eARC question for AVR experts

[square_wave]

Hello gents, I came across the eARC feature while in the market to pick a simple av reciever. I already knew about ARC.
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eARC :

"The main benefit of eARC is a big boost in bandwidth and speed. This allows you to send higher-quality audio from your TV to a soundbar or AV receiver.
There’s scope for eARC to deliver up to 32 channels of audio, including eight-channel, 24bit/192kHz uncompressed data streams at speeds of up to 38Mbps.
This means all those high bitrate formats currently available on Blu-ray discs, 4K Blu-rays and some streaming services – Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio and object-based formats such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X – will all be compatible."
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Apparently this is a new tech that allows very high bandwidth 2 way communication between your tv and av receiver if you connect your source to the TV instead of the av reciever.

I tend to connect all my devices to the av reciever. The only thing that will come via the tv are the ones that I access via the smart apps in the tv. Netflix, Amz prime and all that. In that case, is this feature important ? Do streaming services use any of the above mentioned high bandwidth tech ? Today or in the near future ?

 

[Love4sound]

Hello gents, I came across the eARC feature while in the market to pick a simple av reciever. I already knew about ARC.
-----------------------------
eARC :

"The main benefit of eARC is a big boost in bandwidth and speed. This allows you to send higher-quality audio from your TV to a soundbar or AV receiver.
There’s scope for eARC to deliver up to 32 channels of audio, including eight-channel, 24bit/192kHz uncompressed data streams at speeds of up to 38Mbps.
This means all those high bitrate formats currently available on Blu-ray discs, 4K Blu-rays and some streaming services – Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio and object-based formats such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X – will all be compatible."
-----------------------------

Apparently this is a new tech that allows very high bandwidth 2 way communication between your tv and av receiver if you connect your source to the TV instead of the av reciever.

I tend to connect all my devices to the av reciever. The only thing that will come via the tv are the ones that I access via the smart apps in the tv. Netflix, Amz prime and all that. In that case, is this feature important ? Do streaming services use any of the above mentioned high bandwidth tech ? Today or in the near future ?

I think if u want to watch any atmos shows or movies from Netflix using ur tv app both the avr and tv should support earc. Personally for me I won’t bother much with this feature as atmos from Netflix isn’t any good or the sound quality for Netflix of any other streaming services.

 

[skumar]

Both TV and AVR need to have eARC and connected vial Hi-speed HDMI cable with ethernet capability to push HD audio from TV to AVR. Given the state of content available (Prime/Netflix), I doubt if most of us access HD/Atmos audio routinely. You may want to cater to this requirement if you are upgrading/buying your equipment now or in the future. Most AVRs are eARC capable, while the TVs are getting there.

However, note that the implementation of this feature is a big ? on devices, manufacturers are struggling to implement HDMI-CEC, especially across brands. I have a Denon 3600 and Samsung RU7470, both reasonably recent devices, ARC/HDMI-CEC is a joke in this combination.

 

[Nagaraj S]

The TVs tend to lag behind in eARC implementation compared to the AV receivers. For instance, my LG C8 bought last April does not support eARC. Something to look out for while purchasing TVs.

 

[Marakk]

I think if u want to watch any atmos shows or movies from Netflix using ur tv app both the avr and tv should support earc. Personally for me I won’t bother much with this feature as atmos from Netflix isn’t any good or the sound quality for Netflix of any other streaming services.

Netflix uses Dolby Digital Plus for Atmos too. You don't need eARC for that.

 

[Love4sound]

Netflix uses Dolby Digital Plus for Atmos too. You don't need eARC for that.

Then the avr won’t decode it as atmos. It will only decode it as Dolby digital plus. Only if it’s in Dolby tru HD the avr will decode it as atmos.

 

[Marakk]

Then the avr won’t decode it as atmos. It will only decode it as Dolby digital plus. Only if it’s in Dolby tru HD the avr will decode it as atmos.

Dolby Audio Over HDMI Part 3: Reality

We want consumers to have the best experience, and we’re doing everything we can to help innovate, simplify and guide the industry to better audio connectivity. Here are some of the top problems that we’ve seen and some of the reasons behind them.

developer.dolby.com

"As we talked about in Part 1, Dolby Atmos is supported in two codecs - Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus. Before 2016, televisions only supported Dolby Digital over HDMI ARC and haven’t been upgraded to support Dolby Digital Plus passthrough. However, most recent televisions now support Dolby Digital Plus over HDMI ARC. Also, only the latest versions of some smart TV applications support Dolby Digital Plus, and these newer versions may not be available on older televisions. And lastly, some home theater devices don’t yet correctly advertise Dolby Atmos support over HDMI ARC, which means that a television cannot detect that a Dolby Atmos-capable device is connected.

HDMI ARC does not have enough data capacity to support the transmission of Dolby Atmos content that is encoded using Dolby TrueHD, which is the format used on Blu-ray Disc and UHD Blu-ray Disc. To support Dolby Atmos over HDMI ARC for Blu-ray Disc playback, a television has to decode Dolby TrueHD and transcode it to Dolby Digital Plus before output. Today, this feature is only supported in televisions that have native Dolby Atmos decoding."

 

[Love4sound]

Dolby Audio Over HDMI Part 3: Reality

We want consumers to have the best experience, and we’re doing everything we can to help innovate, simplify and guide the industry to better audio connectivity. Here are some of the top problems that we’ve seen and some of the reasons behind them.

developer.dolby.com

"As we talked about in Part 1, Dolby Atmos is supported in two codecs - Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus. Before 2016, televisions only supported Dolby Digital over HDMI ARC and haven’t been upgraded to support Dolby Digital Plus passthrough. However, most recent televisions now support Dolby Digital Plus over HDMI ARC. Also, only the latest versions of some smart TV applications support Dolby Digital Plus, and these newer versions may not be available on older televisions. And lastly, some home theater devices don’t yet correctly advertise Dolby Atmos support over HDMI ARC, which means that a television cannot detect that a Dolby Atmos-capable device is connected.

HDMI ARC does not have enough data capacity to support the transmission of Dolby Atmos content that is encoded using Dolby TrueHD, which is the format used on Blu-ray Disc and UHD Blu-ray Disc. To support Dolby Atmos over HDMI ARC for Blu-ray Disc playback, a television has to decode Dolby TrueHD and transcode it to Dolby Digital Plus before output. Today, this feature is only supported in televisions that have native Dolby Atmos decoding."

I have tried in my previous tv and Denon 2400. It won’t play as atmos but only as DDP. In the DSP it will show the option to play atmos but if you look at the audio input info it will show as DDP only and not atmos

 

[Marakk]

I have tried in my previous tv and Denon 2400. It won’t play as atmos but only as DDP. In the DSP it will show the option to play atmos but if you look at the audio input info it will show as DDP only and not atmos

Maybe because your previous TV couldn't decode Atmos?

 

[Love4sound]

Maybe because your previous TV couldn't decode Atmos?

Yeah must be but my tv supports ARC.Even With erc m not getting atmos If I play a movie in usb in my c9. Atmos works in Netflix and in the two demo videos that’s available in the internal memory. I tried playing few movies and none played atmos

 

[square_wave]

Dolby Audio Over HDMI Part 3: Reality

We want consumers to have the best experience, and we’re doing everything we can to help innovate, simplify and guide the industry to better audio connectivity. Here are some of the top problems that we’ve seen and some of the reasons behind them.

developer.dolby.com

"As we talked about in Part 1, Dolby Atmos is supported in two codecs - Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus. Before 2016, televisions only supported Dolby Digital over HDMI ARC and haven’t been upgraded to support Dolby Digital Plus passthrough. However, most recent televisions now support Dolby Digital Plus over HDMI ARC. Also, only the latest versions of some smart TV applications support Dolby Digital Plus, and these newer versions may not be available on older televisions. And lastly, some home theater devices don’t yet correctly advertise Dolby Atmos support over HDMI ARC, which means that a television cannot detect that a Dolby Atmos-capable device is connected.

HDMI ARC does not have enough data capacity to support the transmission of Dolby Atmos content that is encoded using Dolby TrueHD, which is the format used on Blu-ray Disc and UHD Blu-ray Disc. To support Dolby Atmos over HDMI ARC for Blu-ray Disc playback, a television has to decode Dolby TrueHD and transcode it to Dolby Digital Plus before output. Today, this feature is only supported in televisions that have native Dolby Atmos decoding."

Why would someone connect their high definition devices to their TV instead of their av receiver ? Maybe, if someone is using a high end sound bar with inadequate number of hdmi in's will they venture into something like that, no ?

I guess, streaming services via apps on TV will put you into a situation where eARC gets centre stage attention. And this is important only if streaming apps provide all these high bandwidth tech. Is that even mainstream nowadays ?

 

[skumar]

Why would someone connect their high definition devices to their TV instead of their av receiver ?

The basic premise on which ARC is developed - people may want to switch audio to AVR only for limited viewing and TV speakers will output audio at all other times. Hence, most of the source devices/apps (STB, native apps for prime etc) shall be connected/hosted on TV directly.

And this is important only if streaming apps provide all these high bandwidth tech.

Streaming apps on a TV are owned by the TV manufacturer (and not by the streaming service provider) and hence it is really upto the TV brands to focus on this matter (HDMI-CEC, ARC/eARC, HD audio formats) and ensure robust implementation of the protools. The AVR tech also need to scale up along with the improvements in TV apps.

 

[Marakk]

Why would someone connect their high definition devices to their TV instead of their av receiver ? Maybe, if someone is using a high end sound bar with inadequate number of hdmi in's will they venture into something like that, no ?

I guess, streaming services via apps on TV will put you into a situation where eARC gets centre stage attention. And this is important only if streaming apps provide all these high bandwidth tech. Is that even mainstream nowadays ?

Streaming services don't have any lossless codec as of yet. Best is Dolby Digital Plus, which is used by Netflix too, and it can carry Atmos, as written by Dolby themselves and being used by many. eARC is needed for lossless codecs.