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Sonos Beam Limitations for a PC environment? Or am I missing something...

C

I know that the soundbar’s main purpose is “speaker” for TV. Still, I feel that in 2022 it would be normal for a device that can connect to LANs (both wired and wirelessly) to be able to work in more diverse situations than a simple TV - Beam connection.
I also feel that  implementing  more features or allowing for more connections would be simple (and not costly) tasks - adding a new port and even updating software


I’ll start with what I have (in terms of devices setup), what I want to achieve and what I can’t do (or don’t know how to do it).

 

I have a PC connected (via a RTX 3080) to two monitors and one LG C1 TV (via HDMI). The LG TV is connected to Sonos Beam via the eArc port. I’ve also connected the Sonos Beam to my home network using the Ethernet port (so there’s a wired connection here).

When I work, I do it on my monitors (work on one and listen/view YT on the other monitor). I keep my TV off.

When I am playing some games, I do turn the TV on (as I play on the TV) and the sound gets to the Sonos via the TV (PC - TV - Sonos).

The problem that I wasn’t able to solve up to this point is that I want to use the Sonos instead of the Speakers in all instances, so when I work too. This is not possible unless I keep my TV on, which I don’t want to do.

I know there can be 3rd party “solutions” like HDMI splitters/switches, but, from past experience these give a lot more headaches and don’t work as advertised (connection drops way to often, etc).

 

My questions to SONOS is:

1. Why don’t you add a second HDMI port to allow the Beam to connect to more than one device without the need to swap cable, etc? Would it be that much complicated and costly?

2. Why is the Ethernet port so useless now? I might be wrong here but from what I’ve read, now, you can only use that port to connect to other Sonos devices and create a local “sound system”.
Why not, when connected to internet via the Ethernet cable, Windows is not able to see the Sonos Beam as a sound device that can be selected (like I can select the Speakers or the TV)? It should be a matter of codecs/drivers, no?

Thanks.

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Best answer by Corry P 14 July 2022, 10:25

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14 replies

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

I just use a 3.5mm cable from my monitor headphone jack to my Play:5 Gen 1. Very simple and works no matter which PC is using that monitor (I have several via a KVM). Keeping it simple.

Attempts to digitally take PC audio and stream to Sonos suffer from enormous lag (many have attempted this). Only AirPlay streams avoid this, somehow, but that is mostly Mac-only.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
Ken_Griffiths

 

I know there can be 3rd party “solutions” like HDMI splitters/switches, but, from past experience these give a lot more headaches and don’t work as advertised (connection drops way to often, etc).

I tend use one of these switches/extractors (link below) - I’ve never had an audio dropout, or headache, with this particular switch, which supports ARC/eARC and Atmos playback. I think these days many soundbar manufacturers see the TV as being the primary HUB for all A/V devices to connect to, but these switches are ideal, if you don’t want to leave the TV ‘ON’ for audio playback/pass-through…

https://feintech.eu/en/products/feintech-vax04101-hdmi-earc-pass-switch-4x1

C

I just use a 3.5mm cable from my monitor headphone jack to my Play:5 Gen 1. Very simple and works no matter which PC is using that monitor (I have several via a KVM). Keeping it simple.

Attempts to digitally take PC audio and stream to Sonos suffer from enormous lag (many have attempted this). Only AirPlay streams avoid this, somehow, but that is mostly Mac-only.

I’m afraid you didn’t read my post carefully regarding which connects to which. And there’s the Audio Over Ethernet protocol, for example. I’m also not talking about any audio streaming in the “classic" sense but use the wired connection from PC via Switch to the Soundbar (wired = speeds of 10 gbps) to have the Soundbar be visible to Windows as a sound driver.

Now you can stream from Windows media player and the Sonos Soundbar is visibe to Windows 10 but it shows as “Other Device” and it can’t be used as a Speaker in the pure sense (select it for playback from Windows’ sound settings)

Airgetlam

The assumption that I make as to why Sonos doesn’t implement these things is likely they don’t perceive that there is a market for the suggestions that you have that would match the cost involved in adding the hardware necessary, or the software development necessary.

Essentially, they’re not interested in selling speakers designed for computers, as there are already quite a few companies in that space. They want to focus on their current product venues, networked music, and home theater setups. 

Bruce
J

I know that the soundbar’s main purpose is “speaker” for TV. Still, I feel that in 2022 it would be normal for a device that can connect to LANs (both wired and wirelessly) to be able to work in more diverse situations than a simple TV - Beam connection.

Hi.  That is all to do with the networking, which is identical whatever the source device.  The real issue is the audio connection, not the network connection, and the audio connection requires an HDMI-ARC feed.  The target market is TVs, and I think that is entirely understandable.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @ciupibz 

Welcome to the Sonos Community! I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration.

Incidentally, if you only use your TV for gaming, you could just connect the Beam directly to the PC via S/PDIF (optical) using the adaptor supplied with the Beam. Set S/PDIF as your default sound device in Windows and all PC audio will come from the Beam, whether the TV is on or off.

More info can be found here:

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
C

Thanks,

I also use the TV as a TV, so the option to connect the Sonos directly to PC is not an option for me.

melvimbe

It sounds to me what you really want is a windows/microsoft version of Apple airplay.  Airrplay will send any audio playing on your iPhone/iPad/AppleTV/Mac to an airplay compliant speaker (Sonos is) over the local network.  To my knowledge, there isn’t an equivalent on Windows.  Sonos can play audio files from a library on your computer, and of course, you can control playback of streaming services on Sonos via the Sonos app or some streaming service apps.  There might be some third party software that can send out the audio via a URL that Sonos can pick up on, but I would think that would have significant lag.

I understand the assumption that something like this should exist in 2022, but to my knowledge, it does not exist for windows, with Sonos speakers or any other speaker.

Danny
Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @ciupibz 

I also use the TV as a TV, so the option to connect the Sonos directly to PC is not an option for me.

You may be able to watch your locally-available TV stations on the Web, in which case you could watch TV on the PC, on the TV, with sound from the Beam. With no remote, this isn’t as convenient, but worth mentioning, seeing as other options simply aren’t available. Alternatively, a TV Tuner/capture card could be added via PCIe or USB 3, but this clearly isn’t the cheapest of options.

As @melvimbe mentions, what you describe (a networked sound device) can be done with a Mac, via AirPlay, which the Beam is compatible with. It typically doesn’t work well if there are long periods of silence, however, as the connection is timed-out after a while. Additionally, the only way to broadcast AirPlay from a Windows computer is to use iTunes, and that will not stream system sounds, which is what you’d need.

The main reason we split our software into S1 and S2 is so that we could utilise the greater resource capacity of our newer devices so that adding features like what you suggest is at least possible. Perhaps we’ll introduce something like it one day - presumably, everyone who enquires about connecting the Beam to a PC (and there are a few) would be interested. Thanks again for your feedback - keep it coming!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
C

Thank you @Corry P ,

It just feels so frustrating for the device to have a network port (RJ-45) and its use to be minimal. 

If I understand correctly, now, the RJ-45 port can only be used to link the beam to other Sonos sound devices on the Lan.

It just feel as such a waste (to not make use of the wired connection)… :)

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @ciupibz 

Computers will do what you tell them to do, so it’s certainly not outside the realms of possibility that someone could write a simple Windows application that streams system audio to which a Sonos system could “tune in”. I’m not aware of any, however. It would probably require a matching service to be added to Sonos, but we’re open to that. As @melvimbe mentions, however, there would likely be significant enough latency in this process that the audio would be noticeably behind any video/events.

Plus, we’re always looking for other options for playback - it may be a case of simply watching this space.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Hi @ciupibz 

Computers will do what you tell them to do, so it’s certainly not outside the realms of possibility that someone could write a simple Windows application that streams system audio to which a Sonos system could “tune in”. I’m not aware of any, however. It would probably require a matching service to be added to Sonos, but we’re open to that. As @melvimbe mentions, however, there would likely be significant enough latency in this process that the audio would be noticeably behind any video/events.

Plus, we’re always looking for other options for playback - it may be a case of simply watching this space.

 

There have been multiple attempts to capture PC audio and stream it to Sonos devices. The one I am most familiar could not do this without substantial latency, as the streaming-from-url Sonos code is simply not designed for low-latency. The real fix would be to leverage the virtual-line-in API set that AirPlay uses, but no-one has figured that out so far.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

I did have a feeling you’d know more about this than I do, @controlav. Thanks!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
melvimbe

Thank you @Corry P ,

It just feels so frustrating for the device to have a network port (RJ-45) and its use to be minimal. 

If I understand correctly, now, the RJ-45 port can only be used to link the beam to other Sonos sound devices on the Lan.

It just feel as such a waste (to not make use of the wired connection)… :)

 

Correct, regarding the use of the ethernet port on the Beam.  Other Sonos devices, like the Amp, have 2 ports on the back, so the can be use to connect other devices to the network, but they cannot be used to send audio from non Sonos sources.   

Honestly though, if Sonos were to work with Microsoft on a way to send PC audio to the speakers, or MS just built a generic way to do this the way Apple did, then it would likely be wireless...like Airplay.  I really don’t think MS has a lot of motivation to do this though.  Apple did it to help sell their phones and homepods, only adding it to Macs because it was ‘easy’ at that point.  MS doesn’t have phones or speakers, so they have less reason.  It does seem like it would be an interesting feature for xbox...but xbox are designed to connect to TVs.  But, it never hurts to ask.

Danny
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