Please add support for DTS for the Sonos Playbar.



Show first post
This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

1190 replies

Userlevel 3
Badge +2
Dts support please Sonos listen to your customers! Iam sad that it still not is support in 2015? Why Sonos Why???
I remember when I bought my first "Smart TV" a few years back, was delighted with it till I found it didn't have DTS support. It always bugged me , I felt like I had been mugged.
A few years later and I have 2 x play1's and in the market for a soundbar.The Playbar was the obvious choice but wait... low and behold no DTS support.
Sorry but this isn't good enough and you can promise as many software updates for other features but without DTS support it's a deal breaker for me.
Not going to get mugged this time around.
SONOS you have gone down the pecking order,...Time to wise up.
Badge
Another vote for adding DTS.

I would be willing to pay for it to at this point.

It is seriously annoying to always double and triple check everything before buying to make sure it has DD5.1. I just want to be able to relax and use my $1K+ setup without thinking too much about it.

I would return ALL my speakers but unfortunately I am past the return date. When something better comes along (The Sony HT-RT5 looks promising) I will ditch my SONOS gear. Another case of "didn't do enough research"
Badge
Thanks for confirming this. What a shame. It's disappointing that Sonos haven't fixed this long time ago.
Userlevel 4
Badge +6
+1 for Playbar (2015) or Playbar (2016) supporting uncompressed Dolby and DTS through HDMI ARC.
Userlevel 1
Badge
I don't think these additions are now likely, perhaps until a second version of the Playbar in the future. That said, it is interesting to see the Sonos forum now include a post from Sonos which contains a list of TVs that pass-through 5.1 via optical, as well as a number of other workarounds for the Playbar's compatibility issues. There is also an express acceptance that the setup sounds best (in reality, far, far, better) when fed a proper 5.1 signal. To me, this at least shows that Sonos might privately consider its original decision on set-up to have been a mistake - I suspect they simply did not appreciate that so many of the Playbar's customers would be interested in the full 5.1 setup (with a proper 5.1 signal) and thought that vast majority of its customers would simply plug the Playbar into the TV and enjoy the vast improvement over the TVs own speakers.

In any case, it will be very interesting to see what a future Playbar might look like. The Bowers & Wilkins Panorama soundbar, which lacked HDMI, was replaced after around four years with the current HDMI-toting Panorama 2. The Playbar is almost three years old... That said, my understanding is that it is still selling by the lorry-load, so not much incentive for Sonos to release another version at present. I for one am currently considering replacing the Playbar etc with a 'proper' 5.1 system, which I might regret if a DTS-compatible, HDMI-toting Playbar is released in the next year or two.
Anyone who has worked in a software company will find this familiar. Under consideration means it hasn't been ruled out, but there's a lot more in the pipeline that is considered a higher priority, be it bug fixes, new features, or whatever else.

You can't add every feature to the roadmap far in advance of when it will be implemented, because changing technologies and unforeseen consequences mean that you may have to remove it before implementation. This will reduce user and investor confidence in your roadmap, which is a bad thing for everyone. It also means additional (and expensive!) developer hours spent on adding support for features that may not make it into the product, or because of the complexity of the overall codebase, refactoring code to include hooks for an uncertain future feature, potentially a lot of wasted time and expense, leading to a necessary increase in product pricing.

I am confident that Sonos will add DTS support before too long, because it makes sound business sense to do so. However, should it no longer make as much sense to do so - because of an industry shift to another technology for example - to commit now to the addition of this would require a licencing agreement that could cost a significant amount in vain, and the amount would have to be agreed up front before Sonos could commit, to avoid having sunk hundreds or thousands of development, QA and testing hours into a technology that would drive the Playbar price too high to sell.

Personally, I'd like to see it developed as a paid add on for up to US$100, if that would speed development, but I suspect that given the numbers of people using Sonos systems happily without DTS, this might not still be enough to make it worthwhile to Sonos.

So to all the people having temper tantrums about the lack of DTS support, please understand that Sonos is a business and to sustain their company they need to deal with the realities of finance. Register your desire for DTS support, and move on. Histrionics do not help. To those of you who are contributing intelligently to the discussion, I salute you; you are in a minority.

R.
Userlevel 1
Yes, there are. My Samsung is passing through the DTS but to no use as the Playbar is keeping quiet 😞
Userlevel 2
That's interesting! Could you tell me the model? Thanks!
Userlevel 1
And which Input? Just TV - i think. HDMI Input probably not and whats about the Samsung Smart Hub App Plex?
Userlevel 1
I own a Samsung D8000 model which sends DTS to the optical output. I have no TV channels with DTS audio tracks but the BlueRay rips with DTS sound won't play. (Haven't tested DTS from HDMI only rips played with Plex) BR
Userlevel 1
Ok, so movies streamed with the Samsung Plex App will have the DTS signal on the optimcal audio out of the Samsung TV? Is that so? I wasn't sure about that, but if this is the case the sonos playbar would be great for me too - but only if DTS is supported...
Userlevel 1
That's right. In fact, the DTS is sent to optical even with any other DLNA server. (I have a Synology NAS with it's own media server). Tested on a video file with both DolbyDigital and DTS sound. I can choose the audio format from the TV menu and the sound is awsome with DD but with DTS is nothing coming from the playbar.. mute..:(.. I interpret this as the DTS is sent to the optical output but the playbar is unable to decode it. With tracks with only DTS I have the choice (from the TV menu) to convert them to PCM which is of course a bad choice for movies...
Userlevel 1
Will buy a playbar not before DTS is supported!
I too would like to hook up my Playbar (plus 2x Play 3 units) directly to my BluRay player in order to get the 5.1 surround sound, as what comes out of my TV is 2.1. But many disks I have are DTS only. I just watched Inception, which has DTS on the English audio track and Dolby 5.1 on the foreign audio tracks. The quality of the 2.1 surround sound I got with the optical cable hooked up to my TV was not nearly as good as the 5.1 I got when it went straight to the BluRay player. Unfortunately if I watch in English the audio feed is DTS, which the Playbar can't decode.
Userlevel 1
Adding my voice to the call for DTS support. I have a soundbar plus sub and they sound great for both movies and music. But my only gripe is that I can watch a DVD with full DD5.1 audio output, but when I watch a blu-ray I have to downmix the audio output from DTS to PCM 2 channel stereo. So for higher quality video I am missing the discrete sound channels higher quality audio provides.
I really, really want to buy one of these to complete my multiroom set up and was eagerly awaiting the launch but sadly I am now in 2 minds because of the lack of DTS capability. I am a technophobe and don't really get it so can someone tell me if DTS can be added by an online upload to the Operating system or, if I buy now, I will have to replace when DTS becomes available .... advice will be appreciated
DTS support for me too please.
No DTS - no great success
Userlevel 1
Badge
I'm holding out on buying a playbar until there is DTS support. I've got loads of painstakingly encodes films sitting on my NAS all of which carry a DTS soundtrack. I understand Sonos's argument that the future is streaming TV and video and that maybe so but until I find a crazy bloke called doc with a flux-capacitor touting delorean I'm stuck in 2013 with a ton of films I can only watch in stereo should I add a playbar to my sonos setup! Unfortunately I'm guessing Sonos will be unwilling to absorb the cost of the DTS licence for those who have already purchased it, which is a shame because it should have really had DTS support from the start. So how about this... Add DTS in the next firmware update and add an 'in-app' purchase on the iOS and Android controllers for those of us who want DTS decoding. Of course I'd rather sonos just add it anyway (it will certainly go down better with customers) but if the licence cost is the stumbling block then it isn't going away so perhaps this is the only option? Come on Sonos, my wife is no tech-head but if I explained that I'd just purchased something which makes films sound worse than our current 5.1 setup (i.e. downmixed stereo) I'd never hear the end of it! And she loves the Sonos system we have!!
Userlevel 1
DTS please!
Badge +18
We've marked this topic Under Consideration. As with all topics Under Consideration, this status indicates that Sonos is aware of the idea but has not yet made a decision on whether or not to pursue development. Ideas marked as Under Consideration are regularly reviewed and evaluated by Sonos. We encourage continued discussion and voting for these ideas.
Userlevel 1
I sent this to Engadget today. They did a review of the Playbar. I think the more people who know about this, the more likely Sonos are to spring into action. -------- Michael I enjoyed reading your review of the Sonos Playbar. But I feel it's missing the crucial detail about lack of DTS support. There is a forum on the Sonos site with people trying to get Sonos to update the firmware so that the DTS codec is supported. https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/please_add_support_for_dts_for_the_sonos_playbar For many people laying out $700 on a speaker that doesn't support DTS is a deal breaker. Thanks
Userlevel 1
Badge +2
Hello, have a question to the community who own a Playbar. If we supposed that the Playbar supports DTS, does your TV support DTS passthrough over the optical cable? I think the most of us have to buy an additional optical audio switch.
@Jgatie: so if DTS is added to the PLAYBAR what would get passed from a Blu-ray like Jurassic Park or Star Wars that only have DTS-MA audio tracks? It sounds like the only way to get DTS-HD to the PLAYBAR would be if it had HDMI ports. Would something like HDMI ARC work?
Please add dts to sonos playbar!
It's fucking annoying to create workarounds (with less audio quality)!