13.4 Update - Thanks, Sonos!

  • 16 November 2021
  • 31 replies
  • 2499 views

Userlevel 7

13.4 update includes:

  • Sonos home theater products now support decoding DTS Digital Surround.
     
  • A new Battery Saver mode is available for portable Sonos products.
     
  • EQ settings are now accessible by pressing the icon on the Now Playing screen in the Sonos app for iOS.
     
  • An HD badge now shows on the Now Playing screen while Sonos is playing higher quality audio.

For anyone who thinks Sonos isn’t reading these forums or listening to their customers, this update is proof that they most definitely are listening. Thanks, Sonos!


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31 replies

Userlevel 7

So did a quick overnight test with my Move and the new Battery Saver feature.  Turned the feature on.

 

It was fully charged at 100%, took it off the cradle and turned it off with a long press so it was fully off.

 

In the Sonos App it showed my Move as offline with a red dot.  Left it off the cradle overnight and just turned it on this morning.

 

Battery is at 97%.  Funnily enough this is the same result as when I did this test 1.5 years ago on a brand new Move  (see: 

 

That said after day 2 last year I was down to 92%.   Will do a 2nd day to see if it stays at 3% a night (expect 94% battery left tomorrow) or it it improves even further.  Even 94% would be an improvement from last year.

 

That said, even if it stays at 3% a night, that is a pretty bad self-discharge rate…  it would be dead in a month if fully off and not on a cradle.  Some Bluetooth speakers can old a charge for a year or more.  Not sure if the Roam does better in this regard.

 

I know it was previously mentioned this was a known issue, I had hoped this new feature would be the fix, I don’t want to write it off yet (will wait for day 2 test) but it seems there is something still draining the battery when its completely off or the battery chemistry  isn’t your typical Li-Ion/Li-Polymor with this discharge.

 

The Battery Saver feature is not designed to prolong the battery life while the speaker is fully turned off. It is designed to power off the speaker after being idle for 30 minutes instead of going into sleep mode.

 

And also not wake it up when the app is opened.  It was insinuated that despite being hard-off the Moves (and I guess the Roams) were waking up when the app was open and it was causing battery drain.  This setting is supposed to prevent that.

The Move and Roam only wake up when opening the app if they are in sleep/standby mode. They will not wake up if they are turned off properly. The problem is many users don’t turn off the speaker completely, don’t know how, or assume putting the speaker into sleep mode is the same as turning it off.

It's a step in the right direction, I just don't understand why if they implemented DTS, why DTS-HD couldn't be added, but hopefully it will come at a later date. Shame the EQ isn't on Android either. 

 

I imagine DTS-HD  isn’t implemented due to some combination of licensing costs, development effort, and maybe content availability.

Userlevel 5
Badge +15

I wanted to concur with OP, Sonos, this is a great update and greatly appreciated. They do listen to these forums if it makes sense.  Figured it would drop right before earnings call and what do you know it did. 😉 Looking forward to iPhone 13 Trueplay update, Sonos Voice Control and Lossless support for Apple as well as Amazon HD. Might see them this year yet but doubtful. Again, keep it up. 

Userlevel 4
Badge +3

It's a step in the right direction, I just don't understand why if they implemented DTS, why DTS-HD couldn't be added, but hopefully it will come at a later date. Shame the EQ isn't on Android either. 

 

I imagine DTS-HD  isn’t implemented due to some combination of licensing costs, development effort, and maybe content availability.

 

 

Yep, sadly no idea on licensing costs for codecs but would assume that would be the issue. Implementation wouldn't be a problem and as for formats it's their main codec these days found on all the latest Blu-ray disks etc. Standard DTS is mainly used on DVD's. 

Shield converts it all anyway so no biggy. Haven't had a chance to test yet, but hoping it may fix the bug where it's outputting as multichannel 7.1 when should be 5.1 and fixed the slightly lower volume when doing so. 

 

Yup, working for me on all my iOS controllers. Haven’t figured out where to find it on my Mac controller yet, but haven’t spent more than 10 seconds looking for it, either. 

Great to see, wish they would hurry up with iphone 13 support!

What do you mean by iPhone 13 support? Just curious as I did not hear anything about this. Any information is appreciated. 

I think the post is in reference to Trueplay Support. See this link… https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3222

Userlevel 5
Badge +9

Tried playing DVD and Blu-ray with DTS but on the app it shows “Stereo PCM” and not 5.1… My setup is Arc + Sub + 2 x Play 1, and with LG TV 49SK8500PCA. Just wonder if any expert here has an idea? Thanks!

Userlevel 7
Badge +21

Playbar Gen 1 Works ?

Yes, providing you are using the S2 app.

Playbar Gen 1 Works ?

Yes, providing you are using the S2 app.

Not that there is such a thing as a Playbar Gen 1. It's just a Playbar. 

Userlevel 3
Badge +3

So did a quick overnight test with my Move and the new Battery Saver feature.  Turned the feature on.

 

It was fully charged at 100%, took it off the cradle and turned it off with a long press so it was fully off.

 

In the Sonos App it showed my Move as offline with a red dot.  Left it off the cradle overnight and just turned it on this morning.

 

Battery is at 97%.  Funnily enough this is the same result as when I did this test 1.5 years ago on a brand new Move  (see: 

 

That said after day 2 last year I was down to 92%.   Will do a 2nd day to see if it stays at 3% a night (expect 94% battery left tomorrow) or it it improves even further.  Even 94% would be an improvement from last year.

 

That said, even if it stays at 3% a night, that is a pretty bad self-discharge rate…  it would be dead in a month if fully off and not on a cradle.  Some Bluetooth speakers can old a charge for a year or more.  Not sure if the Roam does better in this regard.

 

I know it was previously mentioned this was a known issue, I had hoped this new feature would be the fix, I don’t want to write it off yet (will wait for day 2 test) but it seems there is something still draining the battery when its completely off or the battery chemistry  isn’t your typical Li-Ion/Li-Polymor with this discharge.

 

 

Userlevel 7

So did a quick overnight test with my Move and the new Battery Saver feature.  Turned the feature on.

 

It was fully charged at 100%, took it off the cradle and turned it off with a long press so it was fully off.

 

In the Sonos App it showed my Move as offline with a red dot.  Left it off the cradle overnight and just turned it on this morning.

 

Battery is at 97%.  Funnily enough this is the same result as when I did this test 1.5 years ago on a brand new Move  (see: 

 

That said after day 2 last year I was down to 92%.   Will do a 2nd day to see if it stays at 3% a night (expect 94% battery left tomorrow) or it it improves even further.  Even 94% would be an improvement from last year.

 

That said, even if it stays at 3% a night, that is a pretty bad self-discharge rate…  it would be dead in a month if fully off and not on a cradle.  Some Bluetooth speakers can old a charge for a year or more.  Not sure if the Roam does better in this regard.

 

I know it was previously mentioned this was a known issue, I had hoped this new feature would be the fix, I don’t want to write it off yet (will wait for day 2 test) but it seems there is something still draining the battery when its completely off or the battery chemistry  isn’t your typical Li-Ion/Li-Polymor with this discharge.

 

The Battery Saver feature is not designed to prolong the battery life while the speaker is fully turned off. It is designed to power off the speaker after being idle for 30 minutes instead of going into sleep mode.

Userlevel 3
Badge +3

So did a quick overnight test with my Move and the new Battery Saver feature.  Turned the feature on.

 

It was fully charged at 100%, took it off the cradle and turned it off with a long press so it was fully off.

 

In the Sonos App it showed my Move as offline with a red dot.  Left it off the cradle overnight and just turned it on this morning.

 

Battery is at 97%.  Funnily enough this is the same result as when I did this test 1.5 years ago on a brand new Move  (see: 

 

That said after day 2 last year I was down to 92%.   Will do a 2nd day to see if it stays at 3% a night (expect 94% battery left tomorrow) or it it improves even further.  Even 94% would be an improvement from last year.

 

That said, even if it stays at 3% a night, that is a pretty bad self-discharge rate…  it would be dead in a month if fully off and not on a cradle.  Some Bluetooth speakers can old a charge for a year or more.  Not sure if the Roam does better in this regard.

 

I know it was previously mentioned this was a known issue, I had hoped this new feature would be the fix, I don’t want to write it off yet (will wait for day 2 test) but it seems there is something still draining the battery when its completely off or the battery chemistry  isn’t your typical Li-Ion/Li-Polymor with this discharge.

 

The Battery Saver feature is not designed to prolong the battery life while the speaker is fully turned off. It is designed to power off the speaker after being idle for 30 minutes instead of going into sleep mode.

 

And also not wake it up when the app is opened.  It was insinuated that despite being hard-off the Moves (and I guess the Roams) were waking up when the app was open and it was causing battery drain.  This setting is supposed to prevent that.

Userlevel 3
Badge +3

So did a quick overnight test with my Move and the new Battery Saver feature.  Turned the feature on.

 

It was fully charged at 100%, took it off the cradle and turned it off with a long press so it was fully off.

 

In the Sonos App it showed my Move as offline with a red dot.  Left it off the cradle overnight and just turned it on this morning.

 

Battery is at 97%.  Funnily enough this is the same result as when I did this test 1.5 years ago on a brand new Move  (see: 

 

That said after day 2 last year I was down to 92%.   Will do a 2nd day to see if it stays at 3% a night (expect 94% battery left tomorrow) or it it improves even further.  Even 94% would be an improvement from last year.

 

That said, even if it stays at 3% a night, that is a pretty bad self-discharge rate…  it would be dead in a month if fully off and not on a cradle.  Some Bluetooth speakers can old a charge for a year or more.  Not sure if the Roam does better in this regard.

 

I know it was previously mentioned this was a known issue, I had hoped this new feature would be the fix, I don’t want to write it off yet (will wait for day 2 test) but it seems there is something still draining the battery when its completely off or the battery chemistry  isn’t your typical Li-Ion/Li-Polymor with this discharge.

 

The Battery Saver feature is not designed to prolong the battery life while the speaker is fully turned off. It is designed to power off the speaker after being idle for 30 minutes instead of going into sleep mode.

 

And also not wake it up when the app is opened.  It was insinuated that despite being hard-off the Moves (and I guess the Roams) were waking up when the app was open and it was causing battery drain.  This setting is supposed to prevent that.

The Move and Roam only wake up when opening the app if they are in sleep/standby mode. They will not wake up if they are turned off properly. The problem is many users don’t turn off the speaker completely, don’t know how, or assume putting the speaker into sleep mode is the same as turning it off.

 

Ideally that is how a fully powered off device should behave.  It shouldn’t be listened to a WOL or equivalent and just remain off. 

At least according to Ryan S (formerly of Sonos Support) Engineering was aware of something that was causing fully powered off Moves to turn back on, causing power drain when they were off…  this setting would presumably prevent that from happening, helping with discharge.

 

13.4 update includes:

  • Sonos home theater products now support decoding DTS Digital Surround.
     
  • A new Battery Saver mode is available for portable Sonos products.
     
  • EQ settings are now accessible by pressing the icon on the Now Playing screen in the Sonos app for iOS.
     
  • An HD badge now shows on the Now Playing screen while Sonos is playing higher quality audio.

For anyone who thinks Sonos isn’t reading these forums or listening to their customers, this update is proof that they most definitely are listening. Thanks, Sonos!

Hello there! 
 

i sincerely think that they updated the way the playbar plays music. I recently discovered my fav tunes in another way, I mean « spatial sound ».

I was listening to Radiohead and found the quality of the sound very much better than usual on tje playbar, the sound had « volume » and a new presence… and I am really thankful to you Sonos.

and you guys did you feel the improvments? 


 

Userlevel 5
Badge +7

Great to see, wish they would hurry up with iphone 13 support!

Userlevel 4
Badge +3

It's a step in the right direction, I just don't understand why if they implemented DTS, why DTS-HD couldn't be added, but hopefully it will come at a later date. Shame the EQ isn't on Android either. 

Userlevel 7

I’m very curious to see how DTS Digital Surround will sound compared to multichannel PCM on my Arc when watching DTS-encoded Blu-ray discs. After I test, I’ll post my experience.

Userlevel 4
Badge +3

I’m very curious to see how DTS Digital Surround will sound compared to multichannel PCM on my Arc when watching DTS-encoded Blu-ray discs. After I test, I’ll post my experience.

Make sure it's a DVD then 😜 Blu-rays have DTS HD Master audio which isn't supported and multichannel pcm 5.1 would sound better converted from DTS:HD than standard DTS would found about 15 years ago. 😋

Userlevel 7
Badge +23

It's a step in the right direction, I just don't understand why if they implemented DTS, why DTS-HD couldn't be added, but hopefully it will come at a later date. Shame the EQ isn't on Android either. 

Because optical and HDMI-Arc can’t do it I would imagine. eArc is required for the lossless codecs.

Userlevel 7
Badge +22

I had no problem getting 13.4 on a couple Android tablets but two others weren’t seeing anything but 13.2 in the Play Store. Had to restart both to get them to see the update.

Userlevel 5
Badge +9

Anyone try the new Battery Saver setting with their Roam or their Move?  I can’t get it to the work.  The toggle button in the app won’t stay in the “On” position.  

Anyone try the new Battery Saver setting with their Roam or their Move?  I can’t get it to the work.  The toggle button in the app won’t stay in the “On” position.  

Its working okay here, that’s on two different Roams and it is staying ‘ON’ - even after fully closing and reopening the Sonos App. Maybe reboot your speaker and the mobile controller. 

Userlevel 5
Badge +15

Great to see, wish they would hurry up with iphone 13 support!

What do you mean by iPhone 13 support? Just curious as I did not hear anything about this. Any information is appreciated. 

I think that the intention there is support for TruePlay, not the actual iOS controller. I’ve been using an iPhone 13 since it was released without any issue, other than TruePlay not being available. 

Userlevel 5
Badge +15

I think that the intention there is support for TruePlay, not the actual iOS controller. I’ve been using an iPhone 13 since it was released without any issue, other than TruePlay not being available. 

Gotcha, didn’t even realize this was a thing. Guess I will wait patiently.