playbar works but surround play 3 speakers don't

Hi everyone,

For trouble with surround speakers it's often best to give us a call on our support line to work with a technician live, as Chris suggested. There are a lot of variables to look into, so it's generally best to work with us live. Our contact information and hours is available here for all regions support is available: http://www.sonos.com/contact It's good to start with checking the format for the source of your audio, also to see if the audio is getting to your PLAYBAR as Dolby Digital 5.1 or as Stereo PCM.

Also, remember that surround speakers play ambient audio and background noise, they don't mimic the front channels. This is most noticeable with movies and action type sequences, far less noticeable with news or sports broadcasts. Dialogue almost always comes from the front channels.

We do have an option for the rears to mimic the front channel for music playback within the PLAYBAR settings, you can find the directions for setting this up on the page here: https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1959/

@mikee, Sometimes it does happen where you need to have Sonos TV volume set considerably higher than the volume for music playback. If your TV has volume control on the optical output, you can try adjusting that higher (not all TVs can do this). Music services each control the volumes their tracks are encoded at, and they may even have different levels between tracks themselves, this tends to be the case with some services like Pandora, you would notice some songs can be louder than others without adjusting the volume at all. TuneIn radio stations are much the same, the stations control the volume they'll come in at, the baseline at least.

You shouldn't need to put your PLAYBAR up to 90% or more unless you really want to fill the room. Just checking though, is it the Sonos controller showing the volume at 90% or the TV volume display? Those two meters aren't linked, so you might need to "sync" them again by using your remote to take both down to 0% and then use it to turn them back up to a listening level. On the diagnostic you sent it only showed the PLAYBAR at 35%.

since the original problem of a year ago is now solved, I think many people just think their rears are not working when they do not receive a Dolby Digital signal because the pseudo-surround capabilities on Sonos with a stereo signal seem very poor. Since many people are now using their TVs as a central hub to both video AND audio / music content, there needs to be the same 'FULL' option for TV audio as exists for Music.

Please see http://en.community.sonos.com/wireless-speakers-228992/full-stereo-option-when-watching-tv-audio-please-6341426 and add your support.

I think the Playbar just needs a better pro-logic decoder for stereo signals, if indeed it's actually doing any sort of pro-logic decoding at all, I've no idea. That would be better for tv than a FULL option, if you ask me.

It does something but its really negligible. I end up pushing the rear volume to the max for some stereo content only to have to bring it back down again when listening to Dolby Digital content or Sonos Music (which uses 'Full'). The suggestion in the thread above is to have a 'Full' toggle along with 'Speech Enhancement' and 'Night Mode' as this setting will not be needed/wanted in all circumstances so should be an easily accessible 'switch'' that can be used as necessary at the listeners discretion.

Playbar and Sub works fine, Play 3 speakers are connected but no sound at all with any setting that I can figure out, diagnostics uploaded 5184432.

Thanks TinCuda, from that diagnostic it looks like the PLAY:3 speakers are playing, but they're a bit quiet, and there are a few things we can work with to improve that. First off, the audio source you're currently streaming is stereo which means the only audio getting sent to the surrounds are the ambient audio pulled from the 2 channel stereo by our decoding software. Generally this means you'll notice it most during loud sequences such as explosions, and with soundtracks. Talking will almost always be played from center channel when you're getting a stereo signal.

You can also turn up the surround volume by going to Room Settings > Advanced Audio > Surround Settings. Adjust the level higher to increase the volume of the surrounds.

On top of these steps your local system is seeing a lot of traffic on the 5 GHz wireless, which your PLAYBAR uses to send audio to the surrounds and SUB. When there's too much noise on the wireless channel the audio will cut out. There are two routers both broadcasting a very strong signal on this wireless, a 2Wire and an Arris. The 2Wire is the one your PLAYBAR is connected to, on the 2.4 GHz. Do you know if that Arris router is yours as well?

I'd recommend starting with logging into the 2Wire router and under Wireless Settings turn the 5 GHz to a set channel, lower on the spectrum would be good. If you can adjust the Arris that'd be great too as it's the stronger of the two broadcasts.

Once that's done, can you restart your router by unplugging it for 15 seconds, then reboot your PLAYBAR as well? When they're back up go ahead and give it a test run and let us know how it goes.

If you have any or need a hand with this our support team is happy to help. You can always give us a call on our line here: http://www.sonos.com/contact.

Same here. 5189906

Same Problem. Diagnostic number 5289696.

I'm also having the same problem...playbar and 2 play 1 speakers work great with music playing, but the play 1 speakers won't work with tv surround sound. Here's my diagnotics number: 5325552

We are experiencing the same issue. Can you try to push us the update to raise the volume of our surrounds. Diagnostic: 5445168

Same issue- 5507005

Thanks

Hi,

I'm experiencing the same issue. My setup is a playbar with 2 PLAY 1's. I get perfect surround sound playing netflix, youtube etcetera, but when I'm watching tv (from a setup box, connected to the tv via HDMI), the rear speakers do not provide any sound. Seems like there's just no upmixing. Some sources providing "stereo" input to the playbar are upmixed, so we get sound from the rearspeakers, just with the tv, we're not getting anything.

Ryan,

Thank you for your reply. I have a dvd player connected to the tv via HDMI as well. Using that, the sound is upmixed or played as it should do (e.g. 2.0 or stereo input does give sound in the rear speakers). The tv is a sony bravia 43w756c.
I can select "stereo sound" or "dolby digital" as an option on the tv set-top box, but it doesn't make any difference. When playing tv from the set-top box, no sound is coming from the rear speakers, not even when I'm playing a movie, a show with applause or a music channel...
Hi,

I'm experiencing the same issue. My setup is a playbar with 2 PLAY 1's. I get perfect surround sound playing netflix, youtube etcetera, but when I'm watching tv (from a setup box, connected to the tv via HDMI), the rear speakers do not provide any sound. Seems like there's just no upmixing. Some sources providing "stereo" input to the playbar are upmixed, so we get sound from the rearspeakers, just with the tv, we're not getting anything.

Hi Lambik,

This largely will depend on what broadcast is on the TV. News programs, or just able anything with largely dialogue is going to be coming from the center and front channels in almost all cases. Surround upmixing doesn't send dialogue that should be in the front anywhere else. You should hear soundtracks, action or loud sequences, and at times some other audio as well.

It sounds like everything's set up properly there, though just out of curiosity do you have any other HDMI sources connected? If the set-top box passes Dolby Digital content, and you don't get it on the TV, it's possible that TV doesn't send Dolby Digital content from HDMI sources to the optical connection. Some TVs will only pass over-the-air Dolby Digital content which would be the apps the TV has built in. What is the model of your TV?

I have same issue with no sound coming from play 1s when TV is playing anything from dish receiver or Apple TV. Another issue I am experiencing is the occasional drop off in sound. I have my Sonos system connected to a boost that is on dedicated 2.4ghz line for my router. My diagnostic number is 5551511. Thanks

Diagnostic report 6000887