Please add support for DTS for the Sonos Playbar.

So disappointing it does not support DTS! It is a big issue, especially when linking the play bar to surround speakers! It means many Bluerays do not work with the playbar because they only output in DTS, or if they work, it is in stereo... making the Playbar useless for surround sound. This is a very poor technical choice from Sonos and very poor customer service story. 
Not supporting DTS on the PlayBar doesn't make marketing sense... more and more people, like me, who would have bought your Play:1 to make a surround sound system will be hit by the lack of DTS support soon or later and will increasingly be vocal about it. Yup, Playbar sounds great, exception for that blue ray, and that one... oh all of those too... 
You can make it right, please do. Soon.
Regards,
S.

Not supporting DTS is a big fail

I just wanted to buy the Sonos Playbar and intended to buy more Sonos products for my bathroom and kitchen. I love the idea of Sonos. But without DTS support I will likely get no sound from my sources (BluRay) played from my WD TV live.

Does anybody know if I can get any sound with wd tv live, the playbar connected directly and a dts movie? Or should I just buy another solution which supports dts?

Could the play:5 be an alternative for TV sound? I could connect a play:5 with headphone output of my TV and get any sound? This would be just bad stereo, but better then nothing. Or do I get lipsync problems then?

Guys I've bought an Octava HD-41 switcher that allows me to pass DTS tracks and convert them to DD5.1 on the fly.  This works well with the playbar.  Not optimal but its better than having to manually convert my existing media.  Its $250 - which is stupid really but it does provide me with a 4-port HDMI switch as well - so the money isn't a total waste. It has RS232C control as well so that works well with my centralized media rack.  Please note: I tried a monoprice 4-port hdmi switch with TOSlink out and I experienced sound loss every 5 minutes or so.  The sound would disappear for about a second.  That was annoying.  So that's why I opted towards the Octava and I haven't had any issues. Check it out as it may help some out there stuck with the playbar and looking for a solution.  The link is below:

http://www.octavainc.com/HDMI%20switch%204x1%20ARC%20port_pro.html

Not taking any credit for this as some other users in the Sonos forums provided me with this option.

Guys I've bought an Octava HD-41 switcher that allows me to pass DTS tracks and convert them to DD5.1 on the fly.  This works well with the playbar.  Not optimal but its better than having to manually convert my existing media.  Its $250 - which is stupid really but it does provide me with a 4-port HDMI switch as well - so the money isn't a total waste. It has RS232C control as well so that works well with my centralized media rack.  Please note: I tried a monoprice 4-port hdmi switch with TOSlink out and I experienced sound loss every 5 minutes or so.  The sound would disappear for about a second.  That was annoying.  So that's why I opted towards the Octava and I haven't had any issues. Check it out as it may help some out there stuck with the playbar and looking for a solution.  The link is below:

http://www.octavainc.com/HDMI%20switch%204x1%20ARC%20port_pro.html

Not taking any credit for this as some other users in the Sonos forums provided me with this option.

@sam, thanks but to be honest another 250 bucks is not an option. 

thank you for the info SAM, I already invested $64 to get a optical switch to pass through DD, another 250 is not a question at all. Why didn't Sonos build this at first place when they are charging so much for a playbar.

I'm looking around to buy a 5.1 system, saw the Sonos playbar and sub and 2 x Play:1/3's... looks fab, but reading this thread has made me reconsider. 

A company that can't be bothered to comment on this thread on it's own forum about a big issue like this, doesn't deserve the £2k i was just about to spend on kit... plus the rest that will come in time in other rooms in the house.

Sorry Sonos - sort this out. You'll lose in the long run.

Sonos keep suggesting that the reason there is no DTS is that most TVs don't support pass through so they left it out.  Many don't support dolby pass through either so many people in the know are forced to use either an Octovainc style system where they can split out the audio, or take a seperate optical out from the source and feed that direct to the sonos playbar (or into a 3 way to 1 where you select the audio source then onto the playbar) to avoid these audio complications.  (I'm using the audio splitter and XBMC where I can to convert DTS to 5.1)  The original design premise of the playbar is flawed...it appears rare that you can actually rely on pass through to work in all situations.  I'm sure there are plenty of non-technical people sat at home in awe of their new soundbar as they listen to it blast them with glorious 2.1 sound.

As a result, the continued argument/sonos statement that "tvs don't support DTS passthrough so we didn't provide it" is not really relevant as the majority of people that are aware of this problem are using workarounds that means once you bring in the ability for the soundbar to decode DTS they are sorted.  The rest are blissfully unaware.

I think I have a couple of concerns

1/  You are in essence conning a lot of laymen into buying a technology that does not work as described.  The adverts state 5.1 support/surround sound, but a laymen will not know the difference between Dolby 5.1, DTS...nor will they know to check "About Sonos" on their controller to check what is actually being played at them through the speaker.  The only red flag will be when half their blu ray collection doesn't playback DTS sound.  My mum thought the playbar was brilliant until I pointed out she'd been listening in stereo and that I had to spend 30 minutes re-cabling things.  I didn't even try and explain DTS.  It seems a little out of order that Sonos has made no real attempt to clarify setup issues within the instructions of the product or in a prominent place on their website...this is a big deal.  People are buying and using something, blissfully ignorant of the fact it's not delivering what they paid for.

2/  I'm not sure how months after something as key as the DTS issue, it's still under consideration.  Either you have the worst internal development/review cycle in the world (which I'm not willing to believe given the brilliant Sonos 1,3 and 5 range), you don't care, you are releasing an updated product shortly and giving all your existing soundbar customers the finger or the mindset at sonos is "Those in the know are few, those buying and in ignorant awe of 2.1 are the masses" and you are happy to rake the cash in whilst you can.

I'd be interested in hearing any feedback you have as it's the makings of an interesting story.

Thanks

 

Looking more and more like there will be no dts support for the 1st generation playbar.
It's a wise decision on the part of Sonos to stay as silent as (playbar) Blu-ray  playback!
If Sonos were to admit it, playbar sales and their reputation would go down the tubes.
jmho...