Playbar/playbase

Hi everyone,

The discussion on when we'd support DTS was always one with a lot of pieces to the puzzle. When we first came out with the PLAYBAR there were arguments about if it would support that format, and finally, we reached the decision not to. There's always a lot that goes into a decision like this, but in the end, our conclusion is as posted above. More and more media is being streamed online over video services which don't deliver content in DTS formats and we see the market for DTS only sources shrinking quickly. Because we were already supporting Dolby Digital, and DTS is just about the same, it was decided not to support the format.

If most of your listening is through Blu-Ray players with DTS only tracks to where it's extremely important to you, the PLAYBAR or PLAYBASE might not be the right product for you. There are ways of getting that audio codec converted as well; if you love the Sonos sound. There are Blu-Ray players that will convert the DTS format into Dolby Digital 5.1 which will work great on Sonos and give you the full surround experience.

Hi Ryan,

yes, your conclusion is correct. The Playbar and Playbase might not be the correct product for me. And yes, speaking for myself, the next time I am investing in my home theater equipment I will choose. Will it be Sonos? I don't know.

The discussion and the complaints are not purely about DTS. DTS is a very small aspect of my major complaint:
Sonos did not create a future-proof product with the Playbase.

Sonos plans for a product lifecycle for the Play 5 Gen2 of about 10 years. I would expect for the Playbase at least 5, maybe also 10. Will the technical product design make it through these years? I doubt it. Not because the sound is bad, no, the sound will be very good. I am pretty sure of it.

In my opinion: It's all about a simple interface, called HDMI in version 2.1 supporting eARC.

That would habe been future proof! That would have given Sonos a unique USP. That would have given you the freedom to react on the market changes coming in the next 2 to 5 years. That would have given Sonos the marketing punchline to stick out.

Maybe that's not needed, because the Playbase is a bridge product. Maybe the decision from your management is to shorten product lifecycles and have an alternative way to react to the market.

We all don't know.

My conclusion:
The Playbase will be one the very high quality Sonos products. No doubt about that, but it is not the innovative Sonos product your loyal customers have expected. It is not in line with the stategy Sonos was so proud of when presenting the Play 5 Gen2. That is why my next soundbar might not be from Sonos, because I fear that the Playbar (which I own) and the Playbase cannot stand the competition.

But DTS is the first step, if it can be added with a software upgrade, the production line needs no changes.
Sony are launching a new UHD Blu-ray player in april, so they think the hard disk is not dead, Tesco sells UHD discs. Unfortunately it will not convert DTS into DD 5.1 for playbar or playbase.
Mass streaming live video quality to UHD disk standard is years away in the uk, Satellite bandwidth would cost too much.
Please ADD DTS support.

Hi Ryan.
Could you please call out a couple of those blueray players that convert DTS to DD 5.1
Thanks much

Hi Ryan.
Could you please call out a couple of those blueray players that convert DTS to DD 5.1
Thanks much

The one I hear talked about the most as being great at this is actually the Xbox One S. It has the HD playback and can convert on the fly. It also has all those game playing features too. There are some others talked about on the community too, and we don't have an official recommendation, but I've seen some great success stories out there.

Personally, I don't have a recommendation that I'm using. I'm a streamer in general, everything I watch is usually off of Amazon Video or Netflix. I don't have any Blu-Rays myself that I need to get the formats converted for.

Thanks Ryan. Appreciate the prompt response.