Getting Dolby Atmos through ARC (Not earc) with the Nvidia Shield

Hi there,

Tomorrow I will receive the new Sonos Arc and wanting to make full use of the new Atmos feature on the bar I purchased a Nvidia Shield TV (2019 edition) with Atmos support.

I find sound difficult to understand so I hope that after explaining my setup someone will be able to tell me if Atmos is going to work yes or no.

This is my setup (Tomorrow):
Nvidia shield (2019) → Samsung RU8000 (Atmos compatible, no EArc, just Arc) → Sonos Arc (with 2 Sonos One’s and a Sonos Sub)

My Samsung RU8000 tv has a sound setting that I need to turn on called “Dolby atmos compatible” I can only assume this is DD+ over arc

I’ve read that dolby atmos comes in 2 forms.
Lossless: The one you get from bluray discs
Lossy: These come from streaming services

From my understanding lossless atmos won’t be available to me because it’s not connected through earc. But just arc.
But lossy should be available through Dolby Digital+ through the arc on my tv right?

So onto the 2 questions that I have!

  1. Will I be able to get Dolby Atmos through streaming services (Netflix, Disney+, etc.)?
  2. Will I be able to get Dolby Atmos through streaming my movies via plex (Usually truehd but transcoding to I think dolby digital+ with atmos)?

Sorry for the long post. But I wanted it to be as clear as possible.
I hope someone can help me with this! :slight_smile:

Kind regards

HDMI-ARC supports Dolby Digital Plus + Atmos.

From a TechHive review of the 2019 Shield:

The Shield TV, for example, supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos streams on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Vudu, and Movies Anywhere.

Media with TrueHD + Atmos: No. As you mentioned, HDMI-ARC does not support TrueHD audio. Plex will transcode TrueHD to a supported format. Atmos information is lost during the transcode, even if transcoded to Dolby Digital Plus.

Media with Dolby Digital Plus + Atmos: This should passthrough. It is definitely supported by the Shield and by Plex. You can download the Leaf and Amaze demo trailers from Dolby to test.


My setup:

Nvidia Shield 2015 Pro <–HDMI–> Denon 4300 <–HDMI-ARC–> LG B7 OLED

The Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Plex apps on the LG support Dolby Digital Plus + Atmos and pass it via HDMI-ARC to the Denon. I use the Netflix & Amazon apps on the LG, as my Shield does not support Dolby Vision.

The Plex app on the Shield passes Dolby Digital Plus + Atmos to the Denon w/o issue. TrueHD + Atmos passes as well, since the Shield is connected to the Denon. I’ve never tried the Netflix & Amazon apps on the Shield.

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