Hello, I have a 2020 QLED TV and have had the same issue since day one. Numerous firmware updates, including the latest 2014.1 have failed to address the issue.
The issue being, if I connect my Blu ray player for instance, to the TV/One connect box directly, the audio sent via ARC/eARC to the sound bar is downgraded to 2ch PCM. In order to acquire Dolby Digital, DTS, DTS-x or ATMOS I have to connect the BRP directly to the sound bar. That works BUT the sound bar only allows 4K@60fps, whereas connecting to the TV directly would allow 4K@120fps, a vast improvement. But unfortunately, the audio is then downgraded to 2ch PCM & the 'passthrough' option does nothing whether enabled or not, even with eARC enabled/disabled. (Yes, sound bar does have eARC).
Calling Samsung support, their response was "Well, just plug your BRP into your sound bar." Yes, but it should work through the $6,000 TV to take advantage of the 4K@120fps.
Surely, this is not a difficult issue to resolve with a firmware update? Why has the issue not been resolved? I've had many Samsung TV's but I'm seriously considering turning to LG, Sony or Panasonic.
Sorry to hear that you're having this issue, @Ozymandias-1. Would you be able to provide the model number of your TV, soundbar and Blu ray Player so that I can investigate this further? Thank you.
