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Sonos Arc and Play:1 surrounds - upward firing speakers

  • December 31, 2020
  • 9 replies
  • 909 views

I have the ARC and a pair of Play:1’s as surrounds.  ARC is connected to my Samsung QE65Q8FAM arc port.  I am able to see Dolby ATMOS in the S2 app when watching ATMOS enabled movies from my Sky Q UHD.  However when I playback a Dolby test tones file the height speakers sound come out of the Play:1 surrounds not the ARC bar. When I disable the surrounds then the sound comes out the ARC.  Is this normal or is there an issue here?

Best answer by Ken_Griffiths

Its in my 1st post -Samsung QE65Q8FAM

Sorry I missed that - I know the LG C9 TV A/V in-built player doesn’t support Atmos and downmixes the audio to DD5.1. I would perhaps try several audio files to see if you get Atmos via the Samsung App and perhaps speak with Samsung support just to be sure the player/tv/connected-port supports the Atmos codec you’re using, then perhaps contact Sonos Customer Care via this LINK.
 

Admittedly it’s unusual if your ‘About my System” device list/Arc "Audio In" is showing ‘Dolby Atmos’ that should mean the metadata in the codec audio is present and I’d expect it to be interpreted correctly and provide the virtualisation audio through the Arc’s 2 upward firing speakers.

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9 replies

  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • December 31, 2020

How are you playing the test tone file? If the height tones are coming out of your surround speakers, you are probably not getting Dolby Atmos audio. While the test tone file is playing, what audio does the Sonos app say you are getting?


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • December 31, 2020

How are you playing the test tone file? If the height tones are coming out of your surround speakers, you are probably not getting Dolby Atmos audio. While the test tone file is playing, what audio does the Sonos app say you are getting?

I have the file on a USB stick and when I play it SONOS app does show DOLBY ATMOS.


Ken_Griffiths

How are you playing the test tone file? If the height tones are coming out of your surround speakers, you are probably not getting Dolby Atmos audio. While the test tone file is playing, what audio does the Sonos app say you are getting?

I have the file on a USB stick and when I play it SONOS app does show DOLBY ATMOS.

What player/software are you using to play the file?


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • December 31, 2020

How are you playing the test tone file? If the height tones are coming out of your surround speakers, you are probably not getting Dolby Atmos audio. While the test tone file is playing, what audio does the Sonos app say you are getting?

I have the file on a USB stick and when I play it SONOS app does show DOLBY ATMOS.

What player/software are you using to play the file?

I play it using the built in TV’s player


Ken_Griffiths

How are you playing the test tone file? If the height tones are coming out of your surround speakers, you are probably not getting Dolby Atmos audio. While the test tone file is playing, what audio does the Sonos app say you are getting?

I have the file on a USB stick and when I play it SONOS app does show DOLBY ATMOS.

What player/software are you using to play the file?

I play it using the built in TV’s player

Which TV model? - because some software/players may downmix the atmos audio to the rear channels. I’ve seen this mentioned (elsewhere) on the forum previously - I would certainly try a different player - I suspect that will ‘likely’ be the reason for the issue.


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • December 31, 2020

Its in my 1st post -Samsung QE65Q8FAM


Ken_Griffiths

Its in my 1st post -Samsung QE65Q8FAM

Sorry I missed that - I know the LG C9 TV A/V in-built player doesn’t support Atmos and downmixes the audio to DD5.1. I would perhaps try several audio files to see if you get Atmos via the Samsung App and perhaps speak with Samsung support just to be sure the player/tv/connected-port supports the Atmos codec you’re using, then perhaps contact Sonos Customer Care via this LINK.
 

Admittedly it’s unusual if your ‘About my System” device list/Arc "Audio In" is showing ‘Dolby Atmos’ that should mean the metadata in the codec audio is present and I’d expect it to be interpreted correctly and provide the virtualisation audio through the Arc’s 2 upward firing speakers.


@yazoo FYI, I played the 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos test tones from a Dolby Atmos demo Blu-ray disc. When the height channel tones played, no audio played out of my rear Play:1s.