It's 2016! Make PlayBar Gen 2 for DTS / Fix Aux for Play 5 GEN 2

I need one sound bar as well but holding for gem 2 since last year. feel really sorry for myself for how long I had waited. In india they say If you wait the end is very sweet.But in soundbar case I dont think it is going to be.

Sonos have never given any indication that there will ever be a gen2 Playbar

While everybody is going on about connectivity , do you not agree the looks need freshening up , i dont like the look or feel , the material is a right dust collector as opposed to perferated steel grill like whats on all its other speakers , if i have to wait 10 years then so be it , TV technology and size has come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years . Sonos needs to listen to its customers needs ,

I actually like the looks of the Playbar.

I don't know sales wise if it justifies them investing in another. Personally I would like to see them create a SUPER CONNECT box that actually will allow 7.1 audio directing to 7 different regular Sonos Plays.

Can you imagine the implications for - especially for those with Projectors where they have difficulty hooking to 5.1 sources wirelessly.

I think the Playbar days are numbered at some point.

It has had its day , and i bet there are many hundreds world wide will not buy one while speculation continues , my lad has one ill go without for now

It's 2016 RIP soundbars. Long live wireless 7.1.

Fair comment

I do have a question.

What's the licensing cost for HDMI? Is the cost significantly more than TOSLINK, or are both zero at this point?

And of course, that goes with:

What's the licensing cost for DTS versus Dolby Digital? Is there an increased amount of processing power that is required to do the decoding?

In my wild imagination, there probably is, and this would cause a company like SONOS to be careful about when they want to upgrade their hardware. Granted, for most of us on these boards, the difference is probably a few dollars/pounds/francs, etc, but if I were making the decision as a Product Manager for SONOS, I'd be looking extremely hard at the demographic of who are the majority of buyers. I wouldn't be looking too hard at the outliers (those of us who post here on these boards). It's much the same in the Gaming space that I work in. I pay less attention to the vocal minority (but not none, for heaven's sake) and more to the larger average consumer, and why they purchase/use the product.

I'm willing to face the fact that what SONOS is in business to make money, and make decisions about their coding and hardware resources that don't necessarily align with my personal wants or desires. Sure, life would be better if they'd just listen to me, and do what I said, but honestly, I'm constantly amused at the posts here that say "this is simple, just do it", without (seemingly) realizing that there are obviously limited resources at SONOS, and their priority is likely the next big feature. I'm pretty sure that currently is the Voice feature that's been discussed, but I'm not an insider. This is the way every company I've ever worked for functions. Some portion of the resources are set aside for current issues, and another portion for future efforts.

That being said, I'd be delighted to pony up for two new PlayBars that have HDMI inputs, and did DTS decoding. But I don't think my $1500 isn't going to sway SONOS if 90% of their user base doesn't feel the need for it, and might balk at the initial purchase price if it were 5% higher than it is to cover those additional fees. So, I'm happy that people keep mentioning it here, and hope that at some point in time it becomes an issue that SONOS can devote some effort/time/money (all the same thing) to. Who knows, maybe they already are?

Which also leads into the "We won't talk about future roadmaps for software updates". An intelligent, albeit frustrating stance. There's been many a time where I've been in a development cycle on software and have had an issue that caused the intended release date to slip. Given how the majority of people react to that kind of thing, it does not surprise me in the least that they prefer not to get roasted because of unexpected issues. It's ultimately easier to get roasted for the one policy of not publishing a roadmap than get lambasted for slipping a timeline on feature after promised feature. Sure, it's painful on our side, but I certainly get it from their side.

Sorry, I've had this thought in my mind for quite a while while perusing these boards on a daily basis, looking at both the large number of posts of people who can't do a simple search, or even look at the topics presented in front of them, as well as the incredibly kind and thoughtful members who make a sincere and intelligent effort to assist folks who are having issues, with a substantial amount of success. And of course, I'd never be able to post these thoughts in any of the boards I've been "responsible" for in my line of work, either, so it's nice to get them off of my chest.

And if anyone does have knowledge about those licensing costs, or where I could find out about them, I'd actually be quite interested.

I don't think licensing costs is the issue. The issue is how it was designed.

The standard that TV manufacturers were supposed to go by was that toslink output on TV in DD5.1 should be followed. Playbar was designed with this standard in mind. Unfortunately the standard really never got implemented across brands properly or uniformly. Therefore, work arounds bypassing the TV had to become the norm - and there is where you get issues as if your bypassing the TV as the hub for sound then DD5.1 isn't always the output type.

Now we know people have gone more toward the HDMI audio route with the various competing standards for audio (with DTS as most popular for bluray).

Yep - the playbar is in need of a replacement. But its not Sonos cheaping out - its the way designed and for reason.

Ah, good point. I don't think I know of any TVs (not that I've paid attention) that have an HDMI out. But sure, TOSLINK is limited, and that's what SONOS implemented.

Thanks for nudging my thought process another step.

I can see it now...the Playbar as the new HDMI switcher, with 64 HDMI ports in the back (and people complaining that they need 65), and one out to the TV.

So, there's no easy answer, is there, at least right now. There needs to be a large scale change in the way TVs provide an output that is "big" enough to carry DTS. And all of them need to be the same, not 14 different kinds. No wonder SONOS is hanging on to TOSLINK. I'll be it was hard enough to get some of those TV companies to include that. And then end up having to work with those (cough-Samsung-cough) who aren't sticking with the appropriate rules.

Thanks, Chris.