TV, Sonos Arc, Dolby Atmos Arc......Help!!

[MOBB]

I'm on the brink of buying a new TV - 82 or 85 inch version. Was about to go for a Samsung QE8270R - seems to be the best TV for around the £2.5k mark. I would love a £5k tv but its not that important to me.

I also currently have a Sonos Play Soundbar. Reading up on the new Sonos Arc soundbar, it seems to move the game on quite a bit with its Dolby Atmos capabilities. So I quite fancy one :-)

However, it seems that as Sonos insists on its inputs coming from the TV, I would need an Atmos capable TV to achieve this.

So off I go to Google, and I don't find it very easy to figure out if the TV's are Atmos capable or not. The new high end 2020 ones all seem to be, but with my budget I was looking at 2019 models in my price range.

Then I saw this https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertai...

Which has HDMI 2.1 ports and mentioned Dolby Atmos. But is it a crap TV otherwise?

Any experts around? :-)

TLDR - how can I establish that a new TV will send Dolby Atmos from Netflix etc to a Sonos Arc?

Edited by MOBB on Tuesday 9th June 15:15

Breaking news - perhaps the Samsung WILL be compatible?

From Techradar - "The Q70 doesn’t support Dolby Atmos, but it is capable of sending Dolby Atmos from built-in apps like Netflix and Amazon to supporting soundbars and AV receivers via the HDMI audio return channel."

Edited by MOBB on Tuesday 9th June 15:18

[belleair302]

I do not believe thee are any broadcasts supporting Dolby Atmos so you all be streaming or using a DVD to receive and appreciate the benefits. From what I have seen the Songs is designed for ease of use but is not the fastest to process from the TV. It only has one ARC HDMI. The sound is great but....you may wish to explore what else is out there from Sony, Yamaha and others regarding connections and the best sound for what you watch. Need a subwoofer (these are wireless) and is the screen wall mounted or on a cabinet or TV stand?

[normalbloke]

belleair302 said:

I do not believe thee are any broadcasts supporting Dolby Atmos so you all be streaming or using a DVD to receive and appreciate the benefits. From what I have seen the Songs is designed for ease of use but is not the fastest to process from the TV. It only has one ARC HDMI. The sound is great but....you may wish to explore what else is out there from Sony, Yamaha and others regarding connections and the best sound for what you watch. Need a subwoofer (these are wireless) and is the screen wall mounted or on a cabinet or TV stand?

I believe most of the big players ( Netflix,Disney + etc etc) now stream Atmos.

[belleair302]

They do but not broadcast TV. Streaming yes other forms no.

[deeps]

There are some films on Sky that are in Dolby Atmos. Also, some live Sky sport broadcast in UHD that is also in Atmos.

[SS2.]

If you go down the ARC route, it would be worth confirming that the TV you opt for is compatible with your Sonos kit.

From experience (and whilst I've not had any issues with ARC on Samsung TVs), fully functional ARC can be hit and miss when mixing and matching different brands.

[jonwm]

I've just bought a 55 Q80r 2019 model and looking for s soundbar, I have always had Samsung ones but fancied a Sonos to match my other Sonos bits, however reading more about them I'm opting for a new Samsung sound bar (q70t 2020 model) it seems to link better and supports Atmos.

[lonny]

To get atmos on the Arc soundbar you will need eARC from your tv to feed to the sound bar. If you only have ARC or optical then you will get dolby digital at most . It is all very confusing but all the Arc reviews go into it in some detail.

[Adrian E]

lonny said:

To get atmos on the Arc soundbar you will need eARC from your tv to feed to the sound bar. If you only have ARC or optical then you will get dolby digital at most . It is all very confusing but all the Arc reviews go into it in some detail.

Yep, I'm waiting for delivery of a new 48" LG OLED CX with eARC and planning on getting the Sonos Arc to pair with it, once stock reappears.

Worth noting that Disney and co are still downgrading streams at the moment, so you don't actually get Atmos anyway unless you use UHD discs etc.....

In theory TVs that meet the required HDMI standard are firmware updatable, but due to the messy ways in which manufacturers have adopted bits and pieces of the standards to suit their needs, plus the generally appalling level of support for anything more than a few months old, it is a bit of a lottery on anything that isn't a 2019/20 model.

Out of interest OP, how far will you be sitting from that monster screen? Just wondering if you might find the image quality a bit lacking if you're routinely sitting 4m or so from it, or feeding it HD or SD content. Might be better to scale back the size and up the spec to an OLED rather than QLED.....

[matjk]

I’m on a Sonos group on Facebook and a lot of people are getting atmos over just Arc and not needing eArc . I guess as long as arc can pass through the signal you’re golden . To be honest I struggle with a Sonos beam and 5.1 over Arc

[lonny]

matjk said:

I’m on a Sonos group on Facebook and a lot of people are getting atmos over just Arc and not needing eArc . I guess as long as arc can pass through the signal you’re golden . To be honest I struggle with a Sonos beam and 5.1 over Arc

That’s interesting - looks like there’s a half way house where lossy atmos is encoded In the ARC signal - I sit corrected!. From what-hifi - https://www.whathifi.com/advice/hdmi-arc-and-hdmi-...

It’s worth noting ARC doesn’t allow you to bitstream the full-fat high-quality codecs such as Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD Master Audio or DTS:X soundtracks that you find on Blu-rays and 4K Blu-rays. It simply strips out the core 5.1 data stream. If you want this level of functionality, you’ll need HDMI eARC.

ARC can, however, allow you to receive Dolby Atmos audio from streaming services that use the format, including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. These services embed Dolby Atmos in a Dolby Digital Plus stream, which ARC can handle.

[VEX]

To be very honest - Atmos from a sound bar really is a crap idea and execution!

The idea of Atmos speakers is a minimum of 2 in-ceiling speakers to play overhead effects and some very clever, object orientated sounds/processing.

So to achieve this from front speakers, let alone pokey little soundbar ones, is a big ask as they have to be designed to fire upwards, towards the middle of the room, bounce the sound off it, back down to the seating position. Great idea, but pretty poor concept in execution, as I’ve said, especially given the size of the little speakers in a sound bar!!

I would rather you spend your money on a proper, maybe passive, LCR sound bar, a good sub and a set of rear speakers (these can be wirelessly linked) than waste money on (IMHO) gimmicks and use of a buzz word for a sale.

Trust me, when you hear a proper Atmos system, you’ll understand what the fuss is about, but I am afraid cheat yourself and go soundbar/buzz-word route you’ll be wondering what the fuss is all about.

V.

[Adrian E]

All very solid points, but for the majority the sound bar is an upgrade over the cack installed in the TV and anything that 'throws' the sound a bit will do the job whilst maintaining family harmony ref multiple speakers. My expectations are pretty low (I have a Yamaha 3300 soundbar in the front room, which works pretty well) but I'd never get the multi speaker setup past the Mrs to deliver anything meaningful in terms of proper surround.

Nice thing with the Arc is you can add the sub for punch, and couple of rear effect speakers. lots of talk about up firing rear speakers in the works too.

[VEX]

I don’t disagree with the need for sound bars, I just disagree with the way they are pushing its functional capabilities and providing a poor solution.

What is your perception difference between a multi-speaker set up and the Sonos arc, sub, rear speakers and up firing rears. That is a multi-speaker system.

Sonos is not the only solution in this space. Yamaha, Denon, BlueSound all offer direct competitors (better in my opinion)

Equally, some traditional speaker manufacturers offer an option for wireless rears and some with wireless subs.

As for rear, up-firing speaker, for Atmos, they’ll be useless. The idea of up-firing is to use the ceiling as a reflection to get sound to you. If the sound comes from the rear then the sound will end up at the screen, not at the listener.

Again, I’d rather spend the money on a better system with less speakers then just trying to get the speaker count up in a poor way.

Honestly just trying to help you build your ideas and system.

V.

Edited by VEX on Thursday 11th June 23:26

[Chilly for June]

Sonos gives you a no nonsense, no hassle solution to surround sound. The wife wouldn't want me putting speakers in the ceiling/walls when I can put some Sonos ones on stands and have "decent" 5.1 with no mess or comprise. When we want the living room back In terms of space/mess etc put the one's back into the bedroom/kitchen. Sonos isn't perfect but it's versatile.

[VEX]

I don’t disagree, but for the same money you can do better, but you can’t do simpler (other that the same solutions from Denon / Yamaha / BlueSound etc)