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Hi,

I can not achieve 5.1 audio when viewing HD broadcast TV. Can any one advise how I can achieve this please?

My set up is as follows:

Sonos Beam paired with two Sonos One SL speakers.

The Beam is connected to a Samsung TV with The ARC HDMI input. The TV Model is:

Samsung UE50ES6710

I use a Humax Freeview Player to receive the HD content:

Humax FVP5000T

The Humax is connected both via a HDMI cable and SPDIF to the Samsung TV.

The setting on the HUmax are set to Doby Digital for both HDMI and Optical outputs.

I have used The Simspons broadcast on Channel 4 HD which shows in the guide that it is broadcast in 5.1 to test the surround system. Looking at the About System page of the Sonos app I see that the audio input is Stereo.

In the sound settings for the Samsung menu I have selected External speakers. The menu options in Additional Settings for Sound shows SPDIF Out set to PCM. The Dolby Digital option is greyed out and not selectable.

When I switch source on the Samsung to USB and play a media file (eg Movie)  from a hard drive the surround sound works. I confirmed this on the Sonos App which shows the audio input for the Beam as 5.1.

It appears that my TV can out 5.1 to the Beam from the USB Media but not from the Humax HDMI input. I added the SPDIF connection between Humax and Samsung as a final attempt to get the 5.1 for broadcast TV when available.

Any suggestion how best to proceed would be very greatfully recieved.

 

Colm

 

 

 

Does the Humax Freeview Player have an optical output you can use with the Beam and the Sonos adapter? If so, try the same steps to see if the Dolby Digital signal gets to the Beam that way. If it does, you’ll want to check if the TV is capable of sending Dolby Digital received on HDMI to the HDMI-ARC connection.

It sounds like you’re getting Dolby Digital from built in apps, with that USB connection, so the TV supports the format, but I know some TVs don’t sent Dobly Digital from HDMI sources. This might take a call to Samsung to confirm.

 

Hi Ryan,

 A good suggestion.

 When I connected from the Humax optical port to the Beam’s HDMI port using the Sonas cable the Sonos App showed a change in the input to the Beam.

The  Beam input changed from Stereo to DolbyDigital 2.0. According to the EPG Freeview guide Channel 4 HD was broadcasting in DD5.1. Switching to any other HD Channel not showing DD5.1 made no difference to the input i.e it remained DolbyDigital 2.0. When I removed the optical connection between the Humax and the Beam and restored the ARC connection between Beam and TV the Audio returned to Stereo for the Beam. 

There is a possibility that although the EPG indicated the broadcast on Channel 4HD was 5.1 it may not have been.

I’m awaiting the arrival of an EDID manager to see if that will help resolve the issue which appears to be HDMI connection between Humax and TV.

Thank you for your assistance.

Best

Colm

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