PlayBar needs to support Dolby Digital Plus!
Why does the PlayBar not support Dolby Digital Plus decoding? Is this a hardware vs software issue? It pains my soul to have to go into the Netflix audio settings and select stereo output when I'm sitting here with this glorious PlayBar that should be capable of delivering the beauty of full blown surround. Is it possible to do some sort of a software update that would enable the decoding of DD+ from Netflix via the Roku (which is sending the signal as a passthrough)?
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Sonos have a 90 or 100 days return policy...
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 dd+ uses less than 640 kbit/s so it should be ok. It's just the max spec that's higher. Don't think many streaming services use the high bit rates.
I'm just grateful Sonos decided to support Stereo, after all, many old songs and b&w films are in mono. My old Denon receiver (AVR-F100) bought 14 years ago supported DTS over optical - a format supposedly too demanding for optical. Sonos is all about botching things together - AirPlay Expresses for apple support, errr a poor remote app for limited Spotify, an hdmi or optical switch and a transcoding Bluray player for surround sound. "It's all about the botch", as the recent song goes. Perhaps Sonos should start an accreditation programme for all the extras we need to buy to give us what we want. We just have to accept that at some point, Sonos will release Playbar 2.0 which will hopefully address all these problems and have Spotify Connect and AirPlay from day one. I hope they offer a very generous trade-in programme. Until then, let's celebrate that they gave us stereo and DD5.1 (only)!
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.
This is really disappointing. I just bought a whole Sonos 5.1 surround system, every component. I can't enjoy dolby on Netflix? I wish I had seen this post before I purchased this a few weeks ago. Why does the Playbar not have HDMI input then? I spent way too much money on this for this answer 😞
Ok thanks for the info. Apparently my TV, the Samsung UN60ES6100 is not one of them because the only way I can get audio from Netflix through the PlayBar is to select stereo output rather than DD+. Guess I will need to harp on Roku to decode rather than pass through.
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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.
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.
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