Key takeaways
- A soundbar with no HDMI inputs at all, the Sonos Arc and Arc Ultra included, cannot act as a hub no matter how the rest of the room is wired.
- 4K120 and VRR only survive being routed through a soundbar on newer flagship models, since older or cheaper bars often cap their own HDMI inputs at 4K60.
- A 4K Blu-ray player wired directly into a passthrough capable soundbar can reach it with a lossless Dolby TrueHD track fully intact, an advantage that disappears for anything running as an app on the TV's own smart platform.
- Each extra piece of HDMI hardware in a chain is another point where an HDCP handshake can fail, which is why testing one source directly into the TV is the fastest way to isolate a fault.
- A single console with a TV that already has enough HDMI inputs rarely benefits from soundbar as hub, and paying extra for a flagship bar mainly for its hub features is not worth it there.
Every source in the rack can plug into the soundbar first, sending video onward to the TV, or it can plug straight into the TV and let eARC carry the audio back out to the bar. That single wiring decision decides how many places a 4K120 signal, or a full bitstream Atmos track, has to survive before it reaches the screen and the speakers.
Neither approach is wrong on its face. Soundbar as hub cuts down on cables reaching the TV and centralises switching in one box. TV as hub keeps the television in charge of every handshake and treats the soundbar as a pure audio output. Five things decide which one actually suits a given rack: how many sources it has to hold, whether 4K120 and VRR survive the trip, what happens to the audio format along the way, how often a handshake actually breaks, and how CEC behaves once a hub sits in the middle.
How many sources each side can actually accept
A television built in the last few years usually offers three or four HDMI inputs, at least one marked eARC. That is enough for a games console, a 4K Blu-ray player, and a streaming box without running out of ports, with the soundbar taking only the single eARC connection back from the TV.
A soundbar rarely matches that. Most bars ship with one or two HDMI inputs alongside their HDMI output, and several flagship models built for simplicity, the Sonos Arc and Arc Ultra among them, have no HDMI inputs at all, just a single eARC output. A bar like that cannot act as a hub under any circumstances, no matter how the rest of the room is wired.
An AV receiver changes this calculus entirely. Six to eight HDMI inputs are normal on something like a Denon AVR-X1800H, which is one reason choosing a receiver over a soundbar replaces the hub question altogether rather than answering it. For a soundbar specifically, check the spec sheet for HDMI inputs before assuming hub mode is even available.
Whether 4K120 and VRR make the extra hop
The HDMI 2.1 specification carries up to 48 Gbps, the bandwidth 4K at 120 Hz with full chroma and HDR actually needs. HDMI 2.0 tops out at 18 Gbps, enough for 4K at 60 Hz but not for a next generation console running at its highest frame rate.
Routing a console through a soundbar as hub means the bar’s own HDMI processing sits directly in that signal’s path, and a mid range bar built before around 2022 often only passes 4K at 60 Hz through its inputs even though its output to the TV is fine on its own. The console quietly drops to a lower frame rate, and nothing on screen explains why.
Newer flagship bars, the Samsung HW-Q990D and LG S95TR among them, do pass 4K120 and variable refresh rate through their HDMI inputs correctly. What actually needs to happen for 4K120 to pass through a soundbar cleanly covers the checklist. Anything older or cheaper should be checked against its own spec sheet before a console goes anywhere near it.
If a console suddenly renders at 1080p or 4K60 after being moved behind a soundbar, the bar’s HDMI input is very likely the bottleneck, not the console or the TV. Plug the console directly into the TV to confirm before assuming a cable or a setting is at fault.
What happens to the audio format in between
With the TV as hub, every source’s audio passes through the television’s own processing before it leaves over ARC or eARC. A TV that insists on PCM rather than bitstream for a given app quietly strips the object based metadata Atmos and DTS:X depend on, regardless of which soundbar is attached. How eARC actually carries that signal covers the bandwidth difference behind this.
With the soundbar as hub, a source plugged directly into the bar sends its audio straight through, bypassing the TV’s own audio pipeline for that connection specifically, provided the bar’s input supports full passthrough. A 4K Blu-ray player wired this way can reach the bar with its lossless Dolby TrueHD track completely intact, which is a genuine advantage of hub mode for disc based sources.
That advantage disappears for anything running as an app on the TV’s own smart platform. Netflix played through the television’s built in app still originates at the TV and still leaves over ARC or eARC regardless of how any other source is wired, so hub choice changes nothing for streaming played that way.
Where the handshake is more likely to break
Every extra piece of HDMI hardware in a chain is another point where an HDCP handshake or a resolution negotiation can fail. Soundbar as hub adds the bar’s own processing as a second stage the signal must clear, on top of whatever the TV itself negotiates.
A rented apartment fitted last year had a mid range bar sitting between a games console and the TV, and the console would intermittently drop to a black screen for two or three seconds during HDCP renegotiation, something that never happened with the same console plugged straight into the TV. Moving the console to the TV’s own HDMI 2.1 input and leaving only the eARC cable running to the bar solved it completely. Clearing an HDMI handshake problem generally covers the same fault pattern in more depth.
TV as hub keeps that renegotiation confined to ports the manufacturer tested most heavily, since a television’s HDMI inputs are usually its most scrutinised feature. It also makes a fault easier to isolate: one port at a time, rather than a source, a bar, and a TV all sharing the blame.
How CEC behaves with a hub in the chain
HDMI-CEC commands, power, volume, input switching, travel over the same cables as the audio and video signal. Setting up the eARC connection correctly matters more once a hub is added, since each extra box is one more link the command has to pass through cleanly.
TV as hub usually keeps CEC simplest, since the television remains the single point every other device reports to. Soundbar as hub can work just as well once configured, but a console plugged into the bar rather than the TV sometimes needs its own CEC setting checked separately, since it is now reporting to the bar first rather than the television directly.
| Criterion | Soundbar as hub | TV as hub |
|---|---|---|
| HDMI inputs available | Often one or two, sometimes none | Usually three or four |
| 4K120 and VRR passthrough | Only on newer flagship bars | Handled natively by the TV |
| Disc based lossless audio | Can bypass the TV’s own processing | Still passes through the TV first |
| Handshake reliability | One extra stage to negotiate | Fewer stages, easier to isolate faults |
| CEC simplicity | Works, but needs checking per source | Usually the more direct chain |
Which hub fits your rack
A single console and a TV with built in streaming apps rarely benefit from soundbar as hub at all. Plugging the console straight into the TV and letting eARC carry the audio back out is simpler, cheaper, and just as capable for that specific setup. Paying extra for a flagship bar purely for its hub features is not worth it here.
A room with a 4K Blu-ray player, a console, and a streaming box, and a TV that has run out of eARC labelled ports for all of them, is where soundbar as hub earns its keep, provided the bar is a recent flagship model confirmed to pass 4K120 and full bitstream audio through its inputs.
When in doubt, check two things before wiring anything: how many HDMI inputs the soundbar actually has, and whether its spec sheet confirms 4K120 passthrough if a next generation console is involved. Everything else in this comparison follows from those two answers.
- Count how many HDMI inputs the soundbar actually has, if any
- Confirm 4K120 and VRR passthrough on the spec sheet before routing a console through a bar
- Plug lossless disc sources directly into the bar only if its input supports full passthrough
- Test for handshake drops by moving one source at a time between the TV and the bar
Questions readers ask about this
Only if it actually has HDMI inputs, and plenty of flagship bars do not. The Sonos Arc and Arc Ultra, for example, offer a single eARC output and no HDMI inputs at all, so hub mode is physically impossible on those models regardless of preference.
Not for content played through the TV's own smart apps, since that audio originates at the television either way. The difference shows up mainly with disc based sources, where routing through a non passthrough soundbar can force a lossless track down to a lower quality.
The soundbar's HDMI input is the likely culprit. Many bars built before around 2022 only pass 4K at 60 Hz through their inputs, capping a next generation console's 120 Hz mode even though the same bar outputs perfectly fine to the TV on its own eARC connection.
Only if you need the full 48 Gbps that 4K120 with HDR demands. Lower bandwidth needs, 4K60 or 1080p, work fine on HDMI 2.0 rated cables at 18 Gbps, so check what your actual source and display need before buying the more expensive cable.
Generally yes for a rack with several sources, since six to eight HDMI inputs are normal on a receiver like a Denon AVR-X1800H, compared with one or two on most soundbars. That comparison is really a separate decision from picking which hub a soundbar setup should use.
About the author
Rahul Gupta
Rahul Gupta has spent nearly a decade quietly wiring living rooms, testing soundbars in every awkward apartment layout imaginable, and untangling the kind of HDMI handshake problems that make people give up on Atmos altogether. He writes here about what actually works when you get the boxes home—not what the spec sheet promises. If a piece of gear on this site earns a recommendation, it earned it in a real room with real furniture, not a lab.
