Television Audio on new Sonos Beam Cuts Out Periodically

mpgaertner · 2018-07-23T09:10:04+00:00

As it says in the title. Just replaced our Playbar with a Beam to get the Airplay 2 fun working. Sounds great EXCEPT, every few minutes the audio goes silent for a second or two. I've only tested it extensively with our Apple TV since it was installed yesterday. The source is coming from the direct HDMI in using an ARC output on my Vizio P-Series. Anybody else having this problem? Is it the Cable? A Codec? The Beam itself?

Same issue here. Was fine for a couple of months now it cuts out. Same cable as before. This same cable works with a Panasonic sound bar just fine. Same issue on two TVs and those TVs are both fine with the Panasonic soundbar. When the sound cuts out with my Panasonic tv I lose picture as well until it reconnects. While it is disconnected the light on the beam flashes white. My diagnostic number is

637987082

Update:

Brand new 4K hdmi cable arrived. Same issue.

also tried optical out of tv using the Sonos supplied adapter with a variety of hdmi cables. Same result every time.

so, either the beam has developed a hardware fault or a firmware change has caused the issue. From viewing this forum it’s clear that a number of owners have had this issue spanning the last year. What should I do? Device is currently not fit for purpose.

I would perhaps now contact your local Sonos Customer Care direct by phone, explaining all you have done so far.

Ok this is resolved. The cause was bizarre:

My Sonos Connect was faulty. I tried to play some music but the music kept stopping on all my speakers and I noticed a flashing white light. I unplugged everything with the idea of resetting it all. However, the Connect would not give me an orange setup light no matter what I did. I suspected the Connect at this point and unplugged it and tried the beam out with some Netflix through my PS4: no dropouts.

took Connect back to richer sounds (my retailer). They failed to get it to reset and gave me a replacement and all working fine now.

as an aside, the setup app is awesome for new installations and adding new speakers but it is entirely useless for setting things up in my situation. It is not clear what you are supposed to do at all. The correct route is to choose new setup and add new speaker options but it does not tell you to reset them first to put them into flashing orange light mode. In short app could be enhanced.

Glad to hear that you have resolved all your Sonos issues.

I will just briefly mention that it is 'rare' that a user should ever need to reset any Sonos product and quite often a simple network reboot and/or product reboot solves a majority of user issues. I struggle to think of any case whatsoever, where a user needs to reset ALL their Sonos products, at the same time, where they perhaps have multiple Sonos Speakers/devices. That would only likely ever need to happen after some 'freak' total system failure (never seen that ever with multiple Sonos products within same Household), but maybe it could happen due to multiple Theft/Damage of every Sonos product in the home, via crime/flooding etc. and/or an entire system replacement with brand new devices, otherwise I’m struggling to see a case where a user would ever need to start over and create a new system from scratch by resetting all products simultaneously and then creating a new Sonos Household.

Well now you have one. After getting my replacement Connect the app would not find any of my existing equipment. When going down the “find my missing speakers” route it would say it had found something, not specifying what, and then fail. I did manage to get it to detect something and then it wanted me to put my phone on a makeshift Sonos network which got me to the next stage which was to put the speaker onto my own Wi-Fi network but it didn’t offer me my network in the list of available networks. I was allowed to type in my SSID manually, which I did, and when it asked for the network password it would tell me I’d got it wrong (I hadn’t, it lets you see the password you’re typing in so it was definitely correct) so that route - find missing speakers- could not be used.

I have a mesh network at home, 3 nodes that all report the same SSID. I wonder if that confused it. Interesting that it would not offer the strongest Wi-Fi network to choose from.

Anyway, I knew that starting from scratch worked because I’d done it before so that’s what I wanted to do. More importantly it worked, whereas none of the other options suggested by the app did. So, I continue to suggest that a “I want to set everything up from scratch again” option is provided.

For future reference, you didn’t need to go through any of that process. Just power off all Sonos devices.

Temporarily cable any remaining Sonos speaker to the main router/hub and then power on your remaining Sonos devices, one at a time. let each one settle before moving onto the next.

Your system will connect and then run on its own internal SonosNet signal. Open the Sonos App and add your new Connect in the usual way and just for good measure enter the WiFi SSID/Password (case sensitive) in “Settings/System/Networks/Wireless Setup”

Uncable the wired speaker and return it to where you had it before.

No need to reset any devices at all by doing it that way.

Thanks, wish I’d known that yesterday 🙂

Thanks, wish I’d known that yesterday :)

Ah, no worries, just wish we could have helped you out earlier.

We all probably go though these learning curves to get the experience, but I think if you reach a stage, where you think a Sonos device needs to be reset, then it pays to pop online here and mention it, as someone might have a 'time-saving' suggestion.

Anyhow glad your now have things sorted. 🙂

1236150761

This is really starting to bug me. When can this be sorted out?

1236150761

This is really starting to bug me. When can this be sorted out?

Did you perhaps try the method mentioned of by-passing the TV? That usually works for the few folk who have TV’s that don’t process the DD5.1 audio signal quickly enough. The speaker can only play the audio as soon as it gets sent the data.

2055577621, same issue started a few days ago, sound cuts out for a few milliseconds every minute or so. Sonos Beam connected via ARC to Philips 50" 7303 TV then TV to Xbox one X. Becoming increasingly frustraiting this speaker. Also tried factory reset which didnt solve the problem. Now I cant even connect to the app without having ethernet cable plugged into the back of the beam, nightmare.

Have you tried changing, or at least re-seating, the cables between the TV and XBox ...and the TV and Beam? I would start with that at least. It’s also odd that your Beam requires ethernet to actually work, which suggests (strongly) that there is either wireless interference, or problems with the Beam’s or router’s WiFi, so perhaps try using different wireless and SonosNet channels and ensure that they do not overlap, channels 1, 6 or 11.

If you have access points or WiFi repeaters, ensure they are operating on the same wifi channels as the main router too and using the the same SSID’s and credentials as the main router. Although these later issues will unlikely be related to your TV Playback when cabled. It’s still worth checking these things however.

I have re seated all HDMI cables since and the same issue persists. However, I have managed to link the app to the speaker and I no longer need the ethernet cable plugged into the beam. I have spent all day going through a process of elimination and I have narrowed it down to possibly being a software issue on my 50PUS7383/12 Philips Tv, I have emailed them with the issue. Its so bizzare why it would suddenly start doing this.

At least it appears you’re getting to the root of the problem. Have you checked the Philips website to see if there perhaps is a software update for your model of TV?

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.

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...

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

Same problem. Watching TV, Sonos beam connected via ARC with HDMI cable, audio cuts out. I have to switch the TV off/on again to restore the audio. Very frustrated. I admit I havent noticed what the white light on the Beam is doing during these problems, will check next time.

Have you checked to see if this happens when you disconnect all your other TV peripherals from your TV HDMI ports?... if that stops the problem, then it’s likely one of them has CEC controls enabled and are trying to steal away the control from the Beam. Plug the devices back in, one at a time, till you find the culprit and then either disable their CEC control, or use a CEC-less cable or adapter to stop it taking over from the Beam.

Hope that helps to resolve your issue.?

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

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

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