A:Answer Yes, It does have eARC and that works just fine; the issue I had with the TX-NR696 is the fact that Onkyo's 2019 and 2020 units apparently have a faulty digital signal processor (DSP) chip, or a faulty HDMI board, or faulty digital to analog converter (DAC) chips -- so I advise staying away from this model -- Onkyo makes other models, but my preference is models from Yamaha, Denon or Marantz -- Check reviews online such as 'Problems with Onkyo TX-NR696' that mention sound--that was the issue I had--no sound pass though under quite a few circumstances, like changing from TV to Tuner and back -- That should not be a problem for any AVR, especially any receiver costing more than $350...