Samsung UE46D7000 ARC

[admin_exported]

Does anyone know if the ARC (Audio Return Channel) on the Samsung UE46D7000 support 5.1 audio?

I've just bought this TV and I'm thinking of buying a Samsung HT-D6500. In order to keep it simple for my housemate who isn't at all technical, I would like to keep Sky HD plugged into the TV and then use the ARC to pass the audio from Sky back to the amplifier for when I want to use the surround sound.

 

[Anonymous]

I have the C7000 and that wont receive DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 from say a Sky HD box and then pass it back to a surround amp. It only ARC Stereo except for Freeview HD Channels which carry it.

 

[thanic_kerk]

I have the UE55ES8000 and have been really suprised to find that the TV's Smarthub feeds (e.g. Netflix), HDMI inputs (i.e. your Sky Box) and even the USB feed get down mixed to 2.0 from 5.1 when passed to via the ARC HDMI feed to a receiver. The only feed that gets past across ARC to my receiver in 5.1 is from the TV's internal Freeview TV receiver. I understand the same is true of the optical outputs from the TV i.e. they are only 5.1 for the TV receiver, not from any of the Smarthub/ HDMI etc. feeds - they are downmixed to 2.0

The incredulity that this receives is a common them on the web (search for "samsung es8000 netflix 5.1"). I have spoken to Samsung on this topic and think I have got this "feature" confirmed, although it is difficult to tell as they seemed to want to answer different questions than I was asking - maybe through embarassment.

I paid a premium for this TV so that I would not have to worry about lack of support for common features and 5.1 transmission say through ARC to a receiver or to a sound processor should be basic. It would be really helpful if WHAT HI-FI could take this up with Samsung and see why they continue not to fix this issue. It should certainly be something they test in the future.