Contributor I

Dolby Digital Plus on Beam surrounding

26 replies
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I have a TCL TV with roku built in and I used it with my Sonos beam with two One SL speakers as a 5.0 set-up. I connect the TV to beam through HDMI-ARC. I realize I can only receive surrounding TV audio when the output is dolby digital (e.g., the Dolby roku app), but not dolby digital plus (e.g., all other apps including netflix, hulu, disneyplus, etc.). How should I correctly set up my speakers or TV?

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melvimbe

You misunderstand me, I’m not proposing they should “steal” anything at all.

No, you didn’t use the word steal, but said that since DD and DD+ were not protected by patents anymore, Sonos doesn’t have to pay for it.

I just think that adding DD+ has become a lot cheaper, if not almost free, for Sonos. DD+ now has the same status as plain DD, and they probably are paying for that (for the trademark/logo) anyway.

But this is a complete guess. You’re assuming that Dolby has to lower fees now that their codec isn’t patent protected. I don’t see why. Why would DD and DD+ essentially be the same cost? Obviously they are not worth the same to customers, since you are not satisfied with DD alone.

Maybe I should have been clearer _why_ I posted this, that is, “why doesn’t Sonos add DD+ to the beam” since the answer “they are not going to pay the extra license costs for products that have already been sold” might not be valid anymore. I think it’s interesting.

And I don’t want to rehash the whole conversation, but the fact that I have an expensive surround set that can’t even play 5.1 surround from basically any streaming service is ridiculous. They should fix that.

The Beam supports the same codecs it did when you bought it. And I’ve never had an issue playing 5.1 from streaming source. All this is beside the point, as you’ve started this up with the claim that dolby patents means that Sonos would be able to add DD+ to the beam for zero or low cost.

If that’s actually what’s happening across the industry, no one is paying for DD or DD+ anymore, then ok.

Well I do think that it’s interesting that a Samsung TV from 2014 does not support Dolby Digital passthrough (so HDMI in → HDMI-ARC out to soundbar). Most TVs from that era didn’t. And starting in 2017, most TVs now _do_ support that. Note that the DD (AC-3) patents expired in 2017.

That actually hurts your argument, not help it. You’re providing an example where an older product isn’t getting a firmware update to modern standards. I imagine you’re trying to say that DD passthrough started happening in 2017 because the patent expired. You’re probably mostly correct in this. I’ve talked with other manufacturers of HDMI switches that have stated that you can passthrough Dolby without paying fees, but you can do any processing. It’s why there are so many cheap HDMI switches available on Amazon. But like I said, passthrough and processing Dolby codecs are not the same.

To be clear, I’m not saying that Sonos should or shouldn’t do this, as I don’t know the costs involved. I certainly wouldn’t mind if they did (other than people then complaining that they can’t do atmos). I’m just saying that I don’t think the Dolby patents dropping is proof that Sonos has zero or low licensing costs.

Danny

M

Mike42

Lyricist II

I don’t want to argue. Everything that needs to be said has been said in this thread (and a few others as well).

I just wanted to make people aware that it is likely that Sonos could, if they wished, make DD+ available on the Beam, and that they, again, possibly, would not have to spend a lot on licensing for that. They should keep their customers happy (everybody is an influencer in this day and age!).

S

sjddo

Lyricist II

Yes Beam does not currently support dolby digital Plus

Yes, it doesn’t support Dolby digital plus.

U

unicornn

Lyricist I

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M

McMurdeR

Prominent Collaborator I

The Beam ought to support DD+, for no other reason that the codec has become ubiquitous on streaming services/devices, and the hardware should be theoretically capable. A part of buying into Sonos is that while Sonos encourages us to expand our systems over time, we expect Sonos to keep improving the software capability and features.

R

rareskysix

Lyricist I

Yes, Sonos Beam supports Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0, and PCM stereo.

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