I'll be succinct. TV and soundbar bought 12/2021, used with Roku Ultra. (Spouse prefers Roku because there are some of her "channels" that aren't available on the TV, this way she isn't switching around.) Dolby Atmos worked great.
Last summer, tried Apple TV box, makes Roku look like it needs an update (speed, feel) and spouse liked the interface. Initially, all worked fine, we had Atmos. Until we didn't. Don't know which update broke it but it broke, no Atmos and often no sound at all and Apple Care said to dumb the apple tv box down to 5.1 and 16 bit audio. Went nuts trouble shooting. Found nothing that fixed it. New cables, connecting Apple to hdmi 1 of the sb, reinitializing sb holding settings button.
Finally life got in the way, spouse got mad I was always changing stuff and it messed things up. Then Apple updates to tvOS 17, so I tried again and I reset the ATV to all the "right" settings and found the only way to get atmos is to unplug earc hdmi2 and plug it back in and the sound bar and tv handshake for atmos to work. Until it stops working,
Connections on LG G1 are Cable box hdmi1, sound bar earc hdmi 2, apple tv hdmi 3 and roku hdmi4. Everything controlled by a Logitech harmony remote. (interestingly enough, to eliminate the Harmony as the issue I test using each devices remote.)
But the LG seems to be passing eARC properly, as passthrough, Bitstream and special HDMI selection needed are always operational when I check. If I use the native LG apps and watch a show with Atmos , it plays Atmos fine. So LG and SB together do Dolby Atmos fine, as does LG, Roku and SB. But if I do LG, SB and ATV - it goes wrong.
To me, it's either the SB (the receiver of the audio data from the ATV) or the ATV (the sender of the audio data to the SB.) Right?
Now is it the SB losing earc handshake and messing up or is it the Apple TV doing something stupid? How can I tell?
Is the apple TV sending or is the SB dropping something? At this point, I'd switch back to Roku except the interface and speed of the apple make me reluctant. It really needs an update, at least speed wise. I mean, I'm no apple fan but as a streaming box, it'd be worth the money if it handled Atmos the way it should..
I have Apple Care and before I demand a replacement (which would help see if it's my apple tv defect or simply the way the ATV usually works with the soundbar.
I'm beyond Samsung warranty on the soundbar but have time on an aftermarket one but need to know what I'm fixing. I'm thinking that because the SB does Atmos well with anything other than ATV, it's making it the likely problem.
