4Κ (non-HDR) TV, LG Soundbar with ARC & 1.4 HDMI and Apple TV 4K

[Snollygoster]

Hello all,

If I connect the ATV4K directly to my LG TV I can get 4K SDR resolution just fine.

If I connect the ATV4K to my LG Soundbar and from there connect the soundbar to the TV (in order to have all the ARC features) ATV4K only allows 1080p resolution.

In the specs of ATV4K they mention that they need HDMI 2.0 for 4K but to my understanding HDMI 1.4 allows 4K up to 30hz (instead of 50 or 60 that 2.0 supports). Is there any chance to force ATV4K to display 4K SDR through the soundbar?

If not can I use the ARC configuration with any other device or does it has to support the ARC standard? Also what's going to happen if the device connected to the soundbar is switched off?

Regards

 

[Beerstalker]

HDMI 1.4 can support 4K video, but all of the 4K content providers are requiring an HDCP version that is only on HDMI 2.0 or higher. So if you want 4K content you will have to hook up to your LG TV directly.

If both your LG TV and Soundbar support ARC you shouldn't be missing out on anything hooking up this way with the AppleTV.

Now if you have a Blu-Ray player with Dolby TrueHD and DTS HDMA then I believe you have to hook it up directly to the soundbar to use those sound formats. I don't believe they are supported over ARC yet. The AppleTV doesn't support those formats.

 

[Audit13]

From what I have read, all 4k content providers require HDCP 2.2.

Before I got a receiver capable of 4k/60, I connected my ATV 4K directly to the TV and ran an optical cable from the TV to the receiver. It wasn't ideal but it worked and I got lossy 5.1.

 

[FarmerBob]

I have this problem with separating audio from an ATV 4K and a separate set up of splitting the signal off a dish H3 to two TVs.

 

[musicman0725]

HDMI 1.4 does support 4K/30hz, however you really need to use an HDCP 2.2 HDMI 2.0 port to get proper 4K streams with the Apple TV 4K. I found that even by connecting to an HDMI 2.0 port on my set, the TV info reported it was at 4K resolution and I received no error messages. The Apple TV info showed 4K as well. It was only until I enabled the developer hud that I found the stream never buffered beyond 1080p. It buffered to 4K immediately when I switched to the HDCP 2.2 port on my TV. Without enabling the developer HUD there is no way to even know this is happening.

ARC is designed to pass audio back through HDMI to your sound bar or receiver (if supported). All you have to do is make sure HDMI-CEC is enabled on both devices and then plug your sound bar or receiver into the ARC port on the back of your TV. Then plug the Apple TV 4K directly into the back of the TV on a different port and you should be all set.