Xbox One Sound issues with TV and Soundbar only when playing Video Games?

The Xbox One X doesn't have a soundcard, in a way a PC would have a Creative Labs SoundBlaster card for example.

The Xbox One does all sound processing on the main CPU so to speak.

However, the clearer sound when you connect the Xbox to your soundbar directly can have other reasons than the "soundcard".

I assume you had your soundbar, TV and console set up like this:

Xbox One Console-->HDMI Cable-->TV-->Optical Cable-->Soundbar.

While the console transmits multi-channel surround to the TV, the TV might only transmit Stereo to the soundbar.

A lot of TVs only forward Stereo Sound through an optical cable, if the video feed comes from an external source. Only "internal" video streams that come from the TV's own tuner or media being played through the TV's USB Media Player will be transmitted
in multichannel audio to the sound bar.

By connecting the Xbox directly to the soundbar, the soundbar will get the original multi-channel sound from the console, instead of the stereo downmix from the TV.

So I assume your setup now looks like this:

Soundbar<-- Optical Cable<-- Xbox One -->HDMI cable--> TV

Right?

Already checked that and like above nothing else sounds weird, except video games. Blu-ray's, streaming services, my cable, everything. Only weird thing is that games output a weird audio signal that isn't full.

Hi TexCaliBear,

I understand you are experiencing an issue with using your soundbar with your Xbox One. You may want to check out this article:

Troubleshoot sound on your Xbox One.

I hope this helps.

What features? The video feed is going straight into the TV. It is just the audio going to the soundbar from the TV.

4K at 120hz

If the sound bar uses HDMI 2.0, the TV will only be limited to 4K 60hz,

The video feed is not going into the soundbar. It is going into the TV. Hence all HDMI 2.1 features work as normal.

The TV returns the audio feed to the soundbar via eARC which does not require HDMI 2.1.

First of all:

While you DO need the Atmos App, you do NOT need to buy it, unless you want to use the Atmos for Headphones feature.

With your Atmos soundbar, you already paid the Dolby Atmos licensing fee, and the free App is sufficient to play Atmos sound via your soundbar.

However:

Getting sound through your TV and the soundbar depends on a lot of factors. Including on how you connect console, TV and soundbar together.

The trouble is, that some TV's don't support Dolby Atmos via their ARC (Audio Return Channel), so if you connect the console to the TV, the TV can't send Atmos sound coming from the HDMI input from the console to the soundbar. So also check if your TV's
ARC is capable to support Dolby Atmos.

Alternatively some soundbars allow you to plug your console into the soundbar, and the soundbar forwards the video to the TV. That way you would probably get Atmos sound, but some Soundbars are unable to forward 4K HDR video to the TV.

So if bad comes to worse, you might have to exchange your TV as well as the soundbar. So please check with Samsung if both your TV and soundbar are REALLY capable of what you expect (i.e. 4K video as well as Atmos pass through).