List of TV’s that will pass 5.1 from HDMI Sources to Playbar

ukncdc · 2013-03-11T09:35:31+00:00

All, Would you mind listing your TV and mode/year in this thread if you have tested it and confirmed it will pass DD 5.1 to the Playbar and from what source. This will help those of us in the market for a new TV and playbar. Thanks MikeB.

Am I the only one with a Samsung UN60EH6000 or can anyone confirm if this passes 5.1 through optical. It is a 60 inch LCD and not a smart tv but I suppose I could get an update through USB for firmware. Any help is appreciated as I would likely get the Playbar if I knew it worked...

I was told by 2 people on tech. support, and by the person that sold me my Samsung 8500, that at this time, none of the Samsung TVs will pass through 5.1 when they are connected by HDMI. I have no idea if this means any Samsung manufactured at any time, but they were pretty positive that the TVs recently made, do not allow this.

I haven't been checking back here in a while, sorry that I missed so many questions. I will do a few things over the weekend and post the details. What I can tell you is that I have the 8500 with a Comcast/Motorola cable box hooked up via HDMI, an Apple TV hooked up with HDMI and a Xbox One hooked up via HDMI. Prior to the Samsung firmware upgrade I could not get 5.1 from my optical output on the TV to the Soundbar. Now I can. The option was grayed out for me before and now it isn't. The Xbox One only recently started working since Microsoft's upgrade to support DD out which was a few weeks ago or so.

I have the Playbar, the Sub and two Play 1s. I have verified that I'm getting 5.1 on the Sonos App itself and also with my own ears by toggling 5.1 on and off.

I'm not sure if some magical series of steps has allowed this to work for me but I'm not making it up. I'll post firmware versions, photos, etc. when I get home and have time over the weekend.

Thanks for posting - I would be interested to see what firmware version is on your TV. So, you are not running the audio through the XBox, right?

The Xbox One didn't support DD output when it first came out. That, and the fact that I find their HDMI passthrough / TV interface to be too early stage for my liking prevented me from running my cable box through it. Maybe someday when it works more seamlessly, works for DVR management, etc. I will switch but not now.

I'm in the XB1 Beta testing program.. Sonos is now in the list of audio receivers (so the xbox can turn the volume up and down without using the TV code).

I have a HDMI 4 to 1 switch with the output going to Xbox 1.. Apple TV, BT vision (Humax box),Mac Mini all work perfectly...

The XB1 (since update) handles the picture much better in the UK (50hz support)..

I've had to set a delay up (lip sync) to get the sound and picture to match... 99% sure its the switch driving this..

Hi,

So I verified that I'm not crazy and everything is working as I thought.

The software version on my Samsung is .1119

Link to photo - https://db.tt/LqrJm0X8

Here are my components connected to the TV, all via HDMI and the optical out to the Sonos Playbar - https://db.tt/SossMRrT

Here is a photo of my Apple TV playing a movie and you can see the Samsung allows me to set the optical out to Dolby Digital (not grayed out as it was before) - https://db.tt/P5rt7SKW

And here is a photo of my Comcast cable box playing a HD/Dolby Digital broadcast - https://db.tt/rpmP9xTw

And finally here is a photo of the Sonos app confirming the Dolby Digital audio in - https://db.tt/ulJnmD7G

Just a few more thoughts for anyone struggling to make this work. The option for Dolby Digital will be grayed out if the source being played is not outputting Dolby Digital. That includes cable broadcast in stereo and some Netflix material on Apple TV. Also, make sure your cable box is set to pass Dolby Digital or pass-through and make sure your other sources are also set to output DD.

Given the struggles that other people are having I guess I'll never update my firmware settings again 🙂

Hi,

So I verified that I'm not crazy and everything is working as I thought.

The software version on my Samsung is .1119

Link to photo - https://db.tt/LqrJm0X8

Here are my components connected to the TV, all via HDMI and the optical out to the Sonos Playbar - https://db.tt/SossMRrT

Here is a photo of my Apple TV playing a movie and you can see the Samsung allows me to set the optical out to Dolby Digital (not grayed out as it was before) - https://db.tt/P5rt7SKW

And here is a photo of my Comcast cable box playing a HD/Dolby Digital broadcast - https://db.tt/rpmP9xTw

And finally here is a photo of the Sonos app confirming the Dolby Digital audio in - https://db.tt/ulJnmD7G

Just a few more thoughts for anyone struggling to make this work. The option for Dolby Digital will be grayed out if the source being played is not outputting Dolby Digital. That includes cable broadcast in stereo and some Netflix material on Apple TV. Also, make sure your cable box is set to pass Dolby Digital or pass-through and make sure your other sources are also set to output DD.

Given the struggles that other people are having I guess I'll never update my firmware settings again :)

Thank you for posting all of this. For whatever reason, I can not replicate the 5.1 audio out from the TV. I have a TiVo Roamio, and have selected Dolby. However, the Samsung "Dolby Digital" option is still greyed out. I wonder whether the TiVo is the problem, but think it is not. I am fairly certain that either an Oppo blu-ray player or switcher will solve this issue for me. But, I really don't want a switcher sitting between the components.

I confirmed that the Samsung has .1119 firmware - that is the most recent version.

Thanks again for posting all of this.

I have just completed the final piece of the set-up of my 5.1 sonos system with the addition of the playbar + sub to my existing- 2x play 1s.

I was initially disappointed reading through these forums to see that my choice of TV (Samsung UE46ES8000) was reported as NOT supporting DD 5.1 pass through from HDMI sources via the optical out to the playbar (see my only other post on this forum). However I was impressed with the quality of Sonos equipment and decided I would invest in an optical switch to work around this although not my preferred solution.

Well it seems this disappointment was unfounded and I wont need a switch after all! :)

As reported by jjonesx86 I am getting the exact same results (using firmware 2009.2 on the slightly older UE46ES8000 series) DD 5.1 is being reported by my Sonos controller from the following HDMI sources: SKY+HD & PS3.

Could it be that this feature has been enabled by Samsung in later firmware revisions? if so I cannot understand why they would not be advertising this as information out there seems to contradict my findings and what samsung support are saying is plain wrong.

Could we possibly get Sonos to comment on this and confirm our findings with Samsung TV's? as I must admit I was initially put off about adding to my Sonos due to the information currently out which it seems is now outdated and incorrect?

I am happy to post screenshots/pictures to show how everything is set-up/configured but it's pretty much the same as jjonesx86.

Thank you for posting all of this. For whatever reason, I can not replicate the 5.1 audio out from the TV. I have a TiVo Roamio, and have selected Dolby. However, the Samsung "Dolby Digital" option is still greyed out. I wonder whether the TiVo is the problem, but think it is not. I am fairly certain that either an Oppo blu-ray player or switcher will solve this issue for me. But, I really don't want a switcher sitting between the components.

I confirmed that the Samsung has .1119 firmware - that is the most recent version.

Thanks again for posting all of this.

One thing to check that I noticed, make sure that your source input is named accordingly on the Samsung e.g. press tools option on the input that corresponds to your TiVo and change it's name to "cable STB" or "PVR STB" I noticed this after I initially couldn't get 5.1 out of my PS3, when I changed the source input name for the PS3 from "game" to "Blu-Ray" hey presto the Dolby Digital option was no longer greyed out 😃

One thing to check that I noticed, make sure that your source input is named accordingly on the Samsung e.g. press tools option on the input that corresponds to your TiVo and change it's name to "cable STB" or "PVR STB" I noticed this after I initially couldn't get 5.1 out of my PS3, when I changed the source input name for the PS3 from "game" to "Blu-Ray" hey presto the Dolby Digital option was no longer greyed out :D

Hi Mark - thank you for this suggestion. I can not seem to rename or change the input source. Right now it says "Anynet+ (HDMI-CIC)" . Under that I have 2 options: Edit Name and Information.

The Edit Name option brings up the Samsung Keyboard. The Information option lists: HDMI1:RCN (my cable provider) and the resolution.

Am I in the right place to rename the input?

I am not sure of the exact steps with your model as I believe mine is slightly older 2012 model and yours is 2013 however I am sure you can edit the name of the inputs to match your devices plugged into the various HDMI inputs e.g. game, blu-ray, sat STB, etc

Maybe somebody with the same model can confirm the exact steps, you might want to disable HDMI-CEC temporarily as this has nothing to do with it.

On mine I simply select "Source" > highlight the HDMI input you wish to rename > select "tools" > edit name I then get a list of input name for me to change.

Using my previous example the Dolby Digital option in the sound setting menu on the TV did not become available before I changed the input name for my PS3 from "game" to "blu-ray"

Good luck!

Another data point for the "Dang, no luck" camp here.

I have the 2013 Samsung 7050 (Costco version of 7100), and I just installed the most recent update.

I tried playing a Dolby 5.1 encoded oldskool DVD (no DD+ / DTS, etc.) on my blu-ray player and... no dice.

I tried renaming the HDMI input to "Cable STB" and "PC" (both available in the long list of available renaming options), but still no luck; the Dolby option is grayed out.

Is there a step I'm missing here? Do I need to do a factory reset of the TV (please say no) or something else? Given that I can somehow miraculously cast Netflix directly from my phone to the TV from my Moto X (without even using my Chromecast), I'm all set re: Netflix; I just want my blu-rays to play in Dolby 😕.

Posted this in another area but just wanted to let folks know what I discovered...

My current setup in the living room is as follows:

Samsung 55” LED/3D/240Hz TV (UN55D7000LF / 2011 model)

Samsung 3D Blu-ray player (BDD5500 - has the ability to convert DTS to DD)

Comcast/Xfynity Cable Box/DVR

Apple TV

Decided to add a Playbar to the setup. I tested the setup with everything hooked to the TV and found it would not pass 5.1 to the Playbar (DD was disabled on the TV). So I went ahead and ordered a Monoprice switch and....

I received my Monoprice 7974 switch the other day. I hooked up my Comcast HD box, Samsung Blu-ray, and Apple TV to the switch and the HDMI out to my TV and the optical out to my Playbar. After playing with some settings on the back of the Monoprice switch I was able to get 5.1 DD sound from the Playbar and it is GREAT... and that's when i noticed something interesting...

When I went back into my TV audio settings i noticed the optical out on the TV now had Dolby Digital enabled!!! At first I thought I had missed something in my pre-Monoprice switch testing. I unhooked my components from the switch and directly to the TV, checked again, and DD was now disabled from the TV. Unhooked everything from the TV back to the Monoprice switch, and DD is now enable again on the TV.

Something about hooking the components to the switch is enabling the DD on my TV. So for now I have all my components hooked into the switch, but I am running my optical cable from the TV to the Playbar instead of the switch to the Playbar. I have confirmed on my Sonos app that it is still passing 5.1 with this configuration. I decided to do it this way because now when I shut my TV off it cuts audio to the Playbar. When I had the optical running from the switch to the Playbar the Playbar would still play audio after I shut off the TV since the cable box was still on (the Comcast box must remain on to record shows to the DVR).

So for now i am going to leave the setup as described with the components all hooked up to the switch and the optical running from the TV to the Playbar. I am going to monitor for the "audio cut out" others have reported when running the optical from the TV to Playbar. If it becomes a problem I will run the Optical from the switch to the Playbar instead and program my remote to turn the switch on and off when the TV is turned on and off.

For now I am a happy camper!!!

I'm in the XB1 Beta testing program.. Sonos is now in the list of audio receivers (so the xbox can turn the volume up and down without using the TV code).

Man, I should read these threads more closely. I had no idea within the beta Sonos was included in audio devices and had resigned myself to using the remote for that last piece in my media setup. Now though, thanks Carll, I have full voice control of Xbox, TV, sat receiver and Playbar. Awesome!

I have been reading that with the recent updates of the Samsung F8000, it has been able to send out DD5.1 from the optical port.

Can ANYONE on here with that tv and the full Sonos 5.1 system PLEASE check this out?

Ps this for version 1118 on the UE**F8000 sets.

Thanks!

In response to Connor Martyn's enquiry, my UE40F8000 passes Dolby 5.1 out of its optical port after the latest Samsung software update. I was streaming from Netflix using the TV's app.

It sounds great 😃...

T

I was wondering if there was any clarity yet on whether the new firmware updates for the Samsung UE55F8000 or equivalent TVs so that 5.1 sound is now passed from a HDMI input through to the optical ouput?

In response to Connor Martyn's enquiry, my UE40F8000 passes Dolby 5.1 out of its optical port after the latest Samsung software update. I was streaming from Netflix using the TV's app.

It sounds great 😃...

T

This is very promising! I just need a couple for confirmations I will take the leap of faith to get the Playbar! :D

Also, from what I gather, to get the DD5.1 you need to be directly sending it to the tv/from the tv otherwise it will still be 2.0/stereo...?

Hi,

I have a sony tv 46hx920, like the hx929 in America. I read someone have one, and say that the tv pass in dd.

But this guy didnt say if the tv pass in dd with hdmi device connected ?

Thank in avance for aswer.

I have an older Sony TV (46XBR9) and it does pass DD through HDMI. I doubt that function would be removed from newer sets, but I suppose it is possible.

Ok Thank you very much

I plan to bye a playbar with a sub and 2 play 1...

Hi, just bought the Sonos play bar :)

I have a Philips 7606h Led TV, Does someone know if this TV output 5.1 via optical?

man, i should read these threads more closely. I had no idea within the beta sonos was included in audio devices and had resigned myself to using the remote for that last piece in my media setup. Now though, thanks carll, i have full voice control of xbox, tv, sat receiver and playbar. Awesome!

its so cool... i love it that you can say xbox volume up... really like the way you can tell the xbox the increments as well...

I recently purchased Sharp's Aquos LC-60LE650U and connected it to my Sonos playbar (along with sub+2 play 3) via the optical cable.It is passing dd 5.1 when watching netflix and some comcast channels that support DD.

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