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

No worries Kumar.. hope you get it working.

Before I do go, I’m just curious about one further thing. Are you just using the line-in on your connect from the TV? If so, there’s no actual need to 'Group' your Connect with the other rooms... you just play the streamed audio through your TV (as usual) and then output (via the Connect line-in) to your 'other' Sonos Rooms. (No need to include the Connect in the Sonos group)

Obviously if the Connect is linked to a Receiver/Speakers for some other output purpose, then you may wish to group it in that case, but you haven’t mentioned a Receiver, if I remember correctly, so there’s perhaps no need to include the Connect room in your Sonos group, if that what you were doing?

Hope that makes sense.

K

KumarAuthor

The TV audio is diverted to the Connect line in to also be able to use an amp+outdoor speakers for better sound in the Patio, and that part works fine, including autoplay; indeed, this also confirms to me that there is no issue with that part of the signal including the integrity of the Line In jacks on the Connect, the issue lies elsewhere in its propagation wirelessly to other Sonos speakers.
But even if the Patio Connect was to be a dumb device just for propagation to other Sonos speakers, the issue I am facing with those speakers stuttering would still exist, I reckon.

Ken_Griffiths

Ah that’s fine then Kumar, I wasn’t sure whether, or not, the 'Connect' was outputting audio to a Receiver at the same time.

Hope the cabling option solves the matter. I have seen it before where some folk have to use compressed audio and/or the AirPlay workaround for their setups, whilst others, like me, seem to get away with uncompressed and timely audio. It must be something to de with the network and signal, so cabling some things might prove to be the answer for you, hopefully.

Let me know how it goes.

K

KumarAuthor

Yes, will do; I will first run a test with a patch cable before installing a permanent one properly, if the test goes well. I can't see any reason for there to be stuttering then as long as the source stream is glitch free, but the effort of a permanent wire install makes the test necessary.
Compressed is a no no - even for music videos, the consequent lip sync issues ruin the experience.

K

KumarAuthor

I received what to me is a strange reply from Sonos Support, copy pasted below:

"The TV signal is much "heavier" then the radio, Spotify, etc. signal and since the Connect is old devices, can struggle to send the signal to other rooms on time. In general the Connect never been design to play music from the TV."

I have asked for clarification because I don't understand how the signal from the RCA audio output jack pair from the TV is any different from that of a CD player or a Turntable, in terms of "heaviness".

Smilja

Uncompressed PCM (TV audio) has a transfer rate/speed of 1.411,2 kbps, Spotify of 320 kbps. You would need to wire every unit involved to the router or an ethernet switch to avoid the TV audio being cutting out.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

pwt

Virtuoso

Uncompressed PCM (TV audio) has a transfer rate/speed of 1.411,2 kbps, Spotify of 320 kbps. You would need to wire every unit involved to the router or an ethernet switch to avoid the TV audio being cutting out.

To @Kumar's point, however, the TV input is indistinguishable from other Line-In inputs.

I have no trouble sending Uncompressed audio across my Sonos systems. Some of the players are wired, some are not, but they are arranged carefully to provide universally good signal paths.

4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300

Smilja

To @Kumar's point, however, the TV input is indistinguishable from other Line-In inputs.

I didn't say otherwise. However, uncompressed audio is .wav, and .wav is demanding bandwidth.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

pwt

Virtuoso

To @Kumar's point, however, the TV input is indistinguishable from other Line-In inputs.I didn't say otherwise. However, uncompressed audio is .wav, and .wav is demanding bandwidth.

Respectfully, I didn't say you did.

I'm well aware of the nature of the 'Uncompressed' stream. Note that dropout problems are normally not due to the bandwidth required, but are due to the very shallow 75ms buffer that is used for 'Uncompressed'.

4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300

Smilja

My experience on the German board told me that TV audio is indeed "heavier" than other Line-In sources, it tends to cut out quickly and more frequently. Neither the Connect nor the Play:5 is designed to meet this challenge.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

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