HT-ZF9 audio drops when using eARC (using with BraviaTV KD-65XH9096)

[Kuba80]

Hi all,

Im suffering from this issue for quite a while and I can see I’m not alone. Unfortunately Sony does not seem to bother, although we have spent a lot of moneys and trusted their brand...

When I am watching TV and using eARC audio randomly drops out on my HT-ZF9 (does not matter if its Netflix, Amazon Prime or HBO, or my sattelite TV - via decoder)

Sony support first told me that this issue is known and it will be fixed via software update, and after the warranty has expired they are telling me its a hardware issue with my soundbar.

Going through forums I see tons of people suffering from audio drop outs when using eARC on Sony equipment!  The only way to fix it for me it to stop playback and resume it again. 

Recently Sony has advised me to disconnect both devices from power for 2 mins and perform factory reset and re-enable eARC - which I did. It did not resolve the issue.

Issue occurred on 2 TVs:

-KD55X8509C (had only ARC, so I though ok might be it) so Ive changed my TV to:

-KD65XH9096 (with eARC support)

OFC I have the latest firmware installed on both TV and my Soundbar.

Settings: eARC on soundbar, eARC - auto on TV, HDMI format - Enhanced Dolby Vision (Soundbar has Dolby Vision passthrough), I also tried on Enhanced only (same issue).

Dolby Digital Plus on.

Digital Audio Output - Auto 1.

Turning off eARC on Soundbar or switching HDMI format to Standard fixes the issue but that’s not the point.

I’m using certified HDMI 2.1 cable (0.5m) with 48GBps bandwidth (but it has also occured on another cable).

Any ideas?

[Peter_S.]

Hi,

There should be a new firmware being released soon for your TV which should fix this issue.

Cheers

Peter

[Kuba80]

Hehe thanks and I hope this time this is the truth.

I've received similar info in the past, yet the issue has not been fixed, than I was told its a hardware issue but my warranty expired in the meantime. Seeing so many people still suffers from it I doubt its a hardware issue in my case.

Would be great though that this would be shared within Customer Support agents in all locations as customers are getting mixed messages depending who do we talk to.

[Joe_Dohn]

I believe when they said "fix is coming in a future update" it wasn't entirely false, but as it goes with software, it takes iterations to fix issues.

Especially, if the issue has different causes (I can't really say if this eARC one does, but one can only assume since this will always be internal or private info anyways).

Hopefully this next update solves it for everyone as I have seen it many times on the forums myself as well.

- JD

[Kuba80]

Yeah but I’ve got that feedback in October stating NEXT update will get this addressed.

I also have an email thread with Sony Support when they say its a firmware issue, now lady says to send it to Sony, but guess what warranty has expired 1 month ago! 

But now on forums Sony claims again it will be fixed via firmware, so I’m a bit lost and frustrated at this point, although firmware fix sounds better for me.

So it would be great if there would be 1 consistant reply. And going thorugh internet tons of ppl sounds from audio drops using Sony eARC with soundbars.

[Win_88]

I think Sony will honor the warranty as long as the issue was reported before it expired. Although the issue seems to be software related, it's clear that some changes were made in the last update that Sony expected to sort the issue out, which has worked for some users but not all. I'm inclined to think they're trying to inspect TVs that weren't fixed by the update to find other solutions. I could be wrong though.

[Kuba80]

The issue I have is with the Soundbar that occured on two TVs. They don't want me to send the TV over.

[Kuba80 · Accepted solution]

I can confirm that so far after the lastest (24.02) update (v6.0466) for my Bravia KD-65XH9096 the issue did not occur.

[Joe_Dohn]

@Kuba80 Thank you for the update and the marked solution!

[Afriel08]

Hi guys 

I have an LG tv and the sound drops. 
I had within warranty and they changed all the Bluetooth boards. ( so I’m told) 

And the sound still drops. 

has anyone received a solution yet? 
my software  says up to date. It’s 002.315