Skip to main content
Kumar
August 14, 2019
Question

Best way to make stable groups

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.
    This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

    69 replies

    Show previous replies
    pwt
    pwt
    Virtuoso
    August 21, 2019
    My experience on the German board told me that TV audio is indeed "heavier" than other Line-In sources.

    How, though? TV audio is 100% identical in nature to any other analog line level audio source presented at a Sonos Line-In input. The bandwidth requirements for Uncompressed audio distribution are identical, and the buffering is identical.

    If you think otherwise, I'd like to understand your argument.
    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
    KumarAuthor
    August 21, 2019
    As far as I understand this, the input at the line in is nothing more than a signal voltage. And in this case, the TV manual specifies this to be 0.5 volts rms. Which is on the low side compared to that from CD players or DACs that have more than a volt rms.

    So if at all, the TV output is "lighter", but I am sure that this attribute isn't what the Support chap meant. So, what DID he mean?

    How does the Connect even know that this is from a TV??
    ratty
    ratty
    August 21, 2019
    TV audio is indeed no different from any other audio as far as Line-In is concerned. Analog signals arrive. They're digitised as PCM (if Uncompressed) and packetised for transmission. No increased "heaviness" at all.

    @Kumar's response from front line support was surely the standard "you should be using a Beam, Playbar, etc." for TV.
    pwt
    pwt
    Virtuoso
    August 21, 2019
    As far as I understand this, the input at the line in is nothing more than a signal voltage. And in this case, the TV manual specifies this to be 0.5 volts rms. Which is on the low side compared to that from CD players or DACs that have more than a volt rms.

    So if at all, the TV output is "lighter", but I am sure that this attribute isn't what the Support chap meant. So, what DID he mean?

    How does the Connect even know that this is from a TV??

    The input voltage level is relevant to the audio volume, but is irrelevant to the WAV encoding and to the bandwidth requirement. It is neither lighter nor heavier. Complete silence still uses the full bandwidth.

    The Connect has no way of determining from what device it's receiving an input signal.
    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
    ratty
    ratty
    August 21, 2019
    This being the internet, this discussion could get sidetracked onto whether TV audio signals are different in some "subjective" way from other line-level analog audio. Let's not.
    Smilja
    Smilja
    August 21, 2019

    My experience on the German board told me that TV audio is indeed "heavier" than other Line-In sources.How, though? TV audio is 100% identical in nature to any other analog line level audio source presented at a Sonos Line-In input. The bandwidth requirements for Uncompressed audio distribution are identical, and the buffering is identical.

    If you think otherwise, I'd like to understand your argument.

    I don't know. I presume if I were a Sonos employee I'd be in the know.
    »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)
    ratty
    ratty
    August 21, 2019
    We've already accounted for the Sonos employee's response. Their script could well say "buy a Beam etc" for TV.
    KumarAuthor
    August 21, 2019
    @ratty : then this is a very disappointing level of Support quality, coming after supposedly reviewing half a dozen diagnostic numbers over 5 days.

    But the comment about "weak and old Connect" made me do another experiment that started promisingly, but failed to show much change. I wired a Boost to the Connect LAN port, and after making the Play 1 revert to root bridge, the matrix showed me:
    1. Boost communicating to Play 1 as a secondary node, in green
    2. Connect as a tertiary node, but all grey across its tunnel
    3. All other units communicating like the Boost in 1 above, all in green.
    This, while I am waiting for my patch cable to arrive. But it did not work, after showing promise in a large group.

    I think pwt has it right - this is less a bandwidth and more a shallow buffer issue. Why does it have to be shallow? And by the way, designating the line in source as Airplay device did not work because it did not address the lip sync issue.
    KumarAuthor
    August 21, 2019
    I suppose if it was not shallow, it would mess up the lip sync.
    ratty
    ratty
    August 21, 2019
    Uncompressed has a shallow 75ms buffer, to try and maintain lipsync. Compressed is a couple of seconds. 'Airplay Device' with Uncompressed uses a 500ms buffer. With Compressed it possibly adds another half second to the two secs.

    If daisy-chaining the Connect off the Boost fixes things it suggests that either the Connect's WiFi card is not performing as well as the Boost (Boost is better tech anyway) or the unit is somehow in a less than favourable position.
      Show more replies
      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement