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Sonos Beam sound disconnect intermittently from TV

  • 29 February 2020
  • 10 replies
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F

I have a 3.1 (Beam + Play:1 x2) setup connected to a Hisense H9 (Q9) Android TV via HDMI ARC. 

Sound from Sonos setup randomly disconnect from TV for a few seconds and reconnect itself. The sound would switch from Sonos to TV speaker, volume bar appears on TV, sometimes it also changes volume.

I’ve tried switching HDMI cables, factory reset TV, unplug Sonos setup as well as factory reset it. None of them seem to work. 

In addition, Amazon Prime video playback also stops randomly and display “Copy Protection Error”, not sure if it’s related to the sound problem.

DIagnositcs report: 1407905837.

Thanks!

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Best answer by Anonymous 7 March 2020, 00:56

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10 replies

A

@FuelPump Welcome to the Sonos Community and thank you for bringing your concern with your setup to us here. Please confirm for us if you are having the same audio issue on your Beam when playing a streaming music service. Please know that we do not recommend a factory reset as the first troubleshooting step unless directed to do them from us on a phone call, email or posted steps to take.

The report you have supplied shows us that your Playbar has not been factory reset or re-booted in over 2+ months.  Please take these steps:

  1. Power off/on your TV from an outlet for 15 seconds.
  2. As the TV re-boots then power off/on your Sonos products for 15 seconds with no lights.
  3. As they power back on the re-boot the device(s) running the Sonos app.

When you are re-booted and connected back to your Sonos system please test the TV and streaming music audio. You can then reply here with the testing results and new diagnostic report and report number.

What you are describing sounds like an issue with the TV’s settings or firmware. Also, it could be an issue with the TV’s CEC functionality or the HDMI Arc port itself. If the issue continues after the above testing then use the supplied Songle with your Beam and use the optical out from the TV to the Beam. Confirm the above steps with TV and streaming music to see if the issue continues when using the Songle adapter.

F

@John G Hi John, thanks for the quick response, I have performed a system reboot following the method you provided. Here is my latest diagnostic: 906775238. I also changed my 2.4G wifi band to channel 1 - 2.412 GHz. 

Hope you could help me locate the problem, thanks in advance.

A

What you are describing sounds like an issue with the TV’s settings or firmware. Also, it could be an issue with the TV’s CEC functionality or the HDMI Arc port itself. If the issue continues after the above testing then use the supplied Songle with your Beam and use the optical out from the TV to the Beam. Confirm the above steps with TV and streaming music to see if the issue continues when using the Songle adapter.

@FuelPump Thank you for the follow up information and the new diagnostic report. What were your testing results with these changes? I am not sure why you changed the wireless channel to channel 1. I see more than a few things running on that channel. If you want to change that setting, I would recommend wifi channel 6 or 11. If possible use Sonsonet by keeping the Beam as the Ethernet wired product of Sonos to the main router. You could then choose a Sonosnet channel of 6 or 11. I also see that something changed in the TV’s audio format from the two reports you had submitted. We can also see that you are still using the HDMI Arc cable and not the Songle that came with the Beam to test optical out from the TV. The audio signal changed from 5.1 Dolby to an unsupported format, which points towards the TV(firmware/software), the HDMI Arc port, the TV audio settings, the cable itself or the content being used to the TV.

Please swap out the HDMI Arc connection and use the Songle that came with the Beam and test using the TV’s optical out with the audio setting as PCM or Dolby to the Beam. After these tests, if the you are till having TV audio issues I would recommend that you call in and speak with a live agent for troubleshooting steps using this link. You will also want a new diagnostic report and report number showing the testing changes made.

If the issues do not persist this would point towards issues with the TV or its HDMI Arc port and you would want to reach out to your TV maker.

F

@John G Hummm, that’s strange. 

  1. I now changed my wifi 2.4G band to channel 6, since my main router is in the basement, I can’t hardwire my beam to the router, therefore changing Sonosnet is a no go for me.
  2. I double-checked my TV setting, audio format is currently set to Dolby Digital, there’s also PCM and DD Plus (which I don’t think Sonos supports it). 
  3. Due to the Hisense TV’s limitation (or firmware issue), TV speaker can’t be disabled even when an Optical output is connected, both TV speaker and Sonos will output audio. So sadly Optical isn’t an option either.
  4. When HDMI CEC is disabled, the TV won’t recognize ARC device, very odd, but again I think that’s a firmware issue. 

I created a new diagnostics:1068515300. Hopefully, there’s more story to tell.

A

@FuelPump Thank you for the feedback on the testing. I would strongly recommend that you go through the TV manual or reach out to the TV maker. You are not reporting any issues with a streaming music service with Sonos. This lets me know that the Beam is working properly. You are unable to test the optical connection to confirm this dose not happen when using the Songle. Can you mute the TV in this test to see if it happens with this configuration with the Songle? Your diagnostic reports are also showing that your TV is randomly changing the audio format that it is sending to Sonos. You want your TV audio out as either PCM or Dolby. You do not want to use auto, DTS or Bitstream or Digital Dolby Plus (DDPlus).

This sounds more like something with the TV’s CEC functionality or the HDMI Arc port on the TV.

Please try and test the optical connection with the TV speakers muted. If the issues do not repeat it would show that the HDMI Arc cable is good and that the issue lies in the TV itself.

F

@John G Thanks for the details, if the report shows my TV is randomly changing audio format then that kinda explained when the audio drops intermittently. The TV must be outputting an unstable audio signal stream to the Sonos setup via ARC. 

A

@FuelPump You’re very welcome. I understand it is not always a fun call to a TV manufacture or an ISP, but reach out to us with any further questions or troubleshooting needs.

Ken_Griffiths

Not sure if this may help here… but perhaps worth a try...

FuelPump,

i was just perusing the thread here and as the Beam is dropping it’s HDMI-ARC connection with the TV intermittently, that may sometimes point to another 3rd-party HDMI device, connected to the TV, that is perhaps fighting to take over the CEC control... it might explain too (perhaps) why the audio format may have changed in the recent diagnostic snapshot. 

So the two questions I briefly have here, are...

1. What other devices do you have connected over HDMI to the HiSense TV? 

2. Do any of those 3rd-party connected devices have HDMI-CEC enabled and can you switch off that communication protocol on those other devices temporarily, to test to see if any are stealing away the control (intermittently) from the Beam?

If you have several connected devices, you may have to test things over some hours and by switching off/on HDMI-CEC on each connected device to establish the culprit.

If a device does not allow it’s HDMI-CEC feature to be switched off (not all devices do) then note you can purchase a CEC-Less cable, or adapter, from online stores like Amazon to block the protocol (if that does become necessary).

Anyhow I hope the above suggestions help to find the cause of the Beams intermittent dropout issues and forgive me for interrupting the ongoing conversation here.👍

Airgetlam

Just as a side note, and perhaps not terribly helpful, there have been other reports of issues in these forums with Hisense TVs. 

Bruce
F

@Ken_Griffiths Thanks for the tips, atm Beam is the only device that is connected to the TV, I’m currently using UGREEN flat HDMI 2.0 cable, and I’ve also tried using Costco’s Sapphire cable, both exhibit the same issue. 

@Airgetlam Yeah, it seems that they have some audio issues with the firmware, found some threads on Reddit about others having identical issues with soundbars/receivers, all using ARC

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