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ttt1111
Contributor I
July 3, 2018
Answered

Sonos Beam - how to get Netflix 5.1?

I'm looking to add the Sonos Beam to my two Sonos Ones in order to get a surround sound while watching Netflix. It doesn't look like any of the current streaming devices (Chromecast, Roku, Amazon, my Sony x720E TV) allow me to do that, as they output DD+ and the Beam only accepts DD.

To me, this seems like such a basic use case for this device. Do any of you have a suggestion how I could make it work?

Happy to buy the Beam today, but need to know that I can use it for the advertised use case 🙂
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    Paulw123
    Paulw123Answer
    Virtuoso
    July 4, 2018
    Ryan says your tv will downgrade DD+ to DD with hdmi handshake?
    From beam thread:-
    "The Beam will play stereo PCM, multiple channels beyond that won't be played. With HDMI-ARC, a handshake with your TV will assure that Dolby Digital 5.1 is sent for the best sound when your source is in Dolby Digital Plus or Dolby Atmos."
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    32 replies

    Wildantics
    Avid Contributor III
    July 4, 2018
    Xbox one or apple TV 4k allow you to force Dolby digital essentially and it works great with the other products so I see no reason it won't work with the beam.
    Paulw123
    Paulw123Answer
    Virtuoso
    July 4, 2018
    Ryan says your tv will downgrade DD+ to DD with hdmi handshake?
    From beam thread:-
    "The Beam will play stereo PCM, multiple channels beyond that won't be played. With HDMI-ARC, a handshake with your TV will assure that Dolby Digital 5.1 is sent for the best sound when your source is in Dolby Digital Plus or Dolby Atmos."
      ttt1111Author
      Contributor I
      July 9, 2018
      Ryan says your tv will downgrade DD+ to DD with hdmi handshake?
      From beam thread:-
      "The Beam will play stereo PCM, multiple channels beyond that won't be played. With HDMI-ARC, a handshake with your TV will assure that Dolby Digital 5.1 is sent for the best sound when your source is in Dolby Digital Plus or Dolby Atmos."       Thank you very much, that sounds promising! Will buy it on the 17th, test it and report back here.
      sicLotus
      Lyricist I
      November 24, 2018
      Ryan says your tv will downgrade DD+ to DD with hdmi handshake?
      From beam thread:-
      "The Beam will play stereo PCM, multiple channels beyond that won't be played. With HDMI-ARC, a handshake with your TV will assure that Dolby Digital 5.1 is sent for the best sound when your source is in Dolby Digital Plus or Dolby Atmos."       Thank you very much, that sounds promising! Will buy it on the 17th, test it and report back here.

      so how it went?
      sinetwo
      Contributor I
      November 25, 2018
      Yeah, how did it go? I'm cocnered you will be losing up to 10x the audio information on the transcoding of DD+ to DD
      vazandrew
      Enthusiast I
      November 25, 2018
      It works just fine for DD+ as well as TrueHD and Atmos.
        rubaflo
        Lyricist III
        November 27, 2018
        This does not work if using Roku Ultra 4K, for Netflix or any other streaming service - very disappointing
        vazandrew
        Enthusiast I
        November 27, 2018
        You will need to ensure all settings are correct, and if optical it may not work (especially if the TV doesn't support 5.1 passthrough)
        rubaflo
        Lyricist III
        November 27, 2018
        You will need to ensure all settings are correct, and if optical it may not work (especially if the TV doesn't support 5.1 passthrough)

        Yes, that is the issue - Samsung TV does not pass through 5.1. So forced to use an HDMI switch in order to get surround sound from DirectTV cable box & Plex (have movies in personal library that are DD) but unfortunately all other streaming services come out as PCM since they are in DD+ and a switch doesn't convert audio before passing along. There are also a lot of other issues that have been brought up in relying on TV to transcode audio and pass to Sonos. (https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/if-you-re-experiencing-audio-delay-issues-read-this-6793458/index11.html#post16287855)
        vazandrew
        Enthusiast I
        November 27, 2018
        So that would be an issue with the TV, and the switch not the Beam. It is working just fine on my system. If it is DD+ True HD or Atmos it does not have to transcode and are simply being down mixed. If it was a DTS signal that would be different.
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