Sonos Playbar sound issue? Dialogues in movies/shows are not easy to understand fully.

Sonos Team,

I am a new customer to Sonos. I love the way the music sounds, but as everyone else on this thread has already said, including my wife who complains to me every night about this issue, the TV/Netflix/Movie dialogue is terrible. This issue needs to be resolved. I am surprised that it's been 5 months since the first post and there still isn't a solution in place?

This particular issue is making one of our favorite past times a pain. One of the main reasons we purchased Sonos was to enhance our movie/TV audio experience, not make it worse. I expected more out of a $700 speaker to say the least.

Regards,
Andrew - TX

Exactly same issue, i am considering selling and buying a different soundbar

Hello there, Dson. Thanks for posting and welcome to the Community. What exactly are you experiencing? The post you quoted, explains the frustrations of another user about audio quality from their TV. If you'd like I would be happy to take a preliminary look at a diagnostic report. Be sure to submit the report when experiencing the problem, this makes the errors much easier to find in the logs.

Additionally, please reply with the confirmation number it gives at the end. Much appreciated.

Hi Sonos, I have had the same issue with voice sound. When we are watching TV, we have constant difficulty understanding audio re what people are saying…. We too sit there with the remote in hand constantly having to turn up to hear voice and then turn down re background sounds so as not to wake the kids. Definitely not what we signed up for. We have read all the previous posts and I must say for a premium product to only offer telephone support during business hours is not very helpful…

My wife spent 2 hours on the phone with support last Thursday only to be told that Sonos is only as good as the device sending the sound – not very helpful, thanks. Both devices were purchased at the same time and the TV is a Samsung 48” Smarf Full HD 3D LED. Can you please assist with a resolution to this problem as we’re at the point of throwing out the Playbar and buying something else – just os we can hear what people are saying on TV…. Crazy after spending $1,000 on a supposedly top notch speaker.

Background is:
Sonos Playbar purchased Dec-14 (issues has been the same since day 1)
Samsung TV UA48H6400 specs https://www.comx.co.za/SAMSUNG-UA48H6400-specifications-92695.htm
Sonos Diagnostic Info submitted today: 8475017

Your assistance would be much appreciated.

Hi there, AdrianSyd. Thanks for posting and for the diagnostic report. It seems the PLAYBAR is not getting a signal at all from the TV. When you submitted this report were you experiencing the problem? If so, I would check your TV Audio settings to determine what the PLAYBAR should be receiving. Thanks!

Keith, does the diagnostic need to be done whilst the Playbar is in use?

I'll answer. Basically yes. Or at least within 10 or 15 minutes of the problem. There's only so much data that can be included in the diagnostic, I think that 15 minutes of data is included. He'd be looking through that file to see what information the PLAYBAR is receiving (or not), or if there's a error code popping up from somewhere else. But if it's not while the PLAYBAR is in use, then there won't be any data from the PLAYBAR for him to look at 🙂

Thanks Bruce.

You're most welcome. My guess is that Keith's already working on some other issue, and rather than have you wait, since I knew the answer....:)

Keith the new diagnostic confirmation number is: 8495431. The sound on this show is ok but there’s a lag between the pictures and the sound. Thanks.

Thanks, AdrianSyd. When it comes to lag, the thing to focus on is signal processing and signal flow. Let's first gather some details on where the signal is "coming from". Are you watching a Blu-Ray Movie or is this normal TV audio?

If the signal is coming from a cable box (or any external source, for that matter) to the TV, the TV has to read/process the signal and then send that audio to the PLAYBAR for playback. This is usually where the "lag" or "delay" is introduced. We have to wait for the signal to be relayed through the TV to the PLAYBAR pushing the audio signal milliseconds from the video signal being displayed on your TV. This can be tested by plugging the PLAYBAR directly into the cable box. This puts the PLAYBAR as "close" to the source of the signal as possible and may fix the lag. Additionally, there may be some settings on the TV that can be changed to address this, however, I haven't seen too many TV's that can delay video to match the audio output.