Avid Contributor I

Amazon Ultra HD not showing badge on Play:5 (gen 2)

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
December 9, 2021
65 replies
3443 views

I’m not seeing the “Ultra HD” badge when I stream Amazon HD on my Play:5 (gen 2) pair + Sub. It’s working fine on my Arc + Sub + Surrounds. Any thoughts?

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Ken_Griffiths

@Mr. T - just for good measure I switched the Sub to the ‘Patio’ room (One gen1 stereo pair) - but that is also giving me UtraHD too FWIW?

Mr. T

A few observations:

Atmos plays on my Beam/gen2 + Play:1s + Sub/gen2
UHD plays on the above, on a One/gen1, and on a One/gen2 pair
It can take a minute or more for the faster stream(s) to kick in. In the case of the UHD examples above it went from SD, then to HD, then eventually to UHD. Independent bandwidth measurements confirmed that the stream was indeed starting in SD, and that the badging is correct.
I don’t care for this behaviour at all. When you ask Deezer for FLAC that’s what you have from the get-go.

On my Arc, the higher resolution (Dolby Atmos/Ultra HD) is available immediately, that’s not the case with the stereo pair Ones, even although one of them is wired.

ratty

A few observations:

Atmos plays on my Beam/gen2 + Play:1s + Sub/gen2
UHD plays on the above, on a One/gen1, and on a One/gen2 pair
It can take a minute or more for the faster stream(s) to kick in. In the case of the UHD examples above it went from SD, then to HD, then eventually to UHD. Independent bandwidth measurements confirmed that the stream was indeed starting in SD, and that the badging is correct.
I don’t care for this behaviour at all. When you ask Deezer for FLAC that’s what you have from the get-go.

On my Arc, the higher resolution (Dolby Atmos/Ultra HD) is available immediately, that’s not the case with the stereo pair Ones, even although one of them is wired.

Indeed. The Atmos badging is immediate.

It’s the SD → HD → UHD progression which seems to take time to get going on a newly selected album.

FWIW the network connections are all fine. Low interference. Etc. In fact the stream starts in SD on a hard-wired Port, before eventually heaving itself up to HD, and then finally UHD at 2+ mins in.

Belly M

I have several Sonos One (Gen 1s) and they do not play HD or Ultra HD from Amazon Music.

Without any intervention they are working now, no lag with the HD or Ultra HD icon showing either.

Ken_Griffiths

A few observations:

Atmos plays on my Beam/gen2 + Play:1s + Sub/gen2
UHD plays on the above, on a One/gen1, and on a One/gen2 pair
It can take a minute or more for the faster stream(s) to kick in. In the case of the UHD examples above it went from SD, then to HD, then eventually to UHD. Independent bandwidth measurements confirmed that the stream was indeed starting in SD, and that the badging is correct.
I don’t care for this behaviour at all. When you ask Deezer for FLAC that’s what you have from the get-go.

I assume things have to be quite clever and switch between the 16-bit and 24-bit audio formats as a user decides to ‘group’ and ‘ungroup’ their rooms with older players like the Play:1/Play:3’s etc. without interruption to the playing track.

ratty

A few observations:

Atmos plays on my Beam/gen2 + Play:1s + Sub/gen2
UHD plays on the above, on a One/gen1, and on a One/gen2 pair
It can take a minute or more for the faster stream(s) to kick in. In the case of the UHD examples above it went from SD, then to HD, then eventually to UHD. Independent bandwidth measurements confirmed that the stream was indeed starting in SD, and that the badging is correct.
I don’t care for this behaviour at all. When you ask Deezer for FLAC that’s what you have from the get-go.

I assume things have to be quite clever and switch between the 16-bit and 24-bit audio formats as a user decides to ‘group’ and ‘ungroup’ their rooms with older players like the Play:1/Play:3’s etc. without interruption to the playing track.

I suppose that could be part of it. A Port playing UHD switches to HD, and ostensibly rebuffers, when a Play:1 is added to it. (Dropping the P:1 does not return the Port to UHD until some time into the next track.) I’m not sure why tracks sometimes appear to start in SD though...

ratty

I have several Sonos One (Gen 1s) and they do not play HD or Ultra HD from Amazon Music.

Without any intervention they are working now, no lag with the HD or Ultra HD icon showing either.

Yes, the transitions can be quick. Quite why it can sometimes take a minute or two to pick up speed is a bit mysterious, unless it’s simply down to internet traffic conditions.

Ken_Griffiths

I assume things have to be quite clever and switch between the 16-bit and 24-bit audio formats as a user decides to ‘group’ and ‘ungroup’ their rooms with older players like the Play:1/Play:3’s etc. without interruption to the playing track.

I suppose that could be part of it. A Port playing UHD switches to HD, and ostensibly rebuffers, when a Play:1 is added to it. (Dropping the P:1 does not return the Port to UHD until some time into the next track.) I’m not sure why tracks sometimes appear to start in SD though...

It’s also still early days with the new AM service on Sonos - I’m assuming, like everything these days, these transition timings between the audio formats may improve with ..er.. time 😀.

A

AdamCTAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Just following up on my original post.

If I remove the bonded Sub (gen 2), I see the UHD badge with the Play:5s (gen 2). When I add the Sub back, the badge returns to HD.

Ken_Griffiths

Just following up on my original post.

If I remove the bonded Sub (gen 2), I see the UHD badge with the Play:5s (gen 2). When I add the Sub back, the badge returns to HD.

What version of the Sub are you using - it might help Staff to hone in on the alleged badge issue.. also did you wait a while (more than 2 minutes) and try other UHD tracks to see if it was possible to get a UHD badge at all on the bonded setup?

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