streaming projector sound to sonos
i purchased a mars nebula projector, along with a sonos one pair (i have many other older generation sonos), plus firestick tv thinking this was the proper combination to stream tv sound directly to the sonos rather than the projector's own (bad) speakers (i swear i read this worked, somewhere). i can't seem the get the tv sound to play through any sonos though even after pairing alexa and firetv and the new sonos etc. Am i supposed to be using airplay? am i missing a component ? i now understand that i can control the projector apps directly through alexa on the sonos, and i see that the projector's interface has an option to set up with a sonos playbar, but still can't manage to switch the projector sound to play on the sonos. please let me know what i might be missing.
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+20Hi, mlbenneett10. Welcome to the community. The ONE's were not designed to be used in this manner. You would need one of our products specifically designed for this purpose. i.e. a PLAYBAR, PLAYBASE or BEAM. Apologies that this is not possible, I do hope you find a solution to suit you.
Hi Edward. I got a beam per your recommendation and am trying to set it up with my projector. Is it necessary to wire the beam to the projector via HDMI arc? I did not know this but am seeing this now after some research. I thought i would be able to stream audio from the projector wirelessly to the beam. The projector only has one hdmi port (filled with fire stick) and it’s non-arc. So how does this work? I’m either not understanding something, or they’re incompatible. Please let me know so I’ll know if I just need to return the beam. Thank you!
You'd better return the Beam. It can accept a wireless AIrPlay 2 connection, but otherwise needs either an HDMI-ARC or an optical connection to something. Could be a TV, could be a simple HDMI switch with an optical out. But there's no way the Sonos can just pick up a signal from nowhere.
Hey airgetlam. Thanks for responding. So if it has to be wired, there is an audio out on the projector. Would that work and what do I need in order to connect the beams optical adapter thing to that?
What kind of audio out is on the projector? Most of the ones I've seen in the past, it's been a simple stereo headphone jack, which would not give you the sound abilities that you're looking for. However, if it's an optical output, then the projector needs to be able to send a Dolby Digital signal out. You may need to check the manual for your projector.
I'm really not convinced that Sonos HT speakers are well suited to use with projectors, although it isn't impossible. The nature of things is that the speaker is near the screen, and the projector isn't. One approach that might work is to keep the sources (cable box, BRP etc) near the screen, feed them into an HDMI switch with optical out, then run the HDMI out to the projector (for the video) and an optical to the Sonos HT speaker (using the adapter in the case of the Beam). Or maybe there is a different switch that would work with the Beam.
The downside is a long HDMI cable run from switch to projector. In principle this might be overcome by replacing the long cable with a wireless HDMI transmitter / receiver, but I have no personal experience of that tech.
But my point is that routing the audio through the projector is perhaps the wrong solution. This may be why the audio out options are limited on projectors. The aim should be to send only the video to the projector, and the audio direct to Sonos. I would be interested in others' thoughts.
The downside is a long HDMI cable run from switch to projector. In principle this might be overcome by replacing the long cable with a wireless HDMI transmitter / receiver, but I have no personal experience of that tech.
But my point is that routing the audio through the projector is perhaps the wrong solution. This may be why the audio out options are limited on projectors. The aim should be to send only the video to the projector, and the audio direct to Sonos. I would be interested in others' thoughts.
I use such a setup, with a Playbar and an HDMI switch with optical audio out. Some projectors may feature ARC, that would negate the necessity of a switch when used with a Beam.
As the OP's projector does not have ARC, the use of an HDMI switch with audio extraction would be an option.
I was lucky to move into a house that already had cabling run from the projector location to the point where the sources would be, but this is indeed an issue. There are wireless systems, Epson features them, but that's on projector models at a price point about 5x higher than the Nebula Mars the OP uses. Looking at these Nebula projectors, I don't get the feeling you can really expect many setup possibilities from them. Portability seems to be the USP here. I wouldn't know how you would provide the audio experience the OP is looking for, even using other equipment that doesn't have Sonos' inherent "issues" with TV audio.
Agreed. The Sonos A/V products are built on the premise that some other device will process the media and deliver the audio stream to Sonos, like most TVs can. Most projectors, with the exception of these lower-end "all in one" devices, are built on the premise that they will only need to provide the picture, and the audio will be handled by something like an A/V receiver. This creates a mismatch when you want to use a projector with Sonos. Many people who invest time and money in setting up a projector will probably forego Sonos for their HT audio, for the reasons that are well documented on this community, but with these products becoming more "accessible", questions like the OP's will become more frequent.
Hey. Thanks for your super detailed response. It sounds like I should let go of this idea of sonos audio for a portable projector in favor of maybe just a Bluetooth speaker that’s compatible with the nebula. I just thought it would be nice for it to be sonos so I could add to my existing system, but there doesn’t seem to be a simple solution to link sonos to projector, and none are wireless.
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