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

(Topic created on: 20-01-2020 11:20 AM)
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zhspence
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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. 

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jobean
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Thanks for the results! Did you also test DTS-X? Does the screen on the soundbar then display 'DTS-X'?

 

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SuissoNaBisso
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@jobean wrote:

Thanks for the results! Did you also test DTS-X? Does the screen on the soundbar then display 'DTS-X'?

 


No sorry didn't have any movie rips with DTS-X track, but will try to get one and test it as soon as I will receive my own Shield

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Clapton94
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First of all

 

thank you so much for taking time to provide this awesome feedback !!!

If I may, I d like to ask you if this would work also with a SSD plugged diretly to the Lg C9 with rips ATMOS or is the shield absolutely needed ? I wonder why a shield would correclty passtrought a HD audio format and not the TV on ist own.

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SuissoNaBisso
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@Clapton94 wrote:

First of all

 

thank you so much for taking time to provide this awesome feedback !!!

If I may, I d like to ask you if this would work also with a SSD plugged diretly to the Lg C9 with rips ATMOS or is the shield absolutely needed ? I wonder why a shield would correclty passtrought a HD audio format and not the TV on ist own.


Unfortunately no this would not work from the C9 directly. Simply because LG is authorising lossless Atmos passthrough only from an HDMI input, not from the internal apps. Hence if you have UHD rips with HD sounds on a harddrive, you need a Shield to totally leverage it. Even Apple TV 4k is not enough as it only give you lossy Atmos and not lossless version.

Shield is quite unique for that at the moment....

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zoric
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One question regarding Nvidia Shield...do you have any drop offs of audio on Kodi when passing Dolby Atmos rips...?they last one second and it happens randomly...I see it's quite a problem on the forums...

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Clapton94
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That makes sense thank you so much, I have shield 2019 but so far my ssd was directly connected, cannot wait to test this tonight then 👍
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SuissoNaBisso
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@zoric wrote:

One question regarding Nvidia Shield...do you have any drop offs of audio on Kodi when passing Dolby Atmos rips...?they last one second and it happens randomly...I see it's quite a problem on the forums...


Sorry mate I can't tell you, not using Kodi, using Emby to play movies from a remote server. But with Emby, Atmos tracks are played properly on the Shield, no drop offs at all !

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jiready82
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@SuissoNaBisso wrote:

Hey all

 

So we've done new tests with  Ambursz57 on passing through ARC / eARC HD sounds to the soundbar.Here is the set up we tested :LG TV model C9 from 2019 with HDMI 2.1 and eARC

Soundbar Samsung Q90R with supposed eARC 

Nvidia Shield 2019 model

Emby app with UHD movies containing Dolby True HD Atmos soundtrack

 

First test :

TV C9 with eARC enabled

Soundbar connected to TV and Shield connected to TV, sound sent back to soundbar via eARC

Results = Soundbar display Atmos logo, Emby server well sending Dolby True HD Atmos format. Sound quality is awesome.

Learning supposed = Samsung soundbar is well eARC enabled as receiving HD sound from the Shield via the TV.

 

Second test :

TV C9 with eARC enabled

Soundbar connected to TV and Shield connected to soundbar, not ARC / eARC used.

Results = Soundbar display Atmos logo, Emby server well sending Dolby True HD Atmos format. Sound quality is equally awesome.

Learning supposed = Samsung soundbar is well eARC enabled as receiving HD sound from the Shield via the TV gave the same sound quality as when it was using ARC / eARC.

 

Third test :

TV C9 with eARC disabled

Soundbar connected to TV and Shield connected to TV, sound sent back to soundbar via eARC

Results = Soundbar display Atmos logo, Emby server well sending Dolby True HD Atmos format. Sound quality is awesome.

Learning supposed = there is then something between the Emby and output soundbar speakers that is transcoding the audio signal to lossy Atmos ?! or maybe the Samsung Soundbar is not even capable to read Dolby True HD Atmos signal and automatically downgrade it DD+ Atmos ?! or maybe eARC technology is so new for now that no standards are really used by any brand and is just a marketing feature for now ?!

 

Anyway guys, for me these tests are enough, I have what I need personnaly, a system that can read my UHD rips with ATmos firing up tracks from a Shield. That's all I need and I'm gonna stick with that.

I won't waste my time anymore with Samsung etc...and you should maybe question yourself too...finally do you have all high end materials to really leverage eARC as of now ? have you tested it personnaly ?

 

For me it's now all good and just ordered my Nvidia Shield, and I'll plug it to the TV directly and send back audio via ARC / eARC tot he soundbar.

 

Cheers !

 

 


It sounds like you have reached the conclusion that your ears cannot tell the difference between lossy atmos and lossless atmos so you Will connect  your shield to your TV and use lossy atmos instead of connecting it to the sounbar for lossless atmos.

After all that testing, you have chosen the worst of the two results. I don't get it. 

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jobean
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It sounds like you have reached the conclusion that your ears cannot tell the difference between lossy atmos and lossless atmos so you Will connect  your shield to your TV and use lossy atmos instead of connecting it to the sounbar for lossless atmos.

 I thought losless Atmos was not possible because you needed eARC for that?

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SuissoNaBisso
Pioneer
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@jiready82 wrote:

@SuissoNaBisso wrote:

Hey all

 

So we've done new tests with  Ambursz57 on passing through ARC / eARC HD sounds to the soundbar.Here is the set up we tested :LG TV model C9 from 2019 with HDMI 2.1 and eARC

Soundbar Samsung Q90R with supposed eARC 

Nvidia Shield 2019 model

Emby app with UHD movies containing Dolby True HD Atmos soundtrack

 

First test :

TV C9 with eARC enabled

Soundbar connected to TV and Shield connected to TV, sound sent back to soundbar via eARC

Results = Soundbar display Atmos logo, Emby server well sending Dolby True HD Atmos format. Sound quality is awesome.

Learning supposed = Samsung soundbar is well eARC enabled as receiving HD sound from the Shield via the TV.

 

Second test :

TV C9 with eARC enabled

Soundbar connected to TV and Shield connected to soundbar, not ARC / eARC used.

Results = Soundbar display Atmos logo, Emby server well sending Dolby True HD Atmos format. Sound quality is equally awesome.

Learning supposed = Samsung soundbar is well eARC enabled as receiving HD sound from the Shield via the TV gave the same sound quality as when it was using ARC / eARC.

 

Third test :

TV C9 with eARC disabled

Soundbar connected to TV and Shield connected to TV, sound sent back to soundbar via eARC

Results = Soundbar display Atmos logo, Emby server well sending Dolby True HD Atmos format. Sound quality is awesome.

Learning supposed = there is then something between the Emby and output soundbar speakers that is transcoding the audio signal to lossy Atmos ?! or maybe the Samsung Soundbar is not even capable to read Dolby True HD Atmos signal and automatically downgrade it DD+ Atmos ?! or maybe eARC technology is so new for now that no standards are really used by any brand and is just a marketing feature for now ?!

 

Anyway guys, for me these tests are enough, I have what I need personnaly, a system that can read my UHD rips with ATmos firing up tracks from a Shield. That's all I need and I'm gonna stick with that.

I won't waste my time anymore with Samsung etc...and you should maybe question yourself too...finally do you have all high end materials to really leverage eARC as of now ? have you tested it personnaly ?

 

For me it's now all good and just ordered my Nvidia Shield, and I'll plug it to the TV directly and send back audio via ARC / eARC tot he soundbar.

 

Cheers !

 

 


It sounds like you have reached the conclusion that your ears cannot tell the difference between lossy atmos and lossless atmos so you Will connect  your shield to your TV and use lossy atmos instead of connecting it to the sounbar for lossless atmos.

After all that testing, you have chosen the worst of the two results. I don't get it. 


Did not "test" myself it was not my ears listening to it. But I did this with 2 users and they both reported absolutely no difference in sound quality when it was plugged directly to soundbar or the TV....and honestly as I suggested I really doubt now that this soundbar is even capable of decoding lossless sounds...I mean in all possible configuration it was always the same results, and also I've never seen Samsung officialy mentioning compatibility with Dolby True HD format (go on their website now and search for this, you won't find). All they say is "Dolby Atmos" which we all know can mean Doldy Digital + only (and that Samsung says clearly on their website this is compatible). So my guess is that this soundbar is not able to decode lossless formats and it will automatically downgrade it to DD+ Atmos. So they just let us think that lossless formats can be decoded but maybe not, no official statement on this. And in that case what eARC would be needed for ? nothing. So they just had to say "yes it was done" or "yes it will come" while consumers will finally never find out as the true benefit of eARC would have no effect on this product.

 

Only thing to really find out the truth finally would be to have a companion app that clearly mention which sound format is decoded in real time by the soundbar. But once again Samsung played this smartly they just have their SmartThings app which is absolutely useless....on AV side, Denon for example has an app that can tell you this, but that's the difference between Denon and Samsung : Samsung does product for all consumers trying to get as much sales as they can so they deliver products that pretend to be experts ones while they're not and then you have Denon who's targeting the "experts" consumers and deliver them the products they deserve...that's it.

 

So yes I decided to stick with what I have and honestly that's way enough for me ! If one day I really feel the need for lossless audio with up firing speakers, I won't go for a soundbar nor Samsung and I'll for a proper AV kit + speakers of any expert brand !