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rossveitch_2
Contributor I
November 9, 2019

Sonos Playbar + NVIDIA Shield TV Pro 2019 = Dolby Digital 5.1 from Plex / Netflix / Prime Video / Kodi apps

  • November 9, 2019
  • 23 replies
  • 14615 views

[ X-posted from /r/sonos forum on Reddit ]

 

I'm a long suffering Sonos Playbar owner who has wasted a lot of time and money trying to get 5.1 surround sound working from my Nvidia Shield TV 2015 edition. From the number of posts on the Sonos and Nvidia user forums I'm clearly not alone.

Last week I picked up the new Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019 and I'm happy to report that the Sonos is now seeing DD 5.1 from all of the sources I mentioned above. This is confirmed both by my ears but also via the Sonos mobile app > System > About My System > Playbar TV > "Audio In: Dolby Digital 5.1"

My hardware setup: Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019 : HDMI Out --> HDMI In : Samsung TV UA65F9000AKXXS : Optical Audio Out --> Optical Audio in : Sonos Playbar

The new Shield TV Pro 2019 has new audio settings that the old model didn't and it is handling the conversion of pretty much any surround sound format into whatever audio formats the connected device can support, which for the Playbar is just AC3 (Dolby Digital). For me this just worked out of the box for the Netflix and Prime Video apps and with a few audio settings changes for Plex and Kodi.

Shield TV > Settings > Device Preferences > Display & Sounds > Advanced Sound Controls > Available formats:

  • Auto: Use the formats your audio device reports supporting (recommended)

  • Manual: Select which formats to use

  • None: Never use surround sound

I'm using the default "Auto" selection but if you select manual then you can toggle these options:

  • Dolby Atmos

  • Dolby MAT

  • AC3 (Dolby Digital)

  • E-AC3 (Dolby Digital Plus/DD+)

  • DTS

  • DTS-HD

  • AAC

  • Dolby TrueHD

Source Android TV app audio settings:

  • Plex - Username > Settings > Advanced > Passthrough: HDMI

  • Netflix - defaults

  • Amazon Prime Video - defaults

  • Kodi - System > System > Audio > Audio Decoder > Number of channels: 5.1

  • Kodi - System > System > Audio > Audio Passthrough > Allow passthrough [On]

The new Shield TV remote is also able to control the volume on the Playbar via the IR blaster built in to the remote and the setup for that was also straight forward.

If the Nvidia marketing team happens to read this you would be well served by making all of the above explicit in your product marketing materials because elegantly handling conversion of surround sound formats is a significant USP for this device.

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    23 replies

    weycon
    Lyricist III
    November 22, 2019

    Dear rossveitch_2, thank you for this very interesting post.

    I have too a Shield Pro 2019 and a Sonos Beam with 2x Play 1 as surround and I confirm that it’s working perfectly and well supported as Dolby Digital 5.1 for NetFlix but unfortunately, under Plex, it’s working only with AC3 or E- AC3 movies.

    Any DTS movies are still converted as Stereo under the Sonos app and not Dolby Digital 5.1.

    This is not the case with Apple TV but with the Shield, any DTS movies are in Stereo and not Dolby Digital 5.1. grrrrrrrrr. I have well activated the HDMI pathrough on Plex, but no chance.

    If someone can help me, that would be grateful.

    Tnx.

    Angel_1
    Lyricist I
    November 29, 2019

    I’ve been waiting for a post like this for years. Thanks!!!!

      weycon
      Lyricist III
      December 2, 2019

      me too but still in stereo with Plex if movies are DTS encoded. 

      Bpzanghi
      Lyricist I
      December 5, 2019

      Absolutely would like to see this. I haven't been able to figure out the optimal solution here. 

      weycon
      Lyricist III
      December 5, 2019

      This would have to be fixed by Plex but I never found a fix on Plex’s forums…. If anyone can help us, that would be grate. 

      nmelnyk
      Lyricist I
      December 29, 2019

      I reverted back to using the settings I did on the Old Shield to force 5.1 on DTS using the settings from this thread:
      https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/help-getting-dolby-5-1-on-playbase-with-dts-audio-via-kodi-on-lgoled55c7v-6808053

      Followed the rest of whats on here and glad to see better 5.1 support over the Optical cable.

      Sphox
      Lyricist I
      January 30, 2020

      It doesn’t work too with Emby, DTS is converted to AC3 Stereo, sad…

      I keep my script which converts all my DTS media to AC3 5.1, thank you Sonos!

      AndyKnight
      Trending Lyricist I
      January 30, 2020

      Anybody know if the 2019 non pro model can do the same? 

      djfit
      Lyricist I
      February 18, 2020

      The 2019 non-pro does work with streaming.

      Using it as a chromecast doesn’t work though - the audio ends up being stereo and dialogue is hard to hear (tested with Disney+). The remote is nice though and so I probably won’t miss casting too much.

      Also, it syncs the audio better than a PS4. Lips were out of sync when we tried using the PS4 for streaming.

        Boomski17
        Contributor I
        February 19, 2020

        THANK YOU BABY JESUS!!! Im upgrading my 2015 Shield to a Pro this weekend!  Thanks for posting!  Has anyone tested it for the Goggle Play Movies app?  If it also works for that I’ll be in heaven. 

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