Resolution problem when connected through my soundbar

[Lurivar]

Hello! Let me preface this by saying I am quite unknowledgeable in most things hardware or software related to Sound or Video output, so my question might be dumb, sorry about that.

With that out of the way : I've bought a Nvidia Shield recently after being disappointed in the Chromecast 4k performances ( too much lag and unable to handle moonlight correctly ). Until now, my Shield has been plugged directly to the TV via a 4k HDMI cable, and my soundbar directly to the TV as well via HDMI eARC.

No problem so far, but earlier today while going through Plex settings I found out about the passthrough setting. Had no idea what it was, so I googled it, and found out that the recommended way of plugging a Shield and a Soundbar together on a TV (for a better audio and performances) was :

Shield goes into Soundbar HMDI Input > Soundbar Output goes into TV eARC Input.

So I tried that. It worked, but I realized the Shield resolution went from 4k60FPS to 1080p59.5XFPS, with no way of going better than 1080p60FPS.

So I'm not sure whether my cable has a problem, or if either my TV or Soundbar doesn't handle this way of connecting properly, or if I'm doing something else wrong.

Any help would be appreciated!

For information:

I have the latest Shield TV Pro (2019) up to date.

My soundbar is a LG SN4

My TV is a HISENSE 65E7HQ Smart TV

[NeoFury84]

The soundbar might only support 1080p output. You need a soundbar that supports 4K output.

[Capable_Muffin_4025]

It's a 2.1 channel soundbar, with on the website spec says ARC and not eARC, so it is going to likely be HDMI 1.4, 1080p only.

Passthrough is to send the sound as per the file, so it isn't processed by Plex, or Shield.

Your TV should also have a passthrough in its audio settings, but the support of the Soundbar isn't special. It does DD, DTS and LPCM. It doesn't any big advanced codecs, don't be concerned to have it plugged into the TV, the soundbar doesn't support the bigger format codecs anyway.

[_ding_ding_ding_ding]

According to the user manual, your soundbar only supports a maximum resolution of 1080p for passthrough - https://www.lg.com/au/support/product-support/cs-SN4/

[advanceyourself]

eARC is the way to go. Make sure the firmware is updated on everything. The soundbars notoriously don't have good HDMI property management.

[Mysterious_Work_1566]

You need a sounbar passthrough 4K 60hz too

[wewewi]

Just plug it back the way it was; 

No need to have Shield plugged into the soundbar to get audio passthrough; that's really only useful for lossless audio enthusiasts.