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Playbar Audio Drop Outs

  • September 5, 2022
  • 7 replies
  • 116 views
O
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I use a Playbar with two Play 1 speakers as rears, (the Playbar is plugged into the router) and am hearing slight drop outs in audio that is labelled as Dolby Digital 2.0. I’m watching on an LG TV, with digital output set to “Auto”.

This happens from a variety of sources, including an Nvidia Shield and the BBC iPlayer app on the TV. The problem seems to disppear if I select the digital output on the TV to “PCM”, but I am loathe to do this, as it will impact all audio the TV outputs and DTS, etc will be compromised unless I change the setting each time.

I know there have been a few threads on this in the past, but all the ones I’ve read seem to be years old and have fizzled out without a solution - is this just an issue that Sonos never fixed? I’d like to add a subwoofer at some point soon, but not if this issue is still unresolved.

Thanks in advance.

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7 replies

Airgetlam
  • Airgetlam
  • September 5, 2022

It’s hard to get a wired device to exhibit this sort of behavior, especially one connected with an optical cable. In general, it usually has to do with the TV settings, or the devices feeding the TV, either not sending a signal at all, or sending a signal that’s more than the PLAYBAR can handle. 

In your case, I’d certainly set the TV to Dolby 5.1, and not Auto. DTS would have been one reason that the PLAYBAR would have gone silent, the PLAYBAR can’t handle anything beyond Dolby Digital.

Double check the devices feeding the TV set, make sure they’re sending Dolby Digital to the TV set, not DTS, or Atmos. Unfortunately, optical is a one way signal, and there is no method like there is with HDMI ARC, to send back a notification of what type of signal is possible. You have to make those setting changes yourself, on all devices. 

Bruce
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  • Keithmac
  • Virtuoso
  • September 5, 2022

Didn't Playbar get DTS support on later S2 firmware or was it just the Arc and Beam?.

Airgetlam
  • Airgetlam
  • September 5, 2022

Just the Arc and Beam, due to bandwidth restraints on the optical connection, to my knowledge. Which would include the Ray, now, as well.

Bruce
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  • only_sleeping
  • Author
  • Enthusiast I
  • September 5, 2022

Thanks for the replies so far.

 

The Playbar is now able to play DTS soundtracks and does this without error.

 

As for my TV’s settings, I only have two options - “Auto” or “PCM” - I suspect that means that the Playbar’s issues with Dolby Digital 2.0 have not been fixed in any update and that means I’m unable to secure a reliable high quality sound from standard broadcast material.

K
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  • Keithmac
  • Virtuoso
  • September 5, 2022

Just the Arc and Beam, due to bandwidth restraints on the optical connection, to my knowledge. Which would include the Ray, now, as well.

 

The Playbar on S2 does support DTS.

 

O
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  • only_sleeping
  • Author
  • Enthusiast I
  • September 5, 2022

That’s strange. It reports as playing DTS:

 

 

Although DTS isn’t the issue - my dropouts occur when playing a Dolby Digital 2.0 stream!

K
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  • Keithmac
  • Virtuoso
  • September 5, 2022

I've never had any problem with DD2.0 on my Playbar but I'm still on S1.

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