Caved in and ordered a matt Sub (glad I did - they went fast!) to go with the potential Playbar purchase - once DTS is confirmed (obviously). Sonos, if you’re listening - you may want to get a rebate off DHL for their shoddy delivery service and put it in the DTS licence kitty. (Ordered on 19th March, left Netherlands on the 20th arrived in England on the 21st. Great. Sent to Ireland on the 22nd - eh?.. I live in England. Sent back to England on the 25th – and still waiting!!) Anyhoo, I’m a bit concerned with the post from Sander regarding the Sonos dealer’s comments with the technical difficulties of streaming DTS and the inability of the Sonos system to cope with the bandwidth. A simple ‘yes it’s possible’ would be nice from Sonos instead of the non-committal response stating that “Hilmar is the lead product architect”. My initial reaction was that this comment was about as useful as a chocolate teapot and about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. Of course I would like to think that if Hilmar has stated that DTS is purely a software issue it would follow that the hardware would stand-up to the bandwidth imposed by the DTS stream (together with the system being used in other locations in the house for music). To be fair, I’m sure that is what Mike C was getting at. However without some official black and white ‘yes it’s possible’ comment after over 120 votes in 2 weeks I’m beginning to think this is firmly on the back-burner for Sonos. Which is disappointing to say the least. When an employee of Sonos is unable to confirm that this is technically possible (regardless of whether it will be implemented) it may mean that the topic isn’t being discussed within Sonos, or then again it may mean they’re bored and like to keep us guessing about whether their HT solution will ever be any more than a squandered opportunity. Obviously I’m biased but for me DTS in a HT system is a no-brainer to the point of being ludicrous that it wasn’t included in the first place (regardless of how Sonos think we should use the system). Also, unlike anything else on this forum that I can see the DTS omission is a certain purchase stopper which should therefore trump all of the other ‘feature’ requests no matter how useful they are - and there are a good number that I think are brilliant suggestions that would definitely enhance the Sonos platform. But, if they weren’t implemented would they stop me buying another Sonos component? Simple answer… No. Can the same be said for DTS?... Well, for me it's easy - no DTS = no Playbar. I’m guessing there are a lot more people out there with the Playbar that haven’t found their way to this forum yet and are just living in hope that Sonos won’t pursue such a narrow view of audio implementation in their HT solution. Still waiting to make the jump (for the time being the Sub will complement my Play5 setup in the living room – when/if DHL deliver it), but the more time goes on and this issue remains in limbo I’m sure I’ll just lose my initial excitement/interest and go back to being content with my current HT setup.
Chris, Yes, it is technically possible. We have not yet decided whether or not to include it in a future software update. There is a response in this very thread thread which references a statement made during the Live Chat with Developers by Hilmar Lehnert, a principle designer of the PLAYBAR: COMMENT FROM JOEP Will the playbar support DTS? Wednesday February 20, 2013 10:20 HILMAR LEHNERT: Currently we don't support DTS as it's unlikely to be found on a optical output or and HDMI ARC. It's currently also not used for internet streaming either. Wednesday February 20, 2013 10:21 HILMAR LEHNERT: We could add it later through a software update Wednesday February 20, 2013 10:22
I think the best we should aim for is getting as many people to vote for the "Add DTS to the PlayBar" rather than trolling the forum, the greater the number of distinct users that request a feature, the greater the case for implementing it..
Caved in and ordered a matt Sub (glad I did - they went fast!) to go with the potential Playbar purchase - once DTS is confirmed (obviously). Sonos, if you’re listening - you may want to get a rebate off DHL for their shoddy delivery service and put it in the DTS licence kitty. (Ordered on 19th March, left Netherlands on the 20th arrived in England on the 21st. Great. Sent to Ireland on the 22nd - eh?.. I live in England. Sent back to England on the 25th – and still waiting!!) Anyhoo, I’m a bit concerned with the post from Sander regarding the Sonos dealer’s comments with the technical difficulties of streaming DTS and the inability of the Sonos system to cope with the bandwidth. A simple ‘yes it’s possible’ would be nice from Sonos instead of the non-committal response stating that “Hilmar is the lead product architect”. My initial reaction was that this comment was about as useful as a chocolate teapot and about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. Of course I would like to think that if Hilmar has stated that DTS is purely a software issue it would follow that the hardware would stand-up to the bandwidth imposed by the DTS stream (together with the system being used in other locations in the house for music). To be fair, I’m sure that is what Mike C was getting at. However without some official black and white ‘yes it’s possible’ comment after over 120 votes in 2 weeks I’m beginning to think this is firmly on the back-burner for Sonos. Which is disappointing to say the least. When an employee of Sonos is unable to confirm that this is technically possible (regardless of whether it will be implemented) it may mean that the topic isn’t being discussed within Sonos, or then again it may mean they’re bored and like to keep us guessing about whether their HT solution will ever be any more than a squandered opportunity. Obviously I’m biased but for me DTS in a HT system is a no-brainer to the point of being ludicrous that it wasn’t included in the first place (regardless of how Sonos think we should use the system). Also, unlike anything else on this forum that I can see the DTS omission is a certain purchase stopper which should therefore trump all of the other ‘feature’ requests no matter how useful they are - and there are a good number that I think are brilliant suggestions that would definitely enhance the Sonos platform. But, if they weren’t implemented would they stop me buying another Sonos component? Simple answer… No. Can the same be said for DTS?... Well, for me it's easy - no DTS = no Playbar. I’m guessing there are a lot more people out there with the Playbar that haven’t found their way to this forum yet and are just living in hope that Sonos won’t pursue such a narrow view of audio implementation in their HT solution. Still waiting to make the jump (for the time being the Sub will complement my Play5 setup in the living room – when/if DHL deliver it), but the more time goes on and this issue remains in limbo I’m sure I’ll just lose my initial excitement/interest and go back to being content with my current HT setup.
;o) Nice reply, thanks John, I genuinely meant no offense. Sorry if it read that way.
Caved in and ordered a matt Sub (glad I did - they went fast!) to go with the potential Playbar purchase - once DTS is confirmed (obviously). Sonos, if you’re listening - you may want to get a rebate off DHL for their shoddy delivery service and put it in the DTS licence kitty. (Ordered on 19th March, left Netherlands on the 20th arrived in England on the 21st. Great. Sent to Ireland on the 22nd - eh?.. I live in England. Sent back to England on the 25th – and still waiting!!) Anyhoo, I’m a bit concerned with the post from Sander regarding the Sonos dealer’s comments with the technical difficulties of streaming DTS and the inability of the Sonos system to cope with the bandwidth. A simple ‘yes it’s possible’ would be nice from Sonos instead of the non-committal response stating that “Hilmar is the lead product architect”. My initial reaction was that this comment was about as useful as a chocolate teapot and about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. Of course I would like to think that if Hilmar has stated that DTS is purely a software issue it would follow that the hardware would stand-up to the bandwidth imposed by the DTS stream (together with the system being used in other locations in the house for music). To be fair, I’m sure that is what Mike C was getting at. However without some official black and white ‘yes it’s possible’ comment after over 120 votes in 2 weeks I’m beginning to think this is firmly on the back-burner for Sonos. Which is disappointing to say the least. When an employee of Sonos is unable to confirm that this is technically possible (regardless of whether it will be implemented) it may mean that the topic isn’t being discussed within Sonos, or then again it may mean they’re bored and like to keep us guessing about whether their HT solution will ever be any more than a squandered opportunity. Obviously I’m biased but for me DTS in a HT system is a no-brainer to the point of being ludicrous that it wasn’t included in the first place (regardless of how Sonos think we should use the system). Also, unlike anything else on this forum that I can see the DTS omission is a certain purchase stopper which should therefore trump all of the other ‘feature’ requests no matter how useful they are - and there are a good number that I think are brilliant suggestions that would definitely enhance the Sonos platform. But, if they weren’t implemented would they stop me buying another Sonos component? Simple answer… No. Can the same be said for DTS?... Well, for me it's easy - no DTS = no Playbar. I’m guessing there are a lot more people out there with the Playbar that haven’t found their way to this forum yet and are just living in hope that Sonos won’t pursue such a narrow view of audio implementation in their HT solution. Still waiting to make the jump (for the time being the Sub will complement my Play5 setup in the living room – when/if DHL deliver it), but the more time goes on and this issue remains in limbo I’m sure I’ll just lose my initial excitement/interest and go back to being content with my current HT setup.
Tua09788, I disagree. Whilst Sonos don't often announce future, they can and they have. There is a specific section on this website to allow for this with several planned ideas already listed. https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/ideas/planned So they plan to add support for Amazon Cloud, Soundcloud and others. DTS support could be on this list, but isn't. I don't see this decision as commercially sensitive so, if it's planned, they would tell us.
Caved in and ordered a matt Sub (glad I did - they went fast!) to go with the potential Playbar purchase - once DTS is confirmed (obviously). Sonos, if you’re listening - you may want to get a rebate off DHL for their shoddy delivery service and put it in the DTS licence kitty. (Ordered on 19th March, left Netherlands on the 20th arrived in England on the 21st. Great. Sent to Ireland on the 22nd - eh?.. I live in England. Sent back to England on the 25th – and still waiting!!) Anyhoo, I’m a bit concerned with the post from Sander regarding the Sonos dealer’s comments with the technical difficulties of streaming DTS and the inability of the Sonos system to cope with the bandwidth. A simple ‘yes it’s possible’ would be nice from Sonos instead of the non-committal response stating that “Hilmar is the lead product architect”. My initial reaction was that this comment was about as useful as a chocolate teapot and about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. Of course I would like to think that if Hilmar has stated that DTS is purely a software issue it would follow that the hardware would stand-up to the bandwidth imposed by the DTS stream (together with the system being used in other locations in the house for music). To be fair, I’m sure that is what Mike C was getting at. However without some official black and white ‘yes it’s possible’ comment after over 120 votes in 2 weeks I’m beginning to think this is firmly on the back-burner for Sonos. Which is disappointing to say the least. When an employee of Sonos is unable to confirm that this is technically possible (regardless of whether it will be implemented) it may mean that the topic isn’t being discussed within Sonos, or then again it may mean they’re bored and like to keep us guessing about whether their HT solution will ever be any more than a squandered opportunity. Obviously I’m biased but for me DTS in a HT system is a no-brainer to the point of being ludicrous that it wasn’t included in the first place (regardless of how Sonos think we should use the system). Also, unlike anything else on this forum that I can see the DTS omission is a certain purchase stopper which should therefore trump all of the other ‘feature’ requests no matter how useful they are - and there are a good number that I think are brilliant suggestions that would definitely enhance the Sonos platform. But, if they weren’t implemented would they stop me buying another Sonos component? Simple answer… No. Can the same be said for DTS?... Well, for me it's easy - no DTS = no Playbar. I’m guessing there are a lot more people out there with the Playbar that haven’t found their way to this forum yet and are just living in hope that Sonos won’t pursue such a narrow view of audio implementation in their HT solution. Still waiting to make the jump (for the time being the Sub will complement my Play5 setup in the living room – when/if DHL deliver it), but the more time goes on and this issue remains in limbo I’m sure I’ll just lose my initial excitement/interest and go back to being content with my current HT setup.
Chris, No offense taken. We all of us understand that this topic is one which the users in this thread feel passionate about. We simply have no other information to provide at this time. As Ben points out, this topic is still Under Consideration.
Caved in and ordered a matt Sub (glad I did - they went fast!) to go with the potential Playbar purchase - once DTS is confirmed (obviously). Sonos, if you’re listening - you may want to get a rebate off DHL for their shoddy delivery service and put it in the DTS licence kitty. (Ordered on 19th March, left Netherlands on the 20th arrived in England on the 21st. Great. Sent to Ireland on the 22nd - eh?.. I live in England. Sent back to England on the 25th – and still waiting!!) Anyhoo, I’m a bit concerned with the post from Sander regarding the Sonos dealer’s comments with the technical difficulties of streaming DTS and the inability of the Sonos system to cope with the bandwidth. A simple ‘yes it’s possible’ would be nice from Sonos instead of the non-committal response stating that “Hilmar is the lead product architect”. My initial reaction was that this comment was about as useful as a chocolate teapot and about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. Of course I would like to think that if Hilmar has stated that DTS is purely a software issue it would follow that the hardware would stand-up to the bandwidth imposed by the DTS stream (together with the system being used in other locations in the house for music). To be fair, I’m sure that is what Mike C was getting at. However without some official black and white ‘yes it’s possible’ comment after over 120 votes in 2 weeks I’m beginning to think this is firmly on the back-burner for Sonos. Which is disappointing to say the least. When an employee of Sonos is unable to confirm that this is technically possible (regardless of whether it will be implemented) it may mean that the topic isn’t being discussed within Sonos, or then again it may mean they’re bored and like to keep us guessing about whether their HT solution will ever be any more than a squandered opportunity. Obviously I’m biased but for me DTS in a HT system is a no-brainer to the point of being ludicrous that it wasn’t included in the first place (regardless of how Sonos think we should use the system). Also, unlike anything else on this forum that I can see the DTS omission is a certain purchase stopper which should therefore trump all of the other ‘feature’ requests no matter how useful they are - and there are a good number that I think are brilliant suggestions that would definitely enhance the Sonos platform. But, if they weren’t implemented would they stop me buying another Sonos component? Simple answer… No. Can the same be said for DTS?... Well, for me it's easy - no DTS = no Playbar. I’m guessing there are a lot more people out there with the Playbar that haven’t found their way to this forum yet and are just living in hope that Sonos won’t pursue such a narrow view of audio implementation in their HT solution. Still waiting to make the jump (for the time being the Sub will complement my Play5 setup in the living room – when/if DHL deliver it), but the more time goes on and this issue remains in limbo I’m sure I’ll just lose my initial excitement/interest and go back to being content with my current HT setup.
I think the most frustrating part is that it sounds so damn good when watching 5.1 TV/film from Dolby Digital sources and then you put on a DTS movie and it's just silent. Highest selling DVD of all time is Mamma Mia - it's encoded in DTS.
Caved in and ordered a matt Sub (glad I did - they went fast!) to go with the potential Playbar purchase - once DTS is confirmed (obviously). Sonos, if you’re listening - you may want to get a rebate off DHL for their shoddy delivery service and put it in the DTS licence kitty. (Ordered on 19th March, left Netherlands on the 20th arrived in England on the 21st. Great. Sent to Ireland on the 22nd - eh?.. I live in England. Sent back to England on the 25th – and still waiting!!) Anyhoo, I’m a bit concerned with the post from Sander regarding the Sonos dealer’s comments with the technical difficulties of streaming DTS and the inability of the Sonos system to cope with the bandwidth. A simple ‘yes it’s possible’ would be nice from Sonos instead of the non-committal response stating that “Hilmar is the lead product architect”. My initial reaction was that this comment was about as useful as a chocolate teapot and about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. Of course I would like to think that if Hilmar has stated that DTS is purely a software issue it would follow that the hardware would stand-up to the bandwidth imposed by the DTS stream (together with the system being used in other locations in the house for music). To be fair, I’m sure that is what Mike C was getting at. However without some official black and white ‘yes it’s possible’ comment after over 120 votes in 2 weeks I’m beginning to think this is firmly on the back-burner for Sonos. Which is disappointing to say the least. When an employee of Sonos is unable to confirm that this is technically possible (regardless of whether it will be implemented) it may mean that the topic isn’t being discussed within Sonos, or then again it may mean they’re bored and like to keep us guessing about whether their HT solution will ever be any more than a squandered opportunity. Obviously I’m biased but for me DTS in a HT system is a no-brainer to the point of being ludicrous that it wasn’t included in the first place (regardless of how Sonos think we should use the system). Also, unlike anything else on this forum that I can see the DTS omission is a certain purchase stopper which should therefore trump all of the other ‘feature’ requests no matter how useful they are - and there are a good number that I think are brilliant suggestions that would definitely enhance the Sonos platform. But, if they weren’t implemented would they stop me buying another Sonos component? Simple answer… No. Can the same be said for DTS?... Well, for me it's easy - no DTS = no Playbar. I’m guessing there are a lot more people out there with the Playbar that haven’t found their way to this forum yet and are just living in hope that Sonos won’t pursue such a narrow view of audio implementation in their HT solution. Still waiting to make the jump (for the time being the Sub will complement my Play5 setup in the living room – when/if DHL deliver it), but the more time goes on and this issue remains in limbo I’m sure I’ll just lose my initial excitement/interest and go back to being content with my current HT setup.
Yep, you're right...they do have a planned section.
I think the best we should aim for is getting as many people to vote for the "Add DTS to the PlayBar" rather than trolling the forum, the greater the number of distinct users that request a feature, the greater the case for implementing it..
I agree. I have been posting this link on as many reviews of the playbar as I can find.
DTS is without a doubt a MUST!
I have an LG TV and I currently use Plex on a Mac Mini to watch my media. I have the Mac Mini connected to the television with a HDMI cable. However, any audio passed from the optical out on the TV is downmixed to 2.0. I have tried DTS, DD, and others. The Sonos "about my system" always reports a 2.0 source. For now, I have purchased an Toslink switch to choose between my 4 inputs and send it to the Playbar. Now when i watch DD media it now registers as 5.1 and sounds great. DTS media still is downmixed to 2.0 by the Plex software as I had to disable DTS support to prevent it from just being silence. There is a very noticeable difference in the sound between downmixed DTS and DD. Its been a pain to have to alter my setup to fit to what Sonos decided the setup should be, but I understand the reasoning behind the one input. However, the lack of DTS is rather upsetting. I would estimate that 90% of my media is encoded with DTS. I purchased the full set to go along with the Playbar, I'd like to be able to enjoy it to its fullest so that i could recommend it to others that have the same media setup as i do.
I have an LG TV and I currently use Plex on a Mac Mini to watch my media. I have the Mac Mini connected to the television with a HDMI cable. However, any audio passed from the optical out on the TV is downmixed to 2.0. I have tried DTS, DD, and others. The Sonos "about my system" always reports a 2.0 source. For now, I have purchased an Toslink switch to choose between my 4 inputs and send it to the Playbar. Now when i watch DD media it now registers as 5.1 and sounds great. DTS media still is downmixed to 2.0 by the Plex software as I had to disable DTS support to prevent it from just being silence. There is a very noticeable difference in the sound between downmixed DTS and DD. Its been a pain to have to alter my setup to fit to what Sonos decided the setup should be, but I understand the reasoning behind the one input. However, the lack of DTS is rather upsetting. I would estimate that 90% of my media is encoded with DTS. I purchased the full set to go along with the Playbar, I'd like to be able to enjoy it to its fullest so that i could recommend it to others that have the same media setup as i do.
hi rob, which LG TV are you using? and does the TV down mixes everything that comes out via the optical out irrespective of the source (Plex, Xbox/PS3, Bray player)? I seriously don't get, why don't they just have 4-5 HDMI in and one out in the playbar, that to me seems so much easier.
Please add DTS support. I have just bought a Playbar and this is a big disappoint for me.
I have the 47LB5D. I am OK with the one input, I don't need another device that wants to be the focus of all devices. Ideally the TV would be the control center, but it fails as HDCP blocks outputting anything but 2.0 from HDMI sources that pass-through the TV.
FYI: I purchased the Octava HD11-ARC HDMI Audio Converter from Amazon and hooked it up to my TV. Result: my Sonos Playbar is now sent both Dolby Digital and DTS. All that is needed now is for the Playbar to actually be able to *decode* DTS! Please add DTS support via a firmware update, Sonos!
Also worthwhile to note that Dolby Digital audio definitely makes the Playbar sound better! 🙂
Apples to oranges. You can't compaire a wired low end POS like that to something like the Playbar with its sub + sat speakers. You can't make the assumption that this is licensing. Right now my personal speculation is bandwidth to the satellite speakers from the Playbar. Or possibly Sonos miscalculated, as a newbie in the home theatre audio market, how much demand there would be for this. But again: speculation. We don't know jack right now. I'd bet money they are in their labs trying to figure out how this might be done if at all.
A week in to my relationship with the PLAYBAR... It will now get moved in to the kids room, where there are no need to watch blue ray... To bad, i really liked the setup, and was about to take down all the speakers from the old system... And it is defiantly delivering way better sound than the kids will ever need. I know how SONOS recommends the setup, but I'm still quite surprised that they left out DTS and made a great product lack all flexibility for any other type of connection scenario.
Please could we get an update from Sonos on the rationale for leaving DTS out and the likelihood of it being added? Thank you.
This! My fear is that there is a technical reason it wasn't included and its not physically possible due to bandwidth issues to the satellite speakers.
This bandwidth issue keeps coming up after some apparent finger in the air speculation from a dealer. I believe this has already been answered many times, in an official capacity, and there is no issue with adding DTS later. Saying that though, if it is possible, I'm wondering why it wasn't added in the first place? You wouldn't expect cost to be a constraint on a premium product.
I can’t see This bandwidth issue being true as I would think the play bar would do the decoding then stream the audio to the rest of the system if it can do it for DD5.1 I can’t see it being an issue with DTS as the decoded channels should be much the same or am I missing something?
Having bought a playbar and sub I am very disappointed that it does not support DTS. 90% of my blu-rays are DTS whilst only 30% are Dolby Digital 5.1.
The joy of our new Playbar is being squashed every time we look at the Blue Ray Discs just sitting there mocking us with their silence. Let's have a far more affirmative statement (positive or heaven forbid negative) from SONOS rather than the bland 'it's on the list'.
I have a playbar, and DTS seems that should be added as blu-rays often only have DTS.....
I'm incredibly disappointed.. Disappointed is not a word I have ever associated with Sonos having already picked up Play5 & Play3, not to mention helped some friends get kitted out.. Picked up my AU$999 (that's US$1040 - we pay extra for the pleasure of living in Australia) Playbar 2 days ago. It took a lot longer to unwire my trusty old Samsung 5.1 system than to assemble the Sonos.... But no sound from most of my movies!! Please Sonos.. if there is a potential fix for this, please move it to the top of your priority list. Your reputation for quality is taking a hit. If there is no chance of an update, please make this clear ASAP so that your customers can return their purchases within the accepted time period.
