Tv audio cutting in and out


Badge +1
7357834 Diagnostics Please help! This just started happening within the last week. I disconnected the playbar and tried just the TV speakers and confirmed that it's a Sonos issue and not direct tv. The playbar is in the same room as the router so it's not a distance issue. Please help! There was an hour wait on the "hot" line...what's the deal with that?!?

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

19 replies

Well, it could possibly be the audio out on optical of your TV as well. You haven't specified what TV you have, though, which would probably be helpful, letting the folks who can read your diagnostic what you have.

Is this any program? Does it happen on DVDs in addition to DirecTV? Are there specific channels that are more susceptible to this cutting in and out?
Badge +1
7371514 Is the latest code. It happens on direct tv and the fire stick, amazon, Netflix etc. the tv is an 8 year old Samsung LED series 7. This started happening just a few weeks ago and my setup hasn't changed. I've changed router channels and they all cut out. This is very frustrating. Thoughts?
Badge +1
Latest code 7372909.

I unplugged the play 1's to see if this was causing interference since one of them was close to the router. The cutting out is STILL happening. I really don't understand why this all of a sudden happened. I was a HUGE fan of Sonos, I have several zones, spent thousands of dollars and used to be extremely satisfied. Now it's a much different story and
Hi jwilks

Could you switch the optical cable for another one, basically there appears to be a large amount of parity errors, usually this is as a result of the cable.

If after changing the cable the issue persists, could you connect the optical cable directly to one of your sources and bypass the TV. The fact the issue doesn't persist on the internal speakers doesn't mean it's not the TV as the TV is passing the audio signal from the HDMI input to the optical output and it is possible this has started to have problems, I do suspect it is more likely to be the cable.

Would I be correct you don't have the same issues when playing music back through the playbar?

Do let us know how you get on,

Many thanks
Badge +1
Thanks Matt!. I'll get a new cable and try it. The cutting out only happens with TV audio, not music.
Badge +1
I bought a new cable and it still cut out. I then connected the optical to the direct tv box and for the past 30 minutes it seems ok, except that it still cuts out on another zone if I group together say the kitchen and family room. It drops I the kitchen and the family room has the playbar, sub and 2 play 1's. The newest code is 7396809. I'm curious if there's any parity/interference. Thanks in advance.
My audio keeps cutting in and out also. Pretty frequent now.. I have a playbar, sub and 2 play 1,s. Cuts in and out regularly!!! 8028539
Yep same here. Samsung 75” 4K set. On my second optical cable. Just ordered two more. Diagnostic 613908840. Can we look at these reports?
Me too
Panasonic 4K
Sometimes it is every 15 minutes.
Diagnostic:1127495251
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
Me too
Panasonic 4K
Sometimes it is every 15 minutes.
Diagnostic:1127495251


Hi Benhayes,

Thanks for sending in the report. Your PLAYBAR is reporting an unknown codec coming from the optical cable. Can you double check your TV's audio output settings to make sure it's sending out Dolby Digital? If issues continue, send along a new diagnostic report and reply with the number.
I have a playbar, sub, and (8) Play 1's. The TV is a Sony Bravia. I have had this setup for about 3 years now, and have been somewhat satisfied with them (don't get me started with Alexa and the voice BS). A couple of times (usually for a couple of days), I do experience some frequent drops in the (2) kitchen and (2) nook play 1's. This only happens with the TV, Netflix, etc. The music is fine. It started again today. Tried changing channels, resetting the controller, my router, power cycling the speakers, all with no luck. I will try cleaning the fiber cable with some lint free alcohol wipes tomorrow before buying a new one, since reading above, sounds like a cable swap did not help. I will not call support if I can help it. The wait times are ridiculous. I read somewhere from another thread similar to this, that these Sono's are not intended for TV play and may cut out frequently because of the amount of data transmitted in comparison to music. They have worked rather well for most of the time I have had them. I don't recall anyone mentioning the possible degraded TV signal before I bought them. If this was the case, I never would have bought them. Also, don't tell me they work well with Alexa, because they don't. I would send a diag report, except I am at work. May send one tomorrow. If this doesn't get resolved, or I keep getting issues with sporadic loss of sound, I will be going back to a wired system.
Note that Sonos does offer 24/7 support on both Twitter and Facebook, if you can’t handle waiting on an immediate conversation on the phone lines. Just click on “Contact Us” at the bottom of this page for details. Having a diagnostic number in all cases will help.

A TV signal is higher bandwidth than a typical music stream, so it needs a cleaner WiFi signal, so making sure your network is as clean as possible is recommended.

With your our number of speakers, I’d certainly recommend running in BOOST mode, i.e. having at least one speaker (or a BOOST) wired to your router with an Ethernet cable. You didn’t say whether this is the case or not, but if you don’t, I’d give it a try, and make sure in the controller that the SonosNet created is at least 5 channels away from your own WiFi channel.

Good luck!
Airgetlam

Thanks for getting back with me. Forgot to mention, yes, I do have a BOOST. Just went through the set up once again, and it states my BOOST is connected (solid white light). I'm not sure if this means I am running in BOOST mode. Please expand if need be. Currently, my sub and playbar sound fine with TV, no cutting in and out. As soon as I add any other of the speakers, I start cutting out every couple of seconds or so. I did reseat and clean the fiber cable this morning. It seemed to help, and I thought all was good. Turned off and back on, and it is doing it again. I did just submit a diag, here is some info.

Diag- 1565374830
Router channel 2.4GHZ- 11
Router channel 5GHZ- auto
Sonos channel- 1

This brings me to another question. Should I be using the 2.4 or 5GHZ frequency for my wifi? Does it matter? There is quite a bit of WIFI equipment in the house. However, I don't believe that is too uncommon these days. I do have a WIFI extender as well. Not sure if this matters. I was going to buy some PLAY 3's soon. I think I will wait to see if this can get resolved. Again, thanks for the info so far.
A Sonos forum moderator will have the ability to look at that diagnostic, I certainly don't :)

Which channel you use for your personal wifi really doesn't matter, since you're using the BOOST, and you're already using channels substantially away from each other, there wouldn't be any any potential bleed over. You might have a speed benefit on your other devices that use your wifi, but it wouldn't impact the Sonos at all. You may, however, want to make sure that those wifi extenders are on channel 11 in addition, since some can use other channels (I think...I'm a bit hazy on extenders, never using one myself)

I'm still of the opinion that there may be some outside wifi interference causing that dropout, if it was only the optical fiber, you'd have the cutout on the PLAYBAR in addition to the grouped rooms.

They've stopped manufacturing the PLAY:3s at this point, but t If you can find them, they're great speakers. I have a pair in my bedroom, and love them. And before you ask, I'm expecting at least 10 years of functionality out of them before there's some sort of issue that causes Sonos to stop supporting them. In fact, so far, the only devices that Sonos has stopped supporting has been non-speaker devices. I'm certain eventually the need for memory in order to run the latest software will outstrip the memory on the older speakers, but I'm expecting that to be a long way down the road. I'm betting that Sonos is doing everything possible to avoid that possibility.
Thanks for the info Bruce. I realized after hitting reply yesterday, you may not have been actual "Sono's support." I do appreciate the feedback though. Bummer about the PLAY:3's, I didn't realize that. I will check on the channel my wifi extender is on, though I don't believe that will change anything. I do believe there is some inherent wifi interference causing this, and perhaps I really don't need to listen to the TV on so many speakers. Again, the music is fine.

Mark
IMHO, there is no reason not to get PLAY:3s, if you can find them. Still awesome speakers.

Remember, not all WiFi interference comes from within your home. It may, and should always be checked, but there are external influences as well. Many people fall into the trap that it’s a closed system existing in a “vacuum”, nothing could be further than the truth.

Best of luck!
I have figured out the reason my PLAY:1's were cutting in and out. After extensive troubleshooting, the answer was quite simple. I had to change the sound setting on my Sony Bravia to "TV speakers." I have had them on "external speakers" for quite some time. Seemed to be an obvious setting to me since these SONO's speakers are external, right? Not so for the circuitry I guess. The external setting was causing a delay or intermittent timeout when I used more than just my living room setup. I'm guessing the external setting used circuitry towards the audio out jacks. However, I have a fiber cable going from the TV to the SONO's play bar. Once I changed the setting to TV speakers, I can now listen to the TV speakers along with the play bar, sub, LS and RS. I can now also add my other six PLAY:1's with no issues at all. This is great!
Actually I have similar issue on Sonos Beam and Sony Bravia.
Diagnostic is 172057818
Issue is happening every time i switch off wifi in Router, Beam is connected to TV via HDMI-ARC and has wifi connection WM1.
As long I have wifi connection no issue at all but on Passive Audio, but if I switch off a wifi issue is pegged!!

Faulty scenario can be reproduced like this:
  • Applied on Router MAC filtering in order to have connected only Beam and controller


  • Switch off Wifi during Channel TV reproduction
  • Audio start to fade in and out as long I will not switch on again Wifi on router.
  • Switch on Wifi and collect diagnostic from controller
At this link
Audio TV Loss
you have a video that show the issue after around 40s
It sounds like you really need to contact Sonos Support directly to discuss it. I'm not sure the community can help you at this point.

I 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. Both the Twitter and Facebook support folks are available 24/7.