Apple TV 4K, Sonos Arc and Dolby Atmos

Hi!

I did some digging around.

In the article "Play audio in Dolby Atmos or surround sound on your Apple TV" there is this smal text:

"*Some sound bars and AV receivers support Dolby Atmos, but don’t support video formats like HDR10 and Dolby Vision. In this case, you can plug your Apple TV 4K into either the sound bar or AV receiver to play sound in Dolby Atmos. Or you can plug your Apple TV 4K into your television to watch video in HDR and Dolby Vision. To do both, you need a television or an AV receiver or sound bar that supports both Dolby Atmos and high-quality video formats. Apple TV 4K uses a high bandwidth form of Dolby Atmos that doesn’t work over ARC connections."

So basically you need to plug in your Apple TV 4K in to your soundbar / AV receiver or use a connection that supports a higher bandwidth.

Now comes the bad part.

Because the Sonos Arc only have one HDMI port and, as you said, the only connection you can have is from Apple TV 4K to the TV and then from the TV to the Sonos Arc means your TV need to have eARC to be able to support the higher bandwidth and send it though to the Sonos Arc.

I understand that this isn't something you like to hear and I feel the same as I'm in the same situation with my Philips TV but I guess we can always leave a feedback for Apple.

The TLDR-version:

To use the Sonos Arc with your Apple TV 4K your TV need to have a eARC connection support.

Your tv probably doesn’t support atmos. The way you connect your devices as follows.

Apple TV, cable box, game system, etc. connect straight to the TV via hdmi.

your Sonos Arc connects to the hdmi arc (audio return channel) port of your tv via hdmi. The Sonos arc doesn’t not allow other devices to connect to it. It only uses the audio return channel to receiver audio from the tv.

your issue relies on the technology of your tv. To get atmos through you Apple TV your tv needs to have a eARC port not just regular ARC. You can look at the hdmi ports on your tv and see if you have one but it’s a relatively new feature on high end TVs 2019 or newer. You can get atmos through some apps directly through your smart tv platform but it will be a lossy audio format. You will not see the atmos option on the Apple TV because your tv not then likely does not support eARC

Hi,

Just wanted to do a quick follow up to my previous post here: I finally setup my AppleTV 4K with a new SONOS Arc using the HDFury Arcana.

Simple setup: AppleTV 4K connected to Arcana HDMI IN Port, Arcana HDMI OUT Port connected to a Video Projector (could be a TV, wouldn't make much of a difference), Arcana eARC OUT Port connected to SONOS Arc.

Everything works perfectly with the Arcana default configuration and the AppleTV 4K automatically outputs Dolby Atmos (when available).

The Arcana is not cheap but works right out of the box and offers a lot of options!

Hope this helps!

Phil

There is a new splitter from HD Fury called Arcana. Its 199 and will allow you to get full atmos on a sonos arc from the apple tv4k without having to buy a new tv with e-arc. https://hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/

Hi Terry,

I can confirm that to use the Arc in Dolby Audio mode you must connect the Sonos Arc to a eARC compatible tv through the eARC HDMI slot and eARC should be activated. The ATV would then be connected through another available HDMI slot on the TV.

eARC is required for the tv and ATV to pass through a Dolby audio signal. You may also need to check what HDMI cable you use as I believe a 2.1 HDMI cable is required.

Did you enable eARC on the TV. It is disabled by default

Hi all, an update from me which has resolved the issue of getting Dolby Atmos from Apple TV through the TV and to the Sonos Arc.

I wrote previously that I had a Samsung Q90R tv. Long story short I have now changed TV to an LG OLED C9 model, and... it works! I now get Dolby Atmos, from Apple TV through to the Sonos Arc. I even get Dolby vision to the TV with no issues. My connections are identical to those I had on the Samsung: Apple TV connected to the TV (brand new, fast HDMI cable from amazon basics), which is then connected to the Sonos via the Arc HDMI out.

This to me proves that the Samsung was not able to pass through the Atmos signal from Apple TV and was the only issue. Bad news for some I suppose. LG: highly recommended!

Good luck though!

Hi,

I was following this conversation a while ago as I was planning to get a Sonos Arc + Apple TV 4K + Projector setup but could not figure out a good solution to actually transmit Dolby Atmos signal to the Sonos Arc.

Then today I found out about this device from HDFury, it seems to meet my (and maybe your) requirements: https://hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/

What it does: "WORLD’S FIRST eARC adapter that allows FULL AUDIO up to Dolby Atmos over TrueHD from ANY external HDMI source to ANY eARC sound system".

Available for pre-orders, a bit pricey, but sounds promising.

Phil

Finally got mine working. ATV 4K still connecting to LG GX and in TV, I chose AUTO instead of PASS THROUGH. With this, Dolby Atmos sound received by sound received by sound bar :-)

Apple TV sends it atmos signal out as MAT and until Sonos updates the arc to handle LPCM it won’t work we will just have to be satisfied with 5.1 unless Apple changes it’s output I have heard the xx arc in atmos using the Netflix or amazon prime app on the lg tv. Unfortunately lg does not support the appletv+ In atmos on the lg app at this time but have stated they will eventually. So at least we have some streaming services that work

So this is the HDMI cable I’m using to connect the ATV: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HLL52ZM/A/belkin-ultrahd-high-speed-4k-hdmi-cable-2m. Seems to be 48Gbps, although I would think that a 21Gbps cable should be more than enough for a DD+ signal. For connecting the Sonos I used the included HDMI cable.

However based on everything I’ve read so far, I’m starting to think it might just be my LG TV that is the champion here — for its ability to passthrough Atmos via Dolby Digital Plus. Of course it doesn’t support a lossless Dolby TrueHD signal (since it’s not eARC). But it looks like not all TVs with ARC actually support Atmos passthrough via DD+, even though they are able to process and play those signal on their internal speakers for instance. From my understanding LG have been quite good at supporting this for their TVs the last few years (my TV is a 2018 model).

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, and I can’t say anything for certain as this stuff is obviously convoluted and complex, but it might just be a matter of what your TV is able to handle.

Hi,

One point of clarification to the comments from the man from wooster.

It is not necessary to have a TV with an eARC HDMI port for atmos functionality on the SONOS arc. Newer TV's with an HDMI ARC port are able to pass through Dolby Digital Plus to the Sonos ARC for atmos functionality. The caveat here is that Dolby Digital Plus is a "lossy" version of atmos. For "lossless" atmos, you will need a TV with an eARC port which will enable the pass through of Dolby Digital True HD.

I'm not an audiophile, so I'm not sure how perceptible the difference between "lossy" and "non-lossy" atmos quality is.

I recently went down the rabbit hole, because I have an older Samsung (2016) with an HDMI ARC Port that is unable to pass through any atmos support. As insane as it sounds, I think I'm going to purchase a new LG GX series to unlock the SONOS ARCs full potential.

The entire process is quite confusing because of all the links in the chain that need atmos compatibility (source content, TV, and the SONOS ARC). Additionally, it's beyond frustrating that for true "lossless" atmos quality sound, you do need an eARC connection which you will only find on brand new TVs.

I hope the above is helpful.

I can't see how you can split the signal. You connect the HDmi to the TV and connect the sonos to earc HDmi on the TV.

atmos from Netflix (and other streaming services) is in lossy format i.e. low bandwidth. It can therefore use the Dolby digital plus carrier to carry the Atmos signal. So it can work over ARC

if your source is using the lossless version of atmos (bought movies / blu ray etc) then the bandwidth requirement is higher and you therefore need e-arc

Hi!

Looking at the specs of your LG I see that it has eARC so you should be fine there.

Because you can play Atmos when using the Netflix app on your tv it sound like there is an issue with ether your Apple TV or the hdmi cable.

Is the hdmi cable connected between the Apple TV and your tv a high quality one that can handle a high bandwidth? (I personally have this one)

Are you using an Apple TV HD or 4K?