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jonathanmoore
Contributor I
May 7, 2020
Question

Sonos Arc (Dolby Atmos) with 4K Projector vs. TV

I have been waiting to upgrade my old Gen 1 Play:5s, and when the new products were launched yesterday I used my upgrade 30% off discount to preorder a pair of Sonos Fives and the Arc Surround Set.  Our home has a theater room that I have been waiting to build out, and now the time has come.

 

Originally I had thought about installing a 4k projector since we have enough room for it, however I’m unsure how the eARC connections and Dolby Atmos would work in this type of a setup.  It seems like I would have to buy some type of receiver to handle all of my inputs and ideally output eARC to Sonos and a video signal to the projector—not sure if this type of a setup exists.

 

It seem like the easier route would be to go with a TV with eARC support like the LG C9 where everything can connect to the TV and the Dolby Atmos audio goes to Sonos.

 

Does anyone have recommendations on the best setup to take advantage of Dolby Atmos with Sonos Arc?

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      34 replies

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      xpiranhax
      Lyricist III
      June 16, 2020

      HDMI switches don’t currently create either ARC or eARC signals. They do split off an optical signal from an HDMI input. But that is maxed out at Dolby Digital (5.1) due to bandwidth on optical. 

      There is a device being worked on to create eARC signals, being discussed here, but it isn’t to market yet. 

      Any HDMI switch with an optical output must be fed a Dolby Digital signal to work with Sonos. They can’t transcode a DTS, Dolby Digital Plus, or Atmos signal. 


      Thank you.  Guess I’ll be waiting for a solution or sticking with Playbar and 5.1.

      Airgetlam
      Airgetlam
      June 16, 2020

      Understand where you’re coming from. My Vizio won’t pass Dolby Digital Plus either, but even with regular old Dolby Digital, I’ve found the Arc to be an upgrade from the PLAYBAR. I’m waiting on the new device too, but enjoying the Arc in the meantime. 

      Bruce
        studioj16
        Lyricist I
        June 16, 2020

        Glad i found this thread. I was also hoping to go for atmos in my setup with projector and Arc but doesn’t look possible yet. Thanks for info.

          NZ Tim
          Lyricist I
          June 17, 2020

          Hold off Just for now.

          Its the 17th of June 2020 and I purchased an arc last week and it is so far no go.

          The Arc may not work with a projector

          My config is this

          A Yamaha receiver. A Sonos Arc. A Epson HD projector

          Before last week I had a Yamaha receiver with surround sonud passive speakers powered by the Yamaha, and the Epson projector. all has worked fine for years

          The problem

          We cannot get any signal from the receiver to be recognised by the Arc.

          First try

          The Yamaha has a single HDMI ARC output, so I used a 18GBPS splitter to send 1 signal to the projector and one to the arc. The projector works on either of the splitter outputs, but the arc does not recognise any signal from any output. during the sonos arc setup its says “no signal found”

           

          Second try

          The dealer I purchased the sonos arc from gave me a new $6000 Dual HDMI Output receiver to try. I took it home and no luck. Again the projector works in either HDMI output, but the sonos arc says “no signal during the setup. The receiver has eArc outputs

           

          What does work?

          I can successfully complete the wireless setup and get music through the sonos arc. but thats it. In the last week I have gone through the factory reset process about 20 times but no luck

           

          What next?

          I have returned the sonos arc to the dealer and they are working on it. A senior onsite engineer was there and said that it probably wont work, as the TV pass thru senario is different than the splitter or 2 hdmi output senario and new HDMI protocols are really tricky

          I’ll keep you posted

          My guess is the Sonos Arc will get a firmware update later down the track, but don’t expect the projector and Sonos Arc to work right now

           

            Airgetlam
            Airgetlam
            June 17, 2020

            The Sonos Arc isn’t what needs an update. It works fine. It is looking for an HDMI ARC signal, unless you’re using the optical cable connected to the adapter that the Arc comes with. You can’t feed a normal HDMI signal to the Arc using any splitter, as that would be just the normal HDMI signal, not the HDMI ARC signal the Arc is looking for. 

            Bruce
            Alex47
            Lyricist I
            June 19, 2020

            https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-1155w-7-2-ch-with-dolby-atmos-4k-ultra-hd-hdr-compatible-a-v-home-theater-receiver-black/5761206.p?skuId=5761206
             

            Would this receiver potentially work? I’m guessing no, but trying to find a creative way to make my current home theater setup work with an Arc (it really sucks how few options there are for people with projectors who want Sonos systems). 

            airbag41
            Trending Lyricist I
            June 19, 2020

            I don’t think so, I think it is because the way ARC or eARC outputs the sound. For reference what I did, which is really kludgy is take a Samsung TV I had that had eARC (tu8000) then ran a HDMI matrix splitter with two outputs. One to projector and one to Samsung, then Samsung eARC back to the Sonos Arc. It works for Atmos, but is messy.

             

             

            https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-1155w-7-2-ch-with-dolby-atmos-4k-ultra-hd-hdr-compatible-a-v-home-theater-receiver-black/5761206.p?skuId=5761206
             

            Would this receiver potentially work? I’m guessing no, but trying to find a creative way to make my current home theater setup work with an Arc (it really sucks how few options there are for people with projectors who want Sonos systems). 

             

            Alex47
            Lyricist I
            June 19, 2020

            I don’t think so, I think it is because the way ARC or eARC outputs the sound. For reference what I did, which is really kludgy is take a Samsung TV I had that had eARC (tu8000) then ran a HDMI matrix splitter with two outputs. One to projector and one to Samsung, then Samsung eARC back to the Sonos Arc. It works for Atmos, but is messy.

            Dang. That was my biggest fear. Thanks for the heads up. Here’s to hoping they have some kind of fix for this soon. Trying to determine what to do once I get a PS5 with my projector, currently using a playbar and some 1s for surrounds, might just have to look for something else.  

            bozhkohristov
            Lyricist I
            June 25, 2020

            Is it possible to pass the video content through a projector and the audio through a tv connected to Sonos arc. I thought of using a hdmi matrix to use projector and tv as a video and an audio output respectively and 4K laptop as an input.

            Airgetlam
            Airgetlam
            June 25, 2020

            Certainly worth a try. There’s no reason I can think of that the signal from the TV would be any different whether or not you had a projector attached. It’s not part of the equation, from the Sonos side of things. 

            Bruce
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