Question

Sonos PlayBar Popping Noise with FF

  • 29 January 2016
  • 17 replies
  • 2836 views

My system constitutes a Sonos Playbar connected to a Sony XBR55X850C television. The audio connection is by an audio optical cable. The television is also connected to a TiVo. When pressing the fast forward command for the TiVo, a popping noise is produced by the PlayBar. I have tried searching the forum and have not found this issue, but I may have missed it. If anyone knows how to fix this I would appreciate a comment.


Otherwise, great sound from the PlayBar.

Thanks

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17 replies

Different TV but otherwise the same setup and issue.
Userlevel 7
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The pop is most likely being caused by the TiVo sending a partial burst of audio data to the PLAYBAR through the TV at the start of the FF. Does it happen with any other commands sent through the TV or TiVo?

Do you have any trouble with any other devices connected with the TV other than that TiVo?

@Shayughul, what TV do you have? Is it also conected with the TiVo?

If you don't have the PLAYBAR connected to the TV and are instead using the built in speakers do you hear the pop as well?
I have a Vizio M60-C3. I have the Tivo HDMI into the TV and the PLAYBAR connected to the TV with the optical cable.

I get a small click when I change channels. The 15 second skip forward or the normal Fast Forward when stopped is Very loud and very high pitched. Very much like a loud bird chirp.

When using only the TV speakers there is no chirp at all when using the fast forward or changing channels.
Userlevel 7
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Thanks for the details. Can you go into the TiVo settings and under audio set it to PCM? What was it on before hand?

Once you've made that change go ahead and test it out for us. Do you still hear those sounds?

Another setting you can test out, is set it back to AC3 or Dolby Digital and then turn off TiVo sounds. Let us know how it goes.
Well I didn't make it past step one. It was set to Dolby Audio. I changed it to PCM Only. I then tested and all the annoying beeps and chirps are gone. It looks like that was the fix.
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Well I didn't make it past step one. It was set to Dolby Audio. I changed it to PCM Only. I then tested and all the annoying beeps and chirps are gone. It looks like that was the fix.

Glad that worked. You may want to test out option 2 to see if that resolves the issue, that way you can leave Dolby on.
Went ahead and tried that. The sounds came back immediately. Looks like the Dolby is the culprit. Set to Dolby and turned off Tivo sounds and no luck. Changed it back to PCM and resolved again.
This fix worked for me as well. Changing sound to PCM. Thanks
This must be an incompatibilty with certain TV brands. I have a Tivo Premiere 4XL that I've been using with a 1 year-old LG LED tv and Playbar. This setup has worked perfectly. Today, I upgraded to a Vizio 4k TV and simply swapped the tvs. Immediately, I had an annoying popping feedback whenever I changed channels. (note that this was not a beep or tone of any kind - it was clearly feedback of some kind. After reading this message thread, I changed the Tivo settings from Dolby to PCM and the feedback went away. It worked fine on the Dolby setting with the LG tv.
I have an LG OLED TV, Tivo Romio and SONOS Playbar that were working great together, Swapped the Playbar out for a PlayBase, and now I get a loud POP every time I change the channel, and sometimes the audio drops all together. If I switch my Tivo to PCM, it works fine.
I'm having the same issue with a Playbase and 2 Play:1 rears. I have an older Vizio TV (model P50HDTV10A) with only 2 HDMI inputs and no optical audio out so I'm using a Monoprice HDMI 4x1 switch (model HDX-401TA), which has optical audio out, to connect my Tivo/cable box, Apple TV and Blu-ray player to my Sonos system. When I switch between cable channels I hear a crackling sound for about 1/2 a second, and sometimes a high pitch chirp. If I set my Tivo box audio settings to PCM, or set the audio output on my Monoprice switch to stereo instead of 5.1 the crackling/chirp goes away, but the sound quality is sacrificed. Is there anything else I can try in order to eliminate the crackling/chirp but keep the 5.1 audio input into the Playbase? Turning off Tivo sounds didn't help.
Userlevel 1
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Hello fonman99 and Eric_H, It seems like you two are having similar issues with the TiVo being the common piece connected to each of your Sonos systems.

@fonman99 Do you notice the issue with any other source device besides the TiVo? If you bypass the TV and wire the optical connection directly to the back of the TiVo do you still notice the problem when the audio output is set to Dolby Digital?

@Eric_H You mentioned other devices connected to the HDMI switch. Do you experience the odd behavior when playing back from your Apple TV or Blu-Ray player?

We'd like to get a closer look at your systems here. Can you both submit a diagnostic and let us know the confirmation number? Once we take a look at the logs, we should have a better idea of the problem.
@Chris F The issue only seems to occur when I'm changing channels on my TiVo/cable box. I don't ever seem to hear it when I'm using my Apple TV or blu-ray player. Switching the audio output to PCM stereo on my TiVo box, or to 2 ch stereo in my Monoprice switch eliminates the noise. I submitted diagnostics a few minutes ago. Number is 7370892.
Hi Eric_H, This sounds like an issue that would be best looked at live. Would you mind calling in to our support line for further troubleshooting? Our contact information can be found at this link. We've already set up a support ticket for you, so just let the technician know your email address when you call in.
I have the same problem. I have a gen 1 Playbar, Sub, and two built in speakers connected to a Vizio TV using Comcast Xfinity X1 box. Whenever I pause TV I get the popping noise.

It is set to Dolby 5.1 in the Xfinity menu. If I change it to stereo/PCM the popping stops.

That's great, but now I have no Dolby surround sound. Is there any way I can get surround sound with my setup and avoid popping noise?
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Hi PhillyGuy06,

If the PLAYBAR is connected to the TV, please try plugging it into the optical port Xfinity Box and let us know if you are still seeing the same issue.
Hi having a similar issue with PlayBar and surround (play 3’s and sub) with Samsung QLED and Sky TV.
Really loud pop/bang sporadically whilst on TV. Very annoying. Sounds like whenyou used to plug ina phono cable with the volume up. Help!!