Question

Best way to make stable groups

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After years of resistance, I now have a TV in the patio dedicated to music videos, to be played there and streamed to other Sonos zones indoors. I am seeing the group break up often, even where all the concerned Sonos units have solid green signal strengths back to Boost.

Line is set to uncompressed; both compressed and the choosing the Airplay device trick does not seem to work; the latter does not fix the lip sync problem caused by the former.

The TV is connected to a Connect in the patio, which is used to initiate a group with the 2 other zones indoors, which are also closer to the Boost than the patio Connect. Often, and usually when I choose to change the video being played, these two drop while remaining as a group, leaving the patio Connect playing on its own. When I add the Connect back to these groups, play resumes on all three zones, and, I suspect, in a more stable manner.

Any ideas as to solutions? If I wanted to wire an ethernet cable from the Patio to the router what would I have to do - one end would go into the jack on the Connect, and the other back to the jack on the Boost? Would that solve the problem?

PS: The TV is connected from its audio analog line outs to the Connect Line in.

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Ken_Griffiths

Kumar,

I can only show a quick screenshot, but here I’m playing TV audio over (uncompressed) line-in via a Sonos Connect.

The stereo audio, from BBC News channel, is outputting to 8 Sonos Rooms over SonosNet (I have a Boost as my Root) .. The shown setup is not my entire Sonos system, but the line-in output consists of a total of 16 assorted Sonos speakers and I can assure you I’m not suffering any dropouts ... so you should not be having any dropout issues with your system. I’m not saying it would likely work in a party situation with bodies milling about the place, but it is working before I’ve even considered using the “AirPlay workaround” or switching to compressed audio.

I have a total of 61 connected wired and wireless devices linked to my Netgear router, but like most folk not all these devices are ever in use at the same time.. I just wanted to demonstrate to you that what you’re trying to achieve is certainly possible over SonosNet and probably over your WiFi too.

K

KumarAuthor

Ken, I shall link this thread to Sonos Support and draw their attention to your post, that is encouraging to me, and flies in the face of what they say about uncompressed line in.

If what you are showing works with uncompressed line in on Sonos net, there is no reason why mine should not, and not just for a limited group size like just the play 1 grouped with the Connect. Assuming that your source is a wireless streamer attached to the TV input, my set up is actually less demanding than yours; of course if your TV source isn't wireless, then that is a different matter and the fact that mine (FireStick) is, could be causing trouble to the line in wired to the TV Connect in its ability to send the uncompressed signals, because of noise levels or interference; certainly that Connect is usually in a yellow or orange box in the matrix.

And the issues I was facing was in test conditions in an empty house, with no other use being made of Sonos at the time; all the more reason it should have worked fine.

K

KumarAuthor

No joy in WiFi mode; music started stuttering right away though the router utility showed excellent connections to both Sonos units involved.
And reverting to Sonos net is as bad as before even with just the root bridge play 1 + bonded Sub in the group, that is line of sight to the transmitting Connect, about 15 feet away, with green signal strength the matrix.

Ken_Griffiths

I’m surprised it doesn’t work for you with so few Sonos Rooms, Kumar. I accept I’m pushing the line-in to its limits in my scenario and someone walking about the place can cause a few issues with the signal... but I would have thought you would have been fine with the devices and the 'few' Sonos rooms, as shown in your diagram.

I would maybe consider trying a different router to see if that might improve your situation, or you may simply have to live with the line-in audio being compressed instead.

TV lip-sync issues are best solved in any event with a purpose-made HT device, like the Sonos Beam, for example, which is still excellent value for money in my opinion, or maybe try the new Sonos Amp instead. There is a returns policy if purchased direct from Sonos, so nothing ventured is nothing gained in that area and there is little to lose, assuming the offer applies to where you live.

Anyhow I sincerely hope you get your issues resolved soon.

K

KumarAuthor

I would maybe consider trying a different router to see if that might improve your situation

How would a router change help if Sonosnet is in use?
And in your case, what is the source for the TV that you are able to stream uncompressed via Line In?

K

KumarAuthor

And another question I am placing out here for anyone that may pick it up to answer: I can run an ethernet cable from the Connect to the router if that will help but I am not sure if that will help or hinder group operations in this case, and in general.

Ken_Griffiths

I would maybe consider trying a different router to see if that might improve your situationHow would a router change help if Sonosnet is in use?
And in your case, what is the source for the TV that you are able to stream uncompressed via Line In?

The TV source I was using was (Freeview) BBC News from the in-built TV Tuner in my Sony TV and that’s connected to a Sony Home Theatre (Sony HT AS5) over HDMI ARC and then RCA out from the HT to the Sonos Connect (Analog line in) .. then the Connect source is played to my other rooms grouped together.

The Connect itself is Ethernet linked to an unmanaged netgear switch (8 port) the only other Sonos speaker I have wired is the Sonos Beam in my Dining Room .. that device and it’s surrounds were included in my list of rooms shown/mentioned in my post. I use a Sonos Boost that’s at least 6-8 feet away from my router and is fairly central in the home.

i will add that the Sony HT-AS5 has audio lip sync features to its own 5.1 system (the sub is part of the Receiver) and that means I can slow down its audio output too (usually by 40ms) to allow its output to sync with the Sonos output to 4 speakers (two pairs) held in the same room... I do that quite often ..it’s a bit of overkill for the room, but works well and I can’t recall that dropping out even with 'bodies' in the room and moving about.

K

KumarAuthor

Ken, there then seem to be two reasons why your system is on a better footing than mine.

First, in mine, the TV is getting a WiFi streamed AV signal so there is the possibility of that and the audio being send out by the Connect causing interference, although both are on different channels.

Second, and perhaps more important, your Connect is wire connected to the network, via the switch and the router and thence to the root bridge.

Which leads me to repeat the question posed earlier - in my case, if I ran a wire from the LAN port of the Connect to that of the router to which the play 1 is also wired, would this help to get stable grouped play?

Ken_Griffiths

Ken, there then seem to be two reasons why your system is on a better footing than mine.

First, in mine, the TV is getting a WiFi streamed AV signal so there is the possibility of that and the audio being send out by the Connect causing interference, although both are on different channels.

Second, and perhaps more important, your Connect is wire connected to the network, via the switch and the router and thence to the root bridge.

Which leads me to repeat the question posed earlier - in my case, if I ran a wire from the LAN port of the Connect to that of the router to which the play 1 is also wired, would this help to get stable grouped play?

Well it won’t do any harm to try these things Kumar. Lots of people do wire more than one Sonos device. As mentioned my Connect is wired and the only other two Sonos devices wired is the Boost (Direct to the main Router) and my Sonos Beam (not its surrounds) which is linked into another (different) 8 port switch in another room.

i have three switches (all unmanaged) in my Home two downstairs and one upstairs and all my 'main' rooms (except the Kitchen) have wired Ethernet points, but that said, I prefer to run the majority of my Sonos devices unwired on the SonosNet signal, for its exclusivity (and separation) as mentioned earlier. It seems to work best for me.

I assume you have also tried different WiFi and SonosNet channel combinations? ...Keeping the two apart by at least 5 channels obviously.

But try wiring the Connect and see how you get on... I 'perhaps' can’t help with the streaming AV source, but didn’t you mention that your ISP link is 40mbps? If that is the case, I would have thought that would be plenty for streaming music videos.. assuming that link is stable and you are getting that sort of download speed on a consistent basis from the source site.

K

KumarAuthor

The streaming AV source works fine; 40 mbps is a lot more than enough for HD streams of Netflix and the like. The concern is if this interferes with the outgoing from Connect audio stream, something that your Connect does not have to deal with.

I will see what Sonos Support - who are being somewhat tardy - says before buying the wire that will be needed to wire the Connect to the router.

Thanks for all your inputs, Ken; much appreciated.

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