First, make sure you are playing content that is 5.1.  Then check the Now Playing screen to make sure you are getting 5.1. 

Note: Surround sound can be subtle, it’s not going to be loud unless you have directional cues or a soundtrack playing.  And unless the actor is off camera, you aren’t going to hear dialog through surrounds.

If you are watching regular cable or over- the -air TV broadcast the transmission most likely is Stereo 2.0 which has no surround channel. Therefore no sound will be heard in the One’s.

If you are viewing a premium cable channel you most likely will get Dolby Digital 5.1 (DD 5.1) which does have a surround channel.  In that case you will hear sound from the One’s. Likewise if you are viewing a DVD or premium service like NetFlix with DD 5.1 sound.

Music will play on all speakers when you have the surrounds programmed to full stereo for music. That setting is usually accompanied by auto-switch to surround mode for movies and/or standard cable and TV when not playing music. The settings are found in the Sonos App for home theater. 

I am no genius with setting things up so I went to Netflix and picked a program that had 5.1 Dolby digital sound played it and got no sound through the rear speakers only via the beam.

I checked my Virginmedia box and that said it was playing in DD 5.1 so is it my TV that is causing the problem?

@Laguna8 To clarify, your surround speakers are set up correctly and working as they should. You are probably just watching a stereo audio source on the TV OR your TV settings are set to pass through stereo PCM audio rather than 5.1 audio.

What model Panasonic TV do you have? Can you post photos of the current audio settings?

If you are watching a stereo PCM source, the Arc will perform an audio up-mix of the stereo signal to create a simulated surround sound. This means you’ll still hear most audio out of the Arc, but the surround speakers will play what is determined to be ambient audio. Depending on the audio quality of the stereo source, sometimes you won’t hear much audio or any audio at all from the surround speakers.

With 5.1 audio, you also won’t always hear audio from the surround speakers especially during quiet scenes. The audio from the surrounds will usually be the musical score, action that is behind you, or ambient sounds. Try finding an action film in 5.1 to test.

You can also adjust the TV Level higher under the Surround Audio settings for the Beam.

My TV is a Panasonic 65EZ950

The HDMI audio format has 3 choices 

Auto, Bitstream and PCM the audio settings are mostly greyed out as you can see from the picture.

If I switch to an action film on Netflix is it likely to work?

Set the HDMI Audio Format setting to Bitstream. Then test a 5.1 film on Netflix. And tell us what audio format the Sonos app displays on the Now Playing screen.

Pardon my lack of knowledge but where is the Now Playing screen in the S2 app?

See under the word TV on that screen? That Dolby Digital 5.1 means that the Sonos is receiving a Dolby Digital signal from the TV set.  It does not mean, necessarily, that there’s anything going on on those rear channels. I used to have pre-season football games that were broadcast in Dolby Digital, but the content itself was stereo, so while I would have seen that as the carrier, there was no data out of the rear channels. 

Re-read some of the early responses to your initial post. Note that you can “turn up” the volume on the surrounds in the controller under “room settings” for that room, but you’re never going to get, for instance, the voices that come from the center channel to come from the surrounds. What you should hear is ambient noise, explosions sometimes, or birds, or cars driving back and forth, depending on the movie, just not the main speaking channel. 

I tried a film on Netflix and an explosion went off in the speaker that was next to me.

made me jump I can tell you so it seems like it’s working OK.

It *might* be worth taking a look at those volume controls in the room settings….but I certainly get it, the first time an explosion went off and I heard it from the surrounds (and the SUB), I jumped too. :)

@Laguna8 

Referencing the screen shot you posted here’s another point in addition to @Airgetlam comment. The crescent moon appears to be active which means you have activated night mode which lowers the level of loud noises (i.e. explosions) and raises the level of softer noises (i.e. birds chirping). So you might try turning night mode off to see how levels sound. Just touch the moon to turn night mode on/off.

@AjTrek1 glad it was on night mode last night if it had been any louder I might have had a heart attack.

I’ll tweak things later when I get home but thanks to everyone for the advice.