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Naekyr
Enthusiast II
April 5, 2018

Does the Playbar do virtual surround?

  • April 5, 2018
  • 7 replies
  • 2137 views
I have the playbar, sub and 2 play 1's

But not all content that will be played is already in the 5.1 dolby digital format

Does the playbar do any sort of signal processing to simulate surround sound or are all the speakers just playing stereo out?

Thanks
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7 replies

NaekyrAuthor
Enthusiast II
April 5, 2018
Someone must know?

Let me use a simple example

If I input 2 chanel PCM over optical into the soundbar and I have the sub and surrounds connected to the playbar - will the playbar just output 2 channel stereo on the surrounds or will it simulate virtual surround?
SONOS ARC | SONOS Sub | SONOS Play 1 x 2 | LG C9 OLED | PS5 | RTX3090 Gaming PC | Sennheiser GSP600 Headset | Audio Pro T8L Desktop Monitors
Airgetlam
Airgetlam
April 5, 2018
I believe it does a virtual sound, but in my experience you really have to turn up the rears to ‘hear’ it. Most stuff in the US that can use a surround channel is already transmitted in 5.1, and its only older shows and talking heads programs that aren’t.
Bruce
    NaekyrAuthor
    Enthusiast II
    April 5, 2018
    Thanks you Airgetlam

    I've got my PC connected to the playbar - the PC only outputs multichannel PCM or 2 channel PCM (PC's in general will not do real time Dolby encoding for the Playbar) - the Playbar will only accept this as stereo audio so I was hoping that at least the system would try to do some virtual surround

    That explains why I struggled to hear anything from the surrounds, I'll try turning the volume up, thanks

    I like this system, I just hope one day they release an updated playbar that accept multichannel PCM over HDMI, then I would be 100% satisfied with this product
    SONOS ARC | SONOS Sub | SONOS Play 1 x 2 | LG C9 OLED | PS5 | RTX3090 Gaming PC | Sennheiser GSP600 Headset | Audio Pro T8L Desktop Monitors
    Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
    April 5, 2018
    Yea, I’ve had trouble in the past with sound cards in PCs that do 5.1 for their own speakers, but not for an HDMI output ( which took some digging to figure out!)
    Bruce
      NaekyrAuthor
      Enthusiast II
      April 5, 2018
      A possible solution for me then is a soundcard, set to output dolby 5.1 using real time encoding over optical to the playbar

      However I'll then be running multiple optical cables and the playbar only has a single input, my PC is also connected to it's own 2:1 speakers and headphones (I have a lot of audio outputs lol) so adding a soundcard and another cable into the mix will make things rather complicated when switch between output sources which I'd rather avoid

      None of which would be an issue if the Playbar had an HDMI input and accepted multichannel PCM

      As of right now - the direct competitor (Bose) does not accept multichannel PCM either so I am stuck between a rock and a hard place - unfortunately there are no wireless all in one systems I can buy here that support HDMI inputs with the correct formats - so I hope one day Sonos can support this through an updated model
      SONOS ARC | SONOS Sub | SONOS Play 1 x 2 | LG C9 OLED | PS5 | RTX3090 Gaming PC | Sennheiser GSP600 Headset | Audio Pro T8L Desktop Monitors
      rubeo
      Avid Contributor III
      April 6, 2018
      I like this system, I just hope one day they release an updated playbar that accept multichannel PCM over HDMI, then I would be 100% satisfied with this product

      Oh, man! Multichannel PCM over HDMI would be the absolute best. eARC would be icing on the cake.
      camillo777
      Headliner I
      April 7, 2018
      No

      If audio TV is stereo, then surround will be muted.

      We already asked for this and multi channel (full) stereo but it seems Sonos does not hear us.
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