Multichannel PCM 5.1 dropping out since 14.10 update

T
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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.

Corry P 5 months ago

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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Y
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Don’t know if it’s even an HDMI 1 workaround

If you backread, a couple of folks did some tests and found HDMI 1 alone to be somewhat resistant to this bug for some reason. My experience coincide with their findings but as I said it hasn’t been flawless.

Was looking into alternatives if I do choose to refund and the closest comparable device seems to be the Bose 600, but the more I look into that the more I see pages and pages of people complaining that it doesn’t work properly with LG TVs!

I looked into the Bose 600 awhile back and found that there was an issue upon launch where it didn’t work with LGs. But Bose acknowledged the issue and released a fix via software update. Not sure though if you’re referring to new issues that came up since then.

 

Yeah it’s pretty annoying. Sometimes the screen goes black for a bit and then comes back, it restarts the connection to the beam when this happens. This is on the optical cable. Normal cable doesn’t do that but I can’t live with the dropout every minute. 

Do you have a broken fiber optic cable or is the cable “fix” bugged as well? Was just considering to finally purchase one as I currently have a good offer from Amazon lol.

D
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Yeah it’s pretty annoying. Sometimes the screen goes black for a bit and then comes back, it restarts the connection to the beam when this happens. This is on the optical cable. Normal cable doesn’t do that but I can’t live with the dropout every minute. 
 

lots of the gaming I do is in 5.1 LPCM. The switch doesn’t have any other surround mode and Xbox has a huge delay on Dolby related stuff, and 7.1 is nice and all for movies, but it messes up some positional stuff in games. 
 

the Apple TV is just fine, as long as inputting everything in Dolby digital instead of atmos with fallback to lpcm, but then I miss atmos AND I get the delay the lg c1 adds to Dolby. 
 

live TV same thing; Dolby sources are delayed. 100 percent the TV that does this sadly. Except when I plug in my PC; that just works fine on atmos and Dolby digital. Super weird, but at least a workaround for the lpcm issue (and being able to set atmos to 5.1 instead of 7.1 is a nice touch as well since windows messes up the rear tracks by not sending them at all)

D

The HDMI 1 workaround is not perfect as I’ve always gotten around one or two dropouts every hour with PCM 5.1. Perhaps you just haven’t noticed or you’re lucky that yours hasn’t bugged out yet.

Don’t know if it’s even an HDMI 1 workaround, tried the PS5 in HDMI 1 and it didn’t solve the issue. The Firestick just seems to deal with issues better than any other device. It’s by far what I’ve used most since I got the Beam so I think I would’ve noticed dropouts, but as you say it just might not have bugged out yet. I’ve also experienced some other weird quirks with it - If I have the Firestick set to “best audio possible” I get no sound when I set the Nintendo Switch to surround, full audio on stereo, but if I set the Firestick to PCM, I get surround on the Switch, but it regularly drops out. There was a brief moment where everything worked perfectly (Switch and PS5) if I disconnected the Firestick completely, but then that seemed to stop working too…

I also used a Sony earc soundbar with no issues before “upgrading” to the Beam. Since you have multiple devices that make use of PCM 5.1, I suggest that you either buy the fiber optic cable or simply return your Beam. Personally, I’d go with the latter as Sonos has already lost my trust. From what we’d seen from the Atmos pop (and this) issue , they’d just sweep things under the rug and deny any wrongdoing unless it has garnered widespread media attention.

I’m gonna try the cable as I get get one for £11 on Amazon in the UK, more out of curiosity than anything, but maintain that it’s unacceptable for a product to come with a cable and for me to still have to purchase one separately to get it to work properly. Was looking into alternatives if I do choose to refund and the closest comparable device seems to be the Bose 600, but the more I look into that the more I see pages and pages of people complaining that it doesn’t work properly with LG TVs! Starting to think my basic SONY soundbar worked so flawlessly because that’s all it was - just a decent soundbar, no bells or whistles. While I don’t think it is a TV issue, it seems that some of the blame has to lie with LG here - there are too many variables for this to simply be “the Beam can’t do 5.1”

 

Y
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Firestick works FLAWLESSLY. No drop outs, 5.1, 7.1, Atmos all work great.

The HDMI 1 workaround is not perfect as I’ve always gotten around one or two dropouts every hour with PCM 5.1. Perhaps you just haven’t noticed or you’re lucky that yours hasn’t bugged out yet.

With the Blu Ray issue being fixed by a TV hard reset I initially thought it might be a TV issue, but I used a SONY soundbar via e-Arc before with absolutely no issues. I thought the Sonos would be an upgrade but this issue is making me strongly consider returning it. This is not budget equipment, I shouldn’t have to lose my evenings trying to get it to work properly…

I also used a Sony earc soundbar with no issues before “upgrading” to the Beam. Since you have multiple devices that make use of PCM 5.1, I suggest that you either buy the fiber optic cable or simply return your Beam. Personally, I’d go with the latter as Sonos has already lost my trust. From what we’d seen from the Atmos pop (and this) issue , they’d just sweep things under the rug and deny any wrongdoing unless it has garnered widespread media attention.

D

Coming to this late but wanna add my experience here. LG G2, Beam Gen 2 via e-Arc, 4K Firestick in HDMI 1, PS5 in 3 and Nintendo Switch in 4.

Firestick works FLAWLESSLY. No drop outs, 5.1, 7.1, Atmos all work great. PS5 works perfectly when playing games, but trying to watch a Blu Ray is a lottery whether it will play (only after TV hardware reset) drop out intermittently (sometimes not coming back at all) or just no sound from the off. Nintendo Switch audio drops out for a second every couple of minutes.

With the Blu Ray issue being fixed by a TV hard reset I initially thought it might be a TV issue, but I used a SONY soundbar via e-Arc before with absolutely no issues. I thought the Sonos would be an upgrade but this issue is making me strongly consider returning it. This is not budget equipment, I shouldn’t have to lose my evenings trying to get it to work properly…

Y
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So after seeing the Verge story about the audio popping issue being fixed I wondered whether this ever got resolved. I can’t easily swap my cable out but may try it seeing as there have been a few firmware updates for the LG CX recently, as well as the Beam obviously.

 

Anybody still monitoring this?

 

I guess everyone already gave in and bought the one way cable lol. As for my case, I am still experiencing periodic dropouts on HDMI1 so I think it’s still not yet fixed. Sonos did mention that they specifically addressed an issue with Dolby MAT Atmos.

Remember, Sonos denied the Atmos pop issue for years until that The Verge article came out. Then all of a sudden Sonos investigated and fixed a “non-existent” issue that was previously “caused by your TV / PC / Console / Bluray player / HDMI cable / CEC / Atmos / anything but Sonos’ product.” It would take a The Verge article-level of miracle to get Sonos to fix this issue.

S
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So after seeing the Verge story about the audio popping issue being fixed I wondered whether this ever got resolved. I can’t easily swap my cable out but may try it seeing as there have been a few firmware updates for the LG CX recently, as well as the Beam obviously.

 

Anybody still monitoring this?

D
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Seeing as there are no new replies I think this still hasn’t been fixed?

 

we have bought a Samsung wh-q930c for the bedroom (also lg c1) and there’s no issue on that system at all. 

using the optical hdmi still fixes the problem luckily. But lately the screen has been flickering black for 4 seconds before coming back on, as if earc is reapplying.
 

Also have some audio delay issues on live TV lately; only on Dolby digital streams. Channels that use PCM work just fine, but I think thisnactually is an LG issue since the Samsung had the same thing. 

M
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Any one way 2.1 HDMI optical cable should be fine. 

Beardalorian
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But what do I lose if I just move the Sonos Beam to HDMI 3 or 4 and lose the eArc. Does that just mean I can’t talk to my TV?! 

The audio return is on HDMI 2 only. You can’t connect it to any other port. The optical cable should fix the issues for you though. 

Hey fam. I just signed up to comment. I saw your link to the cable. Sadly it's unavailable. I'm in the USA. Can you help me on a cord that is literally the same or similar so I can get when purchasing the Arc? I don't want to get something wrong. I found this one. Is it good?

RUIPRO 8k Fiber Optic

Feeding my Entertainment high 💉
M

Have you updated the software on your TV? It really shouldn’t make a difference if the blue ray player is connected to HDMI 1 or HDMI 3, they both *should* be acting the same.

Nope no update, I swapped the HDMI port 20 mins into a movie after it was dropping every few mins, and the rest of the movie played with no drops. Very strange.. 

We'll see if it's a long term fix.

Airgetlam

Have you updated the software on your TV? It really shouldn’t make a difference if the blue ray player is connected to HDMI 1 or HDMI 3, they both *should* be acting the same.

Bruce
M

LG C2 + Beam Gen 2 + PS5 (watching Blu-ray)

Audio dropping 2-3 seconds every few mins whilst watching multichannel PCM 5.1. Sometimes audio comes back funny, like a vocal track missing. Restarting the Blu-ray brings it back. 

I tried moving the PS5 from HDMI port 3 to port 1. So far so good, but only 30 mins into a movie.

Will update..

T
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But what do I lose if I just move the Sonos Beam to HDMI 3 or 4 and lose the eArc. Does that just mean I can’t talk to my TV?! 

The audio return is on HDMI 2 only. You can’t connect it to any other port. The optical cable should fix the issues for you though. 

Can also confirm that this “fix” worked. Thanks!

S

Had the same issue with audio occasionally dropping for a second every few minutes in av amplifier 5.1 setting from ps5.

Setup: ps5 + sonos beam 2 with 2 sonos one surrounds+ lg c2.

Sound input from ps5 - bitstream (for surround)

eARC enabled

Sound output - passthrou 

Quick fix worked for me: switch hdmi port for your ps5 to an previously unused one (or hard reset current one). Do not set your ps5 hdmi input type to PC. Check if audio don't drop in av amplifier 5.1 and that your sonos system get 5.1 PCM.

I suspect doing PC input type for ps5 hdmi port is the case, cause it's literally the only difference between working and problematic setup.

T
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Okay, thanks. I just ordered this one from Amazon:

FIBBR 8K HDMI Fiber Optic Cable, FIBBR 48Gbps Ultra High Speed Gaming HDMI 2.1 Cable 8K60Hz 4K120Hz 144Hz Dynamic HDR/eARC Active Optical HDMI Cable Compatible with PS5, Xbox Series X, PC, TV(6.56ft)

Had to order from a vendor in China. I couldn’t find any options in Canada/USA that were in stock.

M
Userlevel 3
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But what do I lose if I just move the Sonos Beam to HDMI 3 or 4 and lose the eArc. Does that just mean I can’t talk to my TV?! 

The audio return is on HDMI 2 only. You can’t connect it to any other port. The optical cable should fix the issues for you though. 

T
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Thanks, I did think of this but I was hoping to use the ATV for everything rather than the WEB OS on the LG for anything. I do take your point though so thank you. 

If you were to download the apple tv app on the TV itself and watch dune that way, you wouldn’t have the audio dropouts. Or if you cast it from your phone. 

 

R

If you were to download the apple tv app on the TV itself and watch dune that way, you wouldn’t have the audio dropouts. Or if you cast it from your phone. 

T
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Hi All, 

Don’t know if it’s helpful or not or just more of the same. I too am having this issue. I have an LG C2 48”, a Beam gen 2 and two ERA 100s as surrounds. 

The rest of my kit is an Apple TV 4k and a Nintendo Switch. All bought last week. All was good until I learned that the switch had 5.1 surround and started with the cutting out of sound every one or two minutes. 

My switch was plugged into HDMI 3 and the ATV was plugged into HDMI 1. When I switched them I had the opposite problem. Switch was fine in HDMI one, but ATV was cutting out when watching DUNE on Netflix. 

Sorry I don’t understand the difference between Atmos, DD, PCM, pass through etc., so I haven’t been able to properly troubleshoot. But seems like another data point to add to the list so I thought I’d post anyway. 

Incidentally, also embarrassing with my already skeptical spouse, when I can’t even easily set up a movie to watch on the new kit without having to muck around with settings and cables. 🤷‍♂️

Thanks all for working on it. I may try the cable fix posted earlier. But what do I lose if I just move the Sonos Beam to HDMI 3 or 4 and lose the eArc. Does that just mean I can’t talk to my TV?

Thnaks! 

R

Another small bit of information from testing with 4k blu rays being played on PS5. (LG C3 and Sonos Beam 2 w/ 2 era 100s
-Dunkirk 4k UHD had audio dropouts (5.1 soundtrack with ps5 set to 7.1 on HDMI port 3)
     -I had hoped that the 7.1 sound setting would have covered this since it works fine for video games.
     -After switching to HDMI slot 1, the issue resolved.
-Mission Impossible: Fallout (Dolby Atmos HDMI port 3) worked flawlessly without any tweaks necessary.

I haven’t had any issues with dropouts when it comes to streaming from the TV directly. That includes 5.1, and dolby atmos. Hopefully at some point, Sony will push out dolby atmos support natively to PS5, maybe with the rumored console revision.
 

Y
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Seems like someone from The Verge is covering the popping sound issue. Sent them a PM and tagging them in case they’re intested to look into this as well @tomwarren 

P

I’ll add my 2p worth into the mix. I’ve had the Beam 2 with 2 Era 300’s and a Sub 2 for a few weeks connected to an LG C2 onto HDMI 2 (eArc) with Passthrough and eARC enabled with my PC (Nvidia RTX 4090) connected to HDMI 1 on the TV (I also have a PS5 and Xbox Series X connected to HDMI 3 and 4). I have been getting sound cutting out on HDMI 1 every so often (the Beam 2 seems to ‘reset’). Sometimes the audio won’t come back at all and I have to pull the plug on both the LG and the Beam 2 to get the system working (this works consistently). I’m not sure what’s causing the audio to cut out but it seems to have something to do with switching audio sources, i.e. going from a Dolby Atmos container to 5.1. Anyway, I happen to have a spare Fibr (optical HDMI 2.1) cable which I’ve used for HDMI 2 to the Beams 2 (with the TV as the source, i.e. end 1) as suggested in this thread and this (so far) seems to have fixed the issue - note that I use one of these cables to the other way around from my PC to the TV to get 120 Hz with HDR etc. I’m glad it has worked because this whole setup would have been going back to the supplier at the weekend - so Sonos support, you owe MJW75 a pack of beers!

J

For those that aren’t aware, I posted a work around a few months back. Everyone who has reported trying it has confirmed it works. I’ve not had an issue since doing this. 
 

You need a one way optical HDMI 2.1 cable between the Beam and the TV with the TV at the source end of the cable. This will stop the drop outs. CEC will still work. The only missing feature are the images (screen saver?) sent from the Beam to the TV - which is a pointless feature anyway. These cables are not expensive. The one I bought from Amazon UK was £17 (about $20). If you want more info, read from my post on page 11 onwards. 

This did not solve the problem at all.

Have you put the cable between the TV and Beam with the TV at the source end? You are the first of many saying it didn’t work - so double check everything. 

Yes it's the right way around as 7.1 and stereo pcm is  working fine still.

M
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For those that aren’t aware, I posted a work around a few months back. Everyone who has reported trying it has confirmed it works. I’ve not had an issue since doing this. 
 

You need a one way optical HDMI 2.1 cable between the Beam and the TV with the TV at the source end of the cable. This will stop the drop outs. CEC will still work. The only missing feature are the images (screen saver?) sent from the Beam to the TV - which is a pointless feature anyway. These cables are not expensive. The one I bought from Amazon UK was £17 (about $20). If you want more info, read from my post on page 11 onwards. 

This did not solve the problem at all.

Have you put the cable between the TV and Beam with the TV at the source end? You are the first of many saying it didn’t work - so double check everything. 

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