Trending Lyricist I

Multichannel PCM 5.1 dropping out since 14.10 update

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Anyone else experiencing the same issue? Multichannel PCM 5.1 blanks out for a second every 1-2 minutes. I don’t think it’s a bandwidth issue as it works flawlessly with Multichannel PCM 7.1 (thorough test) and Dolby TrueHD Atmos (quick test). And it may have been caused by the Sonos 14.10 update. Setup is PS5→ LG C1→ Beam 2 (via earc).

2 weeks ago before the 14.10 update, I watched a bluray film wherein I had my PS5 transcode the DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio to Multichannel PCM 5.1 (as the C1 does not support DTS) and had no issues. Earlier today, I played a bluray film for the first time in 2 weeks and I encountered consistent audio dropouts every 1-2 minutes. It had the same setup where DTS-HD MA 5.1 → Multichannel PCM 5.1. I tested other bluray discs including the one I watched 2 weeks ago and they all now have the same issue.

Curiously, I’ve been gaming heavily on my PS5 the past two 2 weeks and haven’t had any audio issues. Then I realized that I’ve been using Multichannel PCM 7.1 when gaming on my PS5. So I made some changes under the PS5 sound settings to make it output Multichannel PCM 5.1 instead. Lo and behold, I am now getting the same consistent dropouts in games and even on the PS5 main menu.

I think it’s due to the Sonos 14.10 update as that’s the only firmware update I’ve done in the last 2 weeks. No PS5 update, no LG C1 update. Well actually while I was composing this post, I received and applied the latest LG C1 firmware update and I still have the same issue.

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Pinned Reply By Corry P

Hi @throwawaybeam2 et al

We now recommend you reach out to the TV manufacturer (LG) as this behaviour is also occurring with different soundbar manufacturers (so it’s not a Sonos-specific issue).

Alternatively, please utilize different audio formats from McLPCM 5.1 (e.g., McLPCM 7.1, DD+, etc).

I hope this helps.

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D

Donstuarty

Lyricist III

Ok. I just bought a brand new 2024 model LG G4 65”. Cost was £2200.
I have a sonos beam gen2. 2 Era 100s and a sub mini.

i used my sonos products with my old sony bravia and it worked flawlessly. Since getting the LG i am having the problem of the sound randomly cutting out for 1-2 seconds at a time. Sometimes 3 times a minute. Really annoying. I reset the tv to factory settings and it worked ok for a few weeks but it has now returned. I have tried eveything i can do with the settings and nothing fixes it.

I have a set top box and a firestick connected to it and its doing the same with both.

This is so frustrating as i love my sonos products but i am seriously thinking of changing my whole sonos setup to bose. I am so dissapointed.

Fendera

Lyricist III

Ok. I just bought a brand new 2024 model LG G4 65”. Cost was £2200.
I have a sonos beam gen2. 2 Era 100s and a sub mini.

i used my sonos products with my old sony bravia and it worked flawlessly. Since getting the LG i am having the problem of the sound randomly cutting out for 1-2 seconds at a time. Sometimes 3 times a minute. Really annoying. I reset the tv to factory settings and it worked ok for a few weeks but it has now returned. I have tried eveything i can do with the settings and nothing fixes it.

I have a set top box and a firestick connected to it and its doing the same with both.

This is so frustrating as i love my sonos products but i am seriously thinking of changing my whole sonos setup to bose. I am so dissapointed.

I get the frustration, especially when Sonos is blaming it on LG and LG blaming this on Sonos. In my optinion the issue is clearly with Sonos, because why doesn’t the Arc have the cut out issues and the Beam 2 does all of a sudden since over a year now after a firmware update?

Keep in mind that the HDMI 1 port on your G4 shouldn’t have the cut out issues, only 3 and 4 are affected by this. I ended up returning the Beam 2 and replaced it with the Arc, never had a dropout ever again. I also recomment replacing the HDMI cable by Sonos for a good HDMI 2.1 cable.

D

Donstuarty

Lyricist III

Ok. I just bought a brand new 2024 model LG G4 65”. Cost was £2200.
I have a sonos beam gen2. 2 Era 100s and a sub mini.

i used my sonos products with my old sony bravia and it worked flawlessly. Since getting the LG i am having the problem of the sound randomly cutting out for 1-2 seconds at a time. Sometimes 3 times a minute. Really annoying. I reset the tv to factory settings and it worked ok for a few weeks but it has now returned. I have tried eveything i can do with the settings and nothing fixes it.

I have a set top box and a firestick connected to it and its doing the same with both.

This is so frustrating as i love my sonos products but i am seriously thinking of changing my whole sonos setup to bose. I am so dissapointed.

I get the frustration, especially when Sonos is blaming it on LG and LG blaming this on Sonos. In my optinion the issue is clearly with Sonos, because why doesn’t the Arc have the cut out issues and the Beam 2 does all of a sudden since over a year now after a firmware update?

Keep in mind that the HDMI 1 port on your G4 shouldn’t have the cut out issues, only 3 and 4 are affected by this. I ended up returning the Beam 2 and replaced it with the Arc, never had a dropout ever again. I also recomment replacing the HDMI cable by Sonos for a good HDMI 2.1 cable.

Hi Fendera,

Thank you so much for this reply. I thought it was all hdmi ports.

should i have the sonos plugged into hdm1 or my set top box?

Fendera

Lyricist III

Ok. I just bought a brand new 2024 model LG G4 65”. Cost was £2200.
I have a sonos beam gen2. 2 Era 100s and a sub mini.

i used my sonos products with my old sony bravia and it worked flawlessly. Since getting the LG i am having the problem of the sound randomly cutting out for 1-2 seconds at a time. Sometimes 3 times a minute. Really annoying. I reset the tv to factory settings and it worked ok for a few weeks but it has now returned. I have tried eveything i can do with the settings and nothing fixes it.

I have a set top box and a firestick connected to it and its doing the same with both.

This is so frustrating as i love my sonos products but i am seriously thinking of changing my whole sonos setup to bose. I am so dissapointed.

I get the frustration, especially when Sonos is blaming it on LG and LG blaming this on Sonos. In my optinion the issue is clearly with Sonos, because why doesn’t the Arc have the cut out issues and the Beam 2 does all of a sudden since over a year now after a firmware update?

Keep in mind that the HDMI 1 port on your G4 shouldn’t have the cut out issues, only 3 and 4 are affected by this. I ended up returning the Beam 2 and replaced it with the Arc, never had a dropout ever again. I also recomment replacing the HDMI cable by Sonos for a good HDMI 2.1 cable.

Hi Fendera,

Thank you so much for this reply. I thought it was all hdmi ports.

should i have the sonos plugged into hdm1 or my set top box?

The Beam Gen 2 should always be plugged in via the HDMI 2 (eARC) port on your LG TV. Make sure eARC is enabled within the TV settings, also set it up to "Passthrough". Usually the cutouts occur from consoles, devices and set top boxes that are plugged in via the HDMI port 3 and 4. Especially when using the PCM 5.1 audio format. Make sure to plug the device that you are using the most to the HDMI 1 port, that port shouldn't be affected by the audio cut outs. Another solution could be to buy a HDMI switch with 4 or 5 ports as an example. With that method you can hook multiple devices to the HDMI 1 port of your TV. Be sure to buy a HDMI 2.1 switch if you want to use the full HDMI bandwidth of your TV.

D

Donstuarty

Lyricist III

Ok. I just bought a brand new 2024 model LG G4 65”. Cost was £2200.
I have a sonos beam gen2. 2 Era 100s and a sub mini.

i used my sonos products with my old sony bravia and it worked flawlessly. Since getting the LG i am having the problem of the sound randomly cutting out for 1-2 seconds at a time. Sometimes 3 times a minute. Really annoying. I reset the tv to factory settings and it worked ok for a few weeks but it has now returned. I have tried eveything i can do with the settings and nothing fixes it.

I have a set top box and a firestick connected to it and its doing the same with both.

This is so frustrating as i love my sonos products but i am seriously thinking of changing my whole sonos setup to bose. I am so dissapointed.

I get the frustration, especially when Sonos is blaming it on LG and LG blaming this on Sonos. In my optinion the issue is clearly with Sonos, because why doesn’t the Arc have the cut out issues and the Beam 2 does all of a sudden since over a year now after a firmware update?

Keep in mind that the HDMI 1 port on your G4 shouldn’t have the cut out issues, only 3 and 4 are affected by this. I ended up returning the Beam 2 and replaced it with the Arc, never had a dropout ever again. I also recomment replacing the HDMI cable by Sonos for a good HDMI 2.1 cable.

Hi Fendera,

Thank you so much for this reply. I thought it was all hdmi ports.

should i have the sonos plugged into hdm1 or my set top box?

The Beam Gen 2 should always be plugged in via the HDMI 2 (eARC) port on your LG TV. Make sure eARC is enabled within the TV settings, also set it up to "Passthrough". Usually the cutouts occur from consoles, devices and set top boxes that are plugged in via the HDMI port 3 and 4. Especially when using the PCM 5.1 audio format. Make sure to plug the device that you are using the most to the HDMI 1 port, that port shouldn't be affected by the audio cut outs. Another solution could be to buy a HDMI switch with 4 or 5 ports as an example. With that method you can hook multiple devices to the HDMI 1 port of your TV. Be sure to buy a HDMI 2.1 switch if you want to use the full HDMI bandwidth of your TV.

You have been really helpful Fendera. Thank you so much. I have been googling and reading non stop about this to try and get it sorted. The only thing i never tried was changing ports. I though all ports were affected by this. I will try this when i get home from work. Thanks again

Y

yofalat611

Enthusiast I

@Donstuarty In my experience, HDMI 1 still has dropouts of 1-2x per hour. Not perfect but certainly more tolerable. IMHO ideal solution is still to return the Beam but if you can’t do that anymore, no choice but to use HDMI 1 or get a directional cable.

D

Donstuarty

Lyricist III

@Donstuarty In my experience, HDMI 1 still has dropouts of 1-2x per hour. Not perfect but certainly more tolerable. IMHO ideal solution is still to return the Beam but if you can’t do that anymore, no choice but to use HDMI 1 or get a directional cable.

Hi yofalat,

Just reporting back on this. It is still doing the same connected to the HDMI 1. I have ordered an HDMI 2.1 cable to see if that helps maybe, but im not confident this will make a difference. I have noticed that its maybe not as bad as what it was, but now the screen is also blacking out too the odd time. I have had the beam for about 3 years now so returning it is not an option. I had a sony bravia TV before my LG and it worked flawless with that. I am now out of ideas of how to fix this issue. I dont even know if it is Sonos or LG who is to blame. Its only started going like this from i got my LG but i have read a lot of people are having the same problem with different TVs from different brands too.

Fendera

Lyricist III

@Donstuarty In my experience, HDMI 1 still has dropouts of 1-2x per hour. Not perfect but certainly more tolerable. IMHO ideal solution is still to return the Beam but if you can’t do that anymore, no choice but to use HDMI 1 or get a directional cable.

Hi yofalat,

Just reporting back on this. It is still doing the same connected to the HDMI 1. I have ordered an HDMI 2.1 cable to see if that helps maybe, but im not confident this will make a difference. I have noticed that its maybe not as bad as what it was, but now the screen is also blacking out too the odd time. I have had the beam for about 3 years now so returning it is not an option. I had a sony bravia TV before my LG and it worked flawless with that. I am now out of ideas of how to fix this issue. I dont even know if it is Sonos or LG who is to blame. Its only started going like this from i got my LG but i have read a lot of people are having the same problem with different TVs from different brands too.

Looks like LG made some changes in terms of the HDMI ports on the newest models. The HDMI 1 port "fix" worked on the C1/G1 and even up to the C3/G3 I believe. I for myself own the C1 and there were no dropouts when using HDMI Port 1, with several other users on reddit confirming this when they switched to the HDMI 1 port as well.

The HDMI cable that came with the Beam 2 isn't as reliable either. Even with the HDMI 1 port "fix", I had these random sound cut outs but less frequent with the original cable from Sonos. I replaced it with a nice HDMI 2.1 cable and those random cut outs went basically away.

If nothing works, maybe you could sell the Beam Gen 2 and buy the Arc instead. Not ideal and very frustrating, but at least we know that the Arc doesn't have those issues.

I hope you can find a good solution that works for you 👍🏻

Fendera

Lyricist III

@Donstuarty In my experience, HDMI 1 still has dropouts of 1-2x per hour. Not perfect but certainly more tolerable. IMHO ideal solution is still to return the Beam but if you can’t do that anymore, no choice but to use HDMI 1 or get a directional cable.

The fibre cable has issues of its own unfortunately, I did try this too with my Beam Gen 2. This introduced a new issue, I had random blackouts of the screen and also sound cutouts but not as frequently as before. It wasn't optimal and that was the point when I returned the Beam and bought an Arc instead. This fixed it for me but it was certainly a very frustrating experience.

D

Donstuarty

Lyricist III

@Donstuarty In my experience, HDMI 1 still has dropouts of 1-2x per hour. Not perfect but certainly more tolerable. IMHO ideal solution is still to return the Beam but if you can’t do that anymore, no choice but to use HDMI 1 or get a directional cable.

The fibre cable has issues of its own unfortunately, I did try this too with my Beam Gen 2. This introduced a new issue, I had random blackouts of the screen and also sound cutouts but not as frequently as before. It wasn't optimal and that was the point when I returned the Beam and bought an Arc instead. This fixed it for me but it was certainly a very frustrating experience.

Looks like i have 2 options now. Buy an arc or kick the TV through the window. Neither good options considering the amount of money i have spent on everything. I love both of them why cant they just get along lol. Im going to contact LG this coming week and see what they say. If not i will have to buy the arc. Are you sure the arc doesnt have these issues? I have read in some of these forums that it can go the same way. Thanks for the replies trying to help me out guys.

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