Foxis wrote:

You do not even appear to be experiencing the issue by your own description? Do you just hang around other threads defending Sonos for free? Hardly.

Ken, this one might be above your pay grade. 

I have the same setting. Auto 1 on the TV, and the Apple TV 4K set to change audio to Dolby Digital. I get 5.1 indicated in the Sonos App and all seems to be well. However, after some switching of content I can get the problem to appear.

On thing that never fails is to play a Spatial playlist via the Apple Music App on the Apple TV. Sounds awesome until I switch tracks or pause/resume. Instant trigger of the problem.

(And this is something I have been doing a lot prior to the 14.6 update, as Spatial Audio sounds awesome on the system. I really recommend it. Well, when the Sonos system works again...)

I’ve also emailed Chris Welch at The Verge (welch@theverge.com) to hopefully increase the visibility of this issue.  I encourage others on this thread to do the same.

Thanks for posting this. I haven’t had a dropout in a few days but had this idea in the meantime. When I tried it though, atmos appeared blocked which didn’t seem correct to me. I probably just needed to do something to force an HDMI re-handshake. I’m going to put this idea back in the toolbox for next time

What I think happens is the Apple TV still sends multichannel PCM but the tv prefers re-encode to Dolby and transmit to Sonos. I was initially not liking the idea of all the extra processing that was happening but if this works, I think it’s a pretty small compromise. Interestingly when I was talking to Sonos support they said they usually recommend leaving the tv in some kind of auto mode rather than pass-through

Could that introduce lag though?  Dependent on the tv and how fast they can process and re-encode? 

Latency maybe which could be a problem for gamers but audio and video should probably still be in sync I think. Something to watch maybe

This is interesting to me and I noticed this myself. i.e you cannot get your rears and subs back but if you leave it overnight (or a very long time) then it suddenly start working again.

I wonder what the Sonos system does in standby that could ‘reset’ the issue. 

One possibility is a refresh of the HDMI edid info. Makes me wonder if unplugging and replugging the HDMI cable from the arc would be a quicker way to clear a dropout than power cycling. Probably lots of  other things get reset too

Usually when the issue is escalated, you get a link and need to select a time slot and then a Level 2 engineer will call you at the nominated number. I was tricked initially but then finally didn’t let go of support until the link was sent on my email. 

Yes, what I posted were details from the email confirmation after selecting the time slot. I spoke to the engineer who called me at the stated time. I never heard back even though I was advised I would. As for whether it is a L2 or L3 it’s meaningless to me. It was however my second escalation i.e. the 3rd person I spoke to on the escalation chain.

So there is no way to rollback the update?

THIS! How can something like this go on for so long? Sonos? Anyone? Respect to all of you who have kept your cool and decided to troubleshoot for a company that releases a bug into there system rendering their product unusable, but that’s not what I signed up for. I purchased what I believed to be a functioning wireless sound system. It isn’t. Full stop. Wait, IT WAS until 14.6. That’s what even more maddening. If I botched something at work and just walk telling my clients to figure it out, I wouldn’t have that job. Who would? Let’s not forget censoring a previous post with one of many diagnostic numbers in it. I have a call tomorrow with Customer experience person… I would prefer Patrick Spence. 

Hi All,

An update on progress so far.

After my 2 hours + yesterday investigating the issue, I was contacted by an engineer today who has taken over the case. I would like to say that both the 1st line and Engineer have been very helpful, supportive and forthcoming. And I don’t mind spending the time if it means we can move forward.

I have some tests to run tonight to help fault-find the issue further. The current investigation is based around an error observed with CEC when the issue is triggered – and this is where the engineer wants to investigate further to assess whether it’s the TV, AppleTV or Sonos etc.

Although I do not know a lot about CEC more than the very basics, I do know that each time I switch between sources within Apple TV (i.e. going from Disney, to Amazon Prime to AppleTV+) my Panasonic will look like it has changed source fully. i.e. it will come up ‘HDMI1 + Atmos’ or ‘HDMI1 +  DD’ etc on the screen like you have gone from HDMI1 to HDMI2. This is because I have Apple TV set to change based on the source signal via Match Dynamic Range and Match Frame Rate settings.  Enabling these settings is logical as different films have different video encoding and you want to match that as best as possible.

This is early in the investigation so lets not jump ahead of ourselves, but I did want to keep you updated. I also feel this line of investigation has some merit.  Not just because the engineer can see a CEC error, but also the symptoms a lot of us are reporting are based on moving between formats and this type of source change issue is not exclusive to Apple TV. It certainly could occur going from your PlayStation to you favorite native TV App.

As always, Ill keep you posted.

Regards,

Brad

First, I'd like to ask if I should be supplying a diagnostics report in this thread also or do they have enough as of now?

Secondly, there was an Apple TV update around the same time. I know what I'm saying is not fact, but it seems literally every single last TVos update I have seen has brought more problems than it fixes. Is everyone that is having these issues using an Apple TV?

Yes, the Staff have asked for diagnostic reports, if practical, within 10 minutes of the issue occurring and post it’s reference here and to just outline what happened or contact Sonos Support, particularly if it persists and is easy to reproduce the issue.

I also understand about your reference to the Apple TV O/S updates, a few Samsung TV users here in the community, I noticed, seem to have had some HT audio interruptions and the ones I read recently all had an Apple TV 4K, but it might just be a coincidence, as it is quite a common device to have connected to a TV nowadays.

In essence, you should be submitting a diagnostics and then call Sonos Support to report (and fault find) the issue.  Be warned, information collecting can take 2 hours.

On the second point, I am pretty sure there are people on this forum that do not own an AppleTV and still have the issue. So it does not seem exclusive to AppleTV owners.

there’s a new update out. I haven’t installed it yet. 14.8

Please take it to social media. No other alternative I can think of to expedite the process. It’s shameful from Sonos as a brand and their reputation has taken a blow. 35 days since the issue, so many diagnostics and an ongoing case to no avail. I tweeted Sonos and Patrick spence so many times but they don’t bother responding! Not sure who to reach and what to do to expedite, my patience is growing thin. Stuck with a bricked system!

I don’t want to be a party-pooper, but I suspect there is nothing in that release related to fixing our issue. (I am basing that on the current fault-finding and what the Engineer is directing me to test).

Wow mate, how are you so updated on updates Sonos releases? Let us know how you go, personally I haven’t heard from L3 engineer at Sonos confirming the fix

This would have been easy to diagnose provided the diagnostics we have provided but let’s be hopeful since I have lost all faith in Sonos development team and wishing for this to be fixed asap. It’s taking eternity to fix this problem and the pooper is that there is no rollback option available

@peterbault - are you going to take the plunge and install? 

Thanks, this is the most encouraging update I’ve heard. Please let us know how you continue to make out if you’re able. Makes me feel like Sonos is taking this seriously and at least looking in the right direction. Seems totally plausible based on my observations. 

I’ve installed it - S2 14.8 app version and system version. In the short time I’ve been running it everything seems OK, but I don’t have an Arc, just a Beam 2, 2 One’s, Sub and haven’t been experiencing the problem discussed in this thread.

Fingers crossed it helps those suffering with the problem.