Can people stop complaining about DTS?
Please stop complaining. If the equipment is not exactly what you want, don’t buy it and please don’t whine that you would buy it “if”. Should I call Apple and tell them I’ll buy thousands of dollars of their brand if they “would simply integrate windows 10” to their interface? Ok, enough venting for 1 day. Phew, that felt good! Bring on the hateful comments, I can handle it.
I would buy SONOS (I nearly did because their UI is good) if it had at least basic DTS support, as almost all of my Blurays are DTS! These DTS Licenses in bulk purchases to OEMs are not expensive and I've seen this daft argument from manufacturers like AUDIOLAB that did the 8000AP and 8200AP before...
...guess what, because they refuse to implement the basics of decoding high-def formats natively (instead rely on your Player to convert to LPCM for them so they don't have to pay the puny License fee) they have discontinued their line of AVP due to nobody buying their corner-cutting barebones hardware to maximise profits.
How true!
My 100 disc Blu-ray collection has about 60% DTS discs. Guess what - I get no sound unless its PCM. I have the sub, and 4 play 1's which are all great but the playbar is a total letdown. I would love to return it but SONOS is not willing to tack back a 8 week old product.
SONOS tells me there is no demand for DTS support - bull. I'm pissed off because rather than showing off my OLED TV with awesome sound I end up playing most movies thru the TV speakers and not my $2000 sound system.
I'm the sucker - and my wife reminds me of that every time I have to change audio output for DTS.
I suspect there may be a technical reason why they cannot deliver DTS, rather than licensing.
Just jumping at straws, but the increased bandwidth of DTS doesn't play nicely with the current code Sonos uses.
However, I then look at Bose and the failed promises of Airplay 2 on any of their soundtouch line, no mesh network, no apple music and now the pathetic situation of the soundtouch line essentially being discontinued and the new wifi speakers being completely incompatible with any soundtouch product and am reminded how much better the Sonos eco system really is.
Think about it, you can have a Zone Player from a decade or more ago in perfect sync with a Sonos One Alexa speaker. Bose can't even manage to allow you to sync a bose soundtouch product bought new today with one of their new home speaker branded products which is what all their new wireless speakers are going to be branded as. Imagine how annoyed you'd be having spent thousands and already being forced into obsolescence?
I used Bose as an example as they are the most obvious competitor to Sonos, however you can use many brands in their place.
I'm not sure why making their reasoning public, beyond what they've already stated regarding streaming media, would be of benefit. Like I said, they did say that they're research suggested that most customers stream media, and therefore felt DTS was less important...and that reasoning has mostly been rejected. Why would a new reason now be acceptable to customers? I'm not saying I don't personally want to know all the details about the decision, I just don't see how telling us makes me or anyone else feel better about it.
As for pretending...have they? They responded from time to time, particularly regarding DTS on the new products Beam and Sonos Amp. I have little doubt that they are well aware of what customers are asking for.
To Be clear, I'm in favor of adding DTS if at all possible. I don't need it for myself personally, but in my opinion, it make their home theatre products less user friendly and deters sales. I don't have all the facts around that, just my opinion.
It's probably unpopular advice, but the best way for Sonos users to get surround sound from their DTS content is to buy an xbox one or some other device that can transcode on the fly.
May I ask if you found a good model Samsung UHF that allowed you to hear DTS on your Sonos system and if so, what model? I searched the older Sonos articles and apparently this has been a big issue for a long time. The recommended players from earlier articles are no longer made and I can’t afford to take any more Mis-steps after this “Sonos blunder”.
The sound from Sonos is great.
But overall I’m highly disappointed that I can’t listen to my favorite Blu-ray’s thru my expensive new Sonos system. From the articles, the makers appear to be tone deaf on the subject.
I think it’s really easy to understand WHY people complain about this. People who buy Sonos products aren’t audophiles or interested in home cinema at that level that they even know what the difference is between Dolby Digital or DTS. Yes they probably mostly watch streamed movies from Netflix, but sometimes they just want’s to play a bluray from their Playstation 4 and then they don’t understand why there is no sound. There is still a lot of movies that’s only released on bluray or even DVD.
I really don’t think that there is such a big difference between Dolby Digital or DTS (and I also know how to set up my Playstation 4 and what cable I need), but just for making it as easy as possible for people to use their technology, Sonos should just support as many formats as possible.
No more compromises. No more need for optical switches. No more transcoding. I still have 3 Sonos products for music listening but I will never be back for home theater applications. I mean whats the appeal of Sonos for home theater? Besides not having to install speaker cable, but use power cables instead, there is none. Every AV receiver now supports streaming music Spotify connect, airplay etc. It comes with serious drawbacks and like everyone here, I had to find out the hard way.
Forget about Atmos. Its TrueHD and DTS Master that you are truely missing. The lossless sound just blows you away and the detail creates such immersion.
Please stop complaining. If the equipment is not exactly what you want, don’t buy it and please don’t whine that you would buy it “if”. Should I call Apple and tell them I’ll buy thousands of dollars of their brand if they “would simply integrate windows 10” to their interface? Ok, enough venting for 1 day. Phew, that felt good! Bring on the hateful comments, I can handle it.
In my own experience, I had no idea what DTS was when I got into Sonos. I was in hifi audio in the previous century, and I got out when Dolby Digital was still called AC-3. At the time, I could get a perfect soundstage out of a pair of high quality B&W speakers and an excellent amp; with a DVD player source I had a home theater that my audiophile friends agreed was worth more than any multi-channel system they'd heard.
Years later that system was damaged, and as my priorities had changed I replaced it with a multi-channel Sony AVR and a bunch of polk speakers. The system was bland, to say the least. When Blu-ray players became affordable I got on that train. Sometimes I'd play with the various sound settings and experiment with different processing, picking out halls and such. Once in a while the DTS light would engage on the front panel, and I'd notice... nothing. It wasn't appreciably different from regular Dolby Digital. It just seemed like typical multi-channel audio. I remember reading that DTS vs DD5.1 was somewhat of a format war, and that Dolby was entrenched and would likely win. Most discs had both, it was a non-issue. So I forgot about it. I never liked the Sony system I had, not a bit, but I figured I was done with hifi so I just lived with it.
Years later, a customer demo'd his new Play:1 for me. I was astounded by how the thing sounded, especially the mids. Vocals just shimmered. I shopped around and found that there was a "complete" home theater setup offered by Sonos. The price was ok so I decided to go for it. Once I got the bugs out and went through half a dozen updates, I'm pretty well satisfied.
Except for one small thing: at some point, many studios switched from DD5.1 to DTS on their Blu-rays. I was pretty surprised to find that movies I had listened to in multi-channel on the Sony system were now playing in stereo on the Sonos. Watching the insanely well-produced Skyfall, particularly the battle at the end, I should have been hearing explosions and glass-breakage all around me, but instead it was crammed into the soundbar along with the voices. The exquisite soundtrack was being crushed.
So in response to your question "did you actually research before you purchased this very expensive equipment?", I had no idea that DTS was still around, much less that it had very nearly taken over the Blu-ray software market. I had no idea Sonos didn't handle DTS. I never thought about it.
Now personally, its not going to get me to throw the system away, or sell it. Its fine when I'm on my Apple TV4K, and the audio comes in from Netflix as DD5.1. It just sucks that I have to shop for an overpriced player now that converts DD to DTS. It also sucks that Netflix is moving towards DD+, which Sonos doesn't support - but could. While a case has been made that its a bandwidth constraint that keeps DTS off Sonos (which could be solved by using HDMI input), it doesn't appear likely that same restriction is what keeps us from getting DD+ 7.1 audio. Will it ever happen?
So you bought a sound bar that could not play your Blu-Ray disks and you blame the company that made it for "rendering your entire Blu-Ray collection useless"? I'm going to need the pictures of the Sonos executive holding the gun to your head when you purchased the item and/or tried to return it after learning of this weakness.
https://www.sonos.com/en-us/products/wireless-home-theater
All I see is a sentence about enjoying “every movie...”
https://www.sonos.com/shop/playbar.html#specs
Optical input to connect to your TV. Allows PLAYBAR to work with DOLBY DIGITAL and stereo.
And no, there isn't a list of all the things the product does not do. It could be interminable.
I'm kinda in a similar boat: while I'm currently happy with my dedicated Pioneer Elite + Energy Encores 5.1 setup that provides way more power than I'll ever need, I'd get in line to cut the cords and migrate to a Sonos system. At one point earlier in my life I was very particular about having proper 5.1 for my home cinema, but now that I'm older with kids I don't mind trading all that for a close approximation if it means a less cluttered living space and more convenience.
So when you research a brand new car, you specifically make sure that it has a left-hand turning signal or don’t you just assume a brand new car does those basic things?
Not a valid comparison. In most countries a functioning left turn signal is a legal requirement for road-worthiness.
But if, say, I wanted a satnav then of course I'd check the specs.
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