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After reading various threads about surround sound I decided to see if my LG tv was giving my sound bar 5.1 sound.

You probably all know the answer it was NO it was only giving me stereo sound

So I then set out today to make sure I got 5.1 Dolby Surround sound.

I purchased a HDMI splitter from HDMI to optical and after a bit of messing and swapping and changing cables and a few choice words I actually got my playbar to show audio in as 5.1 Dolby digital wow what a difference



I had no idea I was not getting 5.1 surround Sonos have never made it obvious to simple people like me that just putting an optical cable from tv to soundbar won’t give u 5.1 surround sound so at a cost of 2.5k for sound bar sub and 2 play 5s and I was not getting the 5.1



Sonos advertise as having the equipment will give u 5.1 surround sound it does not this should be reported as false advertising here in the U.K.



Why are you advertising that having the equipment will give you 5.1surround sound when it clearly does not SONOS?
Seems like you're saying I should sue Toyota for telling me that my car should get 40 mpg but I still have to put gas into it.



Of course Sonos can't provide you 5.1 sound if you don't provide it the opportunity to. It's pretty clear in all the setup information, the FAQs, and of course all of the posts here in the forum that an appropriate signal being provided to the Sonos is part and parcel of the requirements.



I'm not sure I understand your expectations. Sonos doesn't have any control of what happens upstream from them. You have to provide them the signal to interpret, they can'f force changes on your TV, cable box, or other computing device.
Cool, can you linkme to the setup instructions for 5.1 surround? I getting closer to taking that plunge, and want to make sure I've got the procedure down cold so that when I turn to my wife and say "voila," it really works.
Most of the instructions are built into the Sonos app, but there is this.



https://www.sonos.com/en-us/support/home-theater



Because each TV and peripheral attached to the TV are different, there isn't a straight forward setup for every scenario. It doesn't hurt to post the TV model and peripherals in a thread here, and others can recommend settings and such, or if the particular device can't produce a dobly digital signal.
Indeed, there's actual value in reading the manual for the TV you have....even it you do it online. I'd say in 95% of the cases, people have no difficulty in setting up their Sonos. For me, lo these many years ago, it was roughly 5 minutes, if memory serves. But I'd already been pushing Dolby Digital from an A/V receiver to a 5.1 setup, so I'd become familiar with many of the "check the settings" processes.
Thanks for the coaching. Yeah, I've found Sonos is really user friendly, which is great for me.
Seems like you're saying I should sue Toyota for telling me that my car should get 40 mpg but I still have to put gas into it.



Of course Sonos can't provide you 5.1 sound if you don't provide it the opportunity to. It's pretty clear in all the setup information, the FAQs, and of course all of the posts here in the forum that an appropriate signal being provided to the Sonos is part and parcel of the requirements.



I'm not sure I understand your expectations. Sonos doesn't have any control of what happens upstream from them. You have to provide them the signal to interpret, they can'f force changes on your TV, cable box, or other computing device.



You miss understand. Sonos is advertised as a plug and play system in simple terms to simple people like myself. It is not advertised as a plug and play but you won’t get 5.1 surround sound unless you buy extra bits or spend half a day researching and setting up for 5.1



As for your Toyota it’s like them selling you the car and telling you you have to use fuel however you can’t put fuel in unless you buy extra bits and spend half the day setting it up.



The point I was making is in simple terms it is not purely plug and play 5.1 surround sound it you buy all the said speakers as advertised you need extra
Interesting. I've not seen any advertising like that. But then we live in different countries. Is any of this advertising online, so that you can link to it?



Apologies for not understanding, I guess I just don't have a reference.
I had to go into the "secret" service menu to get my LG TV to emit 5.1 over optical. I can't blame Sonos for this, but I do blame LG for making it so damn hard.
Just out of curiosity, how old is that LG TV? And I'm fascinated that such a feature existed in a hidden form. You'd think if it was possible, they'd have exposed it normally. Always fun to look at these decisions from the outside, and wonder why they're made in the way they were 🙂
It about 4 years old, its an LG 55LW5700. At least it had an option somewhere, unlike my Samsung which has to use an EDID faker to emit 5.1 DD.



This decision was made due to confusion over copy-protection: some engineers (or their lawyers) thought they were not allowed to emit DD 5.1 over optical if it came in over HDMI (with HDCP) originally. LG were unsure so put it in a hidden menu, Samsung decided "no 5.1 for YOU".
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