What you need to know about HDMI ARC and eARC
How to connect your TV to your receiver or sound bar
Want to watch Netflix or Amazon Prime Video through a new smart TV? Maybe some over-the-air TV broadcasts, too?
Planning to connect your TV to an A/V receiver or an HDMI-equipped sound bar?
Then you need to know about ARC and eARC. These special HDMI connections can simplify system operation and improve your TV sound.
What is ARC?
ARC (Audio Return Channel) was introduced in 2009. It enables a single HDMI cable to carry picture and sound from a receiver to a TV and an audio signal from the TV back to the receiver or sound bar. If both devices have ARC, you don’t need a separate audio cable to hear the TV sound through your receiver or sound bar.
Without ARC, you need both HDMI and optical digital audio connections between your TV and your sound bar.
With ARC, all you need is an HDMI connection between your TV and your sound bar.
One less cable might not sound like such a big deal, but it does solve a problem for people who want to wall-mount their TV and hide the cables behind the wall.
| ARC | eARC | |
|---|---|---|
| Type of cable needed | HDMI | HDMI with Ethernet |
| Surround sound formats | Compressed 5.1 (standard Dolby Digital & DTS) | Uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1 (Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD Master Audio), and immersive audio (Dolby Atmos & DTS:X) |
What is eARC?
The new eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel) promises three substantial improvements.
- Increased bandwidth, which allows the TV to pass advanced, uncompressed surround sound formats (including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X) along to the receiver or sound bar.
- More reliable HDMI “handshakes” between devices, which means easier, more dependable operation. You may be able to get away with using fewer remote controls.
- The mandatory Lip Sync Correction protocol ensures that the picture and sound always match up.
Is eARC is a game-changer for system configuration?
With eARC, a TV can deliver uncompromised audio signals to an eARC-equipped receiver. That begs the question: Should I connect my cable box (and other video sources) to the TV or the receiver/sound bar?
Making video source connections to the TV
Connecting your video sources to the TV can make system operation easier.
If you only have a few sources, it makes more sense to connect through your smart TV. The advantage here is being able to use a television as your central hub, which simplifies the operation of your system. You’ll select sources using the TV’s remote, which should make your life easier.
And since eARC is capable of passing uncompressed surround sound, you won’t lose audio quality for choosing this route.
Making video source connections to the receiver or sound bar
When you connect your video sources to your sound bar or receiver, you only need one HDMI connection to the TV. That simplifies a wall mount TV installation.
Most of today’s smart TVs have no more than four HDMI inputs. If you have more than four video sources, connect them all through the receiver. Connecting some to the TV and some to the receiver is a recipe for confusion.
If you plan to hang your TV on the wall, you’ll probably want to connect through the receiver, so you’ll only have to run one cable to the TV.
Complex systems that include multi-zone video typically use the receiver as the hub for all the connections.
Setting up an ARC connection
Setting up an ARC connection is simple, and only requires an HDMI cable. Follow the following steps to ensure a proper ARC connection.
- Make sure both your television and A/V receiver or sound bar have ARC-enabled HDMI ports.
- Connect one end of the HDMI cable to the “ARC” labeled port on your television.
- Connect the other end to your ARC port on your sound bar or receiver.
- Activate ARC output on your TV. This is most likely in the settings menu under “audio”.
Some devices automatically switch to ARC mode when the connection is made, but you may have to do it manually in your TV settings.
Do I need a new HDMI cable?
Chances are you do not need a new HDMI cable. As long as yours is 4K and HDR compatible with Ethernet, it shouldn’t have any trouble transferring the data.
Questions about HDMI ARC and eARC
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Tom from Cudahy
Posted on 5/3/2022
My tv and sound bar both feature eARC. I have a terrible problem with lip sync. The amount out of sync varies at different times watching cable. I have adjusted the audio delay,but it still is inconsistent. Source is from a cable box. Now the mystery. I switch to arc and audio seems to be in sync. Audio from streaming is in sync with eARc. Cables are all up to date. 2 different cable boxes have been tried. Tv is Samsung/sound bar is Vizio.
Emily S. from Crutchfield
on 5/13/2022
That sounds frustrating, Tom. It's hard to troubleshoot over comment replies. Fortunately, every Crutchfield purchase comes with lifetime tech support. If you are still having trouble, please get in touch.
Chris from Silver Spring
Posted on 12/6/2021
If I hook up my Xbox series X to a tv with eArc but my receiver only has Arc will get the full lossless 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos or will it be something less? Do both tv and receiver need to be eArc for that to work?
Emily S. from Crutchfield
on 12/8/2021
Jan Selvig from Webster, MN
Posted on 11/15/2021
When setting up a new TV and receiver, both with eARC, how should they now be cabled? My old system has a Yamaha receiver using 4 HDMI input devices (Dish Network, Blue Ray, Roku, PC) with a single HDMI cable going from the receiver to the TV. Now eARC comes along. It appears to me that eARC (and its predecessor ARC) are features added to allow content streamed directly to the TV (with no Roku involvement) to be sent from the TV to the eARC-capable receiver to play higher quality audio. Since the receiver only has one HDMI output, and it's eARC capable, what keeps the receiver from getting confused between sound input from the TV and all those HDMI devices that are still connected to the receiver? Is eARC smart enough to know when to direct TV audio to the receiver and when not to?
Emily S. from Crutchfield
on 11/17/2021
Deanna Nelsen from Macon,GA
Posted on 10/31/2021
I am considering buying a new Samsung TV with eARC. I currently run all my audio video through aDenon AVR-1902 with ARC. Can I use the eARC connection to get audio directly from TV to receiver while watching streaming content? I would still keep cable box and DVR connected through the receiver but can use the smart TV to stream Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Emily S. from Crutchfield
on 11/4/2021
Chris from Welch, MN
Posted on 10/7/2021
If my soundbar is "eARC" capable, but display is only "ARC", would the system behave as if BOTH components simply had "ARC" HDMI input/output?
Emily S. from Crutchfield
on 10/11/2021
steve kulsziski from hauppauge
Posted on 7/19/2021
hdmi cable is passed thru a 4 way splitter with ir connections, the furthest run is approx 35 feet this signal is sporadic and sometimes goes to greenscreen. cables are in walls so unable to change, is there some equipment that would perhaps boost signal to fix this problem.
Gary Bowler from Ontario
Posted on 7/14/2021
When using a eARC HDMI connection between a Sony TV and a Denon AVR were the AVR also has inputs from a Direct TV receiver , a Apple TV streamer and a Sony Blu-ray player do you see any communications problems using a Logitech Harmony Elite universal remote ? I was told that eARC and universal remotes are not compatible.
Emily S. from Crutchfield
on 7/26/2021
William from Kansas City
Posted on 6/24/2021
Your overview for the Klipsch Cinema 800 states that you connect one HDMI cable from the TV to the Soundbar and one back to the TV. Is that correct? It also has the eARC port. Which do you use?
Emily S. from Crutchfield
on 6/24/2021
benjamin sevilla from concord
Posted on 4/11/2021
i have a sony oled with earc currently connected. to my yamaha sound bar via hdmi. i want to upgrade my onkyo to a denon with atmos and earc. how can i connect both sound bar and recover? i want to use the sound bar for everyday viewing and the receiver when watching movies. I only have one external 4k blue ray player and use the TV app for everything.
Alex from Tucson
Posted on 3/17/2021
If I have a Samsung 4K TV from around 2018 and the TV is ARC and I just bought a Samsung soundbar (Q70T) that is eARC, is there anything I can do to make the TV to output as eARC? I got lots of movies with Atmos I want to take full advantage of the soundbar