Re: What is going on with eARC update for the soundbar HW-Q90R? - Page 27

zhspence · ‎26-10-2019

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.

TwinkingToby · ‎16-12-2019

That Stephen Wither is a ***** fraud. I questioned him about the eARC update for the samsung hw-q90r soundbar on his twitter and he blocked me from commenting. He and other "tech reviewers" might have some nice "gifts" free of change supplied by samsung at home... I own many high end samsung products but no more if no eARC update comes thats for sure! If the update comes I will personally send a apology to that Stephen dude but I don't think that will happen - we have been scammed!

zoric · ‎16-12-2019

Look,I wouldn’t call him a fraud...he was mislead by Samsung also...Samsung advertised eARC for Q90r,so his only fault is that he didn’t test it by his self...a lot of reviewers took that statement reagarding eARC as legit as it comes from manufacturer itself...but I’ve never seen this kind of misleading on any brand...I am so disappointed right now...I’m waiting also S11+ to come out,but after this I will reconsider.

fb767 · ‎16-12-2019

@TwinkingToby wrote:
That Stephen Wither is a ***** fraud. I questioned him about the eARC update for the samsung hw-q90r soundbar on his twitter and he blocked me from commenting. He and others "tech reviewers" might have some nice "gifts" free of change supplied by samsung at home... I own many high end samsung products but no more if no eARC update comes thats for sure! If the update comes I will personally send a apology to that Stephen dude but I don't Think that will happen - we have been scammed!

Agreed with everything you said. I know this might sound nuts, but I wonder if a class action is in order if eARC is not delivered? Literally every review said "Samsung is coming out with an eARC update", there's no way they all coincidentally made an innocent mistake so this must come from Samsung to try and sell more of their soundbars.

And so people might try and argue back why "eARC is not really needed" or "wow, relax, class action because you didn't get a feature?!", but that does not matter. I, and many other users, literally spent $1000+ because we were promised an eARC update through these reviews and journalists. If Samsung and these websites said outright "Q90R does not have and will not have eARC" I would've looked elsewhere or waited until 2020.

TwinkingToby · ‎16-12-2019

@zoric wrote:
Look,I wouldn’t call him a fraud...he was mislead by Samsung also...Samsung advertised eARC for Q90r,so his only fault is that he didn’t test it by his self...a lot of reviewers took that statement reagarding eARC as legit as it comes from manufacturer itself...but I’ve never seen this kind of misleading on any brand...I am so disappointed right now...I’m waiting also S11+ to come out,but after this I will reconsider.

I still stand by what I said regarding him (and all the other reviewers that is included in this scam). Testing, questioning, comparing and presenting facts is the main purpose of a review - if that is your profession and you deliver facts about an upcoming feature you need to be 100 % sure that its coming; if not, you do not included that information before the update arrives! There are few, if any, professional reviews that mentions a feature soon to come; you only include facts about the product as it stands. "Something" made some reviewers step away from critical thinking and work ethics... As it is now, the reviewers can blame this all on samsung and samsung can blame it all on the reviewers - classic scam methods. eARC is the future when talking about tv's and soundsystems. Techreviewers knows that, samsung knows that. The fact that this soundbar only have 2 hdmi ports (not counting the arc) is also missleading as the only logical thing to do is to add eARC support. Me, and many others, would not have bought this product if we knew what we now know.

TwinkingToby · ‎16-12-2019

@fb767 wrote:
@TwinkingToby wrote:
That Stephen Wither is a ***** fraud. I questioned him about the eARC update for the samsung hw-q90r soundbar on his twitter and he blocked me from commenting. He and others "tech reviewers" might have some nice "gifts" free of change supplied by samsung at home... I own many high end samsung products but no more if no eARC update comes thats for sure! If the update comes I will personally send a apology to that Stephen dude but I don't Think that will happen - we have been scammed!
Agreed with everything you said. I know this might sound nuts, but I wonder if a class action is in order if eARC is not delivered? Literally every review said "Samsung is coming out with an eARC update", there's no way they all coincidentally made an innocent mistake so this must come from Samsung to try and sell more of their soundbars.

And so people might try and argue back why "eARC is not really needed" or "wow, relax, class action because you didn't get a feature?!", but that does not matter. I, and many other users, literally spent $1000+ because we were promised an eARC update through these reviews and journalists. If Samsung and these websites said outright "Q90R does not have and will not have eARC" I would've looked elsewhere or waited until 2020.

I also read alot of reviews before buying anything and I also noticed almost all the reviewers of this product made this "innocent mistake"... You are on point with everything you say.

A fun fact: Stephen Wither have on his twitter claimed that he is in touch with samsung and that a update is on the way. Funny thing is he has been claiming this for months now - "the update is coming next month" (repeated several months now). And now its almost a new year with new models coming out. Some days ago he declared (like the innocent victim some seem to think these reviewers are) that he is changing all his reviews- like really!? "No one is interested in last years model so now i can finally change my review and tell the truth" (not a real quote). For me this situation is clear. There will not be an update, the new model will have eARC (or more hdmi ports) and the reviewers will try to make themselves look like the victims blaming samsung. If a class action is organized, count me in. The scam is clear. Techreviewers are not reviewing: they are selling and atleast for me, there is no more buying. God I hope I'm wrong about all this but the facts standing here in the end of 2019 speaks the truth

JK10 · ‎17-12-2019

I've had an experience buying a Samsung product that was promised to support an additional feature "soon". I bought a Samsung Smartthings hub in 2016, partly because it would support integration with Honeywell Evohome thermostats. Samsung's website advertising the product clearly stated this was "Coming soon". Samsung kept promising they were working on it, or they were testing it before releasing it, or there were some unexpected technical issues pushing release back. Eventually, they quietly removed every mention of Evohome from their website and Evohome support was never added. Even three years later, it is still not there.

I'm on this forum because I wanted to make sure the promised upgrade was released before buying this soundbar. It seems that using the promise of a future feature to sell more units and not honouring that promise is the Samsung way.

_oSo_ · ‎17-12-2019

I don't believe Samsung will update this soundbar to provide the eARC features that we need. Everything points out as the new 2020 model wilL have the eARC features that we need. Each HW-QxxR soundbar model has somewhow been made to match their QLED tv counterpart, for example QLED Q90r tv for the the HW-Q90r soundbar, both have been named similarly to denote some sort of relation. As far as today there are no indications from Samsung that they will update the firmware on the QLED Q90r tv to provide eARC capabilities. Beside the atmos the tv is able to provide from its native apps (netflix, Amazon, Vidu and other apps) I don't believe Samsung will update the firmware so that the hdmi ports on the One connect box can provide eARC. If they don't do it for the tv then most likely they won't do it for the soundbar. I bought both so I was double scammed, if I could call it that way.

If next years QLED tv comes with the eARC enabled then most likely the soundbar will be too, or even better, they both might come with HDMI 2.1, but at the end it will all depend on the tv. Samsung will not provide the soundbar with better capabilities that what their high end QLED can handle. To put it in other words "if their high end tv can't handle the feature then the soundbar won't have it".
So keep an eye on any update on the Q90r QLED, if this tv is updated then prepare to receive an update on the soundbar as well.

Amburz57 · ‎17-12-2019

Hi Zac I've now upgraded to the LG C9 Oled and have paired it with my Q90R sound bar. I plugged my Apple TV 4K and Xbox one x directly to the C9. I done as you said turned on eARC and set it to pass through. The Apple TV works perfect, no lip sync issues nothing, works a dream but the Xbox has major lip sync issues! And the Netflix app on the Xbox can't pass Dolby Atmos and Dolby vision at the same time. Errors code tvq-100 (5.6.0) appears. I followed the steps to resolve this but nothing works. It's obviously bandwidth issues because I can play Dolby Atmos content without Dolby vision and vice versa but on all content lip sync is very bad. I've been reading the comments since I last posted and have now realised Samsung has conned us all because it would seem there is no update coming to the q90r soundbars as well as the TV. I'm really considering to sell the soundbar and change to the Sony earc version if I can't get the Xbox to work properly. Do you have any ideas.

zoric · ‎17-12-2019

You should be able to passthrough Dolby Vision and Atmos thru ARC,but only DD+ for Atmos...the logical solution is eARC ...

SuissoNaBisso · ‎17-12-2019

Guys, ARC technology means Audio Return Channel, it has nothing to do with Dolby Vision which is a video standard for HDR.

here your issue with Atmos and Vision has nothing to do with bandwidth, I have a an Xbox One X connected to C9 TV directly and both "work" except that I also have the lip sync issue with sound but nothing to do with ARC / eARC etc...on this an update of the C9 enabling mutlichannel PCM might solve this in the future.
Your issue must be something else, check in the Xbox settings about Dolby vision format, make sure everyhting is up to date on the xbox (netflix app etc...)