Takeover system. Couldn't get audio through HDMI. Had to use an optical feed. Judging by the cabling left behind, original installer from Magnolia may have wired it that way. No apparent way to choose HDMI audio, either in setup menu, or by reading the manual.

System was moved, and never connected.

Client thinks her father had Magnolia install it around 2012, including a Control 4 HC-300. John (Impaqt) says this is a 10 year old controller, and Arcam's website and Google indicate this may also be a 10 year old AVR. Wouldn't surprise me, since it only had 2 HDMI inputs.

I'm not an Arcam dealer but 10 years ago and only 2 HDMI inputs was usually a good sign of only having an HDMI switch built in. No audio extraction possible. This was the same with Onkyo, Pioneer, and others.

A new Ethereal 4K HDMI switcher can get the video side of things up to date. Things could get tricky for surround sound, depending on new sources however.

I'm sure they are not audiophiles, being they bought their Arcam from Magnolia 'AND' had them install it. It was probably pushed on them from the sales guy.
A new Integra maybe in their near future?

First of all, you are correct, the old arcam units only used HDMI for switching some video. I’ve pulled a couple of them and upgraded theaters because of this.

Second, Solo just released in the theaters. So any copy you are trying to watch at home would be an illegal bootleg copy and could very likely have bad audio formatting, or not even have 5.1 at all.

Thanks for your input and confirmation.

This Arcam model number is Solo Movie 5.1.