playbar works but surround play 3 speakers don't

Are you sure you are getting a 5.1 signal? 95% of TV's can only output stereo through the optical cable when the source is attached via HDMI (such as Blu-Ray player, PS4, DVD player etc), that's one of the main criticisms of the Playbar, it has no HDMI so no 5.1 without workarounds.

If you have netflix on your TV, using that should give you 5.1. Or you can buy and use an optical switcher.

Go to 'about sonos' and it should tell you if you are being fed 5.1 sound.

Interestingly it says "stereo." I have the optical cable connected to my television, but should I connect it directly to my Apple TV? (Note: I've been using my current setup for over a month now and it all worked just fine. The issue arose this week, for some reason. I haven't changed my behavior at all.)

Interestingly it says "stereo." I have the optical cable connected to my television, but should I connect it directly to my Apple TV? (Note: I've been using my current setup for over a month now and it all worked just fine. The issue arose this week, for some reason. I haven't changed my behavior at all.)


If you have your apple TV plugged into your TV via HDMI it's very unlikely that it will pass 5.1 to the Sonos - most will just pass stereo over optical.

What you'd need to do is plug the optical cable into the Apple TV (though I believe some new ones have dropped optical out). This may affect your TV sound though unless you have an optical switch.

The playbar was never really designed for 5.1 in my opinion.

Even if you're getting a stereo signal to the PLAYBAR over optical, the surrounds will still normally be active. They play ambient audio and an upmixed surround sound created by the PLAYBAR. During some programs this may not be very noticeable as a lot of TV content is "talking heads" which is supposed to come out of the front speakers. The PLAYBAR even does this upmixing when it's on it's own. The unit has speakers that are able to push audio up and behind the listener even on its own. The unit doesn't discard audio that it's capable of playing.

There are a lot of TVs out there that can pass Dolby Digital from HDMI to Optical, so if you'd like to post your TVs model number here I'd be happy to check that for you. Most of the new popular or mainstream TVs these days can do it.

On that diagnostic it looks like something came up and actually stopped the surround speakers from playing. We'll want to take a closer look into that. I see a lot of wireless interference on your system on both the 2.4 GHz and the 5GHz. The 5GHz is what the PLAYBAR uses to send audio to your satellites and it looks like there are a lot of communication issues there. I'd recommend rebooting the PLAYBAR which should trigger it to run an auto channel scan and pick a new one.

If it doesn't select a new channel, you'll want to log into your Arris router and set the 5GHz network to one of the lower channels.

Also, the 2.4GHz isn't likely the issue with the surrounds, but it's definitely something you'll want to work with. I see a lot of wireless networks in the area that are pretty strong, so it may be difficult to find a perfect arrangement. It looks like you've already done some channel changes on Sonos. Have you had trouble with other rooms dropping off? If so, you might want to try changing your router's channel and putting Sonos on the opposite side. I believe the router is on channel 1 right now, so putting Sonos on 11 might help, but the neighbors are also using channel 11. It's something to play with to see if you find a good balance.

Let us know how it goes, and feel free to post more diagnostics here if you'd like me to take a look. Just make sure to leave the system alone for 5 minutes after any wireless change before sending one to let everything settle.

hello,

when watching tv my play 3 speakers don't work either, only the playbar does.
surrounds speakers are on and I've also changed the volume but there is still no sound.
diagnostic: 6672744

thanks in advance

hello,

when watching tv my play 3 speakers don't work either, only the playbar does.
surrounds speakers are on and I've also changed the volume but there is still no sound.
diagnostic: 6672744

thanks in advance

What does Input say under "About My Sonos" when watching TV - I suspect it is Stereo in which case depending on what you are watching you won't hear much/anything from rears.

Hi wierie, the diagnostic is showing Stereo, so as Stuart suggested, you might want to take a closer listen to see if the speakers aren't just only active at certain times depending on what sort of audio is playing. Most dialogue comes from the center channels.

That said, there's a lot of 5GHz interference around the PLAYBAR which could also cause the surrounds to drop out from time to time. To resolve that, a restart on the PLAYBAR would help a lot. Do you have any wireless devices sitting around the PLAYBAR? A cordless phone perhaps?

I'm experiencing the same issue. My confirmation number is: 6742152

Same problem here. Diagnostics are submitted; 6791685

Same problem diagnostic # 6817882