Answered

TV Autoplay doesn't seem to work when using SONOS optical Audio adapter

  • 6 August 2023
  • 9 replies
  • 107 views

I have a BT box, SONOS Beam 2 , SONOS One SL (x2) setup as asurrond sound.

BT box HDMI goes to TV, as TV doesn’t support HDMI out  (or optical port out) I use the optical port on the BT box via the SONOS optical adapter to the Beam  2.

Google assistant is enabled on the Beam 2.

Everything works, we play music and watch TV etc….fab.

The bit that frustrates me is you have been listening to music in the lounge on the Beam 2 setup, you decide now to catch up with the news, turn on the telly and BT box….no sound.

I have to go into the SONOS app, navigate to the Beam 2 setup and slide the TV Autoplay OFF, then slide it back on...now you have sound.

Is this a software oversight that it doesn’t detect sound because of the SONOS Optical Adapter is not quite right or is there some other confiugration setting I need to change?

Is there another way of getting the SONOS Beam to acknowledge the Optical sound, it doesn’t warrant a new TV.

This is the ONLY issue we have, everything else works a treat.

 Neil

icon

Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 6 August 2023, 15:20

View original

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.

9 replies

To clarify, does the TV audio start playing normally, when you turn the TV and BT box on and haven’t been playing music first?

 

BTW it’s a bit easier to start TV audio if it doesn’t autostart:
- you can simply select “TV” on the browse menu in the app, rather than digging in room settings

- if you were prepared to move Google Assistant to a different speaker you could install Sonos Voice Control and say “Hey Sonos, switch to TV mode"

Ratty nice respinses there thank you.

To clarify, does the TV audio start playing normally, when you turn the TV and BT box on and haven’t been playing music first? - YES

If last night I’d watched tv and turned on TV this morning we’d get sound from the SONOS Beam. 

If I’d watched TV last night and listen to music this morning then I won’t get sound when I turn on the TV and BT box UNTIL I select TV in the SONOS app….which implies the detection doesn’t work because I’m using the optical adaptor.

 

What I did try thanks to you was “Hey Google switch to TV mode” and that works 😀 So thank you for that suggestion….so much easier than hunting for the phone and looking in the App.

Thank you.
 

Not sure if this will help. On the BT website, it says this…

  • To enable Surround Sound on your BT TV box, press the Home (or YouView) button on the remote control. Go to Settings > TV Signal & Quality  > S/PDIF Audio Format and change from 'STEREO' to 'SURROUND'

If you haven’t done that already then try that, or perhaps see what happens if you simply toggle that option off/on again.

Ken,

 

Good thought...Ours is already set to surrond on the BT Box under S/PDIF I just went to check 😁.

Neil

 

Ken,

 

Good thought...Ours is already set to surrond on the BT Box under S/PDIF I just went to check 😁.

Neil

Neil, if you set it back to stereo (just temporarily) does that solve the issue you’re seeing? - my thoughts are that the BT box is outputting audio at ‘fixed’ volume and when switching the TV on the next day after playing music there is no change being detected over the optical port from their box - I read that switching to stereo may change things on the optical port. Just curious if it solves the issue.

Do you leave the BT box on 24/7? Is there a standby and/or fully powered-off option for the box too?

I’m also wondering if pressing ‘volume up’ repeatedly on the BT box ‘remote’ too might bring back the TV audio for you?

Ken,

Yes that works too….not sure why we never tried it before🤣

Ken,

Yes that works too….not sure why we never tried it before🤣

It’s probably just the way the BT box works. I’ve just switched a TV here over to optical using the optical-to-hdmi Sonos adapter and played music to the Sonos soundbar, waited a while after stopping playback and when I switched on the TV it autoplays okay. So my guess is its the way BT have implemented the fixed volume output on their optical port. Well at least you now have several workarounds that will hopefully make things easier. 👍

I suspect it might be because the BT box when ‘off’ (unless it’s in deep sleep) is actually in standby, quite probably with the optical carrier still active. Maybe the Beam therefore doesn’t see a correct ‘on’ event.