Solving the 5.1, DTS issues with the Playbar

I know I've said this before but I find it astounding they did not go down this route. Having multiple HDMI inputs with video pass-through via a single HDMI to your TV would have addressed all these problems and enabled support for all audio standards (if they chose to).

This would've made the playbar a stellar product. As it stands, it's a product which confuses many who buy it and even for those who do get it work, it only does half a job (no DTS, DTS-HD, etc...) and requires an external piece of kit to make it work better.

I'll stick with my receiver and Harmony remote, thanks very much.

I don't think a video processor is needed

I didn't saying video processing though, I said switching. I can't find the quote now but I'm pretty sure it mentioned they didn't want to be having anything to do with video at all.

I didn't saying video processing though, I said switching. I can't find the quote now but I'm pretty sure it mentioned they didn't want to be having anything to do with video at all.

And that, IMHO, is where they've gone wrong! I cannot think of a single sensible downside (e.g. ignoring them wanting to do HDMI or not, the cost of implementing HDMI, licensing codecs, etc.) of them having 4+ HDMI in, 1 HDMI monitor out rather than the crazy toslink-only "solution" they've chosen.

Whatever the solution is, that is their job to figure it out and provide what the customer wants. It's my job to pay $700 and have an easy product to install and enjoy, just like the rest of sonos. I am no technical expert but will continue to hold off on buying the playbar until there is a solution. In the meantime I am enjoying the rest of my set up but it would be so sweet to add the playbar at some point.

And that, IMHO, is where they've gone wrong! I cannot think of a single sensible downside (e.g. ignoring them wanting to do HDMI or not, the cost of implementing HDMI, licensing codecs, etc.) of them having 4+ HDMI in, 1 HDMI monitor out rather than the crazy toslink-only "solution" they've chosen.

My LG BDPlayer started to have some problems so I gave the PS3 a shot. Bought the 500gb model (with spinning hard disk drive) and returned it immediately. It was way to loud for movie watching. But I made an interessting discovery.

The PS3 is able (probably like the Opo player) to output any format (like DTS, DTS-HD etc.) in discrete DD 5.1 over toslink!

I was so exited about that, and the resulting great sound quality, that I gave it another chance by ordering the 12gb model (with non-spinning ssd drive).

The 12gig PS3 is much quieter and I also bought 4 vibration absorbers, made of rubber. It's now nearly as quiet as a good stand-alone bluray player.

But the sound. Whoa. I watched some bluray movies with it. Skyfall, The Hobbit, Tron Legacy. All in DTS, converted to DD 5.1 by the PS3. It sounds perfectly!

I compared the quality of the sound with my James Bond movie Casino Royale from 2007 (DD5.1 only) with the new version of the movie from my anniversary box (DTS only) and they both sound equally great on the sonos 5.1 through the playstation!

Then I compared again through HDMI/TV/Stereo upmixed by Sonos. The sound quality is way way worse!

@all the people using the Sonos 5.1 setup with only upmixed stereo - you don't know what you are missing!! The setup is capable of sooo much more!

I can't understand why Sonos doesn't fix this probem asap.

The controller says it plays DD5.1 with every stuff I throw at it with the PS3. So no more silence with my bluray disks :)

It's of course just a dirty workaround for the missing DTS, but for the moment I think its pretty much perfect.... until apple, netflix and all the others start to stream in DTS, of course.

The PS3 is able (probably like the Opo player) to output any format (like DTS, DTS-HD etc.) in discrete DD 5.1 over toslink!

But the sound. Whoa. I watched some bluray movies with it. Skyfall, The Hobbit, Tron Legacy. All in DTS, converted to DD 5.1 by the PS3. It sounds perfectly!


What is this magic PS3 audio settings? I can't seem to find it. My PS3 has Bitstream or PCM as an audio output option for the bluray player and the controller shows Stereo when set to PCM. The bitstream option produces silence.

Thanks.

Hi,

try this:

Sound Settings -> optical output -> from the selectable formats only chose "Dolby Digital 5.1", unselect everything else (the grey ones can't be unselected, that's ok)

(I have Audio Multi-Output set to "off", but that probably doesn't matter )

Video Settings -> BD Audio output format (optical digital) -> Bitstream (Mix)



With these settings I get wonderful DD5.1 from every BluRay 🙂

What do you think? You can check the output within the Sonos Controller app under "Settings".

Hi, this is my first post on they forum, and have been interested to see this thread re the playstation.
I also discovered this option in the ps3 settings and have been enjoying full dd5.1 from dts only discs. Even though this works very well, Sonos should listen to the frustrations of many new customers and implement dts as a firmware upgrade quickly, before they lose a lot of customers and potential revenue.

@all the people using the Sonos 5.1 setup with only upmixed stereo - you don't know what you are missing!! The setup is capable of sooo much more!

@all the people who aren't able to listen to the original DTS-HD sound track from blu-rays with the playbar, you don't know what you're missing... 😛

Hi Andy,

you're right, of course. But nonetheless, I think the difference from upmixed stereo by sonos, or dolby prologic in the past to discrete 6 channel sound like dolby digital 5.1 is tremendous.

I am sure there is also an improvement from DD5.1 to DTS or DTS-HD. But honestly, with my last setup (Denon receiver + fully wired Canton 5.1 set) I was never able to tell the difference between dd 5.1 and dts.

So my guess here is that upmixed stereo -> dd 5.1 is like a 6 to 10 improvement, while dd 5.1 -> dts(hd) is maybe a 10 to 11 or 12 improvement and some people like me even can't tell the difference.

But hey, I am pretty happy with the sonos system now that it is tweaked to support it's full capability 😃