Very surprised to see that I cant play any bluray movies that we rent on my playbar with 5.1 surround sound.


I bought playbar and 2 play:1 for dolby surround 5.1 experience replacing my old onkyo receiver with 5.1 surround speaker system. I paid close to 1000$ for this system. So far so good and I removed my receiver and old speakers. Yesterday, we rented a bluray disc from redbox and found out that playbar was unable to output any sound.
This used to work perfectly with my onkyo receivers. Spent some time changing settings on bluray player and audio settings in the bluray movie options for audio.
Then googled it about this issue and found out that Bluray movies outputs DTS sound and playbar doesnt support this. I am very surprised. I was about to order sonos sub but if I cant play any of my existing bluray discs or bluray movies rented from redbox then what is the point of spending 1800$ on a surround system.
Is this a short term issue or sonos will never support DTS. I still have few days left to return the system. Any suggestion or help is appreciated.
I dont want to change the bitstream to PCM because I will loose 5.1 surround sound. I dont want to go back even after spending 1800$. I dont understand how come nobody from sonos have ever looked into this solution.

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12 replies

Hi. I can undetstand where you are coming from, but this has in fact been a topic of much debate since the day the Playbar was launched. I cannot see much point going over the same ground again, but I will just point out that there are BRPs capable of transcoding DTS to DD5.1, making surround sound possible. I just state that as a fact, I am not trying to suggest this is a satisfactory situation.
Do you know for sure? If so, which BRP? There are way too many models out there. I have sony but it cant convert DTS to DD 5.1.

On a side note, if a 200$ cheap receiver from onlyo can decode then how a 700$ playbar cant.
Samsung.
See multiple other threads for debate on your other points.
Model number please. Thanks.
Model number please. Thanks.See this thread as a starter...

https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/blu-ray-player-that-converts-to-dolby-digital-5-1-6736040
Userlevel 2
Badge +3
Samsung M9000 or M9500, both work brilliantly converting on the fly. Probably pick one up cheap on ebay now that Samsung have stopped making them.
Userlevel 4
Badge +3
An Xbox one or PS4 can do it
Userlevel 7
Badge +16
Samsung has Neflix etc apps which it can also transcode to DD5.1 on the fly. Every Playbar / Playbase / Beam owner needs a Samsung Blu-ray, a godsend!.
Userlevel 4
Badge +6
You’re best getting an Xbox, PS4, or Samsung player now as there is no guarantee that the PS5 or next Gen Xbox will still transcode dts to DD on the fly. Sony’s and Panasonic’s new UHD players certainly don’t offer this feature for whatever reason as I found out when trying to find one.