Understanding eARC and UHD 4k

Hi everyone, thank you for taking the time with my qustion.

I have a trouble understanding exactly how to work the optimal set up with my gear.
I have a Vero 4K+ today and a Sonos Beam system. I was thinking of upgrading to a Sonos Arc and a TV with eARC. However, in my current TV the only port that works with 4K HDMI is the HDMI ARC.

This means that I’m currently using optic to my Sonos Beam and HDMI from Vero to TV HDMI ARC.

My question is how to work this with the upgrade, do I have to choose between sound and tv quality when using the Vero as the HDMI eARC port needs to be directed to the Sonos ARC leaving me to to use a normal HDMI for Vero? Alternatively using the eARC port for Vero and optic for Sonos ARC meaning that I lose sound quality? How am I suppose to do this in a way so I get both?..

eARC only comes into effect when you are using the TV (broadcast or its internal apps) or using one of the other HDMI ports on the TV for input.

You would normally connect Vero to AVR/soundbar and AVR/soundbar to the TV via the eARC input. If the Sonos ARC has an HDMI input, that would be the one to use.

Thank you! But then that requires 4K UHD and event HDR support from the avr i suppose? Probably nothing that Sonos does…

If the Sonos ARC is the same as the Beam for HDMI inputs and your TV only has ARC/eARC on the one HDMI input that does HDR then it looks like you can’t have the best sound and picture at the same time. IMVHO that’s a poor design by Sonos. But It surprises me your TV doesn’t have more than one HDR HDMI input. My Panasonic does HDR on all inputs but only 2 of them will do 4k60hz. If you buy a new one I would expect the same.

Thank you, I’ll make sure to get a tv that allows for both when I upgrade my system :slight_smile:

As Graham says, the normal way to set things up is to connect the Vero 4K+ to the AVR, and then the AVR to the television. But if you have to use an AVR which doesn’t support all the video modes you need, it is possible to buy a device that splits the signal into audio and video. You then connect the Vero to the A/V splitter, then the video output of the splitter to the television and the audio output to the AVR.

Hopefully this won’t be necessary in your case, but if it is, the most popular device like that is the HDFury AVRKey. There is also another one (less common but slightly cheaper) called the Egreat H10.

If you are sold on the Sonos products, bear in mind they are designed to work with ARC/eARC. I wouldn’t like to guarantee they will work with a direct connection to a source like the Vero. So a splitter may not do what you want.

If you’re looking to upgrade to a Sonos Arc and a new TV (one with eARC available) - then, I’d imagine the new TV would have multiple 4K capable HDMI input sockets.

At that point you would:

  1. Wire the Vero 4K+ into HDMI2 of the new TV
  2. Wire the TV into the Sonos Arc via HDMI1 (or whatever the eARC port on the TV is)

That way the TV will handle all the image processing directly from the Vero and push the audio down to the Sonos Arc.

It’s worth noting though , that while the Arc now supports Dolby Atmos, it still seems to be lacking any support for DTS based audio streams (DTS:x/DTS HD MA etc) so they’ll till have to be converted (either by the TV or by the Vero) before arriving at the Sonos Arc.

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