PlayBar needs to support Dolby Digital Plus!

The PLAYBAR does not support Dolby Digital Plus because it cannot be transmitted over optical, the bandwidth is too high.  Dolby Digital Plus can only be transmitted via HDMI.

Because Dolby Digital Plus is built upon Dolby Digital, many devices are capable of outputting both formats.  Additionally, there are a number of televisions that will automatically convert from Dolby Digital Plus to Dolby Digital when outputting the source via optical.
netflix works fine for me? Apple TV does the conversion

Yeah, this is a really bad answer.  The smoke-and-mirrors response that, "many devices are capable of outputting both formats" is FUD.  Most TV's don't convert, regardless of what Sonos says, and lack of DD+ and DTS support is untenable in a product of this price range.  I have yet to get a reasonably priced workaround piece of hardware that will convert an HDMI input from DTS or DD+ to DD5.1 optical out...unless it's a full-blown AVR costing nearly as much as the Playbar itself.  Junk response and poor forward thinking by product development.
Tell me when you find a decent transcoder. I just bought an xbox one to test if netflix will work through that one.

The PLAYBAR does not support Dolby Digital Plus because it cannot be transmitted over optical, the bandwidth is too high.  Dolby Digital Plus can only be transmitted via HDMI.

Because Dolby Digital Plus is built upon Dolby Digital, many devices are capable of outputting both formats.  Additionally, there are a number of televisions that will automatically convert from Dolby Digital Plus to Dolby Digital when outputting the source via optical.

I understand the confusion, this Wikipedia page appears to be inaccurate. Here's the whitepaper published by Dolby on Dolby Digital Plus:

http://www.dolby.com/us/en/technologies/dolby-digital-plus-data-sheet.pdf

Under the section labeled Connectivity and Compatibility you'll see what's supported.  There's also another paper published by Dolby here:

http://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/Assets/US/Doc/Professional/dolby-digital-plus-faq.pdf

Which states:

What type of connector is required to transport Dolby Digital Plus content?
A high-bandwidth HDMITM 1.3 digital interface will transport Dolby Digital Plus bitstream signals directly to advanced digital A/V receivers equipped with Dolby Digital Plus decoding. Multichannel Dolby Digital Plus signals decoded inside the player can also be transported to a connected A/V receiver via analog outputs. Dolby Digital Plus signals decoded to PCM inside the player can be transported via HDMI 1.1, HDMI 1.2, and HDMI 1.3 connections, and the majority of Blu-ray players support this capability. 

Hope this helps clear it up, it just looks like there's an issue with the Wikipedia entry for TOSLINK.

The PLAYBAR does not support Dolby Digital Plus because it cannot be transmitted over optical, the bandwidth is too high.  Dolby Digital Plus can only be transmitted via HDMI.

Because Dolby Digital Plus is built upon Dolby Digital, many devices are capable of outputting both formats.  Additionally, there are a number of televisions that will automatically convert from Dolby Digital Plus to Dolby Digital when outputting the source via optical.
The same whitepaper also states that dd+ can be easily converted to dd 640 kbps bitstream without decoding and reencoding. This i what my TV does to be able to send it on the toslink. I'm afraid that Sonos only proofed their functionnality up to DVD audio bitrates of 448 kbps and thus packets are occationnally lost and we get aufio drop outs. Great sound mixed with dead silence. So when Sonos claims they support dd5.1 they really mean dd5.1 used on DVDs. I'm gonna get me a audio card for my computer that has toslink and start testing. I'm tired of never getting a reasonable answer.

Despite the fact that we are all cry babies and whine about the fact that the PlayBar does not support DD+ ... (and a variety of other industry standards)

Yes, i would like to hear DD+ coming out of my PlayBar when using Netflix on my MacMini...
My MacMini can only convert to stereo or pass the signal "as is", so does my Sony Bravia, now i have a problem...

Now Sonos, yes and i have seen you advising people 'not to use Sonos' for such a setup...

Please come up with a real solution, something like:
'buy this fancy schmancy hardware converter from company X that does the trick'
or even better...
shove a $300 SonosTM device down our throats... (win-win i would say, sure buy)

But come with something other than "Sonos might not be the product for you" that is just a lame answer... (note this was an actual official answer on a related topic)

Dear SONOS,

Have to agree with my fellas here above... We are big fans or we wouldn't be here... Level-up, fix it DD+ & DTS, make us buy something again but stop producing outdated excuses. We are end 2015 and you support dvd's formats... Come on SONOS, show respect to your buyers... And don't tell us it might not be the product for us... We bought it already!

I am in the same boat as the others. Sonos needs to release a PlayBar 2.0 that allows HDMI input for multiple devices, and then HDMI output to the TV for the video signal. One that works with the existing Sub and Play:1's I have for my existing 5.1 setup. I put a lot of money and faith into the Sonos setup, and have been disappointed whenever I buy a new streaming device that I can't listen to in 5.1 surround because it outputs the audio in DD+. I feel that Sonos has let me down that I have had to make purchase decisions (and return devices) because Sonos is incompatible with the technology. I have waited year after year in hopes that Sonos will release a new PlayBar to address this physical limitation of their choice to go with only Optical-In for their original PlayBar.

When it works, I love my Sonos setup. But I don't like that Sonos limits my choice of devices to use. I am getting tired of waiting.

A trade-in/up program would go a long way for your early adopters who bought into your 5.1 setup.

I have one local OTA station that, while a violation of ATSC, is using eAC3 instead of AC3 for their audio. This is for the same reason many streaming services use eAC3: its capable of the same sound quality as AC3 using less bandwidth. They are using it to squeeze as much bandwidth out of the ATSC channel as possible, so get an extra sub-channel in.

I've also done testing re-encoding a movie with various settings in Handbrake. You can do AC3 all the way up to 1.544mbit (which is actually again a violation of the spec, which says AC3 should be no more than 640kbit) and the Playbar will play it back fine. But encode it as eAC3 and remain within the 1.544mbit of TOSLINK (even well below it, like choosing 640kbit) and the Playbar cannot decode it.

And my TV (a 2015 850C series Sony) does not transcode eAC3 down to AC3. So I'll add that I, too, would really like to see the Playbar support eAC3 file format, since a lot of streaming services are using it at well below TOSLINK max bitrate because it reduces their bandwidth charges and saves them money.

Yeah this is pretty ridiculous. I admit I was a mug to go buying a full Sonos 5.1 system without doing my research fully, but the responses from Sonos as to why things that ought to be software updates are not supported (DD+ at least, if not DTS) are very disappointing.

I just want 5.1 out of Netflix. I was actually lucky in that my TV can pass through DD5.1 from HDMI to optical; a lot do not. I originally thought that no DD 5.1 was a limitation of the Netflix Android app, but it looks as though it is playing in 5.1 but using DD+, which my TV transcodes to stereo before passing it to the PlayBar.

I've reverted to illegally downloading whole seasons of the shows I want to watch from Usenet despite having a paid Netflix account, because then I can play the MKVs off my NAS through Kodi and transcode the audio to AC3, which my TV will pass through just fine.

Good job Sonos; your backwards-ass product is making it very difficult to go legit.

With my upgrade to the Apple TV 4th Gen, I now have silence playing DD+ 5.1 audio from Netflix (previous Apple TV generations would transcode this to DD 5.1 on the fly before sending it over HDMI)

Chain:
ATV4 --HDMI--> Samsung UA65H7000 --TOSLINK--> Sonos Playbar

The TV does support passthrough of DD+ from HDMI to TOSLINK, and as others have noted, certain bitrates of DD+ WILL pass through TOSLINK, and would possibly be backwards compatible with DD decoders.

Is this low-bitrate DD+ something SONOS would be able to add support for via a software update? I’m past the return date for my ATV4 and it’s a bummer having to keep both the ATV3 (for Netflix) and ATV4 (for Plex) around.