So I bought two play 1's and set them up as rear surrounds in a 5.0 system with my play base. This seemed like a good idea in theory, but now I feel like I wasted my money.
Comcast is hit and miss with DD 5.1 content, my Nintendo switch is only going to do 2.0 (LPCM), and so my htpc is my only real use for these new speakers.
I know I can pair the rears as a stereo set instead of as surrounds, but I'd like to keep the 5.1 ability when I can utilize it. Is there any way to switch back and forth between these two (play 1's as surrounds and as stereo) quickly? The only way I know how is to unpair everything and start setting things up from scratch. Too bad there wasn't just a button to do it similar to choosing the "full" setting for music playback.
I wish when there isn't DD content, the speakers would do more than sit there wasting space and electricity. It would be nice if they at least mirrored the stereo input or Sonos was able to synthesize 5.1 as so many other home theater systems do.
Question
Any way to utilize the Play 1's for non-DD 5.1 content?
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Switching quickly, no. Unfortunately. What you can do, however, is go in to room settings / Surrounds / Music Playback and set that to Full, rather than Ambient, and you'll get a stereo pair at full volume in addition to the Playbar/Playbase.
The fact is, they don't do nothing when there's not a 5.1 Dolby Digital Signal, there's a certain amount of interpolation that they do for surround. You may need to turn up the volume on your rears a bit. It's not a huge amount, and nowhere near as good as a true Dolby Digital soundtrack, but there should be something there.
The fact is, they don't do nothing when there's not a 5.1 Dolby Digital Signal, there's a certain amount of interpolation that they do for surround. You may need to turn up the volume on your rears a bit. It's not a huge amount, and nowhere near as good as a true Dolby Digital soundtrack, but there should be something there.
The fact is, they don't do nothing when there's not a 5.1 Dolby Digital Signal, there's a certain amount of interpolation that they do for surround. You may need to turn up the volume on your rears a bit. It's not a huge amount, and nowhere near as good as a true Dolby Digital soundtrack, but there should be something there.
Switching to the "Full" setting only affects content from the app itself though, correct? It would have no effect on anything coming from the TV?
I have noticed that on certain content deemed "stereo" in the sonos app, I do get some sound from the surround speakers. It seems this is hit and miss though. Is the playbase attempting to convert all stereo signals to surround? What is the method that it uses? Dolby Pro Logic II? I haven't read anything specific about this and I'd love to find out more information
There's separate settings for both TV and music, as I recall. You can definitely change that for just music (not Playbar/Playbase generated stuff), and not change the 5.1 ability for TV stuff.
I don't have any specifics about what method they use to parse stereo and separate out a virtual surround. I suppose it could be Dolby Pro Logic based, but it could not be 🙂 You might parse through the FAQs on the website, but I'd be willing to bet there's nothing there. Sonos isn't spectacular about exposing their "secret sauces" for other companies to copy. And since its hard to figure out where that fuzzy line is, I think they err on the side of pretty much everything being hidden if it can be.
But I wouldn't obsess over this. Find what sounds good to you, and stop fretting. Only guitar and banjo players should fret.
OK, bad joke, but it's just not worth it. 🙂
I don't have any specifics about what method they use to parse stereo and separate out a virtual surround. I suppose it could be Dolby Pro Logic based, but it could not be 🙂 You might parse through the FAQs on the website, but I'd be willing to bet there's nothing there. Sonos isn't spectacular about exposing their "secret sauces" for other companies to copy. And since its hard to figure out where that fuzzy line is, I think they err on the side of pretty much everything being hidden if it can be.
But I wouldn't obsess over this. Find what sounds good to you, and stop fretting. Only guitar and banjo players should fret.
OK, bad joke, but it's just not worth it. 🙂
It's not, it uses something proprietary (possibly due to licensing?). My observation is that it runs what the front runs, but at a greatly reduced volume. If it was DPL, you'd get a lot of sound from the rears - I can even get quite a large amount of sound from my rears using VHS tapes encoded in Dolby Stereo or Dolby Surround, let alone DPL/DPLII, by using a traditional AVR with good DPL decoder. Really good AVRs from a decade ago are even able to switch between the various DS/DPL modes on the fly based on detection of the content - though that feature is pretty much gone from modern ones.
The solution for many people who just want more volume for music coming through their TV would be one of the following:
(1) Allow "Full" mode to be selected for the surrounds for the TV source.
(2) Provide a group "Party Mode" for a single group/room, that effectivly gives you "Full" mode sound.
Given all the other possible configurations, there is absolutely no reason that the Sonos interface and the overall system can't be modified to support this. In fact, it seems like significant effort was spent to prevent users from essentially using the TV/PlayBase as a head unit for music as well as home theater.
Consider the following:
(1) Many people have computers connected directly to their TVs.
(2) Software like iTunes provide more features for managing and selecting music to be played.
(3) Many people like to listen to music via YouTube via a browser on their computers or via a YouTube app running directly on their TVs.
(4) Many people like to listen to music channels from their cable TV service.
And yes there is somekind of aftermarket shareware partial solution out there, but I think this is functionality that Sonos should directly support.
(1) Allow "Full" mode to be selected for the surrounds for the TV source.
(2) Provide a group "Party Mode" for a single group/room, that effectivly gives you "Full" mode sound.
Given all the other possible configurations, there is absolutely no reason that the Sonos interface and the overall system can't be modified to support this. In fact, it seems like significant effort was spent to prevent users from essentially using the TV/PlayBase as a head unit for music as well as home theater.
Consider the following:
(1) Many people have computers connected directly to their TVs.
(2) Software like iTunes provide more features for managing and selecting music to be played.
(3) Many people like to listen to music via YouTube via a browser on their computers or via a YouTube app running directly on their TVs.
(4) Many people like to listen to music channels from their cable TV service.
And yes there is somekind of aftermarket shareware partial solution out there, but I think this is functionality that Sonos should directly support.
Pretty much all of this. It should be implemented, quadraphonic sound has been around since the 1970's and gives good sound staging to the rear speakers, not to mention a variety of Dolby Stereo/Dolby ProLogic modes ... and the fact that every other competitor in the surround sound processing business offers this on every product level.
(1) Many people have computers connected directly to their TVs.
Many would be a relative term here. I would posit that it's less than 5% of all households.
(3) Many people like to listen to music via YouTube via a browser on their computers or via a YouTube app running directly on their TVs.
True, almost all Smart TVs support YouTube too though...
(4) Many people like to listen to music channels from their cable TV service.
This used to be true. Just a few years ago almost 20% of Americans listened to one monthly. Paid streaming has grown astronomically in the last few years though, and it's crushed their listening numbers.
(2) Provide a group "Party Mode" for a single group/room, that effectivly gives you "Full" mode sound.
I really like this recommendation.
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