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Will a HDMI Splitter work with the Optical adapter on Beam?

  • 20 December 2021
  • 7 replies
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A

I have the Sonos Beam currently connected to my TV via eARC for PS5, Netflix, movies etc. I am switching out my TV next month for the LG C1, and as this is a top gaming TV, I will also use it for PC gaming at 4K upto 120hz.

For my PC to detect my Sonos as 5.1, I need a new sound card that will encode and decode 5.1 Dolby Digital. Then I will plug in the beam via optical to my PC, using the HDMI to Optical adapter. However this means unplugging the HDMI from Beam -> TV.

If I buy a HDMI Switch, then have one HDMI cable to the TV, plug the HDMI to Optical adapter in the other slot, with an Optical cable to my PC, will this allow me have the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound for my PC gaming while also controlling the volume with my TV remote?

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Best answer by Airgetlam 21 December 2021, 01:29

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7 replies

Airgetlam

Why not just connect the computer directly to the TV, and let the TV be your HDMI switch, sending the appropriate signal out through the optical cable (or even better, through ARC or eARC) directly to the Beam?

Bruce
A

Why not just connect the computer directly to the TV, and let the TV be your HDMI switch, sending the appropriate signal out through the optical cable (or even better, through ARC or eARC) directly to the Beam?

 

I don't know if I'm confused or I've not included the right information for my problem, so apologies in advance haha.

My computer is connected to the TV at the moment via HDMI but when trying to use Sonos, it's only detected as 2.0 sound because nvidia graphics cards don't encode/decode 5.1 dolby digital, or something like that. There's lots of threads online about it.

I need to use optical with a new sound card for it to work, but the beam doesn't have optical and only one HDMI slot. But I use the HDMI slot for my TV to have eARC capabilites. So I thought of the above solution to save having to keep unplugging the HDMI from the Beam to TV, when I wanted to use my PC (with 5.1 sound).

So unless I'm mistaken, using my TV as a HDMI switch won't solve my problem because I need the optical cable from the sound card to go in to the Beam.

Unless you mean plug the Optical to HDMI adapter in to the HDMI switch, with the switch plugged in to my TV instead? With the other HDMI slot going to my Beam? So PC > optical cable > Optical to HDMI adapter > HDMI Switch in the TV > HDMI cable from switch to the Beam? (with a separate direct HDMI cable from PC to TV for display)

Airgetlam

But shouldn’t the new sound or video card need to / be able to create a 5.1 signal to feed to either the splitter (not recommended) or the TV (recommended) anyway? If the sound or video  card can only generate a stereo signal, no switch will be able to change that from Stereo to 5.1. Whatever goes in is what comes out of a splitter or a TV. 

 

What I mean (just to be sure we’re not talking past each other) is that all devices should be connected to the TV set with an HDMI cable. The Beam would be connected to the TV’s ARC port, which looks like a standard HDMI input. Then you make sure the computer is sending a 5.1 signal out from the HDMI to the TV set, ignoring the optical output completely on the PC. There should be a setting in whatever application (or in the settings for the video card) that you can set to tell it to put out a 5.1 signal. Then the Beam is connected to the TV, and whatever you’re playing on the screen of the TV is sent to the Beam. 

I *think* you’re over complicating this, because your PC has an optical output. It should have an HDMI output, too, and you just need to set either the driver for the video card, or the settings for the playing app you’re using (or both, actually) to allow 5.1 to be sent out the HDMI port. 

Once you’ve done that, the TV really is the “switch” between differing inputs, and you don’t need any second device to do extra complicating work. 

Bruce
A

Thanks for your response, I appreciate the help.

From what I've researched online, there is no way to legitimately output 5.1 Dolby Digital sound over HDMI with an nVidia graphics card (I have an RTX 3080 which only came out last year). Nvidia don't pay for the dolby licensing, or something along those lines, so in the windows sound settings there is only an option for Stereo 2.0 sound. However, I think I have found a solution using a hacked APO Driver. I followed the guide on this video:

This allowed me to set Dolby Digital under the Advanced section of Properties on my TV/HDMI sound settings in Windows. I don't know for sure if it has worked, because I don't have the One SL rear speakers yet, only the Beam and Sub, but I plan to add them at some point so figured I would sort this problem out now ready for when I do buy them. Going off the comments, I think it will work. Only way I can test is finding a game that will quite obviously separate sound between the 3 speakers in the Beam.

J

If you look in the Sonos app under ‘About My System’, it should give you the format of the audio in, irrespective of whether you have surrounds set up (I think).

A

If you look in the Sonos app under ‘About My System’, it should give you the format of the audio in, irrespective of whether you have surrounds set up (I think).

Perfect, I totally forgot about the app! It says Dolby Digital 5.1 on the notification if I pull down from the top of my phone, where it used to say 2.0, so it must have worked, thanks!

S
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Thanks for your response, I appreciate the help.

From what I've researched online, there is no way to legitimately output 5.1 Dolby Digital sound over HDMI with an nVidia graphics card (I have an RTX 3080 which only came out last year). Nvidia don't pay for the dolby licensing, or something along those lines, so in the windows sound settings there is only an option for Stereo 2.0 sound. However, I think I have found a solution using a hacked APO Driver. I followed the guide on this video:

This allowed me to set Dolby Digital under the Advanced section of Properties on my TV/HDMI sound settings in Windows. I don't know for sure if it has worked, because I don't have the One SL rear speakers yet, only the Beam and Sub, but I plan to add them at some point so figured I would sort this problem out now ready for when I do buy them. Going off the comments, I think it will work. Only way I can test is finding a game that will quite obviously separate sound between the 3 speakers in the Beam.

 

Having recently upgraded my laptop to one with an internal NVIDIA GPU the YouTube guide worked for me and I have 5.1 running over HDMI to my Gen 1 Sonos Beam via my 2018 TV that outputs ARC.  Thanks for posting this fix, I had played previously played around with EDID editing but never cracked it.  My old laptop did not support 5.1 so I had to use an external sound card then optical out directly to the Beam which meant switching the cable out manually so it is nice to avoid that now.  The Intel GPU on my new laptop also supports 5.1 but I can’t see any modded driver for Intel (only NVIDIA or Realtek), if anyone knows of one please post.

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