Contributor I

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Sonos with Yamaha receiver and streaming from laptop

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I have an LG projector and a Yamaha receiver, Sonos beam and sub, and wired in surround backs wired to my sonos amp. I typically stream stuff off my laptop through the yamaha receiver which then feeds the video to the projector. The receiver is a TSR-7850 and has an HDMI ARC. I can get picture going from my laptop to my projector but I can’t get corresponding sound through the receiver to my beam and subsequently throughout the surround sound sonos setup. What am I doing wrong?

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AirgetlamAnswer

Completely understand. ;)

There are two places I’d be looking at in your system. And I’m not near my Win10 machine to double check for accuracy, so I’ll be somewhat vague, and trust you to poke around and find these things and maybe learn where things are, and figure out where I am just some looney on the inter webs.

The first place is in the app you’re using to play the files. There should be somewhere in the app where you can control what kind of audio is being sent out.

The second place is in the Win 10 settings for either Audio or perhaps Video, where you are able to configure the output of the HDMI output, and define what kind of audio is included with the video stream.

Look around for those two settings. I think if the first works, you wouldn’t have to worry about the second...but only if that player app is the only one you ever use to play a video. The latter, being a full system setting, is more likely to help in future use.

Bruce

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mykasdAuthor

Contributor I

The thing that makes me more confused is that I have a 5.1 system up in my living room (all wired) and have all the speakers wired into the same type of Yamaha receiver in that room. I have an HDMI ARC cord going to my TV as my output and a regular HDMI cord going from my laptop to the Yamaha receiver as the input. I am getting full surround sound on all five speakers with the video playing on the Tv…

Is it something with Sonos?

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mykasdAuthor

Contributor I

Thanks @buzz ! Would this work as well? I had ordered this one yesterday thinking I might need to try having both the beam and the projector in one end and the other going into the projector’s HDMI out (non-ARC). https://www.amazon.com/HDMI-Switch-4K-Splitter-Bi-Directional/dp/B079JQ9XXV/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=HDMI+Switch+4K+HDMI+Splitter+techole&qid=1583080979&s=electronics&sr=1-3

buzz

Grand Maestro

Don’t attempt create a surround system that has speakers driven by both YAMAHA and SONOS components. The surround system must be one or the other. If you attempt to piece together a combined system, you’ll be trading one frustration with another.

You could use the YAMAHA as an input selector without attaching speakers, or you could use the YAMAHA to drive speakers in another room or out in the garden.

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mykasdAuthor

Contributor I

@buzz right now I’m trying to use Yamaha as the input selector. All my speakers are run through the Sonos, which only has one connection point via the Beam to the Yamaha. The HDMI output is to the projector for picture (non-ARC HDMI output) and the HDMI input is via an HDMI cord from my laptop and should be producing video and audio for the Yamaha receiver. The question is, how do I get the Yamaha receiver to transmit the audio to the Beam and the picture to the projector? I have picture, so that works. And I have the option to do the Beam via an HDMI cord (ARC-compatible) or the optical adapter for the HDMI cord. No other speaker wires are attached to the Yamaha receiver. In fact, no other cords are attached to the receiver except for the HDMI output to the projector, the HDMI input from the laptop and the Beam, however I determine that it should be connected.

Why isn’t the Yamaha transmitting audio to the Beam?

buzz

Grand Maestro

Why isn’t the Yamaha transmitting audio to the Beam?

In addition to video and audio information there is two way communication between the HDMI source and the “sink” (display). When you connect the YAMAHA HDMI output directly to BEAM, the YAMAHA is asking “what kind of display are you?” Since BEAM is not a display it cannot answer the question and the YAMAHA shuts down that output.

The audio extractor sitting between the YAMAHA and the projector answers the YAMAHA’s question and extracts audio for BEAM.

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mykasdAuthor

Contributor I

@buzz this makes sense if your only option is Yamaha’s HDMI output but what if you use the optical output? Doesn’t Yamaha expect that to be audio?

Either way, I’ve ordered the extractor and will report back in a few days to update on how that works!

buzz

Grand Maestro

That YAMAHA does not offer any digital outputs. Attempting to use the YAMAHA’s analog outputs in this application will be very frustrating.

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mykasdAuthor

Contributor I

Ok, my frustration with Sonos “easy” set up system continues to mount. I purchased the below audio extractor from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082KW5MXS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And tried setting it up with the Yamaha receiver and Sonos sound bar using every configuration possible (I used the HDMI to optical converter with the Beam and plugged the projector into the extractor as well) with the other end going to the HDMI output on the Yamaha receiver (tried both ARC and non-ARC slots). I even tried using a splitter in addition to the extractor so I wouldn’t have to use the optical converter on the Beam HDMI cable. Can anyone help? If I can’t use the Yamaha receiver, that’s fine, I just want my Sonos set up to work as the audio for my projector. If I’m at an impasse, then I will just have to return the Sonos and go with wired speakers which I don’t want to do.

melvimbe

A couple points to make.

First, forget about using ARC in the scenario. As Buzz pointed out ARC is useful in connecting a display device to an audio player device. You can’t use ARC to connect two audio player devices together, which both your Yamaha and Beam are. The ARC ports on these devices are both tehcnically HDMI outputs, which might be hard to understand, but mention it just to illustrate why connecting the two together like that won’t work. Since it does help you in this situation, all you really need to know is that it doesn’t help you in this situation.

Second, you said you are using the yamaha receiver to switch inputs, but you’ve only mentioned one input, the laptop. Do you have others? If not, the Yamaha receiver isn’t useful in your situation, just connect the laptop to the splitter you already bought. If you do have more than one source, then you can replace it with a HDMI switch with 2 or more inputs, and HDMI output + optical output. I’m not saying you can’t use the Yamaha in your setup, but you aren’t using it as it’s designed to be used, and you’re introducing more ‘points of failure’ with it’s inclusion.

If you remove the Yamaha from the equation, then the issue could be that your laptop isn’t sending audio in PCM stereo or dolby digital. It looks like you already know where to check that. The other end would be the Beam and making sure that’s setup correctly.

Danny

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mykasdAuthor

Contributor I

@melvimbe how do you get your laptop to send a signal in PCM stereo or DD? It looks like it’s only sending in stereo.

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