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AMP - hdmi ARC output vs online steaming

  • 7 October 2019
  • 6 replies
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I am considering getting several AMPs. I plan on hooking 1 up to the TV via hdmi ARC. The other AMPs will be in other rooms. 1 of them in the guest bathroom.

What I would like to do is stream online music to the guest bathroom unless something is playing on the TV. In that case, I’d like the sound in the guest bathroom to be the same as the TV... When the TV is turned off... back to the online music it was streaming before. Is this possible to kinda “set and forget” this? Or does it require going into the app and switching back and forth?
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Best answer by stealle 7 October 2019, 19:39

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6 replies

No, it won’t go back to playing music without going in to the app and telling the Sonos Amp to do so.
No, the system won't do all of that automatically, not without some 3rd party help anyway. Within the Sonos amp, I believe you can configure auto play to automatically play audio in a particular room when you turn on the TV. There is no way to have any room automatically play streaming audio when the TV is turned off, even for the amp connected to the TV.

You probably can do this with a 3rd party smart control tool though. Something like smartthings could maybe trigger routines when the TV is turned on or off that would in turn stream audio in various Sonos rooms. You wouldn't be able to tell a room to play whatever stream was playing before the TV came on though, as that sort of memory isn't available.
An example of a scenario I am after is this... let’s say I’m having a super bowl party. We are watching the game on TV. Sound via AMP (hdmi arc) & third party speakers. Someone leaves to use the guest bathroom. While they step out the biggest play of the game happens. Fortunately, they at least heard the action while in the bathroom via a second AMP and third party in ceiling speaker.

At this point, everything I’ve mentioned in the above example is possible, correct?


Yep. I've done this a few times.

What I was asking is, if when the game is over and the TV is turned off, if the AMP or both AMPs could return to streaming the online music it was before without going into the app to tell it to do so.

melvmbe- Not the response I wanted to hear but I think you understood my question. Thank you for the answer.


I doubt you're going to find any speaker system that will do this without configuring a routine in a 3rd party tool. I don't think there is anyway for the speaker to even know that the TV is off, although maybe it can with HDMI-ARC.
Userlevel 7
Hi stealle

I'm not sure you fully understand the use of; or need for a Sonos Amp. As analogy the Sonos Amp is akin to an AVR you can attach a pair of speakers and two devices simultaneously but it (Sonos Amp) has no provisions for radio. The two devices can be a TV via HDMI_ARC or Optical adapter and a device with line-out such as a turntable or CD/DVD player. That said under the majority of circumstances you would not place a AVR or; in this case a Sonos Amp in the bath.

You could connect a Sonos Amp to a bedroom TV and use 3rd party speakers and for the bath you could use a Sonos One, Sonos One SL, Sonos Play 5 or Sonos Move. All of which are moisture resistant the latter being weather proof. Also, you could stream music to the Sonos Amp and hear it through the 3rd party speakers and any other Sonos speaker in the household.

Might I suggest that you post a few more details about how you envision using Sonos and where. We'd be glad to assist you and make recommendations.

Cheers!
AjT- thanks for your concern about moisture issues. However, that is not a concern here. I prefer a more built in look of having in-wall or in-ceiling speakers. The in-ceiling speaker in my bathroom (Polk RC6s) is moisture resistant and made for bathrooms in mind. I was talking about the sound from the AMP being in the bathroom. The AMP itself will be located in an entirely different room.

An example of a scenario I am after is this... let’s say I’m having a super bowl party. We are watching the game on TV. Sound via AMP (hdmi arc) & third party speakers. Someone leaves to use the guest bathroom. While they step out the biggest play of the game happens. Fortunately, they at least heard the action while in the bathroom via a second AMP and third party in ceiling speaker.

At this point, everything I’ve mentioned in the above example is possible, correct? What I was asking is, if when the game is over and the TV is turned off, if the AMP or both AMPs could return to streaming the online music it was before without going into the app to tell it to do so.

melvmbe- Not the response I wanted to hear but I think you understood my question. Thank you for the answer.
Thanks Danny. I’ll explore 3rd party tools at some point after the installation.

Im not a programmer but I usually understand what can and can’t be done. It just seems to me the AMP could sense whether or not there is active input from the HDMI source (no input = tv off, active input = tv on). So, in this way the AMP “knows” if the tv is on or off. So if you are streaming online music and the TV is turned on it will switch to sound from the TV automatically. I assume the AMP does this, correct? Now, if the TV is turned off the AMP can sense the lack of input from the hdmi source and go back to streaming. It sounds like you are saying the AMP lacks the memory and ability to go back to streaming what it was before the TV was turned on. I understand but that is unfortunate. It seems like that could be something that programming could do but maybe that requires hardware/memory.