Q850A Sound Bar doesn't pass through DTS-HD MA or DTS:X

[JakeHa0991]

I've been trying to figure out a solution to successfully pass through DTS-HD MA and DTS:X through eARC to my Q850A sound bar with no success. A little background on the devices that are relevant: I have the Sony X90J tv, Samsung Q850A sound bar, and PS5. I've connected my PS5 to the hdmi 4 port on the tv, and the sound bar to the hdmi 3 port on the tv which is the eARC port.

When I play Dolby content, it passes through fine: the ps5 displays that it’s sending Dolby TrueHD which is fine because it uses that as a container to Atmos, and the sound bar displays that it’s playing Atmos.

When playing DTS content, it doesn’t pass through properly: the ps5 displays that it’s sending plain old DTS, and nothing is displayed on the sound bar indicating DTS:X is being played.

When I connect my PS5 directly to the sound bar, both Dolby and DTS content play fine: the sound bar displays that it’s playing DTS:X or Atmos, and the PS5 says that it’s sending DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD respectively.

I've raised this issue at reputable TV and sound bar testers over at RTINGS (here's the link to the discussion: https://www.rtings.com/tv/discussions/Q_HrsEsnVk3I2GdF/how-did-you-get-dts-hd-ma-and-dts-x-passthrou...) and they concluded that this combination of TV and sound bar is the issue. The two devices don't seem to communicate with each other properly as there is no issue when pairing this tv with another brand sound bar. I suspect a firmware update is needed either by Sony or Samsung to fix this issue.

Update: As you can see, other users are reporting the same issue when pairing a Sony tv with a Samsung sound bar, and this issue only happens when pairing the two. DTS-HD MA and DTS:X pass through just fine when pairing a Sony tv with any other brand sound bar.

[Georgine]

Hi, Welcome to the Samsung Members Community Canada. We suggest you to check with Sony support if there is any firmware update available for TV.

[JakeHa0991]

As I've mentioned, DTS pass-through works fine with any other sound bar except for Samsung. The issue either comes from Samsung, or Sony, or both devices. I have already contacted Sony and waiting for a reply.

[JakeHa0991]

Following up. To me, this seems more of a Samsung issue rather than Sony. DTS pass through works fine with any other sound bar except for Samsung. I truly hope that this message reaches to someone that will end up looking into this issue.

[JakeHa0991]

Update: As you can see, other users are reporting the same issue when pairing a Sony tv with a Samsung sound bar, and this issue only happens when pairing the two. DTS-HD MA and DTS:X pass through just fine when pairing a Sony tv with any other brand sound bar.

[JakeHa0991]

Please have a look at my detailed reply to the user Nyder below. This is a major issue for many of us and Samsung is doing NOTHING to help. I'd advise either looking into this further, or report/escalate this to someone or a team that's able to analyze the situation before losing customers.

[dan851]

I too have this problem but own a sony xh90 and samsung q700a

[piitaya]

Hi 🙂
I have the same issue with my Samsung Sound bar Q900A and my Sony TV A80J. I tested with the Shield TV, not the PS5. I updated the sound bar to latest firmware 1010.1.

Shield TV <=> Sony TV a80j <=> Samsung Soundbar Q900AShield TV <=> Samsung Soundbar Q900A <=> Sony TV a80j

Left : Shield TV <=> Sony TV A80J <=> Samsung TV Q900A. (Audio passthrough)

Right : Shield TV <=> Samsung Sound bar Q900A <=> Sony TV A80J. (Video passthrough)

[Nyder]

Samsung's EARC is broken.

I have a Samsung  HW-Q70T Soundbar, and a Sony A80J tv.  
And of course DTS:X/DTS-HD doesn't work via EARC passthrough like every other Soundbar.

NO  it isn't Sony's fault it's Samsungs Fault, Every other EARC/DTS:X Soundbar works fine passing these audio formats through.I doubt Samsung cares or will do anything,  so just buy a Soundbar from a reputable brand that doesn't  punish you for buying a non Samsung TV.

[JakeHa0991]

I chatted with Samsung yesterday morning and they said that there's nothing they can do, not even escalate this to a higher level.

This past week with Sony, I had a 3 hour long conversation over chat and the representative was not able to fix the issue. So he transferred me to level 2 support and we went through a couple of steps. They concluded that all settings on the TV were fine (also doing factory resets on the tv). So he proposed isolating the issue and asked me to try an Ultra High speed cable. So I ordered one from Spigen: Certified HDMI 2.1 (Ultra high speed) cable, I even validated this cable by scanning the bar code. The issue is still not fixed. I called back  Sony's level 2 support and we went through a couple of steps without being able to fix the problem. The representative said that he will escalate this further to a specialist and they will get back to me within 2-3 business days.

Props to Sony for at least making the effort. Samsung didn't even try to escalate this to a higher level support, or report this issue to an engineering (or some other) team to have them analyze the situation. The person I chatted with told me to keep the software up-to-date. But how in the world is the software team gonna fix an issue that they might not even know exists on their sound bars? I'm not buying a Samsung sound bar anymore because of their terrible service. I'm ok to paying a premium for better support. Hugely disappointed by Samsung. Sony is trying to help by escalating to a higher level support and Samsung is doing NOTHING.