How to play TV audio on Play:1 with only DirectTV and XBox

What you're looking to do essentially isn't possible. The only speaker that is set up to play "live" sound, that is sound that accompanies a picture on the TV, is the Playbar. Beginning with the Playbar, you can expand the system to include up to 2 Play:1s as surround speakers and a subwoofer, but you need the Playbar as the basis of that system.

The Play:1 actually doesn't even have an input for any kind of external source and can only play through streaming sources within the Sonos app. I think what you're beginning to think about is somehow syncing your DirectTV or XBox up with the Sonos over your wifi network, but there's not a way to do that. Sonos speakers aren't set up to act as universal wireless speakers over wifi or bluetooth, only to play through the app (notwithstanding the Playbar's optical input or the Play:5's 3.5mm aux input).

I wouldn't be surprised if someone on here followed up with some way that they've finagled to stream certain live TV sound through the Sonos app (and thus a Play:1) and get it to sorta sync with a TV picture, but the basic answer is that you just can't do it.

From my point of view there are 2 different ways to get your TV sound to your Sonos speakers:

- Connect all your devices (DirectTV box, Xbox) via HDMI to your TV. Then (of course if your TV supports this option) use the audio out on your tv (RCA connectors white and red). From the audio out you have 2 options
-- Connect it to a Sonos:connect (this one has RCA input)
-- Connect it to a Sonos Play:5 (this one has a 3.5mm aux input)

- Another way is to buy a Playbar and connect your TV to your Playbar using the Optical out on your TV (of course, again, if your TV supports optical audio)

Note that if you use the Playbar to stream the sound to other rooms with Sonos devices, there is a small delay (+-70ms). I think this won't be the case if you're using the Play:5 or Sonos:connect since they will stream the audio straight to other grouped devices.

Thank you @User385289 and @samfrjn11 for your replies. I appreciate the candor and your proposed solutions. Sadly, I already have a pretty good Samsung Playbar (HW-J7500R) which I got before I was made aware of the sound that is Sonos. So, it sounds like the Sonos:connect is the way to go. Pretty hefty price tag at $350 and the inputs are analog? That's an odd one.

The simplest, supported, most future proof option is to buy a playbar. I understand that isn't always affordable, but I would go as far as saying to sell or return your Play:1 and go out and buy a current gen Playbar aftermarket.

Edit: Sorry, OP. We literally posted within a minute of each other.

cordthomas wrote:

Thank you @User385289 and @samfrjn11 for your replies. I appreciate the candor and your proposed solutions. Sadly, I already have a pretty good Samsung Playbar (HW-J7500R) which I got before I was made aware of the sound that is Sonos. So, it sounds like the Sonos:connect is the way to go. Pretty hefty price tag at $350 and the inputs are analog? That's an odd one.

The input is subsidiary. The Connect was designed for its outputs. Its primary purpose is to turn a legacy hifi system into a Sonos music streamer

kurtatx wrote:

The simplest, supported, most future proof option is to buy a playbar. I understand that isn't always affordable, but I would go as far as saying to sell or return your Play:1 and go out and buy a current gen Playbar aftermarket..

Thank you

Okay, so then i have learn about whether my TV passes 5.1 from HDMI through optical out which some Amazon reviewer(s) say it doesn't. I am not an audiophile, but do appreciate good sound, clear conversational audio and occasionally teh powerful sports sound experience.

The Play:! will come in handy otherwise. I see that one SONOS unit would have to be connected to Ethernet to create the SONOSNET for connection to Play:1 - that could be a challenge as i am for now an entirely WiFi house...

Thanks again all, food for thought.

cordthomas wrote:

kurtatx wrote:

The simplest, supported, most future proof option is to buy a playbar. I understand that isn't always affordable, but I would go as far as saying to sell or return your Play:1 and go out and buy a current gen Playbar aftermarket..

Thank you

Okay, so then i have learn about whether my TV passes 5.1 from HDMI through optical out which some Amazon reviewer(s) say it doesn't. I am not an audiophile, but do appreciate good sound, clear conversational audio and occasionally teh powerful sports sound experience.

The Play:! will come in handy otherwise. I see that one SONOS unit would have to be connected to Ethernet to create the SONOSNET for connection to Play:1 - that could be a challenge as i am for now an entirely WiFi house...

Thanks again all, food for thought.

It doesn't really matter if your TV supports 5.1 on your optical, since you just want to stream the audio to other devices unregarded the location of the devices.

Also you don't need to have a SONOS unit connected via ethernet, only for the initial setup. As soon as you have 1 sonos device configured, it creates the sonosnet. The only case you really have to have one Sonos device connected via an ethernet cable is if you want to use Sonos BOOST.

To clarify what Sonos BOOST actually is:
If you don't have your Sonos device setup via Sonos BOOST, every single SONOS device will use your WiFi to connect to eachother.
If you have 1 sonos device connected to your router via cable, it will act as router for other sonos devices.
This way you limit the amount of connections that your Wi-Fi router needs to maintain at the same time. It basically creates a second Wi-Fi connection specific for Sonos devices.

The spirit of what @samfrjn11 is right, but it is inaccurate on some technical details. The wired device is not a router or acting as a router. It does not create a second wifi connection - wifi is a particular form of wireless technology, and SonosNet is a different (mesh) form of wireless technology proprietary to Sonos. When a Sonos device is wired to the router your LAN has two segments - SonosNet and WiFi, with the wired device acting as a Bridge between the two. Your router still issues IP addresses for the whole LAN, but data traffic between Sonos devices is sent over SonosNet.