eliminated to achieve smaller file sizes. The audio codecs Dolby and DTS have developed over the past 20+ years are really amazing and sound incredible. “Lossless” means you’re getting exactly what the sound mixers heard… but only if you’ve got audio equipment good enough to reproduce it. And while the Sonos Arc is very, very good, professionals are not mixing audio using soundbars. ;-) 

Joined their Discord yesterday. Now I see where all the information on here was coming from! They are really transparent and helpful. Had a question answered by HDFury themselves within a few hours.

Regarding the CEC mess, can you confirm whether the commands from the Arc itself to turn the TV on/off work?

Hey @CJG. The Sonos Arc DOES support the audio container Apple TV 4K uses to send Atmos (called Dolby MAT) so with an Arcana you CAN listen to Atmos from any app that supports it on Apple TV. I’ve already listened to Atmos on Apple TV via Arcana from Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV+. That’s the entire point of the Arcana, after all, and it works great!

To delve into this a little deeper: 

Atmos can be sent over three different codecs: Dolby TrueHD (realistically Blu-ray only), Dolby Digital Plus (all the streaming services), and Dolby MAT (“Metadata-enhanced Audio Transport” - really rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?). 

Dolby MAT is the oddball here so, of course, it’s what Apple uses (and Microsoft for Xbox One X/S). It’s really more of a container - the Apple TV decodes the Dolby bitstream into lossless multi-channel PCM audio, layers the Siri and system sounds on top of it, tops it off with the Atmos metadata where applicable, then packages it all up and sends it on to be played.

(Note: if you can’t tell, I’m VASTLY simplifying this, probably to the point of lunacy.) 

Since the Sonos Arc is able to decode all Dolby formats, it’s perfectly happy to play whatever’s in the Dolby MAT container, including Atmos. Which makes the Arc’s inability to handle multi-channel PCM audio all the more infuriating because it’s basically ALREADY playing multi-channel PCM audio, but only if it comes wrapped as Dolby MAT. Neat, huh? 

Non-Atmos content from the Apple TV is a little more complex, unfortunately, and we’re entering the realm of speculation here. On the Arcana, when I play Atmos content from the Apple TV 4K, I get “Dolby Atmos” in the “About my System” section of the Sonos App. When I play any other multichannel audio, however, I only get “Dolby Digital 5.1.” HD Fury speculates that this may have something to do with the Arc’s inability to handle multi-channel PCM audio, and I know that directly contradicts what I just said above. But the reality is that, for whatever reason, Dolby Digital Plus DOES NOT seem to be able to be passed from the Apple TV to the Arc via Arcana at this time. Whether this changes when Sonos finally puts out their multi-channel PCM update is something we’ll have to wait to see. 

Clear a mud? ;-) 

Update for anyone here that is not on Discord:

HDFury just confirmed that they will start shipping on September 15th, approx. 400 units a day, to finish on the 19th. Pre orders are now at approx 1400, so by that math they would either finish early, or it means that they expect to have the 1900 units they refer to on their website ready to ship on the 15th.

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.

HD Fury’s website says that input lag is less than 1ms for each product.

Arcana does not have a web interface.  It has it’s own LED screen and a dial on the side that allows you to change configurations.  If you’re asking how Arcana is able to accomplish this technically, I barely understand HDR and LLDV, much less how to convert between the two.  I’m not sure HD Fury wants to really share how they do though.

You can get answers from HD Fury directly by connecting to their Discord channel.  The information for that is on this thread somewhere.  HD Fury will also answer questions on the AVS forum.

Arcana - https://www.avsforum.com/threads/hdfury-arcana-earc-adapter-for-sonos-arc-and-bose-700-soundbars.3153792/page-14

Diva - https://www.avsforum.com/threads/hdfury-diva-owners-thread.3033360/page-96#post-60073685

There is probably more details in those threads regarding lag/latency, or you can just ask.

FYI, I it’s not as visible on the Arcana product page as it used to be, but if you pre-order Arcana + Diva (or some other options) you get a rather deep discount.  The ‘Quantity’ drop down list shows the discounts.  Don’t know if there will be a discount once Arcana is shipped.

@Hunt3r Regarding the statement on Diva, the Arc is not an AVR, though I suppose it could be more clear if they explicitly excluded audio equipment that only take HDMI-ARC/eARC.  What Diva is doing is essentially just passing the normal audio HDMI signal from source to audio equipment.  It does not convert that signal to HDMI-ARC/eARC.

Regarding the mention of ARC/eARC extraction, this means that the connection between your TV and Diva allows Diva to read the audio signal coming back through ARC/eARC signal, convert it to a normal HDMI audio signal, and send it to your audio equipment.  Essentially, it’s the opposite of the main function of the Arcana.  

Hopefully not confusing, but Arcana does have the ability to do ARC/eARC extraction as well, but instead of converting it to a normal HDMI audio signal, it just passes it on as ARC/eARC signal to the Sonos Arc.

Hey people! 
Got mine today and it’s working a treat! Got Atmos, all the tv apps work and it’s perfect!! 

So glad it’s working. I can now finally enjoy the films on Apple TV 4K - Happy happy day! 

For any other newbie to HDFury Arcana, here is a link to explain the connections to your devices. Hope this helps others: 

Yes, Apple TV 4K supports Atmos from all of the streaming providers you mention. If the content itself is in Atmos, you’ll get Atmos from the Apple TV 4K to Arc via Arcana 

Much needed, especially if you are using a projector…..

Sonos should push for this considering they put us in this situation to begin with .

Maybe partner with HDFury and sell it as an accessory.  They may sell tons of Arcs :)

I agree with that! I bought my Arc having no idea whatsoever as to whether or not I’d be able to get Atmos out of my Apple TV. I ended up taking the plunge despite the risk and, lo and behold, no Atmos. If I could have KNOWN up front that I could definitely get Atmos from my ATV or external device(s) with an add-on like this, I would have thrown it into the cart in a heartbeat. 

Yup!, ordered mine a few hrs ago.