How to connect Q90R for Atmos?

[willzyx]

Hello peeps. 

I'm new to 4k and Dolby Atmos and anything TV related (my previous TV was over 9 years old). I understand that QLED TVs don't support Atmos or Vision, but I'm planning to use the Q90R as a panel only. I will watch most of my stuff with Apple TV 4K, Xbox One X and Chromecast Ultra. I will skip all TV built-in apps. I understand that hardware listed above do actually support Atmos and Vision. I'm planning to get an Atmos capable soundbar. 

Is there anyway to connect all the gear to actually get Dolby Atmos and Vision? Do I have to connect them directly to the soundbar and then route it to OneConnect Box? 

[northerner9]

Yesterday, I fixed the ARC lost connection issue by resetting the Q90R soundbar !! The HDMI ARC connection show up again on my 2018 Q7 TV. I hope it stays there from now on..... To reset Q90R soundbar, power on the soundbar, hold gear button (set up button) on remote for few seconds. The soundbar show "INIT" and then power off. I enjoyed it for few hours, but it disappeared again after power off. After reset, the soundbar lost the WIFI configuation, I used the Smartthings apps to discover the soundbar again and it set up the wifi too. When wifi is done, the HDMI ARC connection appears again. When ARC HDMI is working, the Samsung Q7 TV remote can also navigate the Panasonic Blu-Ray player. Nice. When I powered off the TV using TV remote, it also powered off soundbar and Blu-Ray player. Super nice. 🙂

The Q90R firmware is still buggy....

Today, I powered on the TV with TV remote, it didn't powered on the soundbar and Blu-Ray player. It used to power on soundbar when I didn't have the blu-ray player. The HDMI ARC connection was gone again on the TV speaker list. Then I powered on the soundbar with its remote, it also powered on the blu-ray player automatically. Now the TV see the HDMI ARC connection again... What..... It has "new feature" everyday.... 

[Neorobert]

Could you please tell me how are you connecting the barr to the tv? I connect by ARC and it doesn't shows dolby atmos .Thanks a lot

[northerner9]

I followed the Q90R manual instruction. My 2018 Samsung Q7 TV and 2019 Q90R Soundbar are connected via the HDMI ARC port on each side. The Blu-Ray is connected to HDMI 1 port on the soundbar. Make sure you have "Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC)" option enabled on the TV. If not working for you, you may try resetting the soundbar and also the smart hub on the TV. You may also make sure you have latest firmware on both TV and soundbar. I set both to have auto update. For TV, you can check and update firmware using its on screen menu. For soundbar, auto update will be done if wifi is set up on the soundbar (use smartthings apps). The apps can also check and update firmware manually on the soundbar. To reset TV, it is done from its on screen menu. All accounts and wifi setup will be lost after reset. To reset soundbar, press gear button when soundbar is powered on. Wifi config will be lost after reset.

To check Q90R soundbar firmware version on your soundbar:

Hold down the settings button on the remote for 5 seconds while the soundbar is OFF. The display will scroll with the firmware info. The version # format is in the photo here at the bottom:

When I power Blu-Ray on, the TV switch to the Blu-Ray screen and soundbar switch to HDMI 1 automatically. Or I can manually switch TV to "soundbar" port  using TV remote and then switch the soundbar to HDMI 1 port using soundbar remote. It takes few seconds for TV to show the Blu-Ray screen. Not sure why it is so slow....

When I start Netflix on Blu-Ray player, the video (example Altered Carbon, Our Planet, Night on Earth) with ATMOS sound will show ATMOS logo on the intro screen of the video. When I play the video, the soundbar show Dolby ATMOS on the small display.

Notice that if I connect the Blu-Ray to the TV directly, the same video does not show ATMOS logo but just 5.1 logo. It is because the 2018 Samsung Q7 TV can't pass ATMOS via its HDMI ARC port. The Netflix apps on the Blu-Ray player is smart to see that. Only eARC port can pass it. I was told that 2019 Samsung TV has eARC port and the latest firmware enabled it now. However, 2019 Q7 TV does not come with OneConnect box which I like very much on the 2018 Q7 TV 🙂 It means I can upgrade my OneConnect box without upgrading entire TV for new features in the future.

Good luck and have fun 🙂

[northerner9]

A different day....

Today, I turned on my Panasonic 420 blu-ray player, it caused my soundbar and tv to power on too. The soundbar changed to hdmi1 and the TV shows my blu-ray screen. It is nice. But.. the TV lost the HDMI ARC connection again, it shows "Receiver HDMI" instead. My TV remote can't control my blu-ray player anymore and it also can't control volume on the soundbar. So I have to use the blu-ray remote to watch netflix and use soundbar remote to control the volume on the sounbar. ATMOS is still working. It is different every day...... Oh boy......

I guess if I power on the TV first, it may be different too. I will try more later....

[northerner9]

In the afternoon, my TV was still missing HDMI ARC connection to the soundbar. I tried to turn on the TV before the blu-player, I also tried to set soundbar to D.IN before power on TV, nothing work. Without the HDMI ARC connection, my TV can only connect to HDMI wifi. However the Netflix apps on the TV couldn't pass 5.1 audio to soundbar using wifi connection, I needed to change Netflix audio to "original". 

Then I removed the blu-ray player from the soundbar, power off/power on the TV. The HDMI ARC came back on the TV again. It is basically the same issue before I reset the soundbar couple days ago. It is really really sad...... I always thought Samsung TV and Samsung soundbar should work perfectly together, I am very disappointed.

I may have to reset the soundbar every day or leave the blu-ray connection off when I don't use it. It is VERY inconventient. 

Let's hope Samsung fixes this HDMI ARC issue in the next firmware..........  ;-(

[northerner9]

Someone asked me why I don't use Samsung Blu-Ray player. It is because Samsung doesn't make player since their last model in 2017 !!! Panasonic Blu-Ray player is one of the very few to support HDR10+ for Samsung TV and its price/performance is one of the best. I have no other choice.

[northerner9]

Things are getting better, I don't know why....

Yesterday morning, I watched the TV without the Blu-Ray connection. The TV saw the soundbar as Receiver (HDMI). I didn't use the soundbar.

In the afternoon, while everything was off, I connected the Blu-Ray player. Then used the player remote to power on the player, it automatically powered on soundbar and set it to hdmi1, and TV also show the player screen. HDMI ARC appeared again and the TV automatically chose it. I was able to enjoy the netflix atmos from the player for few hours.

In the evening, with the blu-ray player still connected to soundbar, I powered on the TV with TV remote, it did not power on the soundbar and the player. I used the TV speaker for rest of the evening.

Today, while the player was still connected to the soundbar, I powered on the TV with TV remote, it automatically powered on soundbar and also the player. TV also show the player screen and it switched to HDMI ARC automatically. Everything seems working.

Everday, it has a little different..... 

[northerner9]

Last night, I plugged the Android TV box to TV's oneConnect Box on HDMI 1 port, but it lost the audio. I discovered that I need to turn off the HDMI UHD color option (under external device manager menu) or set audio to PCM (under sound menu). I turned off the UHD color option and keep the bitstream option. I guess my Android TV box is not UHD compatible. My Q90R soundbar is connected to the OneConnect HDMI 4 ARC port and it has no issue with UHD color enabled.

[astrokeith]

Resurrecting this old thread - solution doesnt work for me.

I have a Sony UBP-X800M2 player feeding my Q90 tv via HDMI, and a Bose 900 soundbar system connected via HDMI ARC.

I can get ATMOS sound from streamed internet sources and USB files.

The Sony player only outputs DD 2ch, apparently in response to the tv reporting its capability. If I insert a HDMI reformatter in-between player and tv I can 'force' the player to output atmos. If I do this the tv then outputs only pcm audio to the soundbar and DD and DD+ are greyed out.

If I force the player to output DD 5.1 then the tv is OK with it and outputs the same to the soundbar.

So my Q90 will not accept 7.1 / atmos via HDMI.

The Bose 900 doesnt have a pass through HDMI so I have to connect it to the tv's HDMI ARC and hence am completely at the mercy of the Samsung tv for my audio signal.