Question

Playbar and sub sound issues. Should it be set to Stereo our 5.1 dolby?

  • 2 June 2019
  • 7 replies
  • 458 views

Hope I can get some help, I just bought a new Sonos play bar and sub. It was working fine but now I'm getting sound hickups with playing audio from my TV and Xbox one X. If I stream music from the play bar it sounds fine. I also noticed If I change my apple TV from 5.1 Dolby sound to stereo sound the issue goes away. I take it if I do the same on my xbox that will also fix the problem. I have a Sony 950g TV playing all the sound from the soundbar and sub. TV speakers are not on. I have tried a number of trouble shooting steps like change wireless channels, disconnect the sub, unplugged the soundbar and powered back up, unplug the optical cable and connected it back up. Not sure how to fix this. Changing it to stereo sound feels like i'm missing out on great sound quality. Any Ideas on how to fix this?

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7 replies

It should be Dolby Digital. Not DTS, not Dolby Digital Plus. PCM will be stereo only, and won't give you any surround information.

It sounds like your TV may be doing extra processing. Make sure you have as many of the "extras" for audio on your TV turned off. You want it to be doing as close to direct pass through as possible.

One way you could test this is pick up one of those HDMI switches that have an optical output. If you were to connect your cable box or Apple TV to it, and use the optical cable output from it, you'd find that there would be no hiccups.
Yeah if I change it to Dolby Digital I get the hiccups. I have the TV audio set to sound system. When I disconnected the sound bar I get no audio from the TV at all. So I know I have the TV speakers off. So something is wrong then. As it also happens to my xbox one x. I have no idea what the issue could be. It seems to work fine on stereo audio.
Unfortunately, I think your problem is in the TV, not the Sonos.

You may also want to check the TV for firmware updates.
I don't believe it's the TV, I have looked at all settings and everything looks right. It has been working fine for 3 days and just started to give me issues. The Tv is connected to a Lan line and has the most up to date firmware. And as soon as I change the setting to stereo audio on the apple TV it works fine. Change it back to 5.1 I hear the issue. I bet if I adjust my audio settings on my Xbox I will get the same results. I thought maybe because I did not have any rear speakers that I would not be able to use 5.1 Dolby digital with just the soundbar and the sub. But if you are telling me I should be able to get 5.1 maybe I can reset the whole system and see what happens.

Thanks for the help. I hope I can figure it out.
It’s certainly up to you to take the time to do the testing.

The experiences reported on this forum appear to indicate that a Dolby Digital (5.1) signal go through a different processing path in most TVs than a stereo (PCM) signal does.

If you were to spend some time reading through many of the threads in the Home Theater area of this forum, you would find many people having a similar experience. As near as I can tell, all of those who have gone down the road of pulling the audio out before in reaches the TV set by employing an HDMI switch with an optical out, have resolved their issue.

What at I can tell you with relatively high confidence is that it isn’t an issue with the Sonos device.

I hope you’re able to resolve your issue. Good luck.
Userlevel 7
Badge +23
What is a "sound hiccup" exactly? Problems with optical connections are almost always the fault of the TV.
Userlevel 2
Badge +1
Having the same issue with my Sony 65” 950G tv