HW-Q80R + MU7000 Atmos issues

[Janitorus]

EDIT: bought an Nvidia Shield to be done with this issue and play Atmos content through Shield apps and Plex. This is no solution to the actual problem of Samsung not updating their apps on 2017, 2018 and perhaps even 2019 models. Meanwhile both Netflix and Samsung keep pointing fingers at each other, promising change, blaming each other 🤡👍

UE55MU7000 + HW-Q80R soundbar 

Newest updates for both. Updated manually. 

• One connect box is connected to ARC port on the TV. Soundbar is connected to the one connect box ARC port.
• Netflix and Amazon prime both will not show "Atmos" icon next to movies or series, only 5.1. Is this normal behaviour?
• With Amazon Prime (watching Tom Clancy Jack Ryan for example) I am able to get the soundbar to recognize Dolby Atmos when setting the output mode in the TV to Dolby Digital+. The soundbar will then show "Dolby Atmos" on its display. The top speakers on the soundbar however seem to have no sound at all when Atmos is recognized. Edit: no sound from side speakers either. Not even at +6 volume. They work fine in normal surround mode and are very active, but I suppose they are copied of some other channel then. Although sometimes when listening closely, I wonder if they aren't actually a unique channel instead? Placebo probably.
• Downloaded atmos demos (https://www.dolby.com/us/en/guide/dolby-atmos-trailers.html) to USB stick, connected to one connect box. Same story: Dolby Digital Plus will show "Dolby Atmos" on soundbar display, but no sound from top or side speakers on the soundbar. 
• Additionaly, it's also really inconvenient how the output can revert back to "PCM" when Dolby Digital Plus was previously selected and the current source does not support DD+ (for example when going from Netflix to Youtube). I would think the TV would be smarter about this and just drop back to DD instead of PCM stereo. Or remember it on a per-app basis. Perhaps an oversight a future firmware update can fix? 

I have reset the TV app hub and the TV itself, started clean, no luck. Although before resetting the TV, I don't think I ever saw the soundbar display "Atmos".

[BerberPicard]

Hi

Is your TV compatible with Dolby Atmos? Double check your HDMI cable (go with a high rate transfer one they advertised it as 4K compatible)

If you have Earc go with that option (New update released recently to enable earc)

Don't force the Dolby Digital Plus on your TV bit instead just choose Auto mode. (That actually fixed my issue)

[Janitorus]

Sorry for the late response, never got a notification.

TV is compatible with Atmos, the lossy kind over DD+ through ARC that is. HDMI cable is the one that came with the soundbar: High Speed with ethernet, connected to TV ARC and on soundbar ARC.

Soundbar has the 1010.5 eARC update firmware, made no difference (no surprise)

TV has no auto modes for audio input/output. Have to manually select it for every source. I've seen that newer Q series TV's do have auto modes and an extra Atmos enable button, but those are eARC compatible TV's. And even on those sets it seems Netflix etc. can be quite a buggy mess to get Atmos going.

[YSLiao]

Hi

Have you solved the issue?

Mine is a UA65MU7000W, and I got the same issue.

I tried the default netflix APP on TV, and only 5.1 icon shown instead of ATMOS icon when seeing the info of the movie.

Already tried to reset the TV, and updated both TV and soundbar to the latest firmware.

[Janitorus]

@YSLiao this issue can not be solved by ourselves, it is out of our control. Long story short: I stopped trying and bought an Nvidia Shield Pro 2019 for Netflix Atmos and MKV streaming with Atmos. I bought it for the MKV streaming portion, everything else is an added bonus. Works fine, sounds great.

The TV hardware is capable of lossy atmos over DD+, so Netflix/Samsung need to update their Apps/firmware. Same goes for Prime and Disney+ etc. This is all confirmed and not just guessing. I was however notified by Samsung community manager on NL forums 3 weeks ago that an update is planned, but no ETA.

If you are interested in streaming MKV's with lossless Atmos, just get the Shield and be done with this at the same time.

[YSLiao]

Thanks for fast reply, it's really clear!

I will consider a Shield to have true atmos enable on my soundbar. 😁 

[samoatey]

Hello, wondering if you could confirm for me.

I've got the mu7000 65" - From reading your message above is it correct that if I get the Nvidea Shield - I can get Dolby Atmos in a DD+ format from the Sheild through HDMI ARC to my Sonos ARC soundbar?

Using Netflix, Prime Video etc through the Shield?

Thanks

[Janitorus]

@samoatey If you connect your Shield to the soundbar directly, yes that will work. You will also be able to passthrough TrueHD Atmos, DTS:X and so on with the shield (With Plex etc.) that way. So best of both worlds and no longer will you be dependent on the app updates for the TV.

If you connect the shield to the one connect box, you will lose the ability to passthrough TrueHD Atmos, keep that in mind. Also, get the 2019 Pro version, not the tube if you plan on streaming MKV's. I'd say get the Pro version anyway.

Youtube HDR on the shield is currently not working (codec incompatibility) but that's a minor thing to me. Just so you know.

[samoatey]

I'm not able to go direct into the Sonos arc as it only has one hdmi input no way to then pass through the video signal to the TV. So I'm going to go from the shield into the One Connect then the Sonos Arc Soundbar out of the HDMI ARC.

Is it correct to say that the limitation of the Samsung Mu7000 is that the inbuilt TV apps can't supply DD+ ATMOS?

If I run the setup as I described above will I get ATMOS through from the Shield into the One Connect and then HDMI ARC to the soundbar?

Is that what you did for your setup?

Thanks

[Janitorus]

You're correct in that the built in apps on the MU7000 don't support Atmos over Dolby Digital+. For Atmos it only supports broken promises and delayed updates that haven't arrived yet 🤡

If you connect the Shield to your oneconnect box, anything that carries Atmos over Dolby Digital+ (Netflix, Prime etc.) should work (99% sure, but this is samsung after all and I haven't tested it personally). TrueHD and DTS:X (MKV streaming) will not work.

On my setup I have the shield connected directly to the soundbar, so I also have TrueHD support. Video is passed through via the soundbar (HW-Q80R).