I have read posts over 4 years old about sonos playbar not supporting Dolby Digital Plus. I find it amazing that sonos does not clearly state this or even better found a solution. If a conversion process is not possible then the conection mechanism should be changed to hdmi.
I phoned sonos and the operatives are not really awarevof this issue. If sonos want to be in the 5.1 home cinema market this is a must!!!!
I would like to see some meaningful response from sonos that addresses the issue and does not just fudge the ussue since it was first identified over 4 years ago on this site.
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The beam uses HDMI and it automatically down mixes DD+ as well as TrueHD/Atmos. For DTS, it does send stereo but i've found that it simulates surround fairly well using Pro Logic.
I imagine they will release a playbar that utilizes the updates that came with the beam.
I imagine they will release a playbar that utilizes the updates that came with the beam.
When using ARC there is a handshake to ensure it always receives the proper signal, and it automatically downmixes DD+ as well as TrueHD/Atmos.
Hi, am slow to the scene but does it mean that Sonos PlayBar doesn't support the native surround sound format of Netflix (DD+) and will only playback the Stereo stream?
Neither supports DD+ but when connected via ARC with the beam it uses the handshake to seamlessly down mix. Since playbar uses optical it would then come down to whether your TV supports that. You could also use an Apple TV or another box that allows for DD output.
That only applies when connected over optical, as stated above. When connected over ARC it will always ensure the proper signal is received and down mix other Dolby codecs.
When using HDMI-ARC, Beam will automatically request Dolby Digital 5.1 from the device it's connected to, which should convert Dolby formats for the best sound.
https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/sonos-beam-now-available-setup-and-useful-information-6809808
When using HDMI-ARC, Beam will automatically request Dolby Digital 5.1 from the device it's connected to, which should convert Dolby formats for the best sound.
https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/sonos-beam-now-available-setup-and-useful-information-6809808
The different formats of Dolby Inc. are backward-compatible, however, I think the TV set has to support the conversion.
Is Dolby Digital Plus content backward-compatible?
Because Dolby Digital Plus is built on core Dolby Digital technologies, content that is encoded with Dolby Digital Plus is fully compatible with the millions of existing home theaters and playback systems worldwide equipped for Dolby Digital playback. Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks are easily converted to a 640 kbps Dolby Digital signal without decoding and reencoding, for output via S/PDIF. The 640 kbps bit rate, which is higher than the standard 448 kbps used on DVDs, is fully compatible with all existing Dolby Digital decoding products such as A/V receivers, and can provide higher-than-DVD quality from Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks when played back through existing systems.
https://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/Assets/US/Doc/Professional/dolby-digital-plus-faq.pdf
Hola
Yo creo que no hace falta Más, si lo que quieres es una barra de sonido. Sonos tiene el mejor decodificador de audio del mercado. Si quieres más tendras que comprar varios altavoces independientes y conectarlos a un amplificador av compatible con los ultimos formatos de audio.
Yo creo que no hace falta Más, si lo que quieres es una barra de sonido. Sonos tiene el mejor decodificador de audio del mercado. Si quieres más tendras que comprar varios altavoces independientes y conectarlos a un amplificador av compatible con los ultimos formatos de audio.
Most TVs output Dolby Digital. Check the output settings on the tv and select Dolby Digital. DTS or non-lossy formats won’t be possible to output from TVs until eARC becomes a standard with TVs and ancillary devices.
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I have Netflix and its in surround. I have a Sonos surround Setup too.
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I stream Netflix through my Roku which is connect HDMI to the Samsung TV and then it goes from the TV optically to the Playbar. I do Have 5.1 surround confirmed also. I have a Samsung BluRay player that i can play DTS Blu rays in surround also. I had to go into the settings on the player and set it to convert the data from DTS or Plus to Dolby Digital... it sounds great. But I had to make sure i bought a player that would do that.
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In my understanding, handshake is simply a feature enabling the Beam to request supported fileformats. The Beam supports PCM and Dolby Digital but not Dolby Digital Plus.
Handshake does not mean that the Beam can downmix Dolby Digital Plus to Dolby Digital - the Beam cannot do that.
Handshake simply ensures that the TV will provide the best possible sound available that the Beam supports. Meaning that if e.g. Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital and PCM is available, the TV will send Dolby Digital to the Beam.
However, Netflix for instance does typically not include several types of audioformats in their streams. With Chromecast and most other systems, only Stereo and Dolby Digital Plus are available for Netflix.
In this case, handshake will ensure that the Beam receives the best possible, supported format being stereo (PCM).
Some people seem to be of the impressions that most TV-sets can downmix e.g. Dolby Digital Plus to Dolby Digital and that handshake will force the TV to do so.
I have yet to find a single tv-set with this feature. In any price range. I even put up a specific thread to identify any TV-sets with this feature - but was out of luck.
Except for some Blu-ray-players, Xbox/Playstation and Apple TV, TVs and streaming-boxes (including popular choices as Chromecast and Fire sticks) are not able to downmix Dolby Digital Plus or DTS on the fly.
Some build-in apps on TVs only stream in e.g. Dolby Digital and avoids the problem this way, but generally - unless you use an Apple TV, Playstation, Xbox or similar - you will not be able to get full surround from Netflix and many other streaming services from a Sonos-device - including the Beam.
This is coming from a long-term Sonos-fan owning (and having done so since their respective dates of release) each of the Playbar, Playbase and Beam.
All of them are great products, but getting the most out of them is becoming increasingly more difficult with the widespreading of unsupported file formats.
Here is hoping thay Apple will continue supporting the excellent on-the-fly converting capabilities of the Apple TV (or LG/Sony releasing a decent Oled TV-set with similar capabilities!) - cause I am sure Sonos will not be changing their strategy on this. They never did on DTS and I do not see any sign of change in terms of Dolby Digital Plus.
New models of LG Oled transcoding DD, DD+ and HE-AAC to DD output signal, so 5.1 should be played when watching netflix or other streaming services. I have asked to LG how new models are going to deal with atmos.
https://www.lg.com/ca_en/support/product-help/CT20098005-1437136302910-others
Is it possible to buy any equipment to handle the DD+ to DD conversion, in order to get Chromecast support with full surround sound ?
Hi, thanks to everyone who posted on this thread, it’s helped me a lot with frustrations on my living room setup which I have now gotten working with DD5.1. When I plug the HDMI into my TV inputs and the optical out into the Playbar from the TV, I’d only get stereo (as many of you have with TV optical outs).
The LG streaming apps provide Dolby Digital 5.1 to my Playbar via optical, but my TV is 4+ years old now, and the apps suck on LG to begin with, not to mention that they haven’t aged well, freeze and limited options. Also any HDMI being fed into my TV would get stepped down to stereo when playing on the Playbar . I tried initially to plug the Chromecast U into a KanexPro 18 gbps splitter and then feed the signal to my Playbar and TV from there, that didn’t work though as the Playbar would only register the audio signal if I togged the KanexPro to stereo output and away from Bitstream, which left me back at square one. Given the age of my TV and in my opinion the terrible UI, I read the NVIDIA Shield that came out in Oct 2019 had the ability to send DD 5.1 signals out which I hoped my Playbar would read. The Shield isn’t the cheapest option but the UI in my opinion is fantastic and its functionally replaced my TV UI now as I can use the Shield for everything. So I ditched the Chromecast U, and plugged the Shield into the KanexPro and then to TV and the playbar. Initially it looks like the issue wasn’t fixed, but going into the audio settings, you can manually toggle every audio output (All the common Dolbys and DTS). So I manually enabled DD 5.1 and also enabled upmixing to 5.1 on the device and disabled DD+, DTS, TrueHD, etc). Now everything coming through is DD 5.1 and the common streaming apps (Netflix, Prime, etc), all have the video streaming 4K to the TV and 5.1 audio to the Playbar.
I spent more money than I would’ve liked, the Shield in Canada was $160 and the KanexPro $120 but to have a surround Sonos living room setup that gives proper surround again has been worth it for me.
I hope this helps some folks, and Sonos, please take note, I went through a lot of headaches after spending a lot of money on my equipment. Why an investment of this magnitude has me fiddling with finding a legacy handshake to get the benefit out of my system is really stupid. All Dolby/DTS should just work with your devices given the cost.
Can you confirm whether you bought the 2019 or the 2019 pro?
the 2019 (not Pro)
I have my Sonos playbar connected by optical...make sure your TV is set on optical, and have the latest software update on your Sonos system. Your Sonos app should register as 5.1. If you have the latest Sonos beam, connect it through the HDMI ARC, and have your TV set to HDMI. Some people forget to set there TVs.
That’s all their is to it. 🙂
The only problem I’ve ever had in getting 5.1 was through my 4K Roku system, I fiddled through it too many times to get 5.1, but kept getting stereo. I ditched it, it was too much of a hassle...my Apple TV 4K and Fire Cube gave me no problems.
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