Don't Blame Sonos for DTS Issues

  • 19 November 2021
  • 27 replies
  • 2506 views

Userlevel 7

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

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

 

 


27 replies

@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

No, of course not, it’s just not a codec that your TV supports - it’s working on my LG C9 TV for example. A way around it is to send the audio from the sending device as McPCM, as mentioned earlier, but it’s uncompressed, so you need to enable the eARC port to play that codec on an attached Soundbar. The Arc and Beam (gen2) both support that audio format and your TV will pass that audio through its ports from what I read in that rtings review.

I have a Samsung TV. If you have Xbox series x passthrough works fine. I got two 4k players and passthrough didn't work on either, all DTS movies played 2 channel so annoying, returned both. Xbox series x can take DTS and transfer it to Dolby. But series x has ton more audio options than a standard 4k player.   Also I have Beam gen 1, I believe gen 2 can do DTS. 

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