Question

Our sonos playbar all of a sudden stopped playing the TV sound. Still can played over but not TV sound nor DVD nor Apple TV. Please help.

  • 19 February 2015
  • 91 replies
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Our sonos playbar all of a sudden stopped playing the TV sound. Still can played over but not TV sound nor DVD nor Apple TV. Please help.

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91 replies

Correction as I posted wrong diagnostics number: 6823064
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Correction as I posted wrong diagnostics number: 6823064

Hi Kt327639,

The PLAYBAR shows that it is receiving a stereo signal from the optical cable. It may help to check your TV's audio settings to make sure it's set to output audio through the optical output. What model of TV do you have?
I am having this same issue. My sound bar plays music and bluray player but not my tv. Diagnostic 6916369
My play bar plays my tv and radio but when I try to play music library or Spotify no sound comes out. Diagnostic 6916584
Thanks
Thought I should add Spotify still plays through all of our other speakers in different rooms just not in the room with playbar & 2 play3's.
Hi, I am all of a sudden havong same issue. My TV is set to PCM and is a samsung, it has an optical with a red light. i tried rebooting, resetting, and different optical cable. when i reset it said getting no audio signal from TV. my ID number is 111091644
Sorry my Diagnostics number is 6926400
same problem. sound bar worked fine for a long time. All of the sudden stopped playing anything. unplugged it, checked optical connection and can't get it to work. diagnostic 6949845
Same problem. I have the player for 5 days now, worked fine. Now for 2 days, when watching tv, the sound suddenly stops. Switching channel makes it come back for about 10 seconds. Then it disappears again.
Setting up play bar for first time. Music plays fine but no sound from tv. Optical cable attached from tv to play at. Red light can be seen. Powered on and off, no change. Disconnected cable and reconnected, no change. Diagnostic 6951436.
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Hey gregc...

This may be a messy place to place your questions (given it is among a few others having potentially different challenges and in a discussion thread that is a year old... not being critical, just hoping to help troubleshoot your issue specifically separate from the rest of the thread...) Having said that, your issue may be quite different from many of the others here in that it seems you have not yet had your system working for any TV audio. I'm no digital audio expert, but I believe you will need to make sure that the audio format your TV is "sending" to the playbar through the Toslink cable is one that is compatible with the playbar, as perhaps a first step in troubleshooting your specific problem... For the standard setup, If you are absolutley certain that you have a 5.1 audio source, your TV should pass Dolby Digital 5.1 to your Playbar over optical when you’re watching something with that format.

This link may be helpful: https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/home-theater-and-television-recommendation-megathread-6735001

Best of luck 🙂
Same problem TV volume suddenly gone - diagnosis number 7007430
No TV Sound: diagnosis number 7019974
Hello same issue here. No TV sound but able to play music. Optical cable functioning tried power cycling to no avail. Diagnostic number 7024772. Thanks!
The same problem just reared its quiet head. I've had the Playbar for months and everything has been fine (well, except for Spotify disappearing fairly often), but tonight there was suddenly no sound on TV playback, from either of two sources (Roku and TiVo). Music plays fine. I power-cycled with no change.

Diagnostic 7028916.

Thanks very much.
Same problem here! After years of working perfectly. just bought a new TV yesterday, still not working. Will try to get a diagnostics number, but thinking there must be a fix on it's way very soon...
Hi,

I am having the same problem... We've had the playbar connected to the TV for over 6 months now and it has always worked perfectly, and tonight when we turned on the TV there was no sound at all.

The TV is a Samsung purchased in 2009.

There was a Sonos update available last weekend which I made sure to install.

On the TV, when I select the PS3 input for example, there is sound, but when I select the the input to watch TV, the playbar doesn't play any sound, other than a slight interference/light dust sound. When I select another input, that sound disappears. I unplugged it twice and it didn't solve the problem. I also checked the optical cable and there is red light coming out of it.

The playbar is mounted on the wall under the TV and hasn't been touched for months. I can't see any reason why a cable would suddenly become unplugged.

When I play music though, it works just fine.

BUT, with the TV on, if I try to play music, it switches back automatically to the TV within a second or two because it detects the slight interference sound.

Any idea what this could be???

Here is my diagnostic number: 7080330.

Thanks
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pat_garneau

You are right to post a diagnostic... I suspect this may require a Sonos Staff member to look at the details and get back to you... I can't see what would have happened to change the playback for TV versus PS3... that makes no sense to me personally... but others here have more experience ... perhaps the Sonos Staff can see something in the logs?
Same issur here. Tried powere cycle, checked optical cable, its red. No sound from TV only when i playusic from my phone. Diagnostic # 7080997
Not having the ability to look at the diagnostic, let me make an educated guess, based on personal experience. I had a TV switch its own audio settings due to a power surge/outage in my home just after I'd moved, and before I had a chance to put it on a surge protector. Now, the information you're going to get from the Sonos folks will be more accurate, since they'll be able to look at the diagnostic, but I'd at least start by checking the audio settings on the TV, particularly since it is working for the PS3. If you get your TV signal from cable, or some other "set top box", you should check the audio output settings on that device as well. It's feasible that it is sending something other than either stereo or Dolby Digital, and the TV is passing that out to your Playbar.

Finally, you can also look in your app at "about my sonos system" in the preferences area. In the list of devices on your Sonos system, it will list your Playbar, as well as what signal it thinks it is getting through the optical cable.

Hope this helps, at least partially, while you wait for a Sonos person to look at your diagnostics, which you were indeed kind to post!
I am having similar trouble. I have three playbars connected to three TVs, two Sony Vizios and one LG. They have been working fine for about one year. However, after a recent sustained power outage at my home, the system came back up. The playbar connected to the LG works fine. The two playbars connected to the Vizios have stopped playing tv sound. They work fine playing Spotify or other music sources I select using my controller. They also work fine playing dvds from DVD players connected to each set up. I cannot get any TV sound though, whether live tv or record tv shows thru Netflix.

My diagnostic number is 7096038.

All help appreciated.
I should add that I took all the steps suggested here, e.g., checked the optical cable, power cycled the unit, etc.
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I am having similar trouble. I have three playbars connected to three TVs, two Sony Vizios and one LG. They have been working fine for about one year. However, after a recent sustained power outage at my home, the system came back up. The playbar connected to the LG works fine. The two playbars connected to the Vizios have stopped playing tv sound. They work fine playing Spotify or other music sources I select using my controller. They also work fine playing dvds from DVD players connected to each set up. I cannot get any TV sound though, whether live tv or record tv shows thru Netflix.

My diagnostic number is 7096038.

All help appreciated.


While waiting for the Staff to look at your Diagnostic...

I would definitely look closely at the audio settings on the TV. I suspect they may have somehow "reset" themselves and need to be put back to ensure you are sending DD audio out the digital optical output....
Thank you, Shark. I did, but I will double check.
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Hey User122342 - are you still not getting any audio from the two PLAYBARs connected to each Vizio TV? From the description provided it does seem as if the Vizio TVs may not be pushing a signal out of the optical port. If both PLAYBARs work fine when wired to a DVD player, that lets us know the optical cable and the optical port on the PLAYBAR are functioning fine. To make absolutely sure, a great test would be to take the two PLAYBARs and hook them up to the LG TV as we know that setup is 100% functional.