If you're experiencing audio delay issues, read this

I have tested this audio delay issue with other manufacturer's audio equipment and noted the exact same symptoms. Whilst this proves SONOS technically correct when placing the blame on the TV manufacturers, it doesn't account for a couple of ridiculous decisions which would have alleviated the problem, and are entirely SONOS's fault

Why did SONOS insist on making their equipment dependent on the TV? The Beam has HDMI, but only a single port, necessitating the use of ARC. Adding HDMI passthrough would have allowed us to use an HDMI switch in front of the Beam, preventing these ARC issues becoming apparent.

Why are SONOS insistent in providing the absolute bare minimum codec support?! This ARC issue only occurs when outputting Dolby Digital. I can change the output of my TV to PCM and my AV receiver will provide full 5.1, with no audio delay, over ARC, from the TV. SONOS, for some completely nonsensical reason, have insisted on only providing 2 channel support for PCM. It's not like this is a licensing issue, so I really don't understand the logic here. Simply adding PCM 5.1 support would work around this issue!

As it stands, there's literally no way to make this work with any SONOS AV equipment, if you want surround audio output from external devices. This has meant that I, and I'm sure huge amounts others, have had to return over £1000 worth of equipment. How much is this losing SONOS as a company?

Yes, I agree CrispyRowe. TV companies are not going to design their “newest” equipment to work with Sonos. Sonos, can you do something about this audio delay issue that will make your customers less frustrated? You’re starting to get a bad rep from all these complaints. I am no longer recommending Sonos to friends when they get new TVs.

I just want to make it clear that I'm not absolving TV manufacturers of the blame here. ARC to the Beam should work (as should optical to the PlayBar/Base). Purchasing a TV to find that features don't work as advertised is frankly unacceptable. I feel that the big TV manufacturers know this issue affects SONOS' public image more their own, so are less inclined to invest in a fix. The cause of the problem, and refusal to acknowledge, or fix it, lies squarely with the TV manufacturers.

SONOS, however, have options which would help alleviate the situation, but are stubbornly doing nothing, whilst (quite rightly) simply pointing the finger at the TV manufacturers. When did SONOS last even provide an update to this year and a half old, 12 page thread?

What is it that you want Sonos to say? They can't throw other companies under the bus, they rely on those companies to provide devices that Sonos connects to.

And when was the PLAYBAR designed? According to Google, it was released in February of 2013. Let's assume, for sake of argument, that the original design started at least two years before, in order to get the design completed and a factory line spun up. So in 2011, what was the common factor for connecting to TVs? When was HDMI-ARC released as a common feature for TV sets, and in common use? Can we agree that the PLAYBASE is basically a reframe of the PLAYBAR?

I'd suggest that the Beam was one of the early users of the HDMI-ARC for speakers. Many manufacturers have supported HDMI-ARC, but it's only in recent years that it's become enough of a common denominator for a company like Sonos to implement a device that uses it.

I would not say Sonos is a trailblazer, but that makes sense to me, inasmuch as they are a company that wants to sell the maximum number of devices. That's their business model. They don't make any money any other way. So the trailing the common connection standards makes sense. It wouldn't be intelligent for them to invest in a connection process that isn't in some larger than zero percent of TVs. But they shouldn't bet a lot of money on things that don't pan out in the marketplace, otherwise they put themselves in a bad financial position. Imagine a company that bet the farm on 3D televisions....a format that doesn't appear to have legs, at least at this moment.

Do I expect/hope that eARC is the next big thing? Sure. But if I expect Sonos to implement it on their next big TV speaker release, I wouldn't expect them to do so if only 10% of the TVs in the marketplace have the capability, unless there's some backwards functionality included in the spec. Don't know, haven't researched enough yet.

And yes, I consider the adherence to Dolby Digital and Stereo as the only options to be an aspect of the fact that the majority of devices that they've shipped are based on optical connections....a standard that is still common in TVs sold today.

At the end of the day, I expect Sonos to do things that benefit Sonos' bottom line. Not necessarily what benefits my needs at the moment, but hopefully there's a bit of alignment there. But I'll never expect a company that appears to be focused on ease of use and maximum market share to be a company that makes wild bets on tech that hasn't penetrated the marketplace to a certain extent.

And frankly, I'm not sure what you can expect Sonos to say here in this thread that would be beneficial to the marketing strategy of the company.

And when was the PLAYBAR designed?

I haven't mentioned PLAYBAR or BASE anywhere above, except to mention that optical should work to them. I've made no comments to suggest that the hardware involved in these instances hold any kind of design limitation. That being said, clearly they do carry limitations, but only that derived from age. Clealy, common sense would dictate, when mentioning HDMI, or ARC, I'm referring to the BEAM.


I'd suggest that the Beam was one of the early users of the HDMI-ARC for speakers.

Nonsense, ARC has been around for an eternity. Hence my ability to test it using my ~7 year old AV receiver. Now relying on ARC exclusively however, perhaps was lead by SONOS. I would argue that considering this, it was perhaps SONOS' responsibilty to ensure this was properly tested before marketing it to paying customers. LG, Sony and (I believe) Panasonic are all affected by the ARC audio delay - not exactly small manufacturers. Now, SONOS either didn't realise this issue existed ahead of time, meaning their QA is not satisfactory, or they knew, but had sunk too much money into R&D, so just pushed ahead, letting the consumer reap the benefits. Either option is clearly not acceptable.


I consider the adherence to Dolby Digital and Stereo as the only options to be an aspect of the fact that the majority of devices that they've shipped are based on optical connections.

So you're defending SONOS releasing a brand new piece of equipment, limited in functionality in such a way that it actually causes compatibility problems in certain situations, purely because that's what the old equipment had?


I'll never expect a company that appears to be focused on ease of use and maximum market share to be a company that makes wild bets on tech that hasn't penetrated the marketplace to a certain extent

I'm not sure who you think suggested SONOS should be pushing cutting edge standards. The issues have come about, in part, because SONOS have tried to do things differently. Where every other AV equipment vendor bundles all the codecs they can manage on their equipment, SONOS seems to think it's better to include the bare minimum. As mentioned in the above post, simply adding PCM 5.1 would solve this issue, provided this is an output option for the TV in question.


And frankly, I'm not sure what you can expect Sonos to say here in this thread that would be beneficial to the marketing strategy of the company.

It's called public relations. When your customers have an issue, generally it's good practice to have the courtesy to keep them updated on the issue, otherwise people get a bitter taste in their mouths. At the very least, this could have an update post summarising that no progress has been made with the TV manufacturers. Clearly this wouldn't be the answer people want to hear, but this would at least show some level of respect towards the customer, and earn a certain amount of respect in return.


You're so heavily defending SONOS here, but do you not think that a large manufacturer should carry some level of responsibility for their equipment working correctly in the way it was designed to function? The fundamental failing here lies with the TV manufacturers, but their outlook can be understood to a point - ARC is simply one feature of many that their equipment supports and, up until recently, was fairly lightly utilised. SONOS, however, rely almost exclusively on ARC for the functionality of the BEAM, considering the fact that it doesn't work correctly with TVs from the largest manufactures makes the BEAM essentially not fit for purpose - You can bet SONOS aren't letting customers know about this ahead of purchase, despite proven knowledge of the issue. That's clearly unacceptable.

The bottom line here is that SONOS have a relatively simple action they can take to lessen this impact, by adding 5.1 PCM support to the BEAM and any future AV devices. Not only would this fix the issue for numerous customers who are stuck with the BEAM, but would gain them custom from people such as me, who returned the BEAM (and SUB), but would happily (and eagerly) buy again should this audio delay issue be resolved.

I'm having this problem with my Sony X800 TV and my sky box with the beam. Audio appears delayed. I nearly bought a Samsung TV to replace the Sony but then I read people are having problems with Samsung TVs too. Is there a definitive list of TVs that don't have this problem, or is there an HDMI switch/audio extractor that will cope with 4k@60Hz and HDR? Thanks.

I’m having this problem too. It’s painful. Does anyone know if I bother to run optical from the LG to the Beam, then use hdmi from the beam to the Apple TV, does that fix it? I doubt it. I see the same problem using the built in YouTube app. I don’t have this problem at all with my playbar on another LG. If I could go back in time I’d have bought another playbar, but the appeal of one hdmi cable is why I bought the beam. Sonos if there’s any chance you could fix this in an update please say something .

The problem isn't in the Sonos software, it's in the LG's processing of the surround signal. If you look through this area of the forum, you'll find a lot of people who have "fixed" the issue by purchasing an HDMI switch with an optical output, and pull the sound out before it reaches the TV.

I have this exact issue with my Philips 55OLED803 (which is on Android Oreo). If I use the TV's native apps for Netflix I can get 5.1 sound without any trouble (as shown in the Sonos App). If I try to get my PS4 Pro to use 5.1 Dolby Digital, it is paired with a delay of at least 0.5 sec.
For anyone that circumvented this issue by using a switch to extract the audio and connect straight to the Playbar: Which model is recommended to maintain the same level of video quality? (4k 60fps HDR)

LG C8 owners may be pleased to know that new firmware 04.10.55 just went official that fixes the Arc audio issues. I have had it in beta for a little while and confirm lip sync is no longer terrible with my Sonos Beam over Arc.