Please see a copy of a mail thread with Sonos and take a short look by yourself to figure out if they are serious about home cinema use of the PLAYBAR or not. (Support answers are weak marketing chat, the CEO is not answering at all.) _________________ Thread Titel: Stop the PLAYBAR marketing lies ! _________________ Hello Keith, dear (unknown) CEO, seen your answer and for sure I’m going to return the unit instantly. No way to keep this scrap on weak promises and marketing lies. For sure you can send me updates about new features and functionality. But I’ve learned the information on your website is inaccurate. With all required respect, but Sonos is simply lying to customers. Sincerely Bernd _________________ Hello Bernd, We do not give out any information on any future updates or products. As soon as I know anything, I can send you that information. If you would like me to return the unit for you, please let me know. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. _________________ Hello Keith, dear CEO, thanks for fast fast answer, anyway it does not lead into a solution, especially it does not answer my question. Therefore I’m asking again for a clear statement, not for a weak ‘maybe sometime in future’ marketing answer. First please seriously review my statements below together with your engineering team about HD TV sets. Second please answer my clear and simple question at the end of this mail. 1. The Sonos view of PCM, DD and DTS handling on common HD TV sets is wrong, at a minimum bad market research. Most HD TV sets work in pass through or bit stream mode on their optical output. Therefore they commonly forward the given DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 bit stream unchanged to their optical output to forward best quality. As a result of this common implementation they are forwarding DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 to the PLAYBAR depending on the source signal. In example most audio content delivered on Blu-Ray is DTS 5.1, especially if you go for the international translations of the audio streams. For sure on some HD TV sets you can configure PCM 2 down-sampling for the optical output. As already stated this leads into down-sampling on the HD TV set and re-up-sampling on the PLAYBAR and therefore an unacceptable loss of audio quality. By design this multiple re-sampling dramatically reduces the 5.1 experience, ‘cause it’s not native 5.1 as given on the source, it’s just virtual surround quality. Anyway this is just a sad workaround to the missing DTS support on a 2k Sonos surround sound system (counting a PLAYBAR, a SUB and two PLAY:3). 2. The question asked multiple times is simple and the two possible answers are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’: Is Sonos going to offer full and hassle-free DTS 5.1 support on the currently purchased PLAYBAR hardware? Again: I’m asking some kind of a multiple choice question and the possible answers are: ‘YES, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR CURRENT PLAYBAR, WE ARE GOING TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ ‘NO, RETURN IT, WE ARE NOT ABLE, NOT WILLING, NOT SKILLED ENOUGH TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ Your options are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ nothing in between, ‘cause I need to decide if I want to keep my current PLAYBAR or to return it on time and get my money back. Anyway I really like the Sonos PLAYBAR, the other Sonos audio stuff and the Sonos user experience, but I’m not likely to take the risk to stay with possibly clumsy hardware. Sincerely Bernd Krause ________________ Hello Bernd, I thank you for your feedback on the PLAYBAR. The design of the PLAYBAR is to work through the Optical Out of your TV. The majority of TVs do not pass DTS. They commonly will pass either Stereo or Dolby Digital, which the PLAYBAR can handle. If we receive a Stereo Signal, the PLAYBAR will upmix this signal to a virtual Surround Sound. For Dolby signals, we will play that format as a Native Dolby Digital signal. I will bring this DTS feature request up to the System Design Team. Hopefully this is something we can introduce to the PLAYBAR at some point in the future. Once again, thank you for your feedback. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. ________________ Dear CEO, dear Customer Service Manager, just a few days ago I bought a brand new PLAYBAR and I’m completely dissatisfied and quite upset about the big discrepancies between marketing descriptions and product features. Your website is saying : Plays all sources plugged in to your HD TV: satellite boxes, Blu-Ray players, and video game consoles. If it’s connected to your HD TV, PLAYBAR will play it. http://www.sonos.com/shop/products/playbar In simple words - and please accept my apologies about my pour English - this is a simple, but rough marketing lie. From a quick reviews it’s less than 20% of the common HD TV sets going to play properly from all inputs with the PLAYBAR. The main reason for this major lack of functionality is the missing DTS support of the PLAYBAR. As I learned from your support this is ‘failure by design’, therefore it’s seems to be an engineering problem. From my point of view you have just two options: Close the gap and correct the engineering problem by adding DTS support to the PLAYBAR. As a first result your current marketing information is (as everywhere just nearby) going to tell the truth. This way you are going to keep your customers satisfied and stop the upcoming ‘shit storm’ about the PLAYBAR. Or keep the gap, but stop the marketing lies on your website and tell the people the truth about the current PLAYBAR: It’s just a good music player looking similar to a soundbar and with some good luck it connects to your HD TV, too. It’s up to you to make the proper decisions. At this point in time I’m very likely to return my PLAYBAR in case I’m getting no valuable, reliable and convincing response telling me it’s going to have full and hassle-free DTS support on the currently purchased hardware. For sure it looks nice and quite similar to a real soundbar, but it only works fine as a music player and it’s definitively not matching the mainstream demand of the real ‘home cinema’ world and the common audio formats. Sincerely Bernd Krause
I have the full 5.1 setup (2xplay3, subwoofer, and playbar). Ben what TV do you have? And it does say stereo, but I'm by no means an audiophile and it sounds good to my ears.
Please see a copy of a mail thread with Sonos and take a short look by yourself to figure out if they are serious about home cinema use of the PLAYBAR or not. (Support answers are weak marketing chat, the CEO is not answering at all.) _________________ Thread Titel: Stop the PLAYBAR marketing lies ! _________________ Hello Keith, dear (unknown) CEO, seen your answer and for sure I’m going to return the unit instantly. No way to keep this scrap on weak promises and marketing lies. For sure you can send me updates about new features and functionality. But I’ve learned the information on your website is inaccurate. With all required respect, but Sonos is simply lying to customers. Sincerely Bernd _________________ Hello Bernd, We do not give out any information on any future updates or products. As soon as I know anything, I can send you that information. If you would like me to return the unit for you, please let me know. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. _________________ Hello Keith, dear CEO, thanks for fast fast answer, anyway it does not lead into a solution, especially it does not answer my question. Therefore I’m asking again for a clear statement, not for a weak ‘maybe sometime in future’ marketing answer. First please seriously review my statements below together with your engineering team about HD TV sets. Second please answer my clear and simple question at the end of this mail. 1. The Sonos view of PCM, DD and DTS handling on common HD TV sets is wrong, at a minimum bad market research. Most HD TV sets work in pass through or bit stream mode on their optical output. Therefore they commonly forward the given DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 bit stream unchanged to their optical output to forward best quality. As a result of this common implementation they are forwarding DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 to the PLAYBAR depending on the source signal. In example most audio content delivered on Blu-Ray is DTS 5.1, especially if you go for the international translations of the audio streams. For sure on some HD TV sets you can configure PCM 2 down-sampling for the optical output. As already stated this leads into down-sampling on the HD TV set and re-up-sampling on the PLAYBAR and therefore an unacceptable loss of audio quality. By design this multiple re-sampling dramatically reduces the 5.1 experience, ‘cause it’s not native 5.1 as given on the source, it’s just virtual surround quality. Anyway this is just a sad workaround to the missing DTS support on a 2k Sonos surround sound system (counting a PLAYBAR, a SUB and two PLAY:3). 2. The question asked multiple times is simple and the two possible answers are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’: Is Sonos going to offer full and hassle-free DTS 5.1 support on the currently purchased PLAYBAR hardware? Again: I’m asking some kind of a multiple choice question and the possible answers are: ‘YES, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR CURRENT PLAYBAR, WE ARE GOING TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ ‘NO, RETURN IT, WE ARE NOT ABLE, NOT WILLING, NOT SKILLED ENOUGH TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ Your options are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ nothing in between, ‘cause I need to decide if I want to keep my current PLAYBAR or to return it on time and get my money back. Anyway I really like the Sonos PLAYBAR, the other Sonos audio stuff and the Sonos user experience, but I’m not likely to take the risk to stay with possibly clumsy hardware. Sincerely Bernd Krause ________________ Hello Bernd, I thank you for your feedback on the PLAYBAR. The design of the PLAYBAR is to work through the Optical Out of your TV. The majority of TVs do not pass DTS. They commonly will pass either Stereo or Dolby Digital, which the PLAYBAR can handle. If we receive a Stereo Signal, the PLAYBAR will upmix this signal to a virtual Surround Sound. For Dolby signals, we will play that format as a Native Dolby Digital signal. I will bring this DTS feature request up to the System Design Team. Hopefully this is something we can introduce to the PLAYBAR at some point in the future. Once again, thank you for your feedback. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. ________________ Dear CEO, dear Customer Service Manager, just a few days ago I bought a brand new PLAYBAR and I’m completely dissatisfied and quite upset about the big discrepancies between marketing descriptions and product features. Your website is saying : Plays all sources plugged in to your HD TV: satellite boxes, Blu-Ray players, and video game consoles. If it’s connected to your HD TV, PLAYBAR will play it. http://www.sonos.com/shop/products/playbar In simple words - and please accept my apologies about my pour English - this is a simple, but rough marketing lie. From a quick reviews it’s less than 20% of the common HD TV sets going to play properly from all inputs with the PLAYBAR. The main reason for this major lack of functionality is the missing DTS support of the PLAYBAR. As I learned from your support this is ‘failure by design’, therefore it’s seems to be an engineering problem. From my point of view you have just two options: Close the gap and correct the engineering problem by adding DTS support to the PLAYBAR. As a first result your current marketing information is (as everywhere just nearby) going to tell the truth. This way you are going to keep your customers satisfied and stop the upcoming ‘shit storm’ about the PLAYBAR. Or keep the gap, but stop the marketing lies on your website and tell the people the truth about the current PLAYBAR: It’s just a good music player looking similar to a soundbar and with some good luck it connects to your HD TV, too. It’s up to you to make the proper decisions. At this point in time I’m very likely to return my PLAYBAR in case I’m getting no valuable, reliable and convincing response telling me it’s going to have full and hassle-free DTS support on the currently purchased hardware. For sure it looks nice and quite similar to a real soundbar, but it only works fine as a music player and it’s definitively not matching the mainstream demand of the real ‘home cinema’ world and the common audio formats. Sincerely Bernd Krause
Interesting you said that stereo music comes through all 3 channels, when you should have 6. When I play music it upmixes to all 6, which is why I asked. I have a Panasonic Viera PLASMA. It converts a DD5.1 signal to DD2.0 stereo. It can't handle a DTS signal. If you are happy with what you have, I'm curious how you found and were interested in this thread. I strongly encourage you to NEVER connect your blu-ray player directly to PLAYBAR as, if you do, you may never be satisfied again. There is a world of difference between true 5.1 and upmixed 2.0. Without true 5.1 I wouldn't considert the PLAY:3 surrounds and would think twice about investing in the SUB.
Please see a copy of a mail thread with Sonos and take a short look by yourself to figure out if they are serious about home cinema use of the PLAYBAR or not. (Support answers are weak marketing chat, the CEO is not answering at all.) _________________ Thread Titel: Stop the PLAYBAR marketing lies ! _________________ Hello Keith, dear (unknown) CEO, seen your answer and for sure I’m going to return the unit instantly. No way to keep this scrap on weak promises and marketing lies. For sure you can send me updates about new features and functionality. But I’ve learned the information on your website is inaccurate. With all required respect, but Sonos is simply lying to customers. Sincerely Bernd _________________ Hello Bernd, We do not give out any information on any future updates or products. As soon as I know anything, I can send you that information. If you would like me to return the unit for you, please let me know. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. _________________ Hello Keith, dear CEO, thanks for fast fast answer, anyway it does not lead into a solution, especially it does not answer my question. Therefore I’m asking again for a clear statement, not for a weak ‘maybe sometime in future’ marketing answer. First please seriously review my statements below together with your engineering team about HD TV sets. Second please answer my clear and simple question at the end of this mail. 1. The Sonos view of PCM, DD and DTS handling on common HD TV sets is wrong, at a minimum bad market research. Most HD TV sets work in pass through or bit stream mode on their optical output. Therefore they commonly forward the given DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 bit stream unchanged to their optical output to forward best quality. As a result of this common implementation they are forwarding DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 to the PLAYBAR depending on the source signal. In example most audio content delivered on Blu-Ray is DTS 5.1, especially if you go for the international translations of the audio streams. For sure on some HD TV sets you can configure PCM 2 down-sampling for the optical output. As already stated this leads into down-sampling on the HD TV set and re-up-sampling on the PLAYBAR and therefore an unacceptable loss of audio quality. By design this multiple re-sampling dramatically reduces the 5.1 experience, ‘cause it’s not native 5.1 as given on the source, it’s just virtual surround quality. Anyway this is just a sad workaround to the missing DTS support on a 2k Sonos surround sound system (counting a PLAYBAR, a SUB and two PLAY:3). 2. The question asked multiple times is simple and the two possible answers are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’: Is Sonos going to offer full and hassle-free DTS 5.1 support on the currently purchased PLAYBAR hardware? Again: I’m asking some kind of a multiple choice question and the possible answers are: ‘YES, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR CURRENT PLAYBAR, WE ARE GOING TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ ‘NO, RETURN IT, WE ARE NOT ABLE, NOT WILLING, NOT SKILLED ENOUGH TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ Your options are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ nothing in between, ‘cause I need to decide if I want to keep my current PLAYBAR or to return it on time and get my money back. Anyway I really like the Sonos PLAYBAR, the other Sonos audio stuff and the Sonos user experience, but I’m not likely to take the risk to stay with possibly clumsy hardware. Sincerely Bernd Krause ________________ Hello Bernd, I thank you for your feedback on the PLAYBAR. The design of the PLAYBAR is to work through the Optical Out of your TV. The majority of TVs do not pass DTS. They commonly will pass either Stereo or Dolby Digital, which the PLAYBAR can handle. If we receive a Stereo Signal, the PLAYBAR will upmix this signal to a virtual Surround Sound. For Dolby signals, we will play that format as a Native Dolby Digital signal. I will bring this DTS feature request up to the System Design Team. Hopefully this is something we can introduce to the PLAYBAR at some point in the future. Once again, thank you for your feedback. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. ________________ Dear CEO, dear Customer Service Manager, just a few days ago I bought a brand new PLAYBAR and I’m completely dissatisfied and quite upset about the big discrepancies between marketing descriptions and product features. Your website is saying : Plays all sources plugged in to your HD TV: satellite boxes, Blu-Ray players, and video game consoles. If it’s connected to your HD TV, PLAYBAR will play it. http://www.sonos.com/shop/products/playbar In simple words - and please accept my apologies about my pour English - this is a simple, but rough marketing lie. From a quick reviews it’s less than 20% of the common HD TV sets going to play properly from all inputs with the PLAYBAR. The main reason for this major lack of functionality is the missing DTS support of the PLAYBAR. As I learned from your support this is ‘failure by design’, therefore it’s seems to be an engineering problem. From my point of view you have just two options: Close the gap and correct the engineering problem by adding DTS support to the PLAYBAR. As a first result your current marketing information is (as everywhere just nearby) going to tell the truth. This way you are going to keep your customers satisfied and stop the upcoming ‘shit storm’ about the PLAYBAR. Or keep the gap, but stop the marketing lies on your website and tell the people the truth about the current PLAYBAR: It’s just a good music player looking similar to a soundbar and with some good luck it connects to your HD TV, too. It’s up to you to make the proper decisions. At this point in time I’m very likely to return my PLAYBAR in case I’m getting no valuable, reliable and convincing response telling me it’s going to have full and hassle-free DTS support on the currently purchased hardware. For sure it looks nice and quite similar to a real soundbar, but it only works fine as a music player and it’s definitively not matching the mainstream demand of the real ‘home cinema’ world and the common audio formats. Sincerely Bernd Krause
@Tua09788 I'm sorry to say this, but with just 'Stereo' input you are not getting the full benefit out of your full 5.1 Sonos System you bought for the full money. Even with stereo input it sounds quite OK, but with DTS 5.1 it's going to be much better. You are going to feel the difference. Unfortunately I'm in a similar unlucky situation with an old Sony KDL-40Z5800, but going to return the PLAYBAR until Sonos solved the DTS issue. Switching a HD TV set's optical output to PCM 2.0 Stereo is just a quick and dirty workaround. For sure the Sonos support wants customers to believe this is a solution, but it’s not addressing the issue, it’s just about hiding the weakness of the Sonos 5.1 implementation.
Please see a copy of a mail thread with Sonos and take a short look by yourself to figure out if they are serious about home cinema use of the PLAYBAR or not. (Support answers are weak marketing chat, the CEO is not answering at all.) _________________ Thread Titel: Stop the PLAYBAR marketing lies ! _________________ Hello Keith, dear (unknown) CEO, seen your answer and for sure I’m going to return the unit instantly. No way to keep this scrap on weak promises and marketing lies. For sure you can send me updates about new features and functionality. But I’ve learned the information on your website is inaccurate. With all required respect, but Sonos is simply lying to customers. Sincerely Bernd _________________ Hello Bernd, We do not give out any information on any future updates or products. As soon as I know anything, I can send you that information. If you would like me to return the unit for you, please let me know. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. _________________ Hello Keith, dear CEO, thanks for fast fast answer, anyway it does not lead into a solution, especially it does not answer my question. Therefore I’m asking again for a clear statement, not for a weak ‘maybe sometime in future’ marketing answer. First please seriously review my statements below together with your engineering team about HD TV sets. Second please answer my clear and simple question at the end of this mail. 1. The Sonos view of PCM, DD and DTS handling on common HD TV sets is wrong, at a minimum bad market research. Most HD TV sets work in pass through or bit stream mode on their optical output. Therefore they commonly forward the given DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 bit stream unchanged to their optical output to forward best quality. As a result of this common implementation they are forwarding DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 to the PLAYBAR depending on the source signal. In example most audio content delivered on Blu-Ray is DTS 5.1, especially if you go for the international translations of the audio streams. For sure on some HD TV sets you can configure PCM 2 down-sampling for the optical output. As already stated this leads into down-sampling on the HD TV set and re-up-sampling on the PLAYBAR and therefore an unacceptable loss of audio quality. By design this multiple re-sampling dramatically reduces the 5.1 experience, ‘cause it’s not native 5.1 as given on the source, it’s just virtual surround quality. Anyway this is just a sad workaround to the missing DTS support on a 2k Sonos surround sound system (counting a PLAYBAR, a SUB and two PLAY:3). 2. The question asked multiple times is simple and the two possible answers are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’: Is Sonos going to offer full and hassle-free DTS 5.1 support on the currently purchased PLAYBAR hardware? Again: I’m asking some kind of a multiple choice question and the possible answers are: ‘YES, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR CURRENT PLAYBAR, WE ARE GOING TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ ‘NO, RETURN IT, WE ARE NOT ABLE, NOT WILLING, NOT SKILLED ENOUGH TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ Your options are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ nothing in between, ‘cause I need to decide if I want to keep my current PLAYBAR or to return it on time and get my money back. Anyway I really like the Sonos PLAYBAR, the other Sonos audio stuff and the Sonos user experience, but I’m not likely to take the risk to stay with possibly clumsy hardware. Sincerely Bernd Krause ________________ Hello Bernd, I thank you for your feedback on the PLAYBAR. The design of the PLAYBAR is to work through the Optical Out of your TV. The majority of TVs do not pass DTS. They commonly will pass either Stereo or Dolby Digital, which the PLAYBAR can handle. If we receive a Stereo Signal, the PLAYBAR will upmix this signal to a virtual Surround Sound. For Dolby signals, we will play that format as a Native Dolby Digital signal. I will bring this DTS feature request up to the System Design Team. Hopefully this is something we can introduce to the PLAYBAR at some point in the future. Once again, thank you for your feedback. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. ________________ Dear CEO, dear Customer Service Manager, just a few days ago I bought a brand new PLAYBAR and I’m completely dissatisfied and quite upset about the big discrepancies between marketing descriptions and product features. Your website is saying : Plays all sources plugged in to your HD TV: satellite boxes, Blu-Ray players, and video game consoles. If it’s connected to your HD TV, PLAYBAR will play it. http://www.sonos.com/shop/products/playbar In simple words - and please accept my apologies about my pour English - this is a simple, but rough marketing lie. From a quick reviews it’s less than 20% of the common HD TV sets going to play properly from all inputs with the PLAYBAR. The main reason for this major lack of functionality is the missing DTS support of the PLAYBAR. As I learned from your support this is ‘failure by design’, therefore it’s seems to be an engineering problem. From my point of view you have just two options: Close the gap and correct the engineering problem by adding DTS support to the PLAYBAR. As a first result your current marketing information is (as everywhere just nearby) going to tell the truth. This way you are going to keep your customers satisfied and stop the upcoming ‘shit storm’ about the PLAYBAR. Or keep the gap, but stop the marketing lies on your website and tell the people the truth about the current PLAYBAR: It’s just a good music player looking similar to a soundbar and with some good luck it connects to your HD TV, too. It’s up to you to make the proper decisions. At this point in time I’m very likely to return my PLAYBAR in case I’m getting no valuable, reliable and convincing response telling me it’s going to have full and hassle-free DTS support on the currently purchased hardware. For sure it looks nice and quite similar to a real soundbar, but it only works fine as a music player and it’s definitively not matching the mainstream demand of the real ‘home cinema’ world and the common audio formats. Sincerely Bernd Krause
@Ben If I understood it correctly, your Panasonic HD TV is only capable of down-mixing any input to PCM 2.0 and therefore not a perfect match to the PLAYBAR. Are you likely to keep the PLAYBAR without DTS 5.1 support ? I'm returning mine tomorrow as soon as Sonos explained how to clean up the internal cache on their devices.
Please see a copy of a mail thread with Sonos and take a short look by yourself to figure out if they are serious about home cinema use of the PLAYBAR or not. (Support answers are weak marketing chat, the CEO is not answering at all.) _________________ Thread Titel: Stop the PLAYBAR marketing lies ! _________________ Hello Keith, dear (unknown) CEO, seen your answer and for sure I’m going to return the unit instantly. No way to keep this scrap on weak promises and marketing lies. For sure you can send me updates about new features and functionality. But I’ve learned the information on your website is inaccurate. With all required respect, but Sonos is simply lying to customers. Sincerely Bernd _________________ Hello Bernd, We do not give out any information on any future updates or products. As soon as I know anything, I can send you that information. If you would like me to return the unit for you, please let me know. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. _________________ Hello Keith, dear CEO, thanks for fast fast answer, anyway it does not lead into a solution, especially it does not answer my question. Therefore I’m asking again for a clear statement, not for a weak ‘maybe sometime in future’ marketing answer. First please seriously review my statements below together with your engineering team about HD TV sets. Second please answer my clear and simple question at the end of this mail. 1. The Sonos view of PCM, DD and DTS handling on common HD TV sets is wrong, at a minimum bad market research. Most HD TV sets work in pass through or bit stream mode on their optical output. Therefore they commonly forward the given DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 bit stream unchanged to their optical output to forward best quality. As a result of this common implementation they are forwarding DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 to the PLAYBAR depending on the source signal. In example most audio content delivered on Blu-Ray is DTS 5.1, especially if you go for the international translations of the audio streams. For sure on some HD TV sets you can configure PCM 2 down-sampling for the optical output. As already stated this leads into down-sampling on the HD TV set and re-up-sampling on the PLAYBAR and therefore an unacceptable loss of audio quality. By design this multiple re-sampling dramatically reduces the 5.1 experience, ‘cause it’s not native 5.1 as given on the source, it’s just virtual surround quality. Anyway this is just a sad workaround to the missing DTS support on a 2k Sonos surround sound system (counting a PLAYBAR, a SUB and two PLAY:3). 2. The question asked multiple times is simple and the two possible answers are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’: Is Sonos going to offer full and hassle-free DTS 5.1 support on the currently purchased PLAYBAR hardware? Again: I’m asking some kind of a multiple choice question and the possible answers are: ‘YES, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR CURRENT PLAYBAR, WE ARE GOING TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ ‘NO, RETURN IT, WE ARE NOT ABLE, NOT WILLING, NOT SKILLED ENOUGH TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ Your options are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ nothing in between, ‘cause I need to decide if I want to keep my current PLAYBAR or to return it on time and get my money back. Anyway I really like the Sonos PLAYBAR, the other Sonos audio stuff and the Sonos user experience, but I’m not likely to take the risk to stay with possibly clumsy hardware. Sincerely Bernd Krause ________________ Hello Bernd, I thank you for your feedback on the PLAYBAR. The design of the PLAYBAR is to work through the Optical Out of your TV. The majority of TVs do not pass DTS. They commonly will pass either Stereo or Dolby Digital, which the PLAYBAR can handle. If we receive a Stereo Signal, the PLAYBAR will upmix this signal to a virtual Surround Sound. For Dolby signals, we will play that format as a Native Dolby Digital signal. I will bring this DTS feature request up to the System Design Team. Hopefully this is something we can introduce to the PLAYBAR at some point in the future. Once again, thank you for your feedback. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. ________________ Dear CEO, dear Customer Service Manager, just a few days ago I bought a brand new PLAYBAR and I’m completely dissatisfied and quite upset about the big discrepancies between marketing descriptions and product features. Your website is saying : Plays all sources plugged in to your HD TV: satellite boxes, Blu-Ray players, and video game consoles. If it’s connected to your HD TV, PLAYBAR will play it. http://www.sonos.com/shop/products/playbar In simple words - and please accept my apologies about my pour English - this is a simple, but rough marketing lie. From a quick reviews it’s less than 20% of the common HD TV sets going to play properly from all inputs with the PLAYBAR. The main reason for this major lack of functionality is the missing DTS support of the PLAYBAR. As I learned from your support this is ‘failure by design’, therefore it’s seems to be an engineering problem. From my point of view you have just two options: Close the gap and correct the engineering problem by adding DTS support to the PLAYBAR. As a first result your current marketing information is (as everywhere just nearby) going to tell the truth. This way you are going to keep your customers satisfied and stop the upcoming ‘shit storm’ about the PLAYBAR. Or keep the gap, but stop the marketing lies on your website and tell the people the truth about the current PLAYBAR: It’s just a good music player looking similar to a soundbar and with some good luck it connects to your HD TV, too. It’s up to you to make the proper decisions. At this point in time I’m very likely to return my PLAYBAR in case I’m getting no valuable, reliable and convincing response telling me it’s going to have full and hassle-free DTS support on the currently purchased hardware. For sure it looks nice and quite similar to a real soundbar, but it only works fine as a music player and it’s definitively not matching the mainstream demand of the real ‘home cinema’ world and the common audio formats. Sincerely Bernd Krause
When I listen to music the play3s are in other rooms. I only use the them as rears when I watch a movie. For me adding the sub does wonders. Originally when I bought Sonos I had some questions and found answers at http://forums.sonos.com/ before this site was made available. There are some pretty helpful ppl out there. I came close to returning my original sonos stuff but found out my Comcast modem/router was the problem. I came across this thread because its the 4th most active. On the Sonos forums not having hires 24bit audio support created the same emotion that this thread has.
Please see a copy of a mail thread with Sonos and take a short look by yourself to figure out if they are serious about home cinema use of the PLAYBAR or not. (Support answers are weak marketing chat, the CEO is not answering at all.) _________________ Thread Titel: Stop the PLAYBAR marketing lies ! _________________ Hello Keith, dear (unknown) CEO, seen your answer and for sure I’m going to return the unit instantly. No way to keep this scrap on weak promises and marketing lies. For sure you can send me updates about new features and functionality. But I’ve learned the information on your website is inaccurate. With all required respect, but Sonos is simply lying to customers. Sincerely Bernd _________________ Hello Bernd, We do not give out any information on any future updates or products. As soon as I know anything, I can send you that information. If you would like me to return the unit for you, please let me know. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. _________________ Hello Keith, dear CEO, thanks for fast fast answer, anyway it does not lead into a solution, especially it does not answer my question. Therefore I’m asking again for a clear statement, not for a weak ‘maybe sometime in future’ marketing answer. First please seriously review my statements below together with your engineering team about HD TV sets. Second please answer my clear and simple question at the end of this mail. 1. The Sonos view of PCM, DD and DTS handling on common HD TV sets is wrong, at a minimum bad market research. Most HD TV sets work in pass through or bit stream mode on their optical output. Therefore they commonly forward the given DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 bit stream unchanged to their optical output to forward best quality. As a result of this common implementation they are forwarding DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 to the PLAYBAR depending on the source signal. In example most audio content delivered on Blu-Ray is DTS 5.1, especially if you go for the international translations of the audio streams. For sure on some HD TV sets you can configure PCM 2 down-sampling for the optical output. As already stated this leads into down-sampling on the HD TV set and re-up-sampling on the PLAYBAR and therefore an unacceptable loss of audio quality. By design this multiple re-sampling dramatically reduces the 5.1 experience, ‘cause it’s not native 5.1 as given on the source, it’s just virtual surround quality. Anyway this is just a sad workaround to the missing DTS support on a 2k Sonos surround sound system (counting a PLAYBAR, a SUB and two PLAY:3). 2. The question asked multiple times is simple and the two possible answers are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’: Is Sonos going to offer full and hassle-free DTS 5.1 support on the currently purchased PLAYBAR hardware? Again: I’m asking some kind of a multiple choice question and the possible answers are: ‘YES, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR CURRENT PLAYBAR, WE ARE GOING TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ ‘NO, RETURN IT, WE ARE NOT ABLE, NOT WILLING, NOT SKILLED ENOUGH TO SUPPORT FULL AND HASSLE-FREE DTS 5.1 ON THE CURRENT PLAYBAR HARDWARE.’ Your options are ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ nothing in between, ‘cause I need to decide if I want to keep my current PLAYBAR or to return it on time and get my money back. Anyway I really like the Sonos PLAYBAR, the other Sonos audio stuff and the Sonos user experience, but I’m not likely to take the risk to stay with possibly clumsy hardware. Sincerely Bernd Krause ________________ Hello Bernd, I thank you for your feedback on the PLAYBAR. The design of the PLAYBAR is to work through the Optical Out of your TV. The majority of TVs do not pass DTS. They commonly will pass either Stereo or Dolby Digital, which the PLAYBAR can handle. If we receive a Stereo Signal, the PLAYBAR will upmix this signal to a virtual Surround Sound. For Dolby signals, we will play that format as a Native Dolby Digital signal. I will bring this DTS feature request up to the System Design Team. Hopefully this is something we can introduce to the PLAYBAR at some point in the future. Once again, thank you for your feedback. Sincerely, Keith M Sonos Support Manager. ________________ Dear CEO, dear Customer Service Manager, just a few days ago I bought a brand new PLAYBAR and I’m completely dissatisfied and quite upset about the big discrepancies between marketing descriptions and product features. Your website is saying : Plays all sources plugged in to your HD TV: satellite boxes, Blu-Ray players, and video game consoles. If it’s connected to your HD TV, PLAYBAR will play it. http://www.sonos.com/shop/products/playbar In simple words - and please accept my apologies about my pour English - this is a simple, but rough marketing lie. From a quick reviews it’s less than 20% of the common HD TV sets going to play properly from all inputs with the PLAYBAR. The main reason for this major lack of functionality is the missing DTS support of the PLAYBAR. As I learned from your support this is ‘failure by design’, therefore it’s seems to be an engineering problem. From my point of view you have just two options: Close the gap and correct the engineering problem by adding DTS support to the PLAYBAR. As a first result your current marketing information is (as everywhere just nearby) going to tell the truth. This way you are going to keep your customers satisfied and stop the upcoming ‘shit storm’ about the PLAYBAR. Or keep the gap, but stop the marketing lies on your website and tell the people the truth about the current PLAYBAR: It’s just a good music player looking similar to a soundbar and with some good luck it connects to your HD TV, too. It’s up to you to make the proper decisions. At this point in time I’m very likely to return my PLAYBAR in case I’m getting no valuable, reliable and convincing response telling me it’s going to have full and hassle-free DTS support on the currently purchased hardware. For sure it looks nice and quite similar to a real soundbar, but it only works fine as a music player and it’s definitively not matching the mainstream demand of the real ‘home cinema’ world and the common audio formats. Sincerely Bernd Krause
As already stated the Sonos support makes their customers believe switching a HD TV set's optical output to PCM 2.0 Stereo is a solution, 'cause you can hear some noise from the PLAYBAR and the linked SUB and PLAY:3s. But it's definitively not a solution, it's just a quick and dirty workaround, a well-designed Sonos support lie, they push to their customers. Even if you are not an audiophile looking for the best of the best of the best, you will here and feel the difference between up-mixed Stereo and real 5.1.
I've been following this thread since the beginning and posted early on - I even have an HDMI/optical work-around to avoid the TV hub business etc. Auditioned the Playbar and it was good sonically, not great, a bit digitized and too processed IMO. Better than TV speakers, absolutely. Separates? Nope - but it was good enough that I would have been willing to give the system a shot (incl sub & Play3's) for home theater if the implementation was great. Well, it's not. In the end, the lack of DTS decoding is an absolute deal-breaker and forcing everyone to the 'TV as a hub' is limiting (IMO) and short-sighted on Sonos' part. I personally don't upgrade my TV's that often and technology seems to be moving rather quickly. If you just want improved TV speakers with awesome music streaming, the Playbar is a great, simple solution but nothing more. With that, I just installed a GoldenEar SuperCinema 3D Array (passive soundbar) and Forcefield3 Sub to my to my trusty Rotel AVR but still working on my surround solution - it sounds awesome (shockingly awesome for a soundbar), encodes all formats, simple switching, can upgrade adding a pre/pro.... Yes, Sonos will still get some of my hard earned cash for a Connect, but that's $349 vs $2000. So close, but yet so far. Good luck to everyone.
Switching to PCM 2.0 is not a solution to the DTS issue ! Sonos support makes their customers believe switching a HD TV set's optical output to PCM 2.0 Stereo is a solution, 'cause you can hear some noise from the PLAYBAR and the linked SUB and PLAY:3s. But it's definitively not a solution, it's just a quick and dirty workaround. Even if you are not an audiophile looking for the best of the best of the best, you will here and feel the difference between up-mixed Stereo and real 5.1. Push for DTS 5.1 support, up-mixed PCM 2.0 stereo is not a solution.
Hi, PCM 2.0 is an awful workaround, miles from the real DD or DTS. I do not think, that Sonos that really know this bussiness, thinks indeed that this is a viable solution... I like the playbar, I used it a lot for listening music and I really hope that SONOS will indeed do something about DTS as my TV (and I suppose many TVs in the feature will) support DTS passthrough. What we know so far is that there is possible to upgrade the playbare only with software to support DTS. We also know that this idea is under consideration. What, I think, we all want to know is what is the progress of it. So, if SONOS is monitoring this thread please let us know how long did you come with the consideration... Give us some plans and we all are going to be happy. The playbar generates other bussiness for SONOS so it is important that the customers are given an explanation before the current spring wind grows to a summer storm. /Regards!
Hi, PCM 2.0 is an awful workaround, miles from the real DD or DTS. I do not think, that Sonos that really know this bussiness, thinks indeed that this is a viable solution... I like the playbar, I used it a lot for listening music and I really hope that SONOS will indeed do something about DTS as my TV (and I suppose many TVs in the feature will) support DTS passthrough. What we know so far is that there is possible to upgrade the playbare only with software to support DTS. We also know that this idea is under consideration. What, I think, we all want to know is what is the progress of it. So, if SONOS is monitoring this thread please let us know how long did you come with the consideration... Give us some plans and we all are going to be happy. The playbar generates other bussiness for SONOS so it is important that the customers are given an explanation before the current spring wind grows to a summer storm. /Regards!
Hi Adrian May I ask what TV you have that supports DTS? If they ever add DTS to Playbar then my next step would be a TV that accepts DTS too. Thanks Andy
I'll come out and say I don't know a lot about audio. If they add DTS support, will I need to get TV that will output DTS out of the optical audio toslink? I have not bought the Playbar yet, but want to eventually if it will be a good solution to go with my new Panasonic TCP55VT50.
Hi, PCM 2.0 is an awful workaround, miles from the real DD or DTS. I do not think, that Sonos that really know this bussiness, thinks indeed that this is a viable solution... I like the playbar, I used it a lot for listening music and I really hope that SONOS will indeed do something about DTS as my TV (and I suppose many TVs in the feature will) support DTS passthrough. What we know so far is that there is possible to upgrade the playbare only with software to support DTS. We also know that this idea is under consideration. What, I think, we all want to know is what is the progress of it. So, if SONOS is monitoring this thread please let us know how long did you come with the consideration... Give us some plans and we all are going to be happy. The playbar generates other bussiness for SONOS so it is important that the customers are given an explanation before the current spring wind grows to a summer storm. /Regards!
It's a Samsung LED D8000 series. I see the DTS issue when I try to play streams with DTS sound via Plex. (Note that I never tried it from a Blue ray via HDMI cable)
Hi, PCM 2.0 is an awful workaround, miles from the real DD or DTS. I do not think, that Sonos that really know this bussiness, thinks indeed that this is a viable solution... I like the playbar, I used it a lot for listening music and I really hope that SONOS will indeed do something about DTS as my TV (and I suppose many TVs in the feature will) support DTS passthrough. What we know so far is that there is possible to upgrade the playbare only with software to support DTS. We also know that this idea is under consideration. What, I think, we all want to know is what is the progress of it. So, if SONOS is monitoring this thread please let us know how long did you come with the consideration... Give us some plans and we all are going to be happy. The playbar generates other bussiness for SONOS so it is important that the customers are given an explanation before the current spring wind grows to a summer storm. /Regards!
Please review the updated mail thread above: Decision made easy: I'm going to return the scrap instantly. Sonos is not able or not willing to give any serious commitment to current customers on their PLAYBAR plans and updates. Right now I don't see any valuable statement from Sonos telling me I you can indeed use the current hardware for DTS upgrades in the future. Return the PLAYBAR and go for something real !
I'll come out and say I don't know a lot about audio. If they add DTS support, will I need to get TV that will output DTS out of the optical audio toslink? I have not bought the Playbar yet, but want to eventually if it will be a good solution to go with my new Panasonic TCP55VT50.
Stay patient and wait at a minimum until Sonos adds DTS support to the PLAYBAR. Due to Sonos design flaws and missing DTS support your HD TV must act as an audio hub and deliver compatible audio streams to the PLAYBAR, at this point in time PCM 2.0 or DD 5.1 only. Most of the current HD TV sets are not capable to do the full transcoding job for the PLAYBAR right now. In addition most Blu-Ray audio streams are produced in DTS 5.1, especially translations. Therefore you are going to deal with a lot of restriction related to the weak audio format support on the PLAYBAR.
Hi, PCM 2.0 is an awful workaround, miles from the real DD or DTS. I do not think, that Sonos that really know this bussiness, thinks indeed that this is a viable solution... I like the playbar, I used it a lot for listening music and I really hope that SONOS will indeed do something about DTS as my TV (and I suppose many TVs in the feature will) support DTS passthrough. What we know so far is that there is possible to upgrade the playbare only with software to support DTS. We also know that this idea is under consideration. What, I think, we all want to know is what is the progress of it. So, if SONOS is monitoring this thread please let us know how long did you come with the consideration... Give us some plans and we all are going to be happy. The playbar generates other bussiness for SONOS so it is important that the customers are given an explanation before the current spring wind grows to a summer storm. /Regards!
I understand your frustration but (altough I have no names) I have the impression that it was confirmed by SONOS that DTS can be added with a firmware update. (This is not at all strange as DTS is just just about coding/decoding digital information). The reason for not being there already was the research in the TV market. SONOS is aiming for the premium segment and the only way to reach there is to keep the customer happy (Look at Apple)
Hi, PCM 2.0 is an awful workaround, miles from the real DD or DTS. I do not think, that Sonos that really know this bussiness, thinks indeed that this is a viable solution... I like the playbar, I used it a lot for listening music and I really hope that SONOS will indeed do something about DTS as my TV (and I suppose many TVs in the feature will) support DTS passthrough. What we know so far is that there is possible to upgrade the playbare only with software to support DTS. We also know that this idea is under consideration. What, I think, we all want to know is what is the progress of it. So, if SONOS is monitoring this thread please let us know how long did you come with the consideration... Give us some plans and we all are going to be happy. The playbar generates other bussiness for SONOS so it is important that the customers are given an explanation before the current spring wind grows to a summer storm. /Regards!
From my point of view the PLAYBAR launch is a real downturn for Sonos. Just for music Sonos is fine, but obviously they do not have any clue about audio in the real ‘home cinema’ world as you can easily recognize on the weak PLAYBAR functionality. In addition I’m really frustrated about the quick and dirty PCM 2.0 workaround offered as a ‘solution’ for the DTS support lack, leading into a faked 5.1 solution, far far away from a real 5.1 installation.
Hi, PCM 2.0 is an awful workaround, miles from the real DD or DTS. I do not think, that Sonos that really know this bussiness, thinks indeed that this is a viable solution... I like the playbar, I used it a lot for listening music and I really hope that SONOS will indeed do something about DTS as my TV (and I suppose many TVs in the feature will) support DTS passthrough. What we know so far is that there is possible to upgrade the playbare only with software to support DTS. We also know that this idea is under consideration. What, I think, we all want to know is what is the progress of it. So, if SONOS is monitoring this thread please let us know how long did you come with the consideration... Give us some plans and we all are going to be happy. The playbar generates other bussiness for SONOS so it is important that the customers are given an explanation before the current spring wind grows to a summer storm. /Regards!
I think it is important that the customers come here and show their dissapointment. SONOS is not an ordinary company and they will eventually understand that DTS is a really important feature for us, the customers, Arrogant companies hit the ground really fast as the diversity of of the products is very large. Personally I am confident, I just wish that this would go faster and SONOS kept us informed.
I have so many DVD / Blueray I can't watch because DTS is not supported. Such an expensive speaker. Come on and add this feature pretty soon.
Sonos is a corporation, they are driven by money and shareholder return...they wont do anything until you return the products and dont buy their products...only when they losing market and customers they step up to the mark... Customers service is a nice cosy buzzword ...I found most manufacturers don't give a sh*t after you bought the product...I found you get better customers service from the retails guys not the manufacturer. Look at Apple how arrogant they are until Samsung start taking their market share....
I thinking of buying a sonos playbar but the only thing is setting me back is the sonos playbar doesn't have the DTS decodering and i won't to know before i buy a sonos playbar will i have to replace this sonos playbar and if so i would have wasted 6 hundred pounds or will this sonos playbar be able to decode DTS after the firmware update when sonos decede to do the update i would like to know before i go out to buy this sonos playbar.
I thinking of buying a sonos playbar but the only thing is setting me back is the sonos playbar doesn't have the DTS decodering and i won't to know before i buy a sonos playbar will i have to replace this sonos playbar and if so i would have wasted 6 hundred pounds or will this sonos playbar be able to decode DTS after the firmware update when sonos decede to do the update i would like to know before i go out to buy this sonos playbar.
Take a look at this thread and make your own decision. At this point in time the Sonos PLAYBAR ist just a nice music player, looking like a home cinema soundbar, but far far behind a real 5.1 home cinema solution. Unfortunately you are very likely to end up this the faked 5.1 situation, 'cause they are missing support for the most important 5.1 audio format DTS 5.1. For myself I returned the scrappy PLAYBAR instantly, because paying the full price, round about 2k, for the full Sonos 5.1 setup, counting a PLAYBAR, a SUB and two PLAY:3 my expectation is indeed a full and properly working real 5.1 solution and not the weak and faked ‘Sonos Virtual Surround Sound’.
I have so many DVD / Blueray I can't watch because DTS is not supported. Such an expensive speaker. Come on and add this feature pretty soon.
That's the reason why I returned the PLAYBAR without DTS instantly. Sonos is obviously not serious about home cinema use of their products, especially for real 5.1. They are unable or unwilling or just not skilled enough to support DTS. Sonos is also unable or unwilling to give a strong commitment to support DTS on the existing hardware in the near future, too. Make your own decisions, but take my advice for a real 5.1 experience into account: Miss the weak Sonos PLAYBAR and go for something real ! In case you already paid 2k for a faked 5.1, return the scrap instantly !
Sonos is a corporation, they are driven by money and shareholder return...they wont do anything until you return the products and dont buy their products...only when they losing market and customers they step up to the mark... Customers service is a nice cosy buzzword ...I found most manufacturers don't give a sh*t after you bought the product...I found you get better customers service from the retails guys not the manufacturer. Look at Apple how arrogant they are until Samsung start taking their market share....
Yes, you are right. They are as arrogant like apple and simply ignoring customer demands. "Same sh**, different company :(" That's for sure an additional reason why I returned the PLAYBAR without DTS instantly. Sonos is obviously not serious about home cinema use of their products, especially for real 5.1. They are unable or unwilling or just not skilled enough to support DTS. Sonos is also unable or unwilling to give a strong commitment to support DTS on the existing hardware in the near future, too. Make your own decisions, but take my advice for a real 5.1 experience into account: Miss the weak Sonos PLAYBAR and go for something real ! In case you already paid 2k for a faked 5.1, return the scrap instantly !
Dear Sonos I have this great multi-room wireless music system. Its various components mean it does everything I want it to. Recently I splashed out and purchased a Playbar and Sub. They both seamlessly integrated into my system and the sound from using my music library is great. Then I played a DVD and again the sound was just fantastic. Ground shaking effects. Even when I watch the correct HD TV programs from my satellite receiver I get the same tremendous audio experience. But then I played a Blu-Ray disk. Silence. Nothing. I thought something was wrong so played around with the settings on my Blu-Ray Player. It turns out I can only get sound when using a Blu-Ray disk if the player outputs PCM 2 channel stereo, and my Sonos system clearly says Audio In:Stereo. And the audio experience is adversely affected by this. I no longer get the clear discrete sound channels and the quality suffers badly. Yes it sounds better than the speakers in my TV, but I cannot go much further than that. Is this problem due to a complete design oversight or is my Playbar faulty? Yours faithfully Sonos customer.
Dear Sonos I have this great multi-room wireless music system. Its various components mean it does everything I want it to. Recently I splashed out and purchased a Playbar and Sub. They both seamlessly integrated into my system and the sound from using my music library is great. Then I played a DVD and again the sound was just fantastic. Ground shaking effects. Even when I watch the correct HD TV programs from my satellite receiver I get the same tremendous audio experience. But then I played a Blu-Ray disk. Silence. Nothing. I thought something was wrong so played around with the settings on my Blu-Ray Player. It turns out I can only get sound when using a Blu-Ray disk if the player outputs PCM 2 channel stereo, and my Sonos system clearly says Audio In:Stereo. And the audio experience is adversely affected by this. I no longer get the clear discrete sound channels and the quality suffers badly. Yes it sounds better than the speakers in my TV, but I cannot go much further than that. Is this problem due to a complete design oversight or is my Playbar faulty? Yours faithfully Sonos customer.
Your problem about the PLAYBAR is obviously missing DTS support. Your DVDs and HD TV programs are DD 5.1. Your Blu-Rays are in most cases DTS 5.1. But don't go for the PCM workaround on the support forum. This leads into a faked 5.1 solution and not a real 5.1 as you already figured out on your own. Many thanks for your clear feedback about the down turn in the surround experience on the faked 5.1, saying 'Sonos Virtual Surround Sound' It's about Sonos to solve the problem by simply adding DTS support to the PLAYBAR. Make your own decisions, but take my advice for a real 5.1 experience into account: Miss the weak Sonos PLAYBAR and go for something real ! In case you already paid 2k for a faked 5.1, return the scrap instantly ! For myself I returned the scrappy PLAYBAR instantly, because paying the full price, round about 2k, for the full Sonos 5.1 setup, counting a PLAYBAR, a SUB and two PLAY:3 my expectation is indeed a full and properly working real 5.1 solution and not the weak and faked ‘Sonos Virtual Surround Sound’.
