Avid Contributor I

Sonos Playbar 2 with HDMI and other additional features

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
February 7, 2014
43 replies
54826 views

I completely understand the problem to add DTS re-coding to the current Playbar due to the fact
of introducing audio delay. And since the Sonos Playbar is only
responsible for audio, this delay can't be added for video as well.

Therefore, I would like Sonos to make a Sonos Playbar 2 or Sonos PlaybarHDMI which takes care about audio and video. DTS and other sound formats could be easily re-coded into a supported audio format and the audio/video sync could be kept.

But it could also address other improvement possibilities:
- Display "Volume" onscreen
- Support IR remote controls (and others as well) to adjust night mode and speech enhancement
- Multiple HDMI inputs / HDMI switch
- Display currently played music (while not in TV mode)
- Possibility to steer music with basic controls via IR (Play/Pause, Next track, Previous track, radio stations)
- Possibility to add two front channels (Playbar + 4x Play:1 + Sub)
- Possibility to increase width of Playbar to fit it to the size of the TV

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User362631

Lyricist III

+1
Sonos please reconsider this! Else a lot of Sonos Costumers have to look for alternatives that are not from sonos ... Also a lot of people are searching for one solution and not for a mix, the playbar is not sufficient for a full home cinema solution.
In my mind are two options: lower the price of the playbar (it's mainly a stereo sound solution) or make a playbar 2 :)

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User999501

Lyricist II

I don't believe that the current playbar does not support DTS due to delaying issues. Sonos is not implementing the DTS support only not to have to pay DTS licenses... Sonos thinks that DTS is currently not essential for the playbar. They will probably support it in the future...

Idea of playbar2 to get only dts support is not fair! I paid over 600€ for the playbar and it is fair to expect that sonos enables it in the current version.

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User362631

Lyricist III

I read a bit over the playbar and the sound formats. I'm not sure but I think there is missing a chip in the playbar for using dts. Also the toslink needs more bandwidth to support things like dolby digital plus ... so I'm not sure if the playbar 1 ever will get an update to support directly 5.1 or more (expect dolby digital 5.1) ...

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User999501

Lyricist II

I don't believe that the current playbar does not support DTS due to delaying issues. Sonos is not implementing the DTS support only not to have to pay DTS licenses... Sonos thinks that DTS is currently not essential for the playbar. They will probably support it in the future...

Idea of playbar2 to get only dts support is not fair! I paid over 600€ for the playbar and it is fair to expect that sonos enables it in the current version.

Playbar cannot and will not be able to support dd+ due to the limitation of the tos link it is using. However, there is no need for a special chip to decode either dd, dts, dd+ or dts+, as the decoding can be done in software...

So, if sonos pays the license fees, play 1 can support at least the dts 😉

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User685213

Lyricist III

Is a new playbar to be expected in 2015? I am willing to wait a couple of months because I really like the ease of use of the Sonos sytem, but the current issues (DTS etc) stops me from buying the current version. If it takes too long I'll have to look for something else.

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User362631

Lyricist III

me too ... if there are no plans for 2015 I will choose a solution with an soundbar with hdmi.

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User685213

Lyricist III

Is a new playbar to be expected in 2015? I am willing to wait a couple of months because I really like the ease of use of the Sonos sytem, but the current issues (DTS etc) stops me from buying the current version. If it takes too long I'll have to look for something else.

Another soundbar with the necessary dolby support can be bought around $350. The only problem is that you'll have two systems. The whole point about using Sonos is, that I do not want two systems. I am certainly not going to spend $1500 on an already outdated system.

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User362631

Lyricist III

Is a new playbar to be expected in 2015? I am willing to wait a couple of months because I really like the ease of use of the Sonos sytem, but the current issues (DTS etc) stops me from buying the current version. If it takes too long I'll have to look for something else.

There are solutions of multi room streaming with an playbar with hdmi, just take a look to the sonos competitors (especially the new ones). You'll get one system for all. So now it's sonos turn to announce that we will deliver a complete system ...

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Ron_13

Contributor I

I would believed that using the optical cable for audio is still the best option rather adopting a hdmi approach. I have blue ray player, playstation and an apple tv occupying 3/4 of my tv hdmi ports and keeping the last port for some other device. Best if SONOS could support more audio formats. The grill cloth collects dusts pretty easily and it is difficult to clean and it is non changable.

or buy a spdif splitter, to have direct feed from blue ray, or any optical out audio device, works great , only downside is that you have to manual switch from 1 to other device.

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CosmoNerd

Enthusiast II

I have no insights to their plans, but if Sonos should release anything new to accommodate to those and similar needs, it should be a modular IO/Unit, maybe Sonos:IO?

HDMI Input
Analog Input
Optical Out
DAC with 24bit support
ROM to store on-demand licensing (AirPlay encryption key/license, DTS, etc)
2 port Gigabit Switch

This essentially requires a new AMP/Processor.

At the same time, there are plenty solutions out there to accommodate to that, called AVR or Pre/Pro Amps. The key stipulation would be a TOSLINK output to connect the Playbar directly and all the above would be taken care of (except OSD function). Most AVR manufactures offer Bluetooth and AirPlay modules (inbuilt or as accessory).

If we take Sonos:AMP as reference point a new component would likely range above the price of the Playbar.

Guess the question is if Sonos customer would be 'cool' with an additional $700+ device?

Thoughts?

-Cheers

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