The first thing to do is to check what kind of signal your Beam is receiving, when playing each input. Open your controller, and click on Settings, then System, then About My System. In the area under the Beam, there is a line that indicates Audio In, followed by the type of signal that your Beam was receiving at the moment you generated the report.

There are basically three possibilities there. First is blank, which means the Beam is receiving either nothing, or a codec it can’t interpret, such as DTS or Dolby Digital Plus, etc. This shouldn’t be possible when connected via HDMI-ARC, as the Beam tells the atV what kind of signal to send, but that’s not the case when using optical, so it’s worth checking.

If the Beam is playing, then that line should say either Stereo, or Dolby Digital 5.1. If it’s stereo, that’s why your surround speakers aren’t playing, if it’s a Dolby Digital 5.1, either the content has no actual surround information, or you have some sort of wifi interference which is keeping the surround speakers from connecting to the Beam. You haven’t by any chance turned off the Wi-Fi on your Beam by any chance? That’s the poorly named radio that the surrounds use to connect to.

Let us know, and we can move on from there. 

Thanks Bruce

I am streaming Spotify at the moment and my Beam  Audio In : is blank, nothing showing

when I play TV or my bluray or appletv 4 it shows as “Stereo”

I have gone into my Samsung TV audio settings and that shows PCM, Dolby Digital shows but is greyed out and I can’t select it

Also all my sonos speakers are showing “Enable Wi-Fi” as ticked.

What should I try next please?

Ok, that’s helpful. 

Streaming Spotify would only be in stereo only. You could go in to advanced settings for your surround speakers and turn on “Full” rather than “Ambient” to get the surrounds to play during music playback.

Next, we need to set your Apple TV 4K to send a Dolby Digital signal to your TV. On the Apple TV, go to Settings, then Video and Audio, then Audio Format, then Change Format should be “on”, and New Format should be Dolby Digital 5.1.

MOst. Luray players don’t have the ability to transcode to Dolby Digital, but I don’t know anything about yours, so it’s worth poking around in the audio settings on it to see. Back when I had my Sony connected, it didn’t, and I had to choose the Dolby Digital soundtrack on each disc, as it normally defaulted to DTS.

Your TV’s option is geeked out when you’re looking at it because at the time, your TV is either not receiving a Dolby Digital signal, or the Beam is communicating back to it and locking the option.

Our first priority should be getting the Apple TV working. I have one, so can actually look at one while typing Once we get one source working, then the others are all just messing around with audio settings on each source.

okay thanks Bruce

That doesn’t work, have changed my audio format on my AppleTV 4 (it’s not 4K) to Dolby Digital 5.1 but when I try to play anything off say the TV apps on my Apple TV it still shows as Stereo and more interestingly if I try to play a movie preview from the iTunes store then it changes to “Silent” and I get no sound at all (but reverts to stereo as soon as I leave the iTunes store)

another thing I should add is that when I try to tune the speakers using Trueplay, it says speakers not found, but they show up in my “About Sonos” screen and I can use teh sonos 1’s to change volume

Let’s deal with one issue at a time, please. Right now, we’re focused on getting a Dolby Digital signal from your Apple TV which is connected to your TV with an HDMI cable, and have the TV pass that signal via an a HDMI cable that is connected to your TV’s HDMI-ARC port to the Beam. 

Are all of those statements regarding the connections correct? 

Have you tried different HDMI cables? There are some HDMI cables that won’t carry an HDMI-ARC signal from the TV’s ARC port to the Beam. I’d at the least try swapping the two cables, if you don’t have any others. Older cables will carry an HDMI signal, but not an HDMI-ARC signal.

Also, have you tried to contact Sonos Support directly to discuss it? I am about to go to bed, so won’t be around for a few hours  

I usually suggest the phone folks, they have more tools available because they're on the phone with you, but they are only available Monday through Friday during business hours. The Twitter support folks are available 24/7.

Bah. Skip the cable swapping nonsense, if you’re getting a stereo signal, there’s no reason that it won’t carry a Dolby Digital one.

But indeed, I’m going offline. The key issue before worrying about the surround speakers is to be getting a Dolby Digital signal through the TV to the Beam. Without that signal, there’s basically nothing to be sent to those surrounds. 
 

I will check in tomorrow to see where you stand. 

Thanks Bruce

Yes all those statements are correct.

I replaced the HDMI cable (with the same one that I had perviously used when i was in NZ so now know that it is not the cable) but no change unfortunately.

No haven’t spoken with Sonos Support and don’t have Twitter, thanks for all your help Bruce.

Shane

Good morning!

Then there has to be something in the TV that is “blocking” the ability to pass a Dolby Digital signal. Could be any of several things, since we are dealing with HDMI-CEC. 

First thing I’d try is a simple power cycle (a reboot) of the TV. This means unplugging it from the wall for a minute or two, just using a remote to turn off the TV doesn’t do what we need. 

Then I’d do a check for software updates to the TV. With the previous reboot, it should be in a fresh state to catch any updates as necessary.

Then test again, using the Apple TV. What we really need to see is that line on the Sonos “About My System” say Dolby Digital 5.1, and not stereo, before we can move on to figuring out the connection issues to the surround speakers.

Hi Bruce

I tried that (I unplugged the power cable from the back of the TV not the powerpoint so hope that doesn’t make a difference) but no change, still won’t play anything with sound from iTunes but will play in stereo mode from other tv apps.  I am about to head off to Melbourne for Christmas and won’t be back for about 10 days, so will try again then.  Thank you for all your assistance so far and I hope you have a great Christmas

Thanks

Shane

When you get back, contact Sonos support, so you don’t have to wait so long for replies ;)

Merry Christmas!