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User830255
Contributor I
May 14, 2020
Question

Multichannel DTS Workaround on Arc?

Is there any workarounds to get multichannel audio on the Sonos Arc when the source has DTS encoded audio? 

Over half of my library has DTS audio, and as I consider purchasing the Arc, I wondered if there are any workarounds to get multichannel audio with the new Arc, or will it be reduced to stereo as DTS is unsupported?

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13 replies

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ant0
ant0
Trending Lyricist I
May 15, 2020

@Lalligator not sure if you are referring to the PS4 conversation but this is not a hack, the PS4 natively transcode DTS to DD through optical output.

controlav
controlav
Lead Maestro
May 15, 2020

Interested in hearing how hard audio and video go out of sync for those using these types of hacks


Optical is the most reliable method there is. There are lots of reports of poorly engineered TVs that add delays to audio-over-HDMI-ARC but I don’t recall any such reports with good old s/pdif optical.

Plus this isn’t a hack, its how multi-channel audio has been delivered for decades. I still have Laserdisc hardware that used it.

Author of the leading independent Sonos apps for Android, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Xbox.
    Lalligator
    Lyricist III
    May 15, 2020

    Sorry, it was my understanding that a lot of people are using optical to hdmi adapters to sum the audio back with the video, which I kind of assumed would automatically lead to the two going out of sync… and IMO does qualify as a hack ;)

    I’m well aware of the benefits, and unfortunately, limitations when it comes to multichannel audio of the toslink connection. I made many a minidisc rip of cds thanks to the format, and it is a lovely way of transporting lossless stereo or ac-3.

    Based on a cursory look at the forums, practically every time people are complaining about audio/video being out of sync, a satellite box or similar that doesn’t carry audio through HDMI shows up at some point as the, IMHO, likely culprit

    Arc has worked flawlessly in the one Sony tv I’ve owned that came equipped with it, but back when I still had a full HT rig, it was the non-arc devices that had to be manually tuned for audio delay…

    As I’m currently unable to find a “light” HT rig that would do all the things I want (work without requiring much from me after inital setup, be unobtrusive, attractive, accept lossless DD Atmos, DTS-HD MA and multichannel PCM and hopefully be able to use the Sonos sub), I’m genuinely interested in how far from my target the Sonos system would take me.

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