Airplay 2: DD 5.1 format supported by Sonos 5.1 system?

Heh. I was 5 and 6 years old, so my French has degraded since then. 🙂 But it is indeed good memories for me, I was fortunate to live in the village (my father was *not* military, just a contractor, so there wasn't on base military housing for us).

Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can give you any particular feedback on that splitter. But as near as I can tell, it should work just fine for a single HDMI input. The fortunate thing in my mind is that they're all relatively inexpensive, so if one doesn't work, it's not that big an investment. The one I've seen linked most often is (i think) this one:

https://www.amazon.com/iArkPower-Optical-Extractor-Splitter-Supports/dp/B01K7BZ1XC/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=iArk&qid=1560109302&s=gateway&sr=8-2

which doesn't appear to be on the Amazon.fr site. But as I say, I've no experience with these myself, the Vizio TVs I own work properly when passing through the DD signal.

That being said, I still think that the one you've purchased should work, for one HMDI input to the TV. Might be helpful to others if you were to post if it does, when you get it, just in case there are others from France who might benefit from real world experience.

Again, good luck!

Hey Bruce,

Should be nice memories from this age in such a nice place indeed :)

Thanks for the example and exactly what I had in mind, meaning trying with a cheap one to check if it works before investing in a more expensive one.

Actually I found it in Amazon.fr:
https://www.amazon.fr/Cable-Adapter-Adaptateur-Extracteur-t%C3%A9l%C3%A9commande/dp/B07GVPYWCP/ref=sr_1_12?__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=6ZUTA709VYQ5&keywords=hdmi+extracteur+audio&qid=1560125546&s=gateway&sprefix=HDMI+extract%2Caps%2C199&sr=8-12

Funny the difference of price, no? 🙂 70€ = 80 USD while yours is at 40 USD. Probably the french one is made with gold haha

Absolutely, the minimum I can do is to share my feedback once I have a chance to try the one I purchased.

Stay tuned!

Hey Bruce, guys,

Back in the game with my feedback!

So I received the spitter, plugged in and... it works and does the job! Absolutely no sync issue at all! I definitely recommend it, 18 euros, cool! 🙂 let's see on a long run but worth it till now! Go for it, guys!

Then it created a new problem that I finally fixed which was the following: controlling the volume via the Apple TV remote (the Siri one), every time you press the volume button, it displays and control the volume bar on the TV which is super annoying. I searched and fixed the issue, available here, thanks to the community again:
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3403?language=en

But there is something that it is not clear to me to be sure that I get the right 5.1 sound setting between Apple TV > HDMI splitter > video projector / optical to Sonos Playbase to exploit my Sonos system. It might be a stupid question but why not asking? :)

On the spitter, you can select "pass through" or "5.1 CH" (stereo not relevant here). I assume that watching a Netflix movie which is sent in 5.1, you do not need to force the spitter or the Apple TV to encode in 5.1 Dolby Digital, right? So better to stay in pass through instead of 5.1 on the spitter and the Apple TV?

Or better to select the pass through on the spitter and then chose the setting 5.1 Dolby Digital in the Apple TV settings? Or both??

My assumption is the following: if the content is done in stereo, why forcing the Apple TV or the spitter to encode it in 5.1? Result will not be true 5.1 in any case... seems logical to me but I might totally wrong. And if the content is in 5.1, then I exploit properly my 5.1 Sonos system...

Any idea/feedback? Should I book an audio class to better understand the logic here ? Bruce, you still here? :)

Merci les amis!

Je suis ici,

All 5.1 is not Dolby Digital, there are several other codecs that are also 5.1 encoded, most notably DTS. Sonos can only interpret the Dolby Digital encoding, so it's much better to set that in your Apple TV as the codec being sent.

If the source is in stereo, it will only send stereo, instead, so there's nothing to worry about there.

Essentially, you want the switch to be on pass through, and you force the codec at the source device (the Apple TV in this case).

Merci Bruce, it makes sense! Just tested and it is much much much better!! Ahhh here we are :)

This is success, now I really have the 5.1 AND I do not see any volume control message popping up anymore when I change the volume, which is cool!

This is just because you help me, this a success because of you! This is super cool to take the time and it was worth it, everything clearly improved! No more question but just want to say: "Merci Monsieur" :)

Greetings from France for you, Bruce!

Bye

@Ron Miller I'm glad you solved your issue with the help of the community. I hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread, but I'm having an issue with airplay and Sonos and wanted to collect some opinions.

To my understanding Airplay 2 does stream Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. SO for instance if I'm watching a Netflix movie with DD 5.1 audio the Apple TV is able to stream the 5.1 audio via airplay to a compatible device.

So my question is, why isn't Sonos capable of receiving the 5.1 audio?

Thanks!

Sonos is only capable of playing stereo via Airplay 2. To play in 5.1, you would need an Apple TV physically connected to a Playbar/Playbase/Beam/Amp.

@jgatie Got it. So it's a Sonos limitation, not Airplay's.

I've contacted Sonos support and it is an Airplay limitation. They pointed me out to this help article from the apple website: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204069

They write on the footnotes:

"Audio that you stream from Apple TV with AirPlay doesn't support Dolby Atmos or surround sound."

So Airplay 2 doesn't stream surround sound after all, only stereo audio.

Interesting, and thanks for doing that research, and posting it here.