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sexyflanders
Contributor I
November 9, 2018

WARNING: Beam does not support Dolby Digital Plus, That is a BIG deal

  • November 9, 2018
  • 81 replies
  • 53467 views
Word of warning for anyone looking at the Beam to start a 5.1 surround sound system, it will NOT work ideally for any streaming box except the Apple TV. I would suggest really doing your research and/or staying away from the Beam if you want a home theater solution.

The Beam does not support Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) and only supports PCM (poor quality) or Dolby Digital. Why does that matter? DD+ is the current standard. Dolby (the only thing Sonos support) sounds good but is hardly used anymore by anything halfway modern. PCM is the audio equivilent to standard definition TV.

DD+ is the de facto standard for streaming boxes and services. Hulu, Netflix, HBO and I want to say Plex support this standard and only this standard. Those services do not use Dolby Digital. To get Dolby Digital, that means the stream must be downconverted (transcoded) on the fly by either your streaming device or your TV before reaching the Beam. If you do not convert, you are forced to use the poor quality PCM.

Now here's the rub. Few TVs downconvert. If you have one that does? Great! You should have few problems. Thing is though today, few streaming boxes do as well. In fact, the only one that does that I can tell is the Apple TV 4K. The nVidia Shield does not, nor does any modern Roku device. The 2016 Ruku Ultra does, but the 2017 and 2018 models do NOT. Looking at Roku forums, a software update from Roku may have removed that option thus meaning no Roku converts DD+ to D.

I can not believe Sonos is selling a device, geared for home theater, that does not support what is a very common standard. Every single streaming device support DD+ along with all the major players including Netflix and Hulu. It is THE standard, yet Sonos does not support it.

Keep this in mind as you're researching. I find it very disappointing, and will be returning my Sonos products.
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    81 replies

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    Wildantics
    Avid Contributor III
    November 30, 2018


    The Apple TV 4K does the downconversion from DD+ to 5.1 for me, so when I use a DD+ app such as Netflix my TV sees it as 5.1 thus the Sonos does as well. As far as I know, Apple TV is the only device capable of doing this. This is a bit disappointing because IMO I think the Apple 4K device is one of the worst between Shield, Roku and Apple.

    I'ts obviously subjective just curious why you feel the Apple 4K device is the worst? I've had all 3 and found the roku to be the worst by a longshot and the Shield was ok got the ATV 4K and havent looked back by far the best streaming device ive owned
      computman
      computman
      Lyricist II
      January 5, 2019
      Hi sexyflanders, thanks for sharing.

      I wanted to clarify that Dolby Digital Plus is fully compatible with Dolby Digital 5.1 per Dolby specifications/requirements. The Beam will also tell whatever device it's connected with via HDMI-ARC that it wants a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio signal, and just about all of the TVs that I've seen will automatically convert Dolby Digital Plus into DD5.1 following that handshake. You should be good to send any Dolby Digital Plus to your TV and it'll send DD5.1 to your Beam over HDMI-ARC.

      What about Netflix, Amazon Video and other streaming services that check the capability before sending the audio signal and do not propose the 5.1 sound profil and only stereo ?
      Airgetlam
      Airgetlam
      January 5, 2019
      The function that Ryan S is talking about is part of the HDMI-CEC connection, and only available on the Beam when connected with the HDMI-ARC connection, as he states. Since it's part of the HDMI connection, any source that is connected with an HDMI-CEC connection will get the automatic switch to Dolby Digital. But that's only if the device sending the signal is HDMI-CEC compliant.
      Bruce
      computman
      computman
      Lyricist II
      January 5, 2019
      The function that Ryan S is talking about is part of the HDMI-CEC connection, and only available on the Beam when connected with the HDMI-ARC connection, as he states. Since it's part of the HDMI connection, any source that is connected with an HDMI-CEC connection will get the automatic switch to Dolby Digital. But that's only if the device sending the signal is HDMI-CEC compliant.

      To be sure to understand, in my example

      Player : Nvidia Shield (DD+ compliant and CEC compliant)
      TV : SONY KDL-46HX820 (DD+ complianta nd CEC compliant)
      Beam connected on the HDMI ARC port

      The Netflix application that run on the player must be compliant also with CEC ?

      The same player connected on another sound bar, show 5.1 signal on Netflix....
      Airgetlam
      Airgetlam
      January 5, 2019
      Not an engineer, but if the Netflix application isn't receiving the CEC request, then yea, it wouldn't work. This is one of the reasons that I continue to suggest on these forums that you need to set the audio settings wherever you can. There's no guaranty that each app recognizes the signal request being sent back. Although I'd say that it's odd, given that you state that the Nvidia shield is CEC compliant. But I'd point out that you're stating DD+, and Sonos technically isn't DD+ compliant, they're only Dolby Digital, without the plus.

      I've seen enough issues with the entire CEC API that I just don't trust it to do what it purports to do all the time, without issue. At the end of the day, I'm a fan of both belt and suspenders. If i have the option to set the audio settings to Dolby Digital, and not have it attempting to send Dolby Digital Plus, or DTS, or frankly anything else, I'm going to choose to set it to Dolby Digital.

      There's just too many threads about issues with the Nvidia (which I think is actually NVIDIA) shield, and the Roku devices to satisfy my paranoia.
      Bruce
      Sneekyb
      Lyricist III
      January 6, 2019
      I'm using a Nvidia Shield connected to my Samsung MU6120 via HDMI. My Beam is connected to the TV using the optical connection because my PS4 Pro does not play nice with other devices connected to the HDMI-ARC connection.

      When watching Netflix or Prime Video from my Shield I've always got a DD signal passing through to my Beam from my TV. My TV allows for me to select and send either PCM, DD or DTS Neo 2:5 when connected to my Beam. DTS and DD+ are the only options I cannot select.
        Driver28
        Lyricist III
        January 6, 2019
        Hi! Just wanted to share my setup. I’m using ATV 4K with Playbar + Ones as surrounds. Samsung Series 7 2018 TV with support for DD 5.1 AND DD+. No matter if I play Netflix from the ATV or the Samsung Netflix app I get DD 5.1 to my playbar through optical. No issues whatsoever.
        cktb2793
        Contributor I
        January 8, 2019
        I have a Samsung tv ...... go to ..... SETTINGS ....... SOUND ....... EXPERT SETTINGS ......... DIGITAL OUTPUT AUDIO FORMAT .......... It’s defaulted from the factory as PCM ......... Change that to DOLBY DIGITAL
          coloradotrav
          Contributor I
          January 14, 2019
          I'm having a similar issue with my Sony A8F, which I describe in detail here: https://en.community.sonos.com/ask-a-question-228987/beam-5-1-with-sony-a8f-and-youtube-6819304

          Any help would be appreciated.
          2496Wireless
          Lyricist III
          February 17, 2019

          The Beam does not support Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) and only supports PCM (poor quality) .

          ARC and Optical cannot physically support DD+ and can only support 2 channels of PCM. As an ARC and Optical only product, it's not even an option for them to support it.

          Also,another tip. PCM is uncompressed audio. It is the farthest you can get from poor quality. . It is 1,411 Kbps PER CHANNEL at CD quality, which is lower than Disc based LPCM streams. Dolby Digital is compressed and lossy at 640 Kbps FOR ALL 6 CHANNELS COMBINED. Just a tiny difference...lol

          5.1 channels of uncompressed audio would be 8.466 Kpbs aka 8.5 Mbps. More channels, do the math. Thus the advent of Tru-HD and DTS Master Audio...aka Lossless codecs. The quality of uncompressed audio without the huge bitrates.

          The issue is that ARC and Optical do not have the capability to handle the large bitrates. The bandwidth limitations of ARC and optical allow for only 2 channels of PCM and the DDP, Dolby True HD, DTS-MA data rates also exceeds the bandwidth limitations as well. ARC and Optical output is the exact same digital stream (SPDIF) simply going out whichever of the two outputs you tell it to.

          The fact is here, 99% of Sonos customers could not tell the difference between Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus. Especially through a Beam alone. The drivers are too small and the electronics too low end to make it possible. You'd need to be at a significantly higher price tag and quality level of hardware before it would be tangible to the average Sonos consumer.

          Matter of fact, you can go full 5.1 Sonos and still it would go unnoticed. An simple enthusiast would notice DTS vs Dolby Digital LONG before they would notice DDP vs DD. DTS is a significantly better performing decoder than Dolby, and has been for many years. However, Dolby has done a fantastic job of marketing the brand, especially Atmos. With Blu ray's going the way of the cassette (you see Samsung announced they are no longer making Bluray players..at all anymore.), and DTS being the dominant player in that space...they have reason for concern looking forward.

          Nonetheless That's a big part of the reason why you don't have DDP. You wont hear it. The other part of that is that in order to offer DDP, they would have to pay a higher royalty to Dolby per unit sold.

          If you wont hear it, why the hell would they pay it? It's giving away money and they are a public company now.

          It's just business folks.
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