Television Audio on new Sonos Beam Cuts Out Periodically


Userlevel 1
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?

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100 replies

You should get in contact with sonos support.
I contacted them through Facebook messenger (they were very helpful) and ended up getting my beam replaced as the diagnostics showed a lot of strange errors. Touch wood, the new one is working great.
636909262

I have the same problem and it drives me nuts! I’ve tried everything, but the sound keeps cutting out every few minutes... especially when watching Netflix.

My setup:
- LG55LM760S
- Sonos Beam (hdmi and ethernet)
- Sonos Sub
- Sonos Play:1 (wifi, used in the kitchen)
- Sony Playstation 4 (hdmi and ethernet)

And that’s all, I’ve unplugged everything else.

The beam is connected to the TV with the supplied hdmi cable. The PS4 is also connected with a hdmi cable and the sound is set to: Dolby 5.1 (Bitstream). Beam and PS4 are wired so that rules out wifi problems.

I found out that the cutting out only happens when I set the sound to 5.1. When I use PCM I have no problems with the sound. But ofcourse, that’s not wat I want, 5.1 sounds (way) better.

It would be great if someone would take a look at my diagnostic report!


I contacted the (Dutch) Sonos support team and I think we found the problem!

Turned out it was a faulty hdmi cable from the PS4 to the TV. Swaped it and had no problems since... 🙂
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.?

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!

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1133480869

Having this issue with a Samsung tv, started about an hour ago.


Due to the nature of this issue it would be best to have our phone team take a look. Please call us up, our phone number can be found here.
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Lots of people having the same problem including myself. My beam has also started randomly rebooting itself.
Could this be firmware related?
Is there a way to revert back to the previous firmware?


There is no way to roll back the software/firmware. Next time this happens submit a diagnostic and post the number heere or contact Sonos dorectly with it
You should get in contact with sonos support.
I contacted them through Facebook messenger (they were very helpful) and ended up getting my beam replaced as the diagnostics showed a lot of strange errors. Touch wood, the new one is working great.


Thanks, good idea, Phoned support and after checking they got me to do a reset of wireless network, unplug Beam and then Tv and all now appears to be okay
Followed advice from above that toekneem got. Should of known the way to fix any IT issues, ‘turn off, unplug, plugin, turn on’. Seems to have worked!

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.

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. 

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.  

 

Thanks I will try it

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1372957561

Thanks for sending in the report. It looks like the audio stream isn't getting to the Beam fast enough, leading to audio interruptions. Do you have your Xbox wired directly into your TV, or is it going through a switch of some sort? Also, is your TV's firmware up to date?
I just started experiencing the same issue with my Sonos Beam and Panasonic TV. Everything worked fine for a few months, but the sound just started cutting out periodically this past weekend. Submitted diagnostic - here is my confirmation # 535552223. Any help would be appreciated.
Same problem 😞 only just started happening, we’ve had the beam a few months with no faults or issues at all. The only thing that’s changed... I updated the Sonos firmware today using the sonos app on my phone, that’s literally the only thing to have changed and now the sound has begun cutting out for a brief moment every few minutes, it’s driving me crazy! My diagnostics number is 759941421 can you help?!
Same. Didn’t happen at all for the first month. Now it happens all the time. Mine is connected via optical to HDMI adapter. 438036701
Hey Caesaroni! Hopefully this helps you because I know how frustrated I was. I managed to fix it by changing the TV audio output settings. It was set to automatic on my LG TV and I swapped it from auto to PCM and it has fixed the problem instantly. Hope this helps!
I don’t have those as output settings. My audio out has Variable (TV speakers as well as audio system are controlled by volume on remote at the same time), or Fixed (which only controls the volume for what the Speaker setting set to. Mine is set to Audio System). I have a Sony Bravia TV. Thanks for trying to help though.
Samsung TV streaming Plex, output over HDMI ARC to beam. Getting short audio dropouts. Diagnostics #: 738084378
Same problem, started within the last couple weeks. Worked fine for the first month. Vizio TV. HDMI to TV ARC, from TV to HDMI to Apple TV. 1067378591
Exact same problem here. Worked great for over a month, now it is stuttering all the time. I've been told that it is audio corruption from the output but I have a hard time believing that all of a sudden this is happening, and especially to all of us on this thread.
Same thing happening with my beam. It also now decides to reboot itself every now and then
Next time this occurs, please submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes , and either post the number of the diagnostic here, or contact Sonos to discuss it. There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.
I have already done that. I’m told that all of a sudden my TVs optical output is passing corrupt data. Not buying it.