LG G5 OLED + Sony HT-S40R – No DTS passthrough over ARC. Any workaround?

[Beersandblurays]

Hi everyone,
I’ve run into an audio issue with my new LG G5 OLED TV and I’m hoping there’s some kind of workaround.
My sound system is a Sony HT-S40R (5.1 soundbar + wireless rears + sub).

I’ve just discovered that the LG G5 doesn’t support DTS decoding or passthrough. A lot of my Blu-rays and 4K Blu-rays use DTS or DTS-HD MA tracks.
Current setup:
4K Blu-ray player → LG G5 (HDMI)
LG G5 → Sony HT-S40R (HDMI ARC)

Important limitation: The HT-S40R doesn’t have HDMI inputs for video sources — it only connects via HDMI ARC from the TV. So I can’t plug the Blu-ray player directly into the soundbar.

So the signal path is:
Blu-ray player → TV → ARC → soundbar

Because the TV doesn’t support DTS, it won’t pass the DTS signal through to the Sony system. DTS tracks either don’t play properly or fall back to stereo.
I can’t replace the sound system right now, so I’m trying to figure out if there’s any workaround.

Questions:
Is there any way to force DTS passthrough on the LG G5?
Would an HDMI audio extractor solve this?
Is there any ARC/eARC setting I might be missing?

Has anyone run into this with LG’s newer OLEDs?

Appreciate any help!

 

[leelee17]

It seems you are correct, @Beersandblurays, although there is a pass through option in the audio menu, which makes a considerable difference audio wise.
I'm running a Panasonic UB9000 through the HDMI 1 and a Sonos Arc ultra via Earc and get fantastic results regardless...

 

[leelee17]

By the way, @Beersandblurays, have you had the 33.30.92 software update yet. Made a hell of a difference to my already superb G5 and, despite it being a fix for the darker DV, I'm noticing significant upgrades in HDR anyway.
Transforms the G5 from a beauty to a F#CKING beast!!!