I got a screen projector and was hoping to use it to watch movies and leverage my Playbar (I have the whole system, Sonos 5.1 Home Theater System PLAYBAR, SUB, PLAY:1 Wireless Rears Combination) . I usually run my movies from my Mac. I cannot figure out for the life of me how I can use playbar as my Laptop sounds and it is getting very frustrating.
Ideally, I would like to transfer the Audio out wirelessly but reading on the forum it seems even if I hacked my Mac to do so, there will be a delay of 4-5 seconds which is not feasible when watching movies. The other option (which I don't like) is to use the cable directly but that also doesn't seem to work. I have bough a 3.5MM > Optical cable and I am still not getting any sound from the playbar. I tried this converter (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011O0N0UQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) but didn't work.
Any thoughts? I am still very new to Sonos
Question
Using Playbar for Home Cinema
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.
That's a whole can of worms to unpack.
Does your projector have an optical out jack on it? If you're pushing video through the Mac, I'd suggest connecting the Mac to the projector with HDMI, and the optical cable between the projector and the Playbar. You'd need to go into the settings of the Mac to ensure that the signal being sent to the projector across HDMI was either Stereo, or Dolby Digital, not anything like DTS or Dolby Digital Plus. If the Playbar receives a signal it can't read, i.e. anything other than stereo and DD, it won't make a sound, which is what it sounds like you've got.
That converter you linked to won't work, since it takes optical signal and converts it to Stereo RCA...and the Playbar wants to have optical, so there's no way to output the data from it to the Playbar. Does your Mac have an optical out? If so, you should try connecting the Playbar directly to that, at least for testing's sake, so that you can get at least one thing figured out before moving on to the next.
Sonos speakers aren't "send to" devices, so you can't send your Mac's sound to them wirelessly. The "computer" in the speaker gets told "here's where to get the data stream from " and it goes out and gets it. In the Playbar's case, that can be the optical line in, or any Sonos stream, be it a music stream, or a location on your hard drive.
I'm not sure what a 3.5mm to optical cable looks like. Is there some powered box in the middle of it that converts the analog data from the 3.5mm side into a digital signal that the optical carries? If that's the case, you should be able to plug the 3.5mm in to your headphone jack in the Mac, and then the optical end into the Playbar. But if there's not a box in the middle to change that from analog to digital, then it won't do anything.
Does any of this make sense?
Does your projector have an optical out jack on it? If you're pushing video through the Mac, I'd suggest connecting the Mac to the projector with HDMI, and the optical cable between the projector and the Playbar. You'd need to go into the settings of the Mac to ensure that the signal being sent to the projector across HDMI was either Stereo, or Dolby Digital, not anything like DTS or Dolby Digital Plus. If the Playbar receives a signal it can't read, i.e. anything other than stereo and DD, it won't make a sound, which is what it sounds like you've got.
That converter you linked to won't work, since it takes optical signal and converts it to Stereo RCA...and the Playbar wants to have optical, so there's no way to output the data from it to the Playbar. Does your Mac have an optical out? If so, you should try connecting the Playbar directly to that, at least for testing's sake, so that you can get at least one thing figured out before moving on to the next.
Sonos speakers aren't "send to" devices, so you can't send your Mac's sound to them wirelessly. The "computer" in the speaker gets told "here's where to get the data stream from " and it goes out and gets it. In the Playbar's case, that can be the optical line in, or any Sonos stream, be it a music stream, or a location on your hard drive.
I'm not sure what a 3.5mm to optical cable looks like. Is there some powered box in the middle of it that converts the analog data from the 3.5mm side into a digital signal that the optical carries? If that's the case, you should be able to plug the 3.5mm in to your headphone jack in the Mac, and then the optical end into the Playbar. But if there's not a box in the middle to change that from analog to digital, then it won't do anything.
Does any of this make sense?
@Airgetlam - thank you for responding quickly.
Here are my answers (and unfortunately all negative:
1- Does your projector have an optical out jack on it? No it does not so this option is out (since it's an expensive projector)
2- My 3.5 mm cable is this one (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GZQWM54/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and as you guessed it does not do any conversions.
From what I understand, it seems that the only option I have here is via cable. Is there a cable that you recommend that can convert from a 3.5mm output (that would be the Mac) to Optical (that would be the Playbar)?
Thanks,
Here are my answers (and unfortunately all negative:
1- Does your projector have an optical out jack on it? No it does not so this option is out (since it's an expensive projector)
2- My 3.5 mm cable is this one (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GZQWM54/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and as you guessed it does not do any conversions.
From what I understand, it seems that the only option I have here is via cable. Is there a cable that you recommend that can convert from a 3.5mm output (that would be the Mac) to Optical (that would be the Playbar)?
Thanks,
That cable is an optical cable. Hmmm. Is the 3.5mm jack in your Mac dual (both optical and analog)? I seem to remember that at some point, that existed, but I don't think it still does, and it would depend on your Mac. When you have it plugged in to the Mac, and you're playing a video, does the other end show a red light? If not, then the headphone jack isn't also an optical jack.
Seems like you're already pretty good at Amazon-fu, so I'd look for an Analog to Digital converter. There's a lot of them, and I have no experience with any of them so I can't recommend one over any other. There's a lot of threads in these boards from people who do use them, but I haven't kept track of what seems to be most represented here. The thing to remember is that an analog 3.5mm headphone jack will only give you a Stereo signal, and not carry a true 5.1 signal. So look for something that takes a 3.5mm headphone style input, and outputs an optical signal. That should resolve your issue.
Seems like you're already pretty good at Amazon-fu, so I'd look for an Analog to Digital converter. There's a lot of them, and I have no experience with any of them so I can't recommend one over any other. There's a lot of threads in these boards from people who do use them, but I haven't kept track of what seems to be most represented here. The thing to remember is that an analog 3.5mm headphone jack will only give you a Stereo signal, and not carry a true 5.1 signal. So look for something that takes a 3.5mm headphone style input, and outputs an optical signal. That should resolve your issue.
A quick google search suggests that some MacBook Pros did have an optical output through the 3.5mm jack, so it may be that you need to turn it on in the System Settings? Ah, I see that it's automatic, no settings to mess with.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/11/02/new-macbook-pro-drops-optical-audio-out-through-headphone-jack
http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/11/02/new-macbook-pro-drops-optical-audio-out-through-headphone-jack
So from what you're saying is that either if I get the right cable for this, I am not going to get a true 5.1 signal? I can always use the RCA to Digital (goo.gl/bpSOcL) so get a 3.5mm to RCA adapter to do so but if I'm not getting the right quality, it may not be worth the effort so could you clarify this part on the 5.1 true signal?
I guess let me take a step back here. Is my whole Movie night via the Projector approach flawed? How do other people here in the community run their movie nights via projector? I mean I can always use my soundock but it seems that I am not leveraging the Playbar system to its full capability.
I guess let me take a step back here. Is my whole Movie night via the Projector approach flawed? How do other people here in the community run their movie nights via projector? I mean I can always use my soundock but it seems that I am not leveraging the Playbar system to its full capability.
Sorry if I have missed a detail here but I assume you must be running the video via HDMI from laptop to projector. So an HDMI audio extractor, with optical out and HDMI passthrough would potentially do it. But you would have to run cables a fair way somewhere, as I assume Playbar is with the screen.
Not sure if it is worth investigating wireless HDMI so that laptop could sit by the Playbar. I have no knowledge of this but Google produced this link as an example.
https://hdvideoshop.com/en/3450-cineready-full-hd-wireless-hdmi-kit-zero-latency-transmitter-receiver.html?gclid=CjwKEAjw9MrIBRCr2LPek5-h8U0SJAD3jfhtbLA9WFo6uhJBhlxkxKiyB_sYrUoz4udYVhRRRU-lxhoCCkrw_wcB
Not sure if it is worth investigating wireless HDMI so that laptop could sit by the Playbar. I have no knowledge of this but Google produced this link as an example.
https://hdvideoshop.com/en/3450-cineready-full-hd-wireless-hdmi-kit-zero-latency-transmitter-receiver.html?gclid=CjwKEAjw9MrIBRCr2LPek5-h8U0SJAD3jfhtbLA9WFo6uhJBhlxkxKiyB_sYrUoz4udYVhRRRU-lxhoCCkrw_wcB
Further to previous reply, this may be of use
http://www.flexson.com/flexson-hdmi-converter-for-sonos-playbar
http://www.flexson.com/flexson-hdmi-converter-for-sonos-playbar
Well I have the projector at one side of the room and the playbar on the other side. The laptop usually sits near the projector but looks like I have to invest in a few long HDMI cables.
@john I guess your Flexon HDMI device will do the trick as I could connect from the Laptop to it and HDMI out into the projector.
Not the best solution but looks like it's the only one possible today :(
Thanks folks
@john I guess your Flexon HDMI device will do the trick as I could connect from the Laptop to it and HDMI out into the projector.
Not the best solution but looks like it's the only one possible today :(
Thanks folks
A long HDMI cable...... or an HDMI transmitter in the "out" of the Flexson extractor and an HDMI receiver in the "in" of the projector. In theory, anyway. I don't know how viable or expensive that would be.
Thanks for all those tips, it's very useful. I have a similar problem :
Playing movies with my macbook pro through thunderbolt / hdmi converter to my videoprojector with optical output for sonos bar.
Unfortunately, when I plug the converter (as my videoprojector has only a stereo output), I can't send a 5.1 signal to my sonos system (player, sub and 2 x PLAY 1) only stereo one :-(
Am using this one not Flexson :
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B0183FQAXO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Do you think it will male a difference ?
And I don't have an optical output on my mac...
Any suggestions ?
Thanks !!
Playing movies with my macbook pro through thunderbolt / hdmi converter to my videoprojector with optical output for sonos bar.
Unfortunately, when I plug the converter (as my videoprojector has only a stereo output), I can't send a 5.1 signal to my sonos system (player, sub and 2 x PLAY 1) only stereo one :-(
Am using this one not Flexson :
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B0183FQAXO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Do you think it will male a difference ?
And I don't have an optical output on my mac...
Any suggestions ?
Thanks !!
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.