This must be just an isolated problem with your soundbar. I have the TC R617 and I have a 7 yr old Pioneer Elite AV 7.1 and DD+ works fine and ot even displays on my AV unit. It just might me an issue with your soundbar firmware needs to be updated.

This is outstanding news. Now it seems that DD+

• works in: Pioneer

• fails in: Yamaha, Samsung, Denon

Hello is there any update on this? Seems all you can reply is please pm me. The sound bar works with other TV's just not the TCL/Roku models. Please acknowledge that someone is looking into this issue.

RokuTannerD wrote:

Thanks for continuing to keep us posted with what you're experiencing. 

I've passed along these reports, and the team is investigating the issue further. Please continue to stay tuned for additional updates, and feel free to send me a PM with your details if you're running into this as well. 


Thanks,
Tanner

Our team is continuing to investigate this issue as previously reported in this thread. 
Please feel free to PM us and provide additional details if you are experiencing this issue. Any additional information can be of assistance. 
Thanks,
Tanner

So its been over a month now and no further updates. Seems the team isn't really looking at anything. LOL.

I'm in the same boat.  I just purchased the 75" TCL 6 series from Best Buy this weekend.  I also have the Samsung Q80R soundbar.  I get no sound at all when in the DD+ mode using ARC.  I only get sound when in DD or less.  It's not an app issue, it is with the TV.  No sound from the menu, or anything.  TCL just announced their new Dolby Atmos sound bar, but how can they even think of selling that when the TV doesn't work with that sound mode.  They need a firmware update!!!  

RHuntley wrote:

I'm in the same boat.  I just purchased the 75" TCL 6 series from Best Buy this weekend.  I also have the Samsung Q80R soundbar.  I get no sound at all when in the DD+ mode using ARC.  I only get sound when in DD or less.  It's not an app issue, it is with the TV.  No sound from the menu, or anything.  TCL just announced their new Dolby Atmos sound bar, but how can they even think of selling that when the TV doesn't work with that sound mode.  They need a firmware update!!!  

It should work, but you need to actually enable it in the settings first (vs. just plugging into the ARC port). See this screen shot of your manual - I've circled the part in red.
Link to screen shot:  Enabling ARC on Your TCL 75" TV

Heyitsrick wrote:

It should work, but you need to actually enable it

You should have read the thread more carefully. This is about DD working and DD+ not over ARC on some receivers despite DD+ being enabled and allegedly supported.

apodtele wrote:

Heyitsrick wrote:

It should work, but you need to actually enable it

You should have read the thread more carefully. This is about DD working and DD+ not over ARC on some receivers despite DD+ being enabled and allegedly supported.

Ok, well leaving aside the gratuitous comment - I'll say this - firstly, who knows if most users actually read manuals to find out what works and what doesn't, or how a setting  that isn't enabled might impact what does come through the cabling?  I was responding to the person right above my comment. 

That said, RokuDale said something interesting in a thread about Roku TVs in 2015. Admittedly, I don't know if it applies in 2019 or to TCL (vs LG, in that thread), but here was his salient comment:

OP has a RokuTV. It can decode DD and transcode DD+ to DD itself. But it will only output DD to ARC and optical if it knows the soundbar can handle it, otherwise it will send out stereo pcm.

(https://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?t=91053#p511795)
Is there a chance that (if this capability still exists) transcoding is occurring before output to the ARC?  In other words, has anyone tried, say, a Netflix title when the Roku TV is explicitly set for DD output?  I fully understand that this is not desirable for people who want Atmos capability, but curious as to whether explicitly setting for DD vs. DD+ might reveal the transcoded audio, if that capability still exists in this brand/year.  

Heyitsrick wrote:

Is there a chance that (if this capability still exists) transcoding is occurring before output to the ARC?

I appreciate your experience and attention to our issue. I do not think it is about transcoding. We are talking about AV receivers and soundbars that are auto detected as DD+ capable. The thing is that nothing gets through in the DD+ mode, not even the Roku menu sounds until you downshift to DD.
It is also curious that toggling AV receiver inputs away and back to ARC magically recovers DD+ sound, but only temporarily until the next advertising block or a switch to another broadcast channel, when it is lost again. This is some kind of syncing bug: AV receiver might need a signal to sync/align the stream of audio data initially and every time new stream starts.
This might be a bug in the receiver firmware too. Without judging, it would be nice to hear if Roku or Yamaha confirms the issue and looking into it. I am happy with DD, so I personally can live without a fix.

I understand - but just to be clear (for me, at least): when you explicitly set the Roku to output DD vs DD+, you can get DD over ARC on channels that are normally DD+ (like Netflix)?  If so, that's why I was wondering if for some reason it's transcoding by default. In other posts in this thread, people would say things like "DD is fine", but many streaming channels don't stream in DD. So was wondering if it was, in fact, transcoding DD+.  That could be something Roku could look at if that's the case.

Anyway, good luck to one and all. I know it must be frustrating.

The key is it doesn't work the way it should. I originally took my Samsung N950 back to best buy. They tested with three other TV Brand's and there was no problem with getting the sound to work correctly when using the HDMI ARC port. There has to be a fix for this??? 

There is a workaround. Go to Settings > Audio > S/PDIF and ARC. Select anything but “Auto detect” or “Dolby Digital Plus”