Trending Lyricist I

Why doesn't Sonos support DTS 4 (ie. Blu Ray DTS)?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
December 5, 2022
17 replies
1062 views

So I’ve had a longstanding issue with DTS on Sonos, where I can play DTS Blu Rays, but only if I turn off the ‘eARC’ of my TV. This is better than nothing, but frustrating as turning eARC off causes other issues with my setup.

Sonos today told me that this is due to my Blu Rays outputting a form of DTS called ‘DTS 4’ which apparently Sonos don’t support. I’ve never been aware of DTS 4, and it seems all/most Blu Rays output DTS using that.

Apparently the reason it works with eARC off is that my TV then downgrades DTS 4 to DTS, and Sonos plays it.

But I really don’t understand why this is not supported as standard if it’s the only form of DTS on Blu Rays, and why there isn’t a way to just automatically downgrade it (without turning eARC off)? Does anyone know if Sonos are likely to add support for this soon?

My setup:

TV - LG B9 OLED

Blu Ray Player - Panasonic DP-UB820

Sonos - Sonos Arc + One SLs

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.

Show previous replies

R

RobboadamAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

It’s not clear to me now @Robboadam if you have the LG B9 or C9 TV, but both do/(did?) support DTS-5.1 pass-through according to rtings.com:

B9-TV

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/b9-oled

C9-TV

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/c9-oled

…and my C9 definitely works fine here for that lossy codec with eARC enabled.

For the uncompressed DTS-X/HD codecs I just use MC-LPCM on the player.

I have the B9. Not sure why it doesn’t work then.

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

It’s not clear to me now @Robboadam if you have the LG B9 or C9 TV, but both do/(did?) support DTS-5.1 pass-through according to rtings.com:

B9-TV

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/b9-oled

C9-TV

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/c9-oled

…and my C9 definitely works fine here for that lossy codec with eARC enabled.

For the uncompressed DTS-X/HD codecs I just use MC-LPCM on the player.

I have the B9. Not sure why it doesn’t work then.

It does work. You just have to change the Secondary Audio setting on the UB820 to ON, correct?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

R

RobboadamAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

It’s not clear to me now @Robboadam if you have the LG B9 or C9 TV, but both do/(did?) support DTS-5.1 pass-through according to rtings.com:

B9-TV

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/b9-oled

C9-TV

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/c9-oled

…and my C9 definitely works fine here for that lossy codec with eARC enabled.

For the uncompressed DTS-X/HD codecs I just use MC-LPCM on the player.

I have the B9. Not sure why it doesn’t work then.

It does work. You just have to change the Secondary Audio setting on the UB820 to ON, correct?

But that makes everything downgraded - including Atmos downgraded to DD 5.1

Ken_Griffiths

I have the B9. Not sure why it doesn’t work then.

It’s slightly more difficult for me to comment, as I have the C9 TV here and it might be the case LG changed something on the B9 model, as suggested, but you would have to speak with the LG Support desk to confirm if that’s the case.

The reason I suspect the DTS-X/HD codecs are not supported by Sonos, is there is likely a licensing cost involved and there’s already lots of HT products in peoples Homes and it may not make good sense to make that change, though it has been discussed before, here in the community, that it could be catered for by a one off additional purchase, or perhaps a monthly/annual subscription.

My guess is the demand is perhaps not large enough for it to happen, as the majority of users are now using the streaming Movie services who presently use Dolby audio instead.

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

It’s not clear to me now @Robboadam if you have the LG B9 or C9 TV, but both do/(did?) support DTS-5.1 pass-through according to rtings.com:

B9-TV

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/b9-oled

C9-TV

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/c9-oled

…and my C9 definitely works fine here for that lossy codec with eARC enabled.

For the uncompressed DTS-X/HD codecs I just use MC-LPCM on the player.

I have the B9. Not sure why it doesn’t work then.

It does work. You just have to change the Secondary Audio setting on the UB820 to ON, correct?

But that makes everything downgraded - including Atmos downgraded to DD 5.1

It’s pretty simple…

If you are playing a DTS-encoded Blu-ray disc, set Secondary Audio on the UB820 to ON. This will result in DTS Digital Surround audio playing out of the Arc.

If you are playing a Dolby-encoded Blu-ray disc, set Secondary Audio on the UB820 to OFF. This will result in Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Atmos audio playing out of the Arc.

The process of changing the Secondary Audio setting on the UB820 takes less than 10 seconds.

You cannot get Multichannel PCM audio from DTS-encoded Blu-rays because of the handshake issue between the UB820 and B9. If you want Multichannel PCM audio, get a different Blu-ray player that works with your TV.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

R

RobboadamAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

It’s not clear to me now @Robboadam if you have the LG B9 or C9 TV, but both do/(did?) support DTS-5.1 pass-through according to rtings.com:

B9-TV

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/b9-oled

C9-TV

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/c9-oled

…and my C9 definitely works fine here for that lossy codec with eARC enabled.

For the uncompressed DTS-X/HD codecs I just use MC-LPCM on the player.

I have the B9. Not sure why it doesn’t work then.

It does work. You just have to change the Secondary Audio setting on the UB820 to ON, correct?

But that makes everything downgraded - including Atmos downgraded to DD 5.1

It’s pretty simple…

If you are playing a DTS-encoded Blu-ray disc, set Secondary Audio on the UB820 to ON. This will result in DTS Digital Surround audio playing out of the Arc.

If you are playing a Dolby-encoded Blu-ray disc, set Secondary Audio on the UB820 to OFF. This will result in Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Atmos audio playing out of the Arc.

The process of changing the Secondary Audio setting on the UB820 takes less than 10 seconds.

You cannot get Multichannel PCM audio from DTS-encoded Blu-rays because of the handshake issue between the UB820 and B9. If you want Multichannel PCM audio, get a different Blu-ray player that works with your TV.

Except I’ve tried it with another Blu Ray player (UB300) and I have the same issue, so it can’t just be down to the 8200.

There’s a setting on the player to have ‘Secondary Audio’ to ‘Automatic’ which should surely automatically change it depending on the format - but I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work either.

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

It’s pretty simple…

If you are playing a DTS-encoded Blu-ray disc, set Secondary Audio on the UB820 to ON. This will result in DTS Digital Surround audio playing out of the Arc.

If you are playing a Dolby-encoded Blu-ray disc, set Secondary Audio on the UB820 to OFF. This will result in Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Atmos audio playing out of the Arc.

The process of changing the Secondary Audio setting on the UB820 takes less than 10 seconds.

You cannot get Multichannel PCM audio from DTS-encoded Blu-rays because of the handshake issue between the UB820 and B9. If you want Multichannel PCM audio, get a different Blu-ray player that works with your TV.

Except I’ve tried it with another Blu Ray player (UB300) and I have the same issue, so it can’t just be down to the 8200.

There’s a setting on the player to have ‘Secondary Audio’ to ‘Automatic’ which should surely automatically change it depending on the format - but I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work either.

Get a non-Panasonic Blu-ray player.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

Sign up

Login to the community