Sonos with Yamaha receiver and streaming from laptop

What kind of audio signal are you sending to the Yamaha? I’ve never seem a receiver with an HDMI-ARC port, that’s fascinating, but you have to have a Dolby Digital signal coming out. I’ve not read the manual, but I doubt the receiver is transcoding, so I’m betting your laptop is sending a DTS or Dolby Digital Plus, or even a Dolby Atmos signal to the receiver, which should be reflecting that back out to the Beam. And the Beam can’t interpret any of those kinds of signals.

It is certainly worth reading the manual to see if that receiver has the ability to transcode, if it does, the signal going out needs to be a Dolby Digital signal. However, there’s always the potential that transcoding can take time, and delay these audio signals, so the earlier you can set the Dolby Digital signal, the better, i.e. in whatever software you’re using on your PC.

Bruce,

Thanks for the help. I must admit though, most of what you’re saying sounds like it is written in a foreign language. I have no idea what type of audio signal I’m sending the receiver. I have an HDMI cord that goes from my laptop to my receiver. The HDMI ARC port is an output on the receiver. You can see it on pg. 15 here: https://usa.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/3/1188333/web_AV17-0350_TSR-7850_om_U_En_D0.pdf

How do I know if I have a Dolby Digital signal coming out?

How do I know if my laptop is transmitting a DTS, Dolby Digital Plus, or Dolby Atmos signal to the receiver? It’s a Dell Latitude 7490.

How can I convert the signal to something the Beam can interpret? Surely people stream from their laptops and project using a projector and use Sonos for the sound, right?

You’re not mentioning how you’ve connected your equipment. Did you connect the Beam to the the HDMI-ARC and the projector to the HDMI not labelled ARC on the Yamaha and did you set up the Amp as surround?

Actually, great question. I’d made certain assumptions about the connections based on the way I’d have done it. 

@106rallye Yes, I have my laptop connect to the Yamaha receiver providing picture and sound input via an HDMI cord. Then the receiver should route the picture to my LG projector via an HDMI cord and then sound to my Sonos Beam via an HDMI ARC cord. I’ve tried plugging the HDMI ARC cord into the optical adapter and into the optical audio output on the Yamaha receiver as well as into the output HDMI ARC slot. Neither work. I’ve tried moving the projector HDMI cord into both HDMI output slots as well (even though the projector cord is not HDMI ARC). The cord going from my laptop to the receiver is not HDMI either. If I need to buy another HDMI ARC cord to solve this, then that would be easy. Any advice?

Also, yes the Amp is surround and has the built in ceiling speakers. It’s connected to the Beam so it’s all one unit.

I’m wondering if there is something in the setup of the receiver that requires turning on to get either the HDMI-ARC or optical output to work. You would need to double check the manual for the receiver. 
If you have a TV set that has HDMI-ARC, it would really be nice to put that in play for testing, rather than trying to go through the amplifier. We’re currently troubleshooting three variables, the PC output, the amplifier pass through, and the Beam’s functionality. Being able to deal with one at a time would be helpful.

As a side note, you’re aware that the Beam is not a center speaker, correct? It is the three front speakers in a single enclosure. If you are indeed sending a Dolby Digital signal to it, all three channels come from it. The Beam isn’t capable of playing just a single center channel. 

I’ve never seen a setup that would work to send wired surrounds connected to the receiver, and the three front channels through the HDMI-ARC. Sonos certainly doesn’t support such a setup. In order to have surrounds with a Sonos sound bar, it is required to have either a Sonos Amp or a pair of Sonos speakers bonded to the sound bar. 

I suspect that your receiver can’t separate the front signals to send to the HDMI-ARC, and the surround information to the wired surrounds. 

Normally an HDMI port is input or output, not both. ARC (Audio Return Channel) is designed to accept an audio signal from a display APP. Unless the projector has APP’s (such as NETFLIX), ARC is not applicable to this system. 

In this system an “audio extractor” should be inserted between the receiver’s HDMI output and the projector. The extractor will provide an optical connection for BEAM. BEAM would be set for “Autoplay” -- allowing BEAM to automatically switch to the HDMI audio whenever it starts.

While I don’t have any specific product recommendation, here is a link that you can use to start your search. These are more or less generic products.

My wired surrounds are fed through the Sonos amp so I’m good there.

When I right click on my laptop speaker icon in the bottom right corner, it looks like it has the ability to output Stereo, 5.1, and 7.1 and then it looks like Dolby Atmos for Home Theater would be an option but it’s greyed out and I can’t click on it.

I feel like I’ve tried every combination of my Sonos Beam HDMI cable in the ARC and non-ARC ports, the optical port using the converter, the projector HDMI cable in both the ARC and non-ARC. I’ve tried the settings in the Yamaha receiver set to decode Dolby Surround, DTS Neural, DTS Neo, and auto and none of them make the Sonos produce sound. I’ve tried each of these settings with the ARC function turned on and off in the Yamaha receiver’s options. The laptop can only be fed to one spot (the HDMI input port). I’ve tested it with a TV and a high speed ARC cable and it produces both sound and video through a Tv. So I’m at a loss here. I feel like I’ve tried every permutation with the projector, receiver, Sonos, laptop setup but I must be missing some equipment or something...