eARC

eARC is an upgrade to the older ARC feature built into HDMI. It lets a TV send audio from its built-in apps, like a streaming service running directly on the TV, back down a single HDMI cable to a soundbar or AV receiver. The upgrade over standard ARC is bandwidth: eARC can carry lossless formats such as Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, not just compressed stereo or basic surround.

To use it, both the TV and the receiver or soundbar need an HDMI port labeled eARC, connected with a cable rated for the higher bandwidth, and the TV's audio output setting usually needs to be switched from ARC to eARC in the menu. Without that setting change, a TV can silently fall back to a lower-quality audio format even with the right cable and ports.

A common source of confusion is mixing eARC and standard ARC ports, which still works but caps the audio at compressed formats instead of lossless ones. Another common issue is no sound at all after connecting, usually traced to CEC or audio format settings in the TV menu rather than a faulty cable, which is worth checking before assuming the hardware is broken.