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MSmithSonos
Contributor II
June 27, 2018

Sonos...you're killing me with your lack of HDMI support

Man, I was so ready to go full in on Sonos. Just bought a new house that I'm moving into shortly and was ready to outfit it with Sonos 5.1 in the living room and Play 5's and Play 1's in other rooms. Then I find out poor support for new Dolby formats....tough pill to swallow, but fine. Then I find out no outdoor speakers....grrr...annoying but fine. But then I find out there's no HDMI. Gahh...What? Then I hear about the Beam and think they've addressed the issue. But now reviews are coming out and it seems it's an entry level product and not a Playbar equivalent. Why are they being so stubborn? When they announced the Beam they should have also announced new versions of the Playbar/Playbase/Connect with HDMI support as well.

Sonos, take my money please!!! But you can't have this kind of dough when the product seems destined to become outdated due to it's lack of support of modern standards (arguably it's already there).

Sorry for the vent. Just was really hoping to finally be able to go all in with them, but guess I can't. I have to find a competitor I guess. So annoying. I hope management reads these forums...you're losing potential customers.
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      23 replies

      John B
      June 27, 2018
      I understand where you are coming from, but clearly Sonos have taken the view that this doesn't matter enough to enough people in the target market to change this. Sonos isn't right for everyone. Any enhancement will probably add some customers. But that doesn't mean it's the best use of Sonos resources or cost-effective. Your points have been made since the Playbar was launched so you can be sure Sonos are aware of them.

      You would have nothing to lose by trialling the Beam. If it is nowhere near what you want you probably ought to be looking at a conventional home theatre setup.
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      melvimbe
      melvimbe
      June 27, 2018
      When they announced the Beam they should have also announced new versions of the Playbar/Playbase/Connect with HDMI support as well.


      Why would the Connect need HDMI support?

      Anyway, you definitely can use a different home theatre setup with a connect to incorporate into the sonos system. I wouldn't necessarily give up on your pairs of 5s and 1s.
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      Danny
      MSmithSonosAuthor
      Contributor II
      June 27, 2018
      Why would the Connect need HDMI support?
      Maybe not the Connect.

      Anyway, you definitely can use a different home theatre setup with a connect to incorporate into the sonos system. I wouldn't necessarily give up on your pairs of 5s and 1s.
      To clarify, I don't have any Sonos components yet. I was coming from a Receiver + 5.1 setup + zone 2 and passive speakers for other rooms, and wanted to switch to a full Sonos setup. Mainly to get rid of speaker wires and the receiver, and to enjoy high quality music + high quality movies with something that doesn't require tinkering. But I just can't buy into the system with optical in being the only option for home theatre. It's too risky for me.

      I'd try the Beam, but reviews have said the sound is underwhelming particularly when it comes to music. The sound is what drew me into Sonos in the beginning.

      @John B I'm sure is right. They're well aware, but have not found it to be their best strategy (the reason why is anybody's guess...I can't imagine it's cost). They're successful, so who am I to argue that they're doing it wrong, but unfortunately it means I probably have to go elsewhere....which sucks. Was looking forward to a full Sonos house. Oh well.

      I'm researching Z9F's as a potential alternative.
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        John B
        June 27, 2018
        That's all very reasonable and understandable. For me, Sonos' heritage and strength is for music. The addition of TV audio products broadens the appeal for many, but I suspect a conventional system for the cost of a Playbar + Sub + surrounds would give you more bang for your bucks.

        I know you want to free yourself from wires, but as has been suggested you can use a Connect to bring Sonos to your receiver, and have Play speakers elsewhere. It's just one possibility, it may be that it's not overall the best option for you.
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        johnzena
        Lyricist III
        November 5, 2018
        Sonos being a hiend company and concerned for better sound knows hdmi sounds better than optical.
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          Airgetlam
          Airgetlam
          November 5, 2018
          But I'm not sure that Sonos considers themselves a "high end" company. Their market seems to be a wider swath of people, hence the decision in 2012 or 2011 when the Sonos PLAYBAR was being designed to go with the easier to hook up, wider availability of optical, rather than the HDMI-ARC that they've implemented with the Beam. I believe that most TVs in 2013, when the PLAYBAR was initially released, did not have HDMI-ARC as a feature. It's been more prevalent in recent years, but I'm sure there are millions of TVs still in use that don't have it, and require the use of the optical port to connect the average soundbar.
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          Bruce
          melvimbe
          melvimbe
          November 5, 2018
          Sonos being a hiend company and concerned for better sound knows hdmi sounds better than optical.

          I'm not an expert, but hdmi (or hdmi-arc) and optical are different types of wires. The wires have different capabilities as to what codecs they can carry, but one doesn't sound better than the other, carry the same codecs. From what I've seen optical seems just fine for handling whatever can be done with Sonos existing 5.1 setups. The question then becomes what sources can send out audio through optical. Or are you asking for Sonos to expand what codecs it uses or the number of speakers it uses in it's HT setups?
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          Danny
            Chris
            Chris
            Lead Maestro
            November 5, 2018
            This post was prior to announcement of Sonos Amp with HDMI.
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            Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)
            johnzena
            Lyricist III
            November 6, 2018
            Sonos being a hiend company and concerned for better sound knows hdmi sounds better than optical.

            I'm not an expert, but hdmi (or hdmi-arc) and optical are different types of wires. The wires have different capabilities as to what codecs they can carry, but one doesn't sound better than the other, carry the same codecs. From what I've seen optical seems just fine for handling whatever can be done with Sonos existing 5.1 setups. The question then becomes what sources can send out audio through optical. Or are you asking for Sonos to expand what codecs it uses or the number of speakers it uses in it's HT setups?

            The other difference between HDMI and optical (I always had a hard time distinguishing sound differences between HDMI cables but optical cables have a difference, it may be subtle but there is a difference) is that HDMI has its own error correction technology on the input and output. What they do is verify the signals match bit for bit that's why they sound better. All TVs might switch to USB-C in the future anyway. But as of now that's why HDMI has a cleaner signal.

            Plus the Roku and NVidia shield amongst others can pass dolby digital plus signals which the optical cable can not do.

            The reference of the differences is here: https://www.lifewire.com/digital-optical-connection-1846881
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            melvimbe
            melvimbe
            November 6, 2018


            The other difference between HDMI and optical (I always had a hard time distinguishing sound differences between HDMI cables but optical cables have a difference, it may be subtle but there is a difference) is that HDMI has its own error correction technology on the input and output. What they do is verify the signals match bit for bit that's why they sound better. All TVs might switch to USB-C in the future anyway. But as of now that's why HDMI has a cleaner signal.


            Your reference document doesn't say anything about error correction tech, but that's fine. I have no problem taking your word on this. To be clear though, Sonos doesn't take an HDMI input, it takes HDMI-ARC input (Beam/Sonos Amp only). It's not exactly the same thing, but I don't see why the error correction would be any different.


            Plus the Roku and NVidia shield amongst others can pass dolby digital plus signals which the optical cable can not do.


            And Sonos doesn't do the dolby digital plus codec either, currently. In that regard, it's not just about what cable is used, but what codecs are supported.
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            Danny
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