Making a 2014 Samsung TV play nicely with a Sonos Arc

November 30, 2021 1:06 PM

I'm trying to connect a Sonos Arc via HDMI ARC to a Samsung TV from 2014. The Samsung seems to have a mind of its own, and won't let me make a simple adjustment that's necessary for the setup.

I connect the Sonos to the TV 's HDMI ARC port. The Sonos app recognizes the TV. So far, so good.

Then the Sonos app asks me to set the TV's output to "TV Speakers" (screenshot). The TV lets me do so-- but then a second later, it switches itself back to "receiver".

After that, the Sonos app tells me it's not getting any signal from the TV and it halts the process.

Here's a video of the stubborn TV in action. Note that you can hear the TV audio briefly coming out of the TV when I switch it to TV speakers, and then silence when it switches itself back to "receiver." At no point is the sound coming out of the Sonos.

I've tried unplugging all the components. I've tried restarting the components in the order advised here. I've checked for a firmware update for both components. None of it helps. Can anybody recommend a solution?

(TV model is UE40F6400, if that helps.)

posted by yankeefog to Technology (6 answers total)

Best answer: if you don't get an answer here maybe try posting in /r/sonos on reddit. very helpful squad there :)
posted by wowenthusiast at 1:10 PM on November 30, 2021

I have had more than a few episodes of trouble with my 2015 Samsung TV. And while the TVs can be weird, I found the Samsung Phone Customer Reps are surprisingly easy to reach and helpful. They've spent long periods of time with me trying to solve weird problems. So you might want to give them a call. I believe you can even contact them through your set and they'll call you. Hope that helps.
posted by lpsguy at 2:49 PM on November 30, 2021

Have you scrubbed through all the audio/system/advanced settings on the Samsung TV? If I remember correctly I had to enable the ARC feature on my TV in a separate setting or it wouldn't work.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:33 PM on November 30, 2021

Sometimes Samsung TVs have a feature called HDMI-CEC Anynet under System settings. If you have it try turning it on.
posted by bitdamaged at 9:25 PM on November 30, 2021

I think that's a typo in the sonos app. You'd want to turn OFF the internal speakers in the TV when using a soundbar. Just skip that step, go through the full Sonos setup and see what happens. I would not expect to get sound out of the bar until setup is complete.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 5:59 AM on December 1, 2021

Response by poster: Thanks, everybody! Those were all very sensible answers, but it turns out the correct answer was completely non-sensible.

I took Wowenthusiast's suggestion and went to reddit. /r/sonos didn't have much, but a little searching in r/samsung turned up the solution: instead of plugging my Sonos into the port labeled "HDMI ARC," I plugged it into one of the other HDMI ports, and it works fine. I don't know why the port labeled HDMI ARC is the one port that isn't capable of properly doing HDMI ARC, but apparently, this is am issue with multiple models of Samsung TVs.
posted by yankeefog at 7:52 AM on December 1, 2021 [2 favorites]