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Sonos soundbars - can we expect to have soon a device with 4k passthrough?

A

hi all!

First of all, I’m new to the Sonos community. Love the Sonos Ones I have in some rooms, great sound and (user) experience overall.

Its a bit of a pitty to understand that the soundbars are not offering so far video passthrough, which is required to extend the compatibility to budget “friendlier” 4K projectors.

Is there any hope to see a soundbar adding a video passthrough? (its a shame to read suggestions to buy a splitter no matter which brand - it just adds another device and more cabling which is not nice).

Overall - there is a huge community of “home cinema enthusiast” that is left behind with this.

 

thks in advance,

Andres.

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Best answer by ratty 3 August 2023, 22:24

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10 replies

jgatie

Sonos almost never reveals what is in the pipeline.  Though there is no history of offering video pass through, Sonos soundbars are exclusively HDMI-ARC or optical so far.

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Sonos has never been much good for PJs due to the huge amount of wiring often required (two runs the depth of the room) and the often terrible audio outputs made available on many. Video pass-through is a challenge to get right (see the HDMI trouble so many receivers had when the Xbox Series / PS5 came out) and HDMI 2.1 itself remains a mess frankly (for video).

Arc and eARC are ubiquitous on TVs these days, unless Sonos offer a true 7.1 experience (which makes moresens for PJ use) I doubt they would do the work to support video pass-through.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
ratty

Get one of these. https://www.hdfury.uk/product/hdfury-arcana/

Not that much more cabling, in the grand scheme of things. 

A

Thanks for your replies so far.

@jgatie: indeed, its what I needed to discover through readings in the last days. 

@controlav: thats why I mention “passthrough”. You require only one run of HDMI, thats it. HDMI 2.1 being a mess its interesting to hear, I havent read so much yet on it - in my experience (so far) all is working as expected, I use an apple TV 4k and an amazon 4k through a HDMI in 4k to my projector and works great.

@Ratty: yes Im aware of the hdfury, also there is one from Feintech and one from Orei. But, defeats a bit the purpose to purchase a high-end bar that is nice looking and sleak , by putting such a device in between (not to mention to pay ~200 usd for a feature that other bars add as default).

 

 

melvimbe

Thanks for your replies so far.

@jgatie: indeed, its what I needed to discover through readings in the last days. 

@controlav: thats why I mention “passthrough”. You require only one run of HDMI, thats it. HDMI 2.1 being a mess its interesting to hear, I havent read so much yet on it - in my experience (so far) all is working as expected, I use an apple TV 4k and an amazon 4k through a HDMI in 4k to my projector and works great.

@Ratty: yes Im aware of the hdfury, also there is one from Feintech and one from Orei. But, defeats a bit the purpose to purchase a high-end bar that is nice looking and sleak , by putting such a device in between (not to mention to pay ~200 usd for a feature that other bars add as default).

 

Thanks for your replies so far.

@jgatie: indeed, its what I needed to discover through readings in the last days. 

@controlav: thats why I mention “passthrough”. You require only one run of HDMI, thats it. HDMI 2.1 being a mess its interesting to hear, I havent read so much yet on it - in my experience (so far) all is working as expected, I use an apple TV 4k and an amazon 4k through a HDMI in 4k to my projector and works great.

@Ratty: yes Im aware of the hdfury, also there is one from Feintech and one from Orei. But, defeats a bit the purpose to purchase a high-end bar that is nice looking and sleak , by putting such a device in between (not to mention to pay ~200 usd for a feature that other bars add as default).

 

 

I don’t think it’s really just a matter of adding a passthrough, as if it’s nothing but hardware.  Such a feature would require that the soundbar has EDID functionality so that it can determine the quality of video your TV or projector can handle, as well as it’s own audio capabilities, and pass it back to the source device.  It has to be able to extract the audio from the HDMI input, which is probably not a big concern, but still be able to get HDMI ARC/eARC from the TV since TVs have smart apps and the user might prefer the TV for inputs.  All things that Sonos could obviously do, that most TVs and some PJs already do.

Speaking of inputs, 1 input likely won’t be enough for many people, so they will ask for more, so they don’t have to get a separate HDMI switch.  Which means Sonos has to incorporate multiple HDMI inputs and probably add a remote and hard buttons to control the switching, etc.  Again, Sonos could obviously do this, just like other manufacturers, but it’s duplication of what.

 

Personally, I don’t quite understand the desire to use a soundbar with a projector.   Most projectors are mounted to the ceiling, or high on the back wall, so you are already going to have to deal with power wires and HDMI to your sources devices.  If you want audio in the front, you will have to some cable from the projector to the front, either HDMI or speaker wire, and I don’t know why having multiple HDMI would be worse than 1.  And a large screen can help hide wires and speakers, which is the big motivation for soundbars to begin with.  There are exceptions of course, but in general it just seems like your mixing complex video with ease of use audio.

Danny
A

Appreciate your elaboration but I don’t agree / the soundbar should be versatile, and not dictate my use case. There are other manufacturers that offer it with video pass through and works great. I just want to stick to Sonos, that’s all the point.
 

 

A

PS: just to further clarify- I have my projector on the ceiling , and provisioned for it electricity and a good quality hdmi cable. My use case is to have a bluray player in the front , so no cabling needed for front speakers. And the rear speakers using the wireless Sonos Ones, so no cabling in the back other than electricity.

Airgetlam

So your plan/ desire isn’t to use ARC or eARC? And only use the Blu-ray player as a source, nothing else?

Bruce
ratty

PS: just to further clarify- I have my projector on the ceiling , and provisioned for it electricity and a good quality hdmi cable. My use case is to have a bluray player in the front , so no cabling needed for front speakers. And the rear speakers using the wireless Sonos Ones, so no cabling in the back other than electricity.

Well nothing is likely to change on the Sonos front. And if it ever did it would be way in the future. So assuming you want a solution near term you’ll need an adapter of the type already discussed. 

A

@airgetlam: exactly - yes no ARC required. Sources I want to use: Blu-ray player, Apple TV, Fire Stick.

@ratty: seems so. Or take a different brand and keep my two Sonos Ones just for ambient music (which would be a pitty not to use as surround).


 

 

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