I looked over your diagnostic and I’m not seeing anything that stands out at a big issue. The Playbar was just rebooted 20 minutes prior to the diagnostic, so it doesn’t have a lot of information in there however. I’d suggest that you give our support team a call to troubleshoot live. They’ll take a look and see if you’re experiencing something related to what was mentioned earlier in the thread, or if it’s something else.

Static just started for me. I have a Sony XBR 950 running video through anApple TV 4K. Just submitted a diagnostic - 773522020

Anyone from Sonos interested in answering this?

Hello @Jmack3g, Welcome to the Sonos Community and thank you for reaching out with your issue. 

Can you tell us if this only happens while you are using your Apple TV as a video source? 

Are both your TV and Apple TV set to output Dolby Digital 5.1 as an audio format to your Sonos Playbar? 

Thanks for the response, @Jean C. 

It happens with the android tv apps as well. 
TV and Apple TV set to output 5.1.

Hello @Jmack3g,

In the last diagnostic that you submitted to us, your Playbar is still receiving a stereo or PCM signal from your TV. 

You may want to double-check the output settings just to be sure. 

Does the crackling happen when you use a music source like Pandora or your Music Library?

I had this issue and submitted a diagnostic about 2 months ago. The issue stopped but started again in the last few days. My Tv is a Sony XBR 950. I’m using an Apple TV 4K and a Sonos Beam. 
 

My diagnostic number, which I just submitted, is 766479866. The issue does not happen with YouTube TV and it does not happen with streaming music from any music source. It happens on occasion when I’m playing something from Apple like an iTunes Movie or something from Apple TV+. I believe it happens with Netflix as well as Amazon Prime. I don’t recall it happening when streaming a TV show from Fox Now or any other TV channel app. 

Hello @Keydet71, 

Thank you for reaching out to the Sonos Community with your diagnostic report. 

Does this only happen when you are streaming video content via the Apple TV? 

Do you also have smart  TV apps, a DVD player or broadcast television that you can test the audio on?

Is there any chance that the Apple TV is broadcasting straight to the Sonos Beam via Airplay rather than through a wired connection to the TV?  

I am also having this issue, with this exact setup (possibly a different XBR TV), since the most recent Sonos update. It does not occur on youtube, and it consistently occurs for me on Netflix. Forcing the Sonos to reboot seems to resolve the issue temporarily - but I’m not entirely sure.

I am definitely not broadcasting over Airplay. This issue is miserable, and it makes Netflix unwatchable with the Beam.

Hello @taronish,

Are you able to verify that both the Netflix app and the Apple TV are outputting audio in a supported format for Sonos?

Either Dolby Digital or PCM/Stereo?    

By default, the Apple TV will send uncompressed multichannel LPCM, and this has been working fine for me since December - until the recent Sonos update. I’ve just attempted to force the Apple TV to reencode this as Dolby Digital (which sadly will reduce audio quality), and I will post an update if this either seems to actually resolve the problem or if it doesn’t - sometimes the issue will not immediately occur, so it is difficult to troubleshoot.

Since Netflix is an app on a closed platform, I’m not sure how you suggest that we can verify anything in particular about audio encodings or formats of the application - I didn’t even try, but if you know of some way, let me know, and I will do my best to give you that information.

It seems very likely that is a bug introduced - or reintroduced, since the other reporting user said he previously had the same issue - by the Sonos update, or perhaps some interaction between the Sonos, the Apple TV, and the Sony television, which is now surfacing due to the update.

I forced Stereo from the Apple TV and the problem seemed to go away for me. If I switch it back, I get the static again almost immediately. 
 

I have the same config Apple TV → Sony 950g → Playbar

I’m having the same issue with my sound bar and two 1s connected to Apple TV-diagnostic 591972843. I called tech support yesterday and they told me to restart my router, which worked for 15 minutes then the static came back again. He also told me to buy the Boost, which I did, but now I’m realizing this is probably due to a bug, so I’ll be returning.

Considering the price tag on these speakers, this is really unacceptable and a big push to move to Bose. Please address this ASAP.

But Stereo doesn’t produce surround sound right? This is insane 

I don’t have this issue from my Apple TV. But I don’t have a Sony TV, either. 

So I am overdue to post an update on my situation - for me the problem hasn’t come back, as long as I have the Apple TV reencode the audio as dolby digital. I think this still means it is fundamentally a bug either on the Sonos side or with the interaction of the Sonos, the AppleTV, and the Sony TV set. This works for now and I can watch Netflix again.

Before this workaround, it was super irritating, because my Sony TV won’t let me use internal speakers when the Sonos is connected - even when I set it to “TV Speakers”, it immediately goes to “audio system active”, which means that to watch Netflix before, I had to unplug the BEAM.

I have my Apple TV audio set to Dolby Digital but still hear the fuzz. It goes away when I change the output to Stereo, but that disables surround sound, which was the whole point of getting Sonos.

Hello, could use some help here as well. This only started happening after upgrading to the new Sonos S2 app which triggered a firmware update to my system. Since then my audio has been cracking on my playbase via an optical audio connection to my Sony X950G. Diagnostics report: 83800953

Using an Apple TV 4K with Dolby Digital set on the TV and Auto on the Apple TV for everything else. 

The answer and what WORKED for me. Step 1 - update your firmware. Your oled has an internal

speaker so go to to settings and go to sound an ensure under audio outputs it doesn’t say tv sound but audio speakers and that solved the issue. What’s weird is all up until today I had no issues but when I changed to audio output then my tv did work. Try it. I have a Sony a9g oled 

I’m afraid the firmware across my TV and Sonos are up to date. Also the TV’s settings are correct, if they were set to the internal speakers I wouldn’t have run into this problem in the first place :)

Are there any Sonos admins who can help?

I now have the same problem since updating firmware when I downloaded the S2 app.

Never had this issue before...

Same issue here--I hear the static sound from the rear speakers.  It may be from the Playbar, too, but we are closer to the rears and hear it more there.  Only seems to happen with Apple TV streaming Netflix or whatever.  Audio is running from the Apple TV 4K to TV (Sony XBR-65X950H) to Playbar via optical.

It is somewhat astounding so many people are reporting this problem yet Sonos appears to have nothing to say.

I'm having this issue now as well. Sony X950G playing Dolby Digital. Only fix is to restart the playbar.

It's also less “static” and more like some kind of corruption. High frequencies are “clicky” and low frequencies are either missing entirely or super loud.