sonos full reliance on TV is the major weak point.  

you can also just get a different soundbar (almost all other major brands other than Bose) that has HDMI input/pass through and support DTS:X so the soundbar does not rely on your TV.  

Sounds like it's written by an apple fanboy 🤪 haha jokes. 

They've delivered yes, but they've also delivered a 15 year old codec found on DVD's which not even my Grandma uses. Even she has a blu ray player  

That's where people are lost. It makes no sense to not add the other codecs if you are adding DTS. 

Can't gripe the 1 hdmi port, don't buy Sonos then. TV doesn't support passthrough, buy a different TV, add Arcana again not Sonos issue. 

It's more funny reading posts on Reddit about people thinking using this form of DTS is better than what they currently get which is multi channel pcm 5.1, but that's for my amusement. 

Just wish Sonos would release a statement as to why they chose to add DTS but only certain codecs, but then they are probably too busy fighting Google at the moment as to who is telling the truth on patents

@Simmz

If you look closely my avatar represents both Apple and Microsoft Windows. It’s the colors. 🤪

I would suspect that each codec involves a licensing fee. Someone has to pay…and it would probably be the consumer. 

I now only purchase 4K UltraHD discs. They all have Dolby Atmos audio. DTS and/or DTS:HD appears to be a add-on. In some cases it’s only offered in a language other than English.  The titles below with asterisk indicate titles with DTS audio. 

Joker
John Wick 1 & 2

John Wick 3

Avengers End Game *

Terminator Dark Fate

Hunter Killer

Black Hawk Down *

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom *

Mission Impossible Fallout

Us

Black Panther

Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker *
Angel Has Fallen

The Hit man’s Body Guard

Thor Ragnarok *

Crawl *

Equalizer2 *

Shaft

IMO From a marketing standpoint it makes more sense to support the more prevalent Audio format and offer others (DTS) as  secondary; if not cost prohibitive. 

So, there’s my take on the DTS:HD debate. But hopefully Sonos will offer it in a future update. However, it will still go back to the ability of the source player and/or TV to process the signal. 

We can discuss “pass-through” option for Sonos soundbars later

DTS owns a bigger market share for disks than Dolby does by quite a long way. It's only companies doing deals on streaming platforms which has pushed Dolby more because it uses better compression and therefore easier on the bandwidth. 

Most people arguing on DTS stuff haven't probably even heard it properly. It hands down beats Atmos on object based sound with their X version and the way it tracks items would actually suit the Arc better than Atmos does. 

It's like Samsung not supporting Dolby Vision. In a perfect world these tech companies should just standardise everything especially with how much the products cost. 

Seeing how Sonos added £100 to every product I don't care if there's license costs they can front the cost.

That’s only part of the story.  The rest is that majority of people stream content these days, rather than consume it through physical media.  And while maybe there is a significant market of folks who want the better quality of physical media (whether perceived or real), those same folks would also tend to shy away from soundbars for their home theatre.

So I wonder what changed to cause Sonos to adopt DTS?  Did the license and development cost drop enough to make the market size less relevant, or does Sonos believe the market for DTS is growing?

Standardization and innovation tend to always be at odds with other.  Same way that a companies goal of maximizing profits is often at a odds with a customers goal of maximizing value.  The always have to meet somewhere in the middle

Considering the rise of inflation and supply chain costs, I’ve no doubt that the price increase is at least somewhat in part to that.  No doubt that Sonos also wants to do that maximize profits thing that I mentioned earlier.  As long as they can sell them faster than they can make them, hard to argue with that from an objective point of view.  But sure, if it doesn’t have the features you want, or isn’t the value you’re looking for, than don’t buy it.

I fully agree on the majorty, but a lot of people do still use disks and the % is higher than you think.

I'm not trying to sound like I'm constantly whining, I bought my system for my needs and I'm happy with it. I'd just like some clarification directly from Sonos themselves as to why they have implemented DTS and the reason why you would leave the modern codecs out and only introduce one from years ago that is kinda redundant in today's market. 

Yeah that’s an interesting observation. I’m pretty sure the lack of DTS was a point of contention since the Playbar was released many years ago. I wonder what prompted them to add it now…. Any guesses?

It’s great to see them adding new codecs, no complaint from me in this regard.

I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that ALL of Sonos’ home theater products could play lossy DTS Digital Surround audio whereas only the Arc and Beam (Gen 2) could play lossless DTS-HD Master Audio. And the latter would also require a TV with HDMI eARC which a lot of consumers still don’t have. And it doesn’t help that DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS:X is pretty much limited to physical media which is used less and less by most consumers because of the popularity of streaming.

Unfortunately, that will probably not happen. Corporations rarely (and I mean rarely) discuss or reveal reasons for product development criteria for included and/or omitted features.

From posts it said dts would be available for beam gen1 but I can’t seam to get it to work even with hd fury

can anyone confirm please

Hi @Bigh2210 

It’s available. Make sure you are running v13.4 and you are using the Sonos S2 app. Click the link.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4945?language=en_US

Thanks for this but tried with s2 and 13.4 but only get pcm when set to dts on dvd via hd fury

What are the audio settings on the DVD/Blu-ray player set to? Have you turned on the DTS setting in the audio menu of the Arcana? You can also try downloading the latest firmware for the Arcana where the DTS setting is enabled as the default. It is firmware version 0.85:

https://hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/

Thanks for this I can only find firmware 0.84 where is 0.85 please?

Most requests I’ve seen for DTS where from people not getting surround sound from music DVD’s/BD’s. Sonos not supporting DTS:HD would not be as big a problem for these users.

It’s on the link I posted under “Download”.

Thanks for this now all working in dts 5.1
Hope they consider dts hd soon

cheers

This release is pretty disappointing and Sonos reliance on the TV or box to do all converting is highly annoying. I upgraded my chromecast and all these Netflix titles are Dolby+ so my Sonos now only plays stereo if I use it for Netflix streaming. I purchased the arcana to see if that would help but it doesn’t. So far none of my blueray support DTS and instead is HD or X and my PS4 doesn’t appear to have a way to convert it. If I didn’t love Sonos for whole home audio (to include the TV) then I’d be looking for another alternative. The problem for Sonos isn’t me, but instead that I can’t recommend it to my friends and family with this glaring limitation. 

Sonos HT products only play the TV audio that’s sent from the device connected to it - it does not transcode the audio. If you’re not getting the correct codec to play then it’s the device sending the audio and anything in between you need to look at - the Arcana will certainly allow pass-through on the various codecs mentioned as many here will attest to. Maybe check things again and if necessary power the devices off for a few minutes and on again to setup the correct ‘handshake’ another important factor is to ensure the correct cables are being used,

Which Sonos sound bar are you using? If you are using the Arc or Beam (Gen 2), the Arcana should allow you to get Dolby Digital Plus audio from the Chromecast. You can even get Dolby Atmos audio from Netflix and Prime Video if you are using the Chromecast with Google TV (2020 model).

The Arcana will also allow you to get lossless multichannel PCM audio from DTS-encoded Blu-rays on the PS4. You just need to set the PS4’s Audio Format (Priority) setting to Linear PCM. Then while the movie is playing, press the Options button on the controller and set Audio Format to Linear PCM too.

I have the Beam gen1 so no luck with DD+. I’ll have to give those PS4 options another try. I was excited to see DTS finally work but had no luck trying before. I tried setting the priority to DTS before but the titles had the upgraded versions that would default me to 2 channel audio.  

Set the PS4’s Audio Format (Priority) setting to Bitstream (DTS). Then while the movie is playing, press the Options button on the controller and set Audio Format to Bitstream (Direct).

OK...this may read like a Fanboy post. Well...it’s not. However, I’ll leave that to your own interpretation . 

As you know the Sonos update to v13.4 brought DTS 5.1 Surround to Sonos home theaters speakers Arc and Beam Gen2.  Since the update there have been posts complaining about DTS not being processed to the Arc. BTW the Beam Gen2 will process DTS as well; but the Arc seems to be the “whipping (boy) speaker”.

Fact of the matter is in addition to having a disc player that can decode the DTS signal and/or process DTS:HD to DTS your TV must be cable of “Pass-Through” audio to the Arc or Beam Gen2. If not you must consider using a HD Fury Acrana between your TV and Sonos speaker. To do so you split the incoming HDMI source signal to the FD Fury Acrana via HDMI-Out 1 to HDMI-In on the Arc or Beam; and HDMI-Out 2 to HDMI-In on the TV (*).

The point being is that Sonos delivered on their promise to bring DTS to the Arc and Beam. Albeit not DTS:HD or DTS:X. But nevertheless...DTS. If you are having difficulty getting DTS to Sonos the weak link is either the TV (i.e. no “Pass-Through” audio) and/or the inability of the disc player to process the DTS codec or downgrade DTS:HD to DTS. 

(*) Use of HDMI 1 and 2 used only for visualization

For reference I’ve included how I was able to get DTS to the Arc and Beam Gen2. Also included are pics of the DTS signal being sent to both.

Disc: Alien 40 Anniversary / 4K Ultra HD Video / DTS:HD Audio

Sonos Equipment: Arc/Beam Gen2 with Sub x 2 and Sonos One x 2 /  Sonos S2 app v13.4.

Transport: Panasonic DP-UB9000 Ultra 4K Blu-Ray Player > Audio Settings: DTS HD to DTS

Monitor: LG OLED 65 inch C9PUA > Audio settings: HDMI eArc / Pass-Through

 

 

Hi, I have a Sonos Arc soundbar with Gen 3 Sub. I am trying to get DTS to displays on the app when I am watching a movie that has DTS 5.1 the app will display Stereo PCM 2.0 and not DTS.

But when I play movies that are in Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Atmos the app will display audio as listed.

I have a Samsung 4K OLED S95C I have changed the audio on the TV from Auto to Pass-through but it didn’t seem to change anything.

I am on latest firmware and from what I have read is that Sonos added the DTS audio to the latest firmware.

I would really like to get DTS Surround 5.1 to display on the audio like you have above.

if you cold help me with this would be much appreciated.

Thanks

@OuttaTime,

It looks like that TV does not support DTS pass-through see this link and the attached:

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/s95c-oled

Perhaps use Multichannel-LPCM audio instead (HDMI-eARC needs to be enabled to play this uncompressed codec).

So does this mean they’re phasing out DTS, DTS:X and DTS-MA surround sound out? this kind of sucks