What version of ‘Dolby 5.1’ is the Fetch box sending?

Is the content you’re sending encoded in 5.1, like a movie, or are you testing by watching a TV show that might be a stereo signal encoded in a 5.1 carrier?

Optical is no worse, nor better than ARC for audio purposes, although ARC does carry other information as well. 

Hi Bruce,

The only information I have is that thr Fetch TV box has Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 (AC3) and Dolby Digital Plus (Enhanced AC3). 

As for the content, I played the same YouTube clip and Netflix movie on Fetch TV box as I did directly on the Sony TV. It just played out of the beam and no surround sound through the Sonos Ones at all.

So, you’ll want to be sure it is using Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 (AC3) and not the Plus version, which the Beam can’t interpret. 

And I see I missed your statement in your first post about your sources, my apologies. YouTube, to my knowledge, doesn’t carry a 5.1 signal, only stereo. Depending on the Netflix movie, it could only be in stereo in a 5.1 container, but without knowing the title, it’s hard to tell. For testing purposes, I tend to use a Star Wars film, or Jurassic Park, which I know are active in the surrounds. 

I’d also double check to open sure that HDMI CEC, or whatever Sony calls it, is turned on in the TVs settings. I’d probably double check the Fetch TV device to see if it is HDMI CEC compliant, and turned on, but setting it for AC3 only should effectively take that part out of the equation, it’s more out of my morbid curiosity. 

The problem here is the Sonos system works, as you’ve proven, and you’re asking for help on a Sonos forum about a non Sonos product. There’s liable to be much more intelligent assistance on a Fetch TV forum, or their customer service folks. 

You were right Bruce, it turns out to be the setting on the Fetch box  and also the content isn’t always in surround which threw me off a bit during testing.