Contributor I

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

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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.

Dolby Digital +

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106rallye

@Outburst I have a lot of devices connected to my TV. DD passthrough works fine with my Apple TV 3 and my TV providers’ settop box. Problem area’s where the PS4, Chromecast and, come to think of it, my Mede8er. The last proble I solved using an edid emulator.

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Outburst

Enthusiast II

Hm interesting, I have a PS4 myself and can’t say that I had any issues getting Dolby Digital from any source (Games and Netflix).

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Tejs Dyrvig Ernst

@Tejs Dyrvig Ernst Yes, I am and was getting Dolby Digital from all my sources, also from a Chromecast, but that is not used anymore and was replaced with a FireTV Stick. Netflix and also Amazon Video (not sure right now, if they use DD+) are working fine for me and I get Dolby Digital+. As said, there is no conversion/transcoding happening, Dolby Digital is just the core of Dolby Digital + and at least my two Philips TVs will output that just fine.

I’m using a Philips 32PFK4101/12 and 50PUS6272/12 and these are not even high price models, the first one is not even a smart TV. In general I think Philips is fine when it comes to audio.

@106rallye Your TV seems to an older model. The entry and basic Samsung TVs back in the days didn’t support Dolby Digital passthrough and I think that is what’s causing the issues for you. More modern Samsung TVs do support this feature now (I think from 2017 onwards).

It sounds fantastic. I assume you mean you were getting Dolby Digital and not Dolby Digital Plus on your Sonos as the Plus is not supported. And you did confirm receipt of Dolby Digital in the Sonos-app? I have never gotten anything but a “Stereo” read on Sonos when using a Chromecast.

Will visit a dealership later this week and have a look at their Philips-lineup then. I had one a few years back which was horrible in many other ways, but hopefully they have improved :)

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Jesstes

Lyricist I

Hi,

I am new to the forum, with the following gear:

Samsung ue43nu7400 + NIVIDIA Shield TV + roku streming stick+ I get the below results when DD+ or DD are available at the source.

When connected through HDMI-ARC all built in apps play in DD 5.1 even if originally in DD+;

When connected through HDMI-ARC all streaming apps on shield play in DD 5.1 even if originally in DD+;

When connected through HDMI-ARC all streaming channels on roku play in DD 5.1 even if originally in DD+;

Please note that my tv is set to have all sources in as bitstream (passthrough). Basically, it talks to the devices and tells them “let me have the audio streams as they are for the format that I support, (DD and DD+ in my case + some older dolby formats) otherwise decode them and send them in PCM stereo”.

The tv then gives me choices for the digital output audio format if the stream is in DD+, and these are:

PCM (it will send standard stereo to beam);

Dolby Digital (it will send dolby digital 5.1 to beam);

Dolby Digital+ (the tv gives me a warning saying that it works just with devices that support it), when selecting this option the beam goes silent, a notification on the sonos app informs me that the beam does not support DD+. This option is greyed out if connected the beam is using the optical>HDMI adapter. Toslink and DD+ are not a thing.

My tv always selects Dolby Digital because CEC informs it that DD is all that the beam is capable of.

On the shield TV Kodi media center requires extra settings (sorry I can’t help with plex, I never liked the server side of things with it).

In kodi settings>audio change audio configuration in optimized; enable audio passthrough for Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver; and also enable Dolby Digital Transcoding (this will strip DD+ of the + and send the dd to the android audio driver in the shield, then DD is sent to the tv and from the tv to the beam). In this case on you tv digital output selection the DD+ option will be greyed out, no matter if connected or not with HDMI-ARC or optical, because the tv receives a DD signal only.

APPART FROM KODI EVERYTHING SHOULD WORK WITHOUT CONFIGURATIONS.

CEC is normally enabled on all tv (so no configuration there)

CEC is enabled by default on Shield (no configuration plus it handshakes with the tv to let passthrough what it can)

Beam has a almost frustrating dominance on the tv through the CEC protocol (unless you disconnect it from you tv it won’t let you ever select your tv internal speakers or any wifi speaker has physical audio output because it will force the tv back to ARC in 2 to 3 seconds, this should also ask for dd when available, therefore changing your tv setting when connected), no way for your tv to forget what is best for the beam.

This is just my experience if you have problems tray to see how to apply the above setting on your tv even if it’s of a different make. Ask for help to the community explaining what, when and how.

OF COURSE, I WOULD LIKE SONOS TO INCLUDE DD+ AND MORE, even when the device is not really suited for it, just because it will ease compatibility.

DD+, atmos and DTS X, are important when you spend thousands on high fidelity speakers and AV receivers/amplifiers. In lame terms good gasoline is still good gasoline (DD), but very good gasoline (DD+/atmos) can really be appreciated just on very expensive cars (not Sonos).

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Outburst

Enthusiast II

@Tejs Dyrvig Ernst Yes, I am and was getting Dolby Digital from all my sources, also from a Chromecast, but that is not used anymore and was replaced with a FireTV Stick. Netflix and also Amazon Video (not sure right now, if they use DD+) are working fine for me and I get Dolby Digital+. As said, there is no conversion/transcoding happening, Dolby Digital is just the core of Dolby Digital + and at least my two Philips TVs will output that just fine.

I’m using a Philips 32PFK4101/12 and 50PUS6272/12 and these are not even high price models, the first one is not even a smart TV. In general I think Philips is fine when it comes to audio.

@106rallye Your TV seems to an older model. The entry and basic Samsung TVs back in the days didn’t support Dolby Digital passthrough and I think that is what’s causing the issues for you. More modern Samsung TVs do support this feature now (I think from 2017 onwards).

It sounds fantastic. I assume you mean you were getting Dolby Digital and not Dolby Digital Plus on your Sonos as the Plus is not supported. And you did confirm receipt of Dolby Digital in the Sonos-app? I have never gotten anything but a “Stereo” read on Sonos when using a Chromecast.

Will visit a dealership later this week and have a look at their Philips-lineup then. I had one a few years back which was horrible in many other ways, but hopefully they have improved :)

Sorry for the late response. Yes I was getting Dolby Digital and I have actually tested it last week with my old Chromecast and still it was working fine. I tested Netflix and selected a DD+ track from Stranger Things and the TV has put it out as Dolby Digital just fine.

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BennyMac

Lyricist I

@Tejs Dyrvig Ernst Yes, I am and was getting Dolby Digital from all my sources, also from a Chromecast, but that is not used anymore and was replaced with a FireTV Stick. Netflix and also Amazon Video (not sure right now, if they use DD+) are working fine for me and I get Dolby Digital+. As said, there is no conversion/transcoding happening, Dolby Digital is just the core of Dolby Digital + and at least my two Philips TVs will output that just fine.

I’m using a Philips 32PFK4101/12 and 50PUS6272/12 and these are not even high price models, the first one is not even a smart TV. In general I think Philips is fine when it comes to audio.

@106rallye Your TV seems to an older model. The entry and basic Samsung TVs back in the days didn’t support Dolby Digital passthrough and I think that is what’s causing the issues for you. More modern Samsung TVs do support this feature now (I think from 2017 onwards).

It sounds fantastic. I assume you mean you were getting Dolby Digital and not Dolby Digital Plus on your Sonos as the Plus is not supported. And you did confirm receipt of Dolby Digital in the Sonos-app? I have never gotten anything but a “Stereo” read on Sonos when using a Chromecast.

Will visit a dealership later this week and have a look at their Philips-lineup then. I had one a few years back which was horrible in many other ways, but hopefully they have improved :)

Sorry for the late response. Yes I was getting Dolby Digital and I have actually tested it last week with my old Chromecast and still it was working fine. I tested Netflix and selected a DD+ track from Stranger Things and the TV has put it out as Dolby Digital just fine.

I also used Stranger Things to test. In my case, Dolby Digital was output when using my first generation Fire TV, but not with the Roku Ultra I picked up yesterday. Is there something I can do or am I better off getting a different streaming device?

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controlav

Lead Maestro

The Roku streaming stick does not claim to support DD 5.1 so yes, you need a different device.

https://www.roku.com/products/streaming-stick

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Author of the leading independent Sonos apps for Android, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Xbox.

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masquerade

Lyricist II

If your Beam is connected over HDMI-ARC, the TV will automatically send Dolby Digital 5.1 to the Beam for any source that starts off with a Dolby Digital Plus or 5.1 signal.

This is not true for all HDMI-ARC TVs. It certainly isn’t true for mine. The TV cannot convert Dolby Digital Plus to Dolby Digital if the source is HDMI. It only does it for native apps.

Was hoping to add the beam to existing play:1 stereo pair to get good surround sound, but now it’s heading back to the store.

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106rallye

This week I replaced my older Samsung 2011 UE46D8000 with a 2019 QE65Q90. To my surprise my new TV has no trouble at all putting DD through to the Beam from my PS4. With my old TV I had to use a Lindy embedder/extractor to get surround on my Beam and One’s. As the new TV has Airplay 2 I have not bothered with connecting my Chromecast, so I can’t help anyone there.

The choices Sonos has made (no DTS, no DD+, only one HDMI connection) has made it very dependent on the way TV-makers choose to work with the different surround sound formats. I would rather have seen it otherwise - though my experience seems to show that modern TV’s are probably better, at least on the DD+ front.

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masquerade

Lyricist II

If your Beam is connected over HDMI-ARC, the TV will automatically send Dolby Digital 5.1 to the Beam for any source that starts off with a Dolby Digital Plus or 5.1 signal.

This is not true for all HDMI-ARC TVs. It certainly isn’t true for mine. The TV cannot convert Dolby Digital Plus to Dolby Digital if the source is HDMI. It only does it for native apps.

Was hoping to add the beam to existing play:1 stereo pair to get good surround sound, but now it’s heading back to the store.

I forgot to mention that the TV in question is 2015 J6300 model. It even supports ARC and CEC, but not DD+ → DD conversion (when source is HDMI). Wish I had a crystal ball then which told me I would need it today :)

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