Answered

Use Sonos Beam with Apple TV and Blu-ray player

  • 7 April 2020
  • 7 replies
  • 894 views
A

My parents has a Sonos beam that is connected to their LG TV. They have a Apple TV and a blu-ray player that is connected to the TV. The Sonos beam is connected to the TV with optical cable. The Apple TV is used on a daily basis while the blu-ray player is more rarely in use. Sonos beam plays sound from the devices when they use them, but when they are controlling the sound on the Apple TV (with the Apple TV remote) it shows the LG TVs sound controlling, and when sound reaches level 0 it is often still sound (it is like the Sonos beam is in another sound level after it has been used on radio or Spotify). I changed the preferences on the Apple TV from sound output to be Apple TV to be Sonos, and then the sound controlling works perfect, but this automatically changes again after turning off and on the TV once. Any tips on what they can do and still use both Apple TV and their blu-ray player with Sonos-sound?

 

 

icon

Best answer by AjTrek1 11 April 2020, 04:13

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.

7 replies

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

Hi @amnett 

Obviously you’re not in the US judging from the language showing in your picture. :relaxed: I’m going to take a wild guess an assume the Stue refers to your Beam :thinking:  If so select it and not Apple TV.  Let me know if I guessed correctly :relaxed:

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
Airgetlam

Also, assuming this is a 4K version of Apple TV, go to Settings > Video and Audio > Audio Format and make sure it say Dolby Digital 5.1. If it doesn’t, select it, then select Change Format, and select Dolby Digital 5.1. 

Bruce
A

Hi @amnett 

Obviously you’re not in the US judging from the language showing in your picture. :relaxed: I’m going to take a wild guess an assume the Stue refers to your Beam :thinking:  If so select it and not Apple TV.  Let me know if I guessed correctly :relaxed:

 

Hello @AjTrek1 . Thanks for answering. This is in Norway, so you are correct: Stue refers to the Sonos Beam. I have tried to select Stue, but when I turn off and on the Apple TV once it changes back to Apple TV unfortunately. 

A

Also, assuming this is a 4K version of Apple TV, go to Settings > Video and Audio > Audio Format and make sure it say Dolby Digital 5.1. If it doesn’t, select it, then select Change Format, and select Dolby Digital 5.1. 

Hi @Airgetlam  . Thanks for answering. This is a 4K-version. When I went to settings it was turned on «Auto». I now changed it to Dolby Digital 5.1. Why can this change the problems? 

Airgetlam

It may, or may not cause issues. Normally, when using HDMI-ARC, the receiver device (your Beam) sends a signal to the HDMI-CEC hub (your TV) and identifies itself as 1) a speaker, and 2) a Dolby Digital or Stereo only capable device. The hub (your TV) then passes that information on to any upstream source device (your Apple TV in this instance) and tells it to only send data that the receiving device can process.

However, if you were to switch, at some point in the future, to an optical connection to the Beam, the one way nature of that connection means that the TV, and consequently the Apple TV device no longer has knowledge of what device restrictions are ‘downstream’, so the Apple TV would choose to send any signal it is set to. In the case of Auto, it would send whatever the source is encoded in. If that source is Dolby Atmos, or DTS, or Dolby Digital Plus, the Beam would no longer be able to interpret the sigNail. So doing what you’ve done ensures that if you end up changing the connection type, your Beam will still be able to process the signal being passed to it.

If you’re familiar with the meaning of the phrase ‘belt and suspenders’, that’s what you’ve done. It’s just an extra precautionary step to ensure that there’s no issue with the audio codec coming from the Apple TV.

Rather than step on AjTrek1s help, I’ll bow out, now that we are certain of that aspect of the stream. His problem solving skills are prodigious, I’ll leave you in his capable hands. 

Bruce
AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

Hi @amnett 

Sorry for not getiing back sooner. Thanks , also to @Airgetlam for dropping the ball back into my lap :wink:LOL

However, @Airgetlam was on the right track. Let’s do the following:

  1. Disconnect all sources from your LG and unplug them (i.e Beam, AppleTV, Blu-Ray etc)
  2.  Factory Reset your Beam as per the instructions in the link:
  3.  https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1096?language=en_US
  4. Open the Sonos App and go to Add Product
  5. Setup Beam via HDMI-ARC. Make sure it’s working properly B4 going to next step
  6. Connect the AppleTV to an open HDMI port on the LG
  7. Plug-in the AppleTV
  8. In AppleTV Audio you should see STUE (Beam) as HDMI...select it.
  9. Set Audio format to Auto (If you later have audio issues...select Change Format in this same menu)
  10. Your AppleTV audio should remain as set 
  11. Connect your Blu-Ray to an avaiblle port and plug it in

Let us know how things sort out.

Cheers!

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
A

@AjTrek1 Thanks for good instructions. I can see now on the TV that it doesn’t have a HDMI-ARC-port. The TV is probably too old. Normal HDMI and HDMI/DVI in is the only opportunity. So maybe the best thing to to here is to connect the optical cable from the Beam to the Apple TV (instead of connecting it to the TV). Because then I guess the sound issues will be fixed when they use the Apple TV every day? Because the Blu-ray-player is not in use more than a few times a year.

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings