I have a Sonos Beam Gen1 currently connected to an older Rocketfish RF-G1185 outputting to an even older (2004?) 1080i Panasonic plasma TV (TH-50PX50U - that still works great) that only has one HDMI input and zero HDMI output. I have the Beam connected to the Panasonic via it’s optical TOSLINK to HDMI cable. Problem is all audio is coming into Beam always shows Stereo PCM. First question: Is there any benefit to trying to feed Dolby 5.1 (or Dolby Digital) without surrounds or a sub? If not, I'll stop my quest right here. If not...
My primary device is an Xfinity X1 DVR and when I set it to Dolby 5.1 output using its optical out and connect directly to Beam the Beam shows Dolby 5.1 format in. However, the audio out of Beam does not sound any better, in fact it is much softer and quieter.
I also have an older generation (2 or 3?) Apple TV and Xbox connected to the Rocketfish via HDMI and when using those devices Beam still shows Stereo PCM and never Dolby 5.1. When I set the Xfinity X1 HDMI audio to Auto, the Beam always shows Stereo PCM. My thoughts are either the Rocketfish is not accepting or passing Dolby 5.1 from any device to the TV or the TV is not able to pass Dolby 5.1 out of it’s optical port.
I am debating on buying either an HDMI-to-optical extractor to go between the Rocketfish output and TV and send extractor's optical to Beam or just buy a new switch that supports ARC and connect that way and see if that makes difference. If I'm wasting my time trying to get "5.1" out of the beam please let me know.
Thanks for listening
Best answer by Corry P
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