DTS on sonos coming soon

@GDaz Regardless of the player you are using, multichannel PCM will always be higher quality audio than DTS Digital Surround. The former is a lossless, higher resolution audio format that contains much more audio data, whereas the latter is a lossy, more compressed audio format very similar to standard Dolby Digital. But ultimately, use your ears to determine what sounds the best to you.

Sonos is still working on the 7.1 to 5.1 downmixing issue. But I have noticed an improvement with DTS discs on my UB820 player. I have the Arc/Sub/Play:1s setup. Using a 7.1 DTS Sound Check on a DTS Demo Blu-ray disc, the two rear surround channels used to not play any test tones out of my Play:1s. Only the two side surround channels would play audio. Now all four surround channels play audio out of my two surround speakers. The Sonos app still displays the audio as 7.1, but it sounds like the 7.1 mix is being properly downmixed to 5.1.

I particularly like this line:

But ultimately, use your ears to determine what sounds the best to you.

Hi I'm wondering if someone can help me understand how this DTS support will work. I'm really new when it comes to all this audio talk and I don't really understand it. Sorry if this is a dumb question. 

I have an LG C8 TV which is connected via arc to the sonos beam and I have 2 one SL speakers for surround sound. 

I watch a lot of movies and I download the movies then copy them to an external HDD that I then connect to my TV. 

Before I download a movie I always had to make sure it had DD5.1 because I knew my beam supported that codec but with this DTS update will I be able to download DTS hd master audio films and have my TV convert the audio to a DTS codec that my beam will support or will the TV not do that ? 

I'm just really confused as to what DTS codec the beam is going to support and what the passthrough thing means on the TV. I don't even know if my TV even does a passthrough. 

Hi, yes your C8 does passthrough and yes it supports DTS as a codec. You can enable the passthrough option in the audio menu on the TV. DTS is basically like Dolby Digital 5.1 for reference and the one Sonos will be supporting. DTS:HD is like the equivalent of 7.1 and DTS:X is like equivalent of Dolby Atmos although both those two won't be supported, but should get mixed down to standard DTS or multichannel PCM. 

Thank you for the reply, very helpful. 

I am very happy my Sonos ARC 5.1 setup now processes Multichannel PCM 5.1. A huge sound difference compared to the previous Stereo PCM only when playing any DTS Blu-ray formats ( even though it displays as Multichannel PCM 7.1 on the Sonos app)

Not sure what happened in the industry where I guess Sonos thought DTS was on its way out and didn't include support for DTS in their ARC system till very recently?. From my vantage point, it seems many of the new 4K Blu-ray conversion disks I buy are coming with DTS and not Dolby Atmos! 

Unfortunately, I had to buy a second 4K/UHD Blu-ray player to hear Multichannel PCM 5.1 through my TV the LG OLED CX to the Sonos ARC. For some reason, Sonos Arc and the expensive Panasonic DP-UB20 Blu-ray player can't pass/process  Multichannel PCM through the LG CX TV when playing all these new 4K movies that come with DTS. This combination only allows Stereo PCM with a a barely audible fake surround sound coming from the rear speakers. I mean you really have to put your ear to one of the back speakers to hear a slight fake surround sound. So if you own Sonos ARC and looking for a new 4K UHD Blu-ray player, the Panasonic DP-UB20 might not be the best choice if you want to hear Surround Sound on all your DTS blu-rays/4K blu-ray's. 

When I bought and played the same Blu-rays with DTS only through the budget Sony UBPX700 UHD Blu-ray player with the LG CX TV and Sonos ARC, the room filled with true 5.1 surround sound with DTS processing as Multichannel PCM 5.1. Wow what a difference compared to the miserable and muffled PCM Stereo signal! 

Now I wonder what will happen to Multichannel PCM 5.1 when Sonos Arc comes with support for DTS? If I understand correctly Multichannel PCM 5.1 is a better quality sound than base DTS? Will Sonos allow for processing both? Maybe Multichannel PCM 5.1 through the PCM audio setting on the Blu-ray player and DTS through setting the audio to  bitstream on the Blu-ray player?

@LBJ2 The Panasonic UB820 works great. It just doesn’t work with LG TVs to play multichannel PCM. I use a UB820 with my old Panasonic plasma and the HDFury Arcana and it works great with DTS discs.

From my understanding, the CX doesn’t support DTS passthrough. So you won’t be able to get DTS Digital Surround from UHD discs either unless you use a device like the Arcana. Stick with multichannel PCM. The Arc will still support it and it is a much higher quality audio format.

Thank you for the reminder. I have read to the frustration of many all over the internet, the LG CX does not support DTS passthrough and no hint of update or fix on the horizon for the LG CX. You are right this IS the answer to my question regarding when Sonos ARC supports DTS and my LG CX TV + Bluray Player. Thankfully as I wrote, I am able to hear multichannel PCM 5.1 with the Sony player through my setup. 

While the Panasonic UB820 is indeed a reference player, UHD, Dolby Vision + Dolby Atmos is excellent, however for some reason lacks the hand-shake ability in my set up to process Multichannel PCM 5.1 through the LG CX to the Sonos ARC via eARC. So just a precautionary note for those considering which UHD Bluray player for the LG CX + Sonos ARC and DTS only Bluray discs which seem to be the majority. Something I wish I would have known before I bought these particular components.

For now with one going through one HDMI port on the LG CX and one through another TV HDMI port both through eArc to the Sonos Arc:

-When I play a 4K UHD w/ Dolby Atmos/Dolby Digital, I use the Panasonic UB820

-When I play a 4K UHD w/ any flavor of DTS only I use the Sony UBPX700 for multichannel PCM which turns out to be much better than I expected for full Surround Sound. 

The above setup through the gorgeous LG CX 65” is pretty much plug and play as configured above.

P.S. After too much research, I decided against ordering the HDFury Arcana from Asia, but am aware this could have solved my issue as well. In the end, the UBPX700 was a same day buy and deliver option with Amazon plus easy refund if my little experiment didn't work out. 

Are we still expecting/hoping for an update this Sunday? Is that a normal day for Sonos updates?

The update was released today.