Sonos Arc and Oppo UDP-203 - Only Getting Stereo PCM 2.0

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I've just connected the Sonos Arc to my LG 65EF9500 TV via HDMI ARC (eARC not available on the LG). When using my Amazon Fire Stick with a movie encoded with Dolby audio, the Sonos app shows Dolby Digital 5.1, which is all I expect without eARC on the LG TV.

However, I also have an Oppo Blu-ray player (UDP-203) connected to my Denon receiver (AVR S920W) via HDMI, and the Denon is connected to the LG TV also via HDMI.

I have the Denon receiver set to “pass through” for HDMI so that the the Oppo signal goes to the LG even with the Denon switched off. (I have also taken it out of “pass through” mode and played a Blu-ray disc with the receiver on - same results noted below.)

When I watch a Blu-ray disc encoded with Dolby surround audio on the Oppo, I cannot get the Sonos Arc to recognize the audio properly, and the app shows Stereo PCM 2.0. How do I get it to recognize Dolby Digital 5.1 like it does with the Fire Stick as noted above?

Is there a setting on the Oppo or the Denon I need to change?

Thanks much!

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39 replies

D

I connect to my LG CX TV using both a Macbook Pro (2021) and a Macbook Pro (2012) .  My LG CX has 2 eARC HDMI ports.

 

For some reason my Macbook Pro (2021) is is outputting Stereo PCM (regardless of the eARC port used) to my SONOS app when my Macbook Pro (2012) outputs Multichannel PCM 5.1 to my SONOS app.

Theoretically, the LG should be processing the signals through the eARC ports the same.  The VLC player and Macgo Blu-ray player settings are the same on both Macbook Pro’s. 

Does anyone know what have overlooked.

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Yes, they did work for me.  

M

Thank you.  I’ll try these settings. Art

Did these settings work for you to get multichannel PCM on your Arc with DTS movies? I have pretty much the exact same setup and I'm currently eyeing an Oppo 203.Just want to make sure these settings work before I pull the trigger . Thanks 

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Thank you.  I’ll try these settings. Art

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Did this get resolved. I’m dealing with the same issue with the bdp-103, Sonos arc and an LG C2 which has eArc. 

On the Oppo, set HDMI Audio to Bitstream for Dolby-encoded discs. Set it to LPCM for DTS-encoded discs. And set Secondary Audio to Off.

And set the TV to these settings:

HDMI Input Audio Format: Bitstream

Digital Sound Output: Pass Through

eARC Support: On

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
A
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Did this get resolved. I’m dealing with the same issue with the bdp-103, Sonos arc and an LG C2 which has eArc. 

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Tried working with a Sonos live rep on the issue, which did not result in anything actionable. So, have just sent an email to Oppo - fingers crossed.

Did you ever try a different HDMI cable by the way between the Oppo and the TV?

 

Tried a new cable - no effect. Contacted both Oppo and Sonos support - no further suggestions. Next step is trying a new Blu-ray player.

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Tried working with a Sonos live rep on the issue, which did not result in anything actionable. So, have just sent an email to Oppo - fingers crossed.

Did you ever try a different HDMI cable by the way between the Oppo and the TV?

No - still need to do that!

Ken_Griffiths

Tried working with a Sonos live rep on the issue, which did not result in anything actionable. So, have just sent an email to Oppo - fingers crossed.

Did you ever try a different HDMI cable by the way between the Oppo and the TV?

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@HarvG,

Not sure if this may help, but whilst trying to find an answer to this one, I came across this comment on the Oppo resources website, about Dolby Digital Audio Output…

"Be sure to turn off all internal decoding in the OPPO player. (Choose Bitstream out AND be sure to turn off SECONDARY AUDIO feature)”.

If still no joy, then Oppo customer support maybe the next best step and their contact link is here:

https://www.oppodigital.com/ContactUs.aspx

 

Tried working with a Sonos live rep on the issue, which did not result in anything actionable. So, have just sent an email to Oppo - fingers crossed.

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@HarvG On The Batman Blu-ray, if you set the audio track to the French or Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 track rather than the English Dolby Atmos or Dolby TrueHD track, what audio format is played through the Arc?

Thanks for the suggestion - I’ve already tried several Blu-ray discs (including The Batman) with a foreign language track in DD 5.1 and got the same result from the Sonos - Stereo PCM

G
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@HarvG On The Batman Blu-ray, if you set the audio track to the French or Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 track rather than the English Dolby Atmos or Dolby TrueHD track, what audio format is played through the Arc?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
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@HarvG,

Not sure if this may help, but whilst trying to find an answer to this one, I came across this comment on the Oppo resources website, about Dolby Digital Audio Output…

"Be sure to turn off all internal decoding in the OPPO player. (Choose Bitstream out AND be sure to turn off SECONDARY AUDIO feature)”.

If still no joy, then Oppo customer support maybe the next best step and their contact link is here:

https://www.oppodigital.com/ContactUs.aspx

 

Thanks again Ken for all of your time and analysis - I already have Secondary Audio off on the Oppo with Bitstream selected. Still need to try connecting the Oppo directly to the Sonos using an optical cable just to see what the result is. Remarkable how challenging this has turned out to be!

Ken_Griffiths

@HarvG,

Not sure if this may help, but whilst trying to find an answer to this one, I came across this comment on the Oppo resources website, about Dolby Digital Audio Output…

"Be sure to turn off all internal decoding in the OPPO player. (Choose Bitstream out AND be sure to turn off SECONDARY AUDIO feature)”.

If still no joy, then Oppo customer support maybe the next best step and their contact link is here:

https://www.oppodigital.com/ContactUs.aspx

Ken_Griffiths

@HarvG 
Ah yes of course jgatie is right, (how stupid I am🤷‍♂️)… you need to return the audio to the Arc over an HDMI-ARC connection, but you could use the optical-to-HDMI adapter (that came with your Arc) plugged into the Oppo, but that really somewhat defeats the object of what we were trying to discover and that’s if the audio-out over its HDMI connection is Stereo, or Dolby Digital 5.1

Anyhow, you may aswell try it with the Optical-to-HDMI adapter and see what audio you get from that port. It may at least show the audio out settings are correct even if it’s going through a different port.

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jgatie

Connecting the Oppo directly to the Sonos via HDMI resulted in no sound.  Will have to consider a new cable, but the cable I’m currently using is successfully passing a 4K HDR video signal to the LG.

 

The Oppo doesn't put out an ARC signal, so it's never going to work connected directly to the Arc.

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I’ve just come across this in the user-manual (page 57):

Can you switch the DVD-Audio Mode to ‘DVD-Video’ and see if that makes a difference.

Already had that set to DVD-Video - no change.

 

Would it make any sense to connect the Oppo directly to the Sonos to see how the sound is processed, or is that not practical/feasible?

 

Yes it won’t hurt to try that and see what audio format you get - if it’s still stereo, my thoughts are to perhaps also try a different HDMI cable.

Connecting the Oppo directly to the Sonos via HDMI resulted in no sound.  Will have to consider a new cable, but the cable I’m currently using is successfully passing a 4K HDR video signal to the LG.

Ken_Griffiths

I’ve just come across this in the user-manual (page 57):

Can you switch the DVD-Audio Mode to ‘DVD-Video’ and see if that makes a difference.

Already had that set to DVD-Video - no change.

 

Would it make any sense to connect the Oppo directly to the Sonos to see how the sound is processed, or is that not practical/feasible?

 

Yes it won’t hurt to try that and see what audio format you get - if it’s still stereo, my thoughts are to perhaps also try a different HDMI cable.

H
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I’ve just come across this in the user-manual (page 57):

Can you switch the DVD-Audio Mode to ‘DVD-Video’ and see if that makes a difference.

Already had that set to DVD-Video - no change.

 

Would it make any sense to connect the Oppo directly to the Sonos to see how the sound is processed, or is that not practical/feasible?

 

Ken_Griffiths

I’ve just come across this in the user-manual (page 57):

Can you switch the DVD-Audio Mode to ‘DVD-Video’ and see if that makes a difference.

Ken_Griffiths

I would perhaps leave the Denon out the mix ‘temporarily’ to begin with, to get the Blu-ray setup and working first of all with the TV/Arc - as we know that the TV will pass-through the DD 5.1 audio to the Arc. 

Having put the mentioned settings in place on the Oppo with it connected it to the TV, did you go onto try powering off all the devices for a minute or so, just to get them to setup the correct handshake again? Then play something that has DD 5.1 or even DTS 5.1 (not DTS-X or HD) audio and see if that may work for you. 

Just reconnected the Oppo directly to the LG, powered everything down for a few mins, and still same result - Sonos is getting only Stereo PCM. So the conflict is somewhere between the Oppo, the LG, and the Sonos.

If the Fire TV is working when connected to the TV, it points to the Oppo being the issue - a setting we’re missing perhaps?
 

Just curious, but does the Fire TV give you DD5.1 output when connecting that via the Denon Receiver set to pass-through the audio?

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I would perhaps leave the Denon out the mix ‘temporarily’ to begin with, to get the Blu-ray setup and working first of all with the TV/Arc - as we know that the TV will pass-through the DD 5.1 audio to the Arc. 

Having put the mentioned settings in place on the Oppo with it connected it to the TV, did you go onto try powering off all the devices for a minute or so, just to get them to setup the correct handshake again? Then play something that has DD 5.1 or even DTS 5.1 (not DTS-X or HD) audio and see if that may work for you. 

Just reconnected the Oppo directly to the LG, powered everything down for a few mins, and still same result - Sonos is getting only Stereo PCM. So the conflict is somewhere between the Oppo, the LG, and the Sonos.

Ken_Griffiths

I would perhaps leave the Denon out the mix ‘temporarily’ to begin with, to get the Blu-ray setup and working first of all with the TV/Arc - as we know that the TV will pass-through the DD 5.1 audio to the Arc. 

Having put the mentioned settings in place on the Oppo with it connected to the TV, did you go onto try powering off all the devices for a minute or so, just to get them to setup the correct handshake again? Then play something that has DD 5.1 or even DTS 5.1 (not DTS-X or HD) audio and see if that may work for you. 

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@HarvG,

Note the HDMI cable should be connected to the ‘main’ port and not the one marked ‘audio’ (mentioned just in case) (page 13)

Also as @GuitarSuperstar mentions - select to downmix the audio to 5.1 (page 15 & 64)

Leave the HDMI audio output set to Bitstream (as mentioned earlier) (page 56)

Note Dolby Digital Plus is supported by the Sonos Arc, but I’m fairly sure from what I read earlier, that the TV will only pass through a Dolby Digital 5.1 signal, so I assume you will get the DD5.1 codec when you make the changes mentioned. 

I can’t see anywhere where it lets you select DD5.1 but choosing Bitstream should hopefully work, aswell as changing the downmix mode🤞

I would also perhaps begin by connecting the Oppo direct to the TV as you have connected the Arc to the TV and simply cut out the Denon Receiver in the middle if you do have enough HDMI ports available on the TV to do that.

HDMI main and not HDMI audio - yes.

Downmix to 5.1 - yes.

HDMI audio output to Bitstream - yes.

I had already tried the Oppo connected to the TV directly and got the same results - Stereo PCM on the Sonos.

I do not have enough HDMI ports on the LG to keep the Oppo connected directly. I only have 3 HDMI in ports: the ARC HDMI one for the Sonos, another for the Amazon Fire Stick, and the third for the Denon, which feeds the Oppo to the TV. If I go back connecting the Oppo directly to the LG, then I cannot keep the Denon connected.

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Sorry it got late so had to sleep, anyhow I found the user manual and so just looking at it now:

Link below:

http://download.oppodigital.com/UDP203/UDP-203_USER_MANUAL_ENGLISH_V1.0.pdf

Thanks

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