Television Audio on new Sonos Beam Cuts Out Periodically

It is updated to the latest version available. I have changed the output to stereo (uncompressed) for the tv, the Xbox and the beam and it seems to have fixed the issue. The only thing I can think is that my tv cannot process dolby digital very well, however, the tv supports dolby true hd so why it cant even support basic dolby digital is beyond me. I will update on here when Philips get back to me on the issue. 

Sometimes the path inside the TV is different for outputted data than it is for internal data. See all of the various posts about Samsung and LG TV’s that can’t send out Dolby Digital data via either optical or HDMI-ARC without a certain amount of delay. Some of those TVs have been “fixed” with software updates by the TV manufacturer, but apparently not all.

Just wanted to share my experience with this issue of audio from the beam cutting out when listening to various devices connected to the tv.  My setup is the Beam connected over ARC HDMI to a TCL 65R617 (in my home office). I have a a Tivo, Chromecast Ultra, and a Nintendo Wii connected to the tv.

The quick answer is that the my Chromecast Ultra was constantly trying to take over HDMI CEC and this was causing audio drop outs with the Beam (I figured it out by simply disconnecting the Chromecast and problem solved).  My solution was to then connect the Beam using the optical audio adapter.  I did not have to disable CEC in the tv’s settings.  An alternative solution was simply to disconnect the Chromecast Ultra, but that’s not really a solution since I wouldn’t have been able to use the Chromecast without having to manually plug it back in everytime.  Disabling CEC on the tv wasn’t an option in this scenario as doing so disabled the tv’s ARC functionality.

Now, there are a few caveats to what I found.  It may seem that the Chromecast is the culprit here and case closed.  The truth is, however, it is a bit more nuanced.  I do have a second identical tv as the one I descirbed above (65R617), setup in another room (bedroom), this one also with a Chromecast Ultra and Tivo connected to it.  Unlike the office tv, the bedroom tv has a Sony CT800 soundbar connected to it instead of the Sonos. The Sony soundbar also supports HDMI ARC and that’s how I have it connected to the tv.  With the Sony Soundbar connected over ARC, there are no audio drop outs when watching cable tv, even though the Chromecast is connected to one of the tv’s HDMI inputs.  I swapped the two Chromecasts to see if the issue followed the Chromecast from my office and no change in the behavior I described above.The tv with the Beam connected still got audio drop outs when I plugged in the bedroom Chromecast.

So, the bottom line here is that yes, the Chromecast Ultra can cause audio dropouts with the Beam when the Beam is connected over ARC and the Chromecast is plugged in directly to one of the tv’s HDMI inputs. However, the Beam seems like it may also be overly sensitive to CEC ‘noise’ or the Sony is simply more forgiving.  In any case, from the number of folks in this thread that have posted their setups were fine for months and then all of a sudden, issues appeared, my guess is a Beam firmware update had the unintended effect of making the Beam more sensitive to CEC signals/noise and thus the audio dropouts.  

This is driving me insane... 

I am so close to saying goodbye to Sonos as there just seems to be so many things wrong with it... 

here is my diagnostics confirmation code for this one of many problems…

578686255

Rather than depending on the Community to assist you, why don’t you contact Sonos Support directly to discuss it?

I usually suggest the phone folks, they have more tools available because they're on the phone with you, but they are only available Monday through Friday during business hours. The Twitter support folks are available 24/7.

So did you perhaps try the suggestion of using an audio extractor/splitter, as mentioned to you earlier in this thread?

This was my problem! I have Intel NUC connected via HDMI and it had CEC functions as well. So my Beam was cutting out sound every few seconds and I couldnt figure out why!! Until I saw this message! Thank you! I went into Intel NUC bios and turned off CEC functions and now both Beam and NUC are playing nice together!

Same problem here, just submitted the diagnostics

1054541624

hope you guys can help

TV Oled B8 connected to the beam on arc 

Set all the TV’s connected HDMI devices to play DD 5.1  AND set the Port you have the Beam connected to, to pass-through the audio instead of ‘auto’. See if that fixes it for you.

Thanks I will try it