What is going on with eARC update for the soundbar HW-Q90R?

[zhspence]

Hi everyone,

I need some clarification, as to be honest the Samsung support staff are hopeless with knowing anything about their own products. 

I was on chat with support enquiring about the eARC firmware update for this soundbar, he replies to me saying it doesn't have eARC?! 

the whole reason I purchased it was because of this update, I have the LG C9 which is eARC!

if they don't provide this firmware update to allow it, then this soundbar is going back for a refund. 

[Soumil]

I have a Nvidia Shield connected to my Q90R soundbar and use Kodi which allows Passthough. The soundbar connected to TV through HDMI ARC for 4k video. Please correct me anyone, but by connecting Shield directly to my Q90r soundbar, I should get lossless audio??????

I would still eagerly wait for Samsung to give us eARC Update! How hard can it be

[smuller76]

@Soumil, that is correct. You will experience Lossless Atmos and DTS:X via Kodi or Plex. However for all your streaming apps on your Shield you can only experience lossy Atmos and earc should be able to get lossless Atmos.

[sameu6]

But one thing i cannot understand.  Even right now when i stream movies online from TV (ex, VUDU app) i still get Atmos audio on my soundbar via HDMI ARC. So if the current setup already provides Atmos support, why to worry about eARC update?

[smuller76]

@sameu6, your current setup does provide Atmos but this is lossy DD+5.1. Earc can stream True lossless Dolby Atmos.

[zoric]

So,if I connect my Xbox One X directly in the soundbar,what is maximum resolution that the soundbar can pass to tv?can it pass 4K at 60 FPS?or 120 FPS?

[Blib]

Actually you are missing HDMI VRR from your Xbox when connecting it through the soundbar, which I would say is a HUGE deal

[zoric]

Yes,that is another negative side of the soundbar...do you know about the resolution passthrough ?

[Blib]

The soundbar is HDMI 2.0b, so max 4k60

[Bkk]

4k 60 hz passthrough, the soundbar would need hdmi 2.1 for 120 hz 

[Viktorn]

Ok, to brake it down again with my limited knowledge. 

So. I think that ALL streaming services stream DD+ at most. So you'll never get Dolby True HD or DTS:X-HD Master audio from streaming services. 

DD+ is said to be able to handle up to 15.1 channels of HI-FI audio in the future, so ATMOS Will be easy (7.1.4 in this soundbar)

The only way to get lossless Dolby True HD and DTS:X-HD master audio is when the source is in that format. Maybe some high quality Blue-ray disks. And you can connect that device to the soundbar and get lossless audio. 

The latest xbox has 2 HDMI's, one 1,4b and one 2,0b. The soundbar has 2,0b so you can get all the quality from that, IF the TV supports it. 

Well, my guess is that the next gen playstation won't even have an HDMI 2.1. Why? Because they manufacture it to be able for the most people (not just the ones who have that one TV with that supports 2.1 HDMI). 

The standard now days is HD, there is some content in 4K and litterally no contend in 8K or more, I think that will be the case for years to come. 

Lip-sync problems. I was looking at different things, in HD, 4K and D-Vision. I even connected the soundbar via Wi-Fi and I just could not get it to generate lip-sync problems! 

I really wanted a eARC connection, but after diving a bit deeper into it I'm not sure there will be a big need for it for a long time. And even.. If content is going more and more to streaming it might not be a need for it ever, unless for gamers who have some out of this world set up:)