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PC to TV surround not working

P

Hi, 

 

I have a beam with 2 Sonos One as surround speaker connected to my tv ( Beam to ARC). I also have a Windows 10 PC connected to the TV with and hdmi cable that I use for gaming and listening Youtube. I play game on the PC using the TV as monitor. In the pc audio setting, I select the TV as the audio outpout. Normally, the game or Youtube sound is surround 5.1. I use this setup for a while now and all was working fine till today. Now, the sound only come out of the Beam (no surround).

 

I guess the issues come from my pc because if I listen TV or Netflix, the surround sound work well. I also know that the speaker are well configured because if I use the 3 piece separatly, they all play the PC sound (at the same time if I use party mode).

 

I made a few search and see that in the PC’s sound setting, in the TV speaker property, I only have the stereo option, no 5.1 sound option, like if the PC was not recognizing the home theater connected to the TV. The device cannot get more than 2 channel.

 

Do somebody has an idea of what the solution could be? Thank

Best answer by Corry P

Hi @pokerloict 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

It is very unlikely that your PC has CEC functionality, and without CEC, it would have no way of knowing what audio formats were supported by devices connected to it. I think, therefore, that the lack of surround options in Windows has nothing to do with the external devices connected via HDMI, and more to do with the fact that you are using HDMI rather than S/PDIF.

As far as I am aware (though I may be out of date), the only way to get games to output surround sound in any way other than using the multiple 3.5mm jacks on the motherboard is to have a sound card capable of encoding the audio, in real time, to a compressed format. This is known as Dolby Digital Live and is common on modern Soundblaster cards. Perhaps there are now graphics cards that include this functionality, but if there are, I am unaware of them. I think it’s likely you just experienced stereo up-mixing in the past.

By the way - if you reply to yourself here in the forum, the thread is no longer flagged as one needing a reply and you are less likely to get timely assistance.

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6 replies

P
  • pokerloict
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 3 replies
  • June 27, 2022

UP!

P
  • pokerloict
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 3 replies
  • June 28, 2022

UP

Corry P
Forum|alt.badge.img+18
  • Corry P
  • Sonos Staff
  • 8646 replies
  • Answer
  • July 1, 2022

Hi @pokerloict 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

It is very unlikely that your PC has CEC functionality, and without CEC, it would have no way of knowing what audio formats were supported by devices connected to it. I think, therefore, that the lack of surround options in Windows has nothing to do with the external devices connected via HDMI, and more to do with the fact that you are using HDMI rather than S/PDIF.

As far as I am aware (though I may be out of date), the only way to get games to output surround sound in any way other than using the multiple 3.5mm jacks on the motherboard is to have a sound card capable of encoding the audio, in real time, to a compressed format. This is known as Dolby Digital Live and is common on modern Soundblaster cards. Perhaps there are now graphics cards that include this functionality, but if there are, I am unaware of them. I think it’s likely you just experienced stereo up-mixing in the past.

By the way - if you reply to yourself here in the forum, the thread is no longer flagged as one needing a reply and you are less likely to get timely assistance.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Airgetlam
1 person likes this
  • Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
P
  • pokerloict
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 3 replies
  • July 2, 2022

Hi,

 

Thank @Corry P for reply. Its totally possible that I just experienced stereo up-mixing. In fact, I don't know much about it.

Is there a way to make this up-mixing work back? Now, even if I put the surrond to +15 in the app, there is no sound at all.

Thank

N
Forum|alt.badge.img+19
  • nik9669a
  • Senior Virtuoso
  • 5647 replies
  • July 2, 2022

It sounds like your tv or your pc/soundcard has had an update that’s reset your sound settings. The Beam can only process and play what’s sent to it.
You may need to contact the tv and sound card manufacturers’ support? Or give us the make/model and maybe someone on these forums might be able to give you some suggestions. 

Corry P
Forum|alt.badge.img+18
  • Corry P
  • Sonos Staff
  • 8646 replies
  • July 4, 2022

Hi @pokerloict 

pokerloict wrote:

Is there a way to make this up-mixing work back? Now, even if I put the surrond to +15 in the app, there is no sound at all.

I think this would most likely be adjusted in your relevant audio codec’s settings on the PC, or the software that plays it. For YouTube, I’m not sure how you would achieve this. Incidentally, I sometimes hear what sounds like surround sound when watching YouTube, despite the Sonos app reporting Dolby Digital 2.0. I presume this has something to do with my TV converting the audio, rather than my source device (nVidia Shield with YouTube app) It seems to vary with particular videos played.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
Airgetlam
1 person likes this
  • Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
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