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Play CD from CD player attached to Beam via HDMI-optical adapter

  • 1 November 2020
  • 14 replies
  • 1187 views

I have a SONY 5 CD player with optical out. I connected it to my Sonos Beam with the HDMI Sonos adapter. When I play a CD on the SONY no sound comes out of the Sonos. What else do I need to do? Thank you

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14 replies

What source have you selected?  You need to select ‘TV’

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Sorry, not sure about source selection.

The optical cable end is attached to the SONY player’s optical out and the HDMI end which is attached to the Sonos HDMI adapter is going in to the Sonos Beam input.

So  not sure why TV is involved

I don’t know how to select a source for the Sonos input.

Ordinarily the TV is connected to the Beam via an HDMI cable which goes out from the HDMI ARC port on the TV. I have to unplug that from the Beam to attach the optical to HDMI cable that comes from the CD player.

Is there a way, ?? via the Sonos App to tell the Beam that the source is coming directly from the CD player?

dukiebluedoc,

Select the Beam’s ‘room’ from the System (Rooms) Tab (middle icon on bottom main bar in the Sonos App) so that the room appears within the ‘Now Playing’ Screen. Then, on the Music Services tab (music note icon), scroll to the bottom of the services list and select the TV service and see if that works for you. 
 

Try the Beam’s volume/mute controls within the App, if you don’t hear anything from the connected (and playing) CD Player. 

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

 

Sorry, not sure about source selection.

In the app, select the room, then select Browse, and then select TV. 
 

 

The optical cable end is attached to the SONY player’s optical out and the HDMI end which is attached to the Sonos HDMI adapter is going in to the Sonos Beam input.

So  not sure why TV is involved

The “tv” was on the end of the cable so Sonos will see the signal from the same cable as if it was coming from a tv. 

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to Ken_Griffiths

I tried your suggestion but nothing happened when I selected TV as a music source. I had the Sonos volume up 3/4

 

to nik9669a

actually the cable I am using now is not the one previously connected to my TV. That one was an HDMI cable connected to the ARC HDMI input on my TV.

This one is an separate HDMI with the Sonos optical adapter connected to the CD player’s optical out connection.

Is there a way to add a component to what the Beam is seeing on its input?? That seems to be the problem.

thanks for all help and suggestions

Caroline

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

The Beam only has one physical input. Whether it’s a tv or a CD player at the other end, Sonos calls the input “TV”. Whether you use HDMI or optical cable via converters makes no difference to the Beam. 

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When I tried again after removing and reinserting the optical HDMI hybrid cable, I got a message in the Sonos app that “there is a problem with the HDMI cable but we can fix it”, when I clicked on that, I was told to reinsert the HDMI cable into my TV’s HDMI-ARC port.

So the Sonos app only recognizes the output  from my TV via its HDMI-ARC connection.

I need to find out how to make it recognize the HDMI-optical cable CD player connection.

I called Sonos support but they are not open today, so I will try again tomorrow and post any solution here,

Caroline

 

When I tried again after removing and reinserting the optical HDMI hybrid cable, I got a message in the Sonos app that “there is a problem with the HDMI cable but we can fix it”, when I clicked on that, I was told to reinsert the HDMI cable into my TV’s HDMI-ARC port.

So the Sonos app only recognizes the output  from my TV via its HDMI-ARC connection.

I need to find out how to make it recognize the HDMI-optical cable CD player connection.

I called Sonos support but they are not open today, so I will try again tomorrow and post any solution here,

Caroline

 

First thing I would do, is switch your TV output to use its optical port and check that the Beam HDMI cable, coupled to the optical adapter, is working with the TV - if it works, then you will have narrowed the issue down to your CD Player.
 

Of course, if you do have access to another receiver/amp with optical-in and speakers (or headphones) you can perhaps also test the CD Player optical output is actually working.

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Ken_griffiths

Problem is my TV does not have an optical audio out (it is an LG OLED TV).

For the TV I use an HDMI ARC cable connected to the Beam.

I disconnect this when I try to play CDs via the Beam and use the Sonos optical adapter.

Caroline

 

It might also be valuable to look at the CDs output settings. In general, it should be stereo only, but on the off hand chance it is set to something else, you’d need to make that adjustment. For instance, if the CD player is sending a DTS signal, Sonos wouldn’t be able to process it. It’s a remote chance, I think, but low effort to double check. 

While ARC itself is a two way communication protocol, optical is not, so the Sonos device is unable to send information back to the device at the end of the optical cable about what kind of signal to send. 

Ken_griffiths

Problem is my TV does not have an optical audio out (it is an LG OLED TV).

For the TV I use an HDMI ARC cable connected to the Beam.

I disconnect this when I try to play CDs via the Beam and use the Sonos optical adapter.

Caroline

 

I have the LG C9 OLED and that has optical - are you sure? 
 

It’s extremely unusual for LG, or any TV manufacturer, not to include an optical port, what model is it?

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 OLED 55C9PUA

 OLED 55C9PUA

That TV model does have an optical port and you should see the port on the rear of the TV with the option to switch to it in the WebOS TV under "Settings/Sound/Sound Out” - it’s the 2nd entry in the list after ‘Internal TV Speaker’. So you could use that port output to check the cable and optical adapter are working okay.

I have the same/similar TV and I’ve just set my TV audio out port to pass-through the audio and I put a music CD in my PlayStation and that plays the CD-DA (red book) format okay on the Sonos Arc, so I would guess it will work for the Sonos Beam over optical too.

I would check the cable/optical adapter first, using the TV optical-out port and then take it from there… it might be that the CD player needs to somehow switch its own output to its optical port, presumably that might be on your CD ‘remote’, or perhaps the player itself?

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Thanks,I’ll pull the TV out tomorrow and check for the optical out port, then try to attach the cdmi-optical adapter and see if I can send the tV output to the Beam that way, thereby verifying the cable.

 

There is nothing in the CD player manual or remote about verifying or selecting the output. The player just plays through whatever output has a cable.

thanks for continued help

Caroline