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

(Topic created on: 13-12-2019 02:57 PM)
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zhspence
Pathfinder
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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. 

864 REPLIES 864
Blib
Explorer
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Microsoft just announced hdmi2.1 support, ofc PS5 will have ut. This is not some "out of this world" setup. Neither is playing BF1 on my potato computer, and it supports atmos sound atm if only the soundbar supported eARC. 

also, I literally only watch 4K shows these days. Everything but HBO is in 4K, which will probably be 4K in 6 months with hbo max. This isn't some extreme case either, 4K is available a plenty. 

zoric
Explorer
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Yeah,completely made a point...At this point,I really think that Samsung won’t add eARC to Q90r...who would buy next-gen soundbar for much higher price when you have perfectly good last year model supporting all of the 2.1 goods...This exacly happened with HW-N950...that was a perfectly good soundbar...Samsungs argument to buy next-gen SB (almost exacly the same as Q90r) was a promise of eARC support...they profited twice from the same product both N950 and Q90r...now we are standing in front of new year and probably new models supporting new technology,and old ones completely forgotten...they own the monopoly,and they can ga away with it.
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Viktorn
Journeyman
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Yeah. And if PS5 comes with HDMI 2.1 it's as simple as connecting that one device to the soundbar and get all the quality.
I'm not even sure that games or all movies that you could play on PS5 (given it will have a Blue ray player) will hafe a true lossless audio..

Like I said, HD is the standard. More and more 4K is coming around. And like I said, all the streaming services are streaming in DD+ and ARC is more than enough to transfer that and 4K from the tv to the soundbar.

DD+ is the streaming standard and will be for a long time and it's improving. It will be or is able to give you ATMOS.
ARC is more than enough to transfer 4K video and DD+ (atmos) from tv to soundbar:)

The "out of this world" setup was like.. 16K with Dolby true HD and DTS:X-HD master audio.. But then again, you would probably need more than HDMI 2.1 for that - and there is no such content..
Viktorn
Journeyman
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Well.. If you really think of it, the soundbar will always support DD+, Dolby True HD and DTS:X-HD master audio. And the sound will always be very, very good. These are, I think, Top shelf sound tech. There is not much that eARC will add to the thing sound wise except you could connect sources straight to the tv and from there to the bar - given that the TV supports eARC as well and there are not a lot of those flying around.
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sameu6
Apprentice
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@smuller76, thanks for clarifying.  So does it mean, if i use the streaming app (like Netfix, Hulu, Prime Video, Youtube) from my xbox do i still get the complete loseless audio on my soundbar?  OR It will still deliver DD+ 5.1 losy atmos?

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smuller76
Explorer
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@sameu6, the only way at the moment you get lossless Atmos or DTS:X are from physical discs and rips via example Kodi or Plex.
Viktorn
Journeyman
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Edited

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sameu6
Apprentice
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Actually i was just checking the reviews of Q90R, as per the techradar (https://www.techradar.com/reviews/samsung-hw-q90r-soundbar) Q90r should be supporting eARC feature.  Not sure whether this is a true statement.

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mjnichol
First Poster
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Just to correct some of the info written above. Yes, you can send DD+ with Atmos over ARC; however, ARC is limited to a bitrate of 1Mbps, so there are limitations to the types of DD+ streams that can be sent. Someone mentioned 15? channels of audio over DD+; yes, but unlikey over ARC since the sound quality would be quite poor fitting 15 channels into 1Mbps of bitrate. DD+ itself supports a maximum bitrate of 6Mbps (over HDMI direct, or eARC).

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smuller76
Explorer
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@sameu6, I don't have the Q90r (HW-950 owner) but I did check if there was a new update but nothing available (latest is 1007.5).

However according to this thread everyone is still waiting for the Earc update so I am not sure where Techrader got there resources from?
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