Answered

Sonos with Yamaha receiver and streaming from laptop

  • 28 February 2020
  • 45 replies
  • 2060 views
Show first post
This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

45 replies

Airgetlam

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
Airgetlam

I’d still be testing using something other than the Shield. My suspicion is that the TV’s HDMI-CEC was forcing the Shield into Dolby Digital, which is something the switch would not be able to do. 

Bruce
M
Badge

I have the shield set to output only DD

Airgetlam

Ok, I’ll stop commenting then. Good luck!

Bruce
M
Badge

No, I appreciate any help I can get @Airgetlam ! Truly! I would try another input like a DVD player but I do not own one. The only other thing I can try is my laptop, which was one of the sources of error (potentially) to begin with at the start of this week.

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

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?

Airgetlam

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

Bruce
M
Badge

@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?

M
Badge

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.

Airgetlam

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. 

Bruce
buzz

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.

Airgetlam

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
M
Badge

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...

M
Badge

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?

M
Badge

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

M
Badge

Ok this is crazy, I think I’ve purchased every device I can to make this work and tried every combination.

I bought the Nvidia Shield (streaming device like Roku, Apple Tv, etc.) and have the HDMI cord from that going into an HDMI splitter. From the splitter, I have an HDMI cord going to my projector and another HDMI cord going to the Beam. This produces video but no sound.

I’ve also tried plugging the HDMI cord from the Shield into the extractor with the HDMI output from the extractor going to the projector and the optical output going to the Beam via the HDMI/optical adapter. This produces video but no sound.

I’ve also tried plugging the HDMI cord from the Shield into the extractor with the HDMI output from the extractor going to the HDMI splitter. From the splitter I have the HDMI cords going to the Beam and the projector. This produces video but no sound.

I’ve also tried the HDMI cord from the Shield into the splitter with one output going directly to the projector and the other output going to the extractor. From there I’ve tried plugging the Beam into the extractor’s HDMI output and the extractor’s optical output. Again, video but no sound.

I’ve also tried plugging the HDMI from the Shield into my Yamaha receiver and then using the splitters/extractors as outputs from the receiver, but this seems redundant and I can just cut the receiver out if I don’t need it. 

The extractor has settings for P, 2.0, and 5.1. I’ve tried each of these settings with each of the above configurations. Nothing seems to work. The Beam plays music from the Sonos app so I know it’s set up and working properly. I just don’t know why I can’t project and use sound.

melvimbe

Ok this is crazy, I think I’ve purchased every device I can to make this work and tried every combination.

I bought the Nvidia Shield (streaming device like Roku, Apple Tv, etc.) and have the HDMI cord from that going into an HDMI splitter. From the splitter, I have an HDMI cord going to my projector and another HDMI cord going to the Beam. This produces video but no sound.

 

 I wouldn’t expect this to work.

 

 

I’ve also tried plugging the HDMI cord from the Shield into the extractor with the HDMI output from the extractor going to the projector and the optical output going to the Beam via the HDMI/optical adapter. This produces video but no sound.

 

 

This should work.  Check to make sure the Beam is set to play from the TV source (using the Sonos app)  and not a streaming source.  You can also change the setting so that it automatically switches to TV audio when it turns on...but you may not have set that yet.

 

The other thing to check is that your Shield is set to PCM or DD audio.

 

I’ve also tried plugging the HDMI cord from the Shield into the extractor with the HDMI output from the extractor going to the HDMI splitter. From the splitter I have the HDMI cords going to the Beam and the projector. This produces video but no sound.

 

 

Sounds like your first setting.  That won’t work.

 

I’ve also tried the HDMI cord from the Shield into the splitter with one output going directly to the projector and the other output going to the extractor. From there I’ve tried plugging the Beam into the extractor’s HDMI output and the extractor’s optical output. Again, video but no sound.

 

 

Not following this one, but pretty sure it’s wrong.

 

I’ve also tried plugging the HDMI from the Shield into my Yamaha receiver and then using the splitters/extractors as outputs from the receiver, but this seems redundant and I can just cut the receiver out if I don’t need it. 

 

 

Correct, the Yamaha isn’t really doing anything for you here.

 

 

The extractor has settings for P, 2.0, and 5.1. I’ve tried each of these settings with each of the above configurations. Nothing seems to work. The Beam plays music from the Sonos app so I know it’s set up and working properly. I just don’t know why I can’t project and use sound.

 

I don’t know what ‘P’ means.  Perhaps PCM (stereo), but that’s also what 2.0 means.  Regardless, I doubt that’s the issue,   Check to make sure the Beam is set to play the TV source, and your Shield is sending PCM or Dolby Digital.

Danny
M
Badge

@melvimbe so I’ve tried setting up the Tv through the Sonos app and it gives me two options: (1) plug the HDMI cord into the ARC port or (2) use the optical cord. In either case, when I have these plugged in, the Sonos app does not recognize/find the audio and I cannot set up the Tv in the app. I will try to call Sonos tonight to get help directly but do you have any thoughts there?

melvimbe

@melvimbe so I’ve tried setting up the Tv through the Sonos app and it gives me two options: (1) plug the HDMI cord into the ARC port or (2) use the optical cord. In either case, when I have these plugged in, the Sonos app does not recognize/find the audio and I cannot set up the Tv in the app. I will try to call Sonos tonight to get help directly but do you have any thoughts there?

 

In the Sonos app, go to the room tab and select the room with your beam.  Then go to the Browse tab, and you should see a list of the music services you’ve setup plus TV as a source.  That’s what I was referring to in my post above.  When you’re using an optical connection.  I’m not sure you have to do any additioanl setup, but it’s been a while, could be wrong on that.

 

Also make sure your Shield has the right audio settings. 

 

Calling Sonos is a good idea.

Danny
buzz

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.

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings