Here is how you can fix your HDMI ARC connections between your Apple TV box and a Samsung TV + External Soundbar
HDMI ARC connections are meant to be simplify the interconnections between your gadgets, but unfortunately we still run into issues when it comes to specific combination of devices. Here’s something I discovered for a combination of the Apple TV box connecting to a Samsung TV and an external Samsung Soundbar that needed to be on the internet to help out some poor soul with this specific issue
Devices:
- Samsung RU 7100 LED TV
- Samsung HW-Q700B Soundbar
- Apple TV 4k 2022
The recommended way to connect:
- Run a HDMI cable (at this point, all your HDMI cables should be 2.1) from the Apple TV output to the HDMI In port on your soundbar
- Run another HDMI cable from the soundbar out of your soundbar to the HDMI In ARC port of your Samsung TV, in the RU7100 this is HDMI 1
Why is this the preferred method?
- This ensures that standards like Dolby Atmos get directly passed from your output device to the Soundbar without needing the TV to act as a hub and passthrough the same
Problems with this method
- The biggest issue with this method is, when you turn on your TV it detects the soundbar as the input device and does not show the video signal coming from the Apple TV causing you to worry if the connections are right
Fix
To get the video signal passthrough to the TV faster and on demand, press the TV button used to switch between apps on the Apple TV several times. This somehow triggers the Samsung TV to recognize there is video coming through and show the same
Alternative Connection Methods
Alternate 1:
- The limitation of the above method is that there is only one HDMI in port on the soundbar, so how can we connect input devices say a Apple TV + a PS5
- One more way is to use the inputs on your TV – HDMI 2 for Apple TV, PS5 on HDMI 3 and then use the HDMI 1 ARC cable to route output to the soundar
- This enables your TV to act as a hub and all output can passthrough to the soundbar
- This method is great because turning on the TV immediately ensures all inputs are active, there is no delay and the TV remote can control the soundbar volume as well
- The problem with this method is that several times, I have had no output from the soundbar when connected this way. Especially from specific Netflix titles, which makes me wonder if it’s some encoding issue on those titles
Alternate 2
- Using Wi-Fi to connect. Now the Samsung HW-Q700B supports Airplay and immediately shows up as a temporary output in Apple TV. But when it already has a HDMI connected, when used with Apple TV over Wi-Fi it has intermitted blanks in the sound output
- The TV and soundbar can be connected over Wi-Fi as well. This is something i haven’t tried, but i suspect Dolby Atmos may not get passedthrough. Something to experiment with
Anyways, hope this helps somebody some day! Leave a comment if it does.
