Is it possible to get uncompressed Dolby Atmos if the TV supports ARC but not EARC? (sorry if this has an obvious answer)

[NatureFriends]

Hello all.

Apologies if i am the 100 millionth person to ask this, but I just wanta quick and detailed answer.

My TV is relatively new but only supports ARC and not eARC.

i have a high end 4K blu-ray player snd discs that contain Dolby Atmos data and a nVidia Shield Pro streaming device and a Dolby Atmos soundbar.

is there a way around this to get the full Dolby Atmos experience or would I need a TV with eARC?

Appreciate any help anyone can give.

 

[NanoGuidingStar]

Connect your 4K Blu-ray Player directly to Soundbar HDMI IN, you'll get the best Dolby Atmos(TrueHD) quality on your Disc.

 

[KBD]

Dolby & DTS signals are compressed, but you need eARC to pass ATMOS:

 

[JaylumX]

The only way to get Atmos on your TV is to connect your Bluray player and Nvidia shield to a HDMI splitter (2 in and 1 out) which in turn connects to the HDMI input of the Soundbar. If your Soundbar has an Arc port then also connect that to the TV's Arc port. That way you can control the volume of all connected devices with TV's remote. Just make sure TV, splitter and Soundbar support CEC and is enabled on the TV.

As an example, I use HDMI cable to connect my GFX card to TV (so I get 4k 120), use a displayport to HDMI cable (passive) from GFX card to Soundbar's HDMI in (so I get lossless Atmos or DTS:X) and connect HDMI cable from TV's eArc port and Soundbars Arc port so I can control the volume of the Soundbar with one remote.

 

[andy1249]

Dolby Atmos comes in both lossy and lossless forms.

All streaming services use the lossy version , Netflix , Disney + , Amazon , etc. , it typically works at a data rate of 640kbps and this works fine over ARC.

The lossless version comes from UHD discs and is usually marked Dolby Tru HD Atmos or its DTS equivalent. It can have a data rate up to 37Mbps.
If passing the signal through the TV you would need eARC for this , and both TV and Soundbar would have to be eARC for this to work.
If the TV is not eARC then you would have to connect the UHD player or shield direct to the soundbar to get lossless Atmos.

 

[outoftheknow]

Dolby Atmos comes in both lossy and lossless forms.

True - for the OPs understanding though there is a difference between lossless and uncompressed.

Dolby Atmos is carried with a “normal” audio stream. That audio stream is lossy, lossless (both compressed) or uncompressed (obviously lossless since no compression and decompression take place).

For Dolby Atmos is added to Dolby Digital Plus which is multichannel lossy compressed and can be carried over ARC as a return channel.

Or Dolby True HD which is multichannel lossless compressed and needs eARC as a return channel.

Or Dolby MAT which is LPCM which is multichannel uncompressed and needs eARC as a return channel. (And certain TVs and soundbars it seems to actually handle it properly at all).

All the above can be carried on HDMI going the right way comfortably. If your soundbar has an HDMI input you can plug the A/V source like a disc player into the soundbar and get the top level sound it delivers. If that A/V device delivers some video features you also want to keep (gaming console 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM), almost all but maybe the latest soundbars will not pass those video features through. Then you need to plug the device into the TV and the audio to the soundbar is restricted to what can pass through the return channel.

If the gaming video stuff was an absolute must I would try via the TV first. If it cripples the audio tk the soundbar and I must have the video features I would get a splitter as in audio and video HDMI in and the same signal out to two HDMI sockets. One to TV and one to soundbar. Then best of both worlds without unplugging etc when gaming.

Edit - not sure there are splitters that have sockets capable of passing the desired video features.

 

[andy1249]

If the gaming video stuff was an absolute must I would try via the TV first. If it cripples the audio tk the soundbar and I must have the video features I would get a splitter as in audio and video HDMI in and the same signal out to two HDMI sockets. One to TV and one to soundbar. Then best of both worlds without unplugging etc when gaming.

That wouldn't work , splitters find the lowest feature set common to both devices , they cannot send different signals to each device.

True - for the OPs understanding though

You just repeated what I said in very poor english .... I cannot see how that helps the OP at all !

 

[outoftheknow]

You just repeated what I said in very poor english .... I cannot see how that helps the OP at all !

Poor English? We don’t encourage posts like that thanks.

The OP was on about uncompressed Atmos so first up I was just trying to point out it is the audio stream that is compressed or uncompressed. Then lossy and lossless are types of compression not uncompressed.

If it helps the OP it’s all good. If it doesn’t that’s all good too. If you want to quote my post and fix the English feel free to do so.

That wouldn't work , splitters find the lowest feature set common to both devices , they cannot send different signals to each device.

Wasn’t sure it would work hence my edit.

Anyway the OP doesn’t have a gaming console and hasn’t said if their soundbar has HDMI inputs. They only have two devices so could be plugged into the soundbar - with an HDMI switch if only one input.