Projector, 2 x Era 100, AppleTV Setup with IPTV

Hi @New Havener 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Honestly, this sounds pretty strange - the Smarters app should be deferring to the Apple TV’s system settings when it comes to audio, so I have no idea why this is happening - I’d be asking the authors of the Smarters app.

Assuming that you are using AirPlay to play to the Era 100 speakers, you could try using Bluetooth instead - you may get different results.

I hope this helps.

I think it’s a limitation of the apps and that they often use a custom video/audio player and not the Apple TVOS/iOS system player.

I use the ‘channels’ app with a hdhomerun and that has no support for airplay audio. I can’t remember off the top of my head if the hdhomerun app itself does, it’s not worth using so I don’t install it.

I don’t think there’s anything proprietary about this IPTV service, it has a standard M3U file and an electronic guide file that I would think would plug in the same into any player app.  Is there a player you would recommend that you think would work better than Smarters?

Apple’s Channels feature doesn’t seem to allow me to add or link IPTV services.

As for whether the signal is technically Bluetooth or AirPlay, I believe it's Bluetooth masquerading as AirPlay.  There’s a setting in Apple TV audio that allows you to force-add a speaker or speakers, and that is what has worked with streaming services besides IPTV.  I saw a Youtube video that says that the setting is “temporary” and in my experience I have sometimes had to go into the AppleTV audio settings and “remind” AppleTV to use the external speakers.  But that still doesn’t solve the problem with IPTV, which plays audio through the projector speaker regardless.

Hi @New Havener 

What? Sorry, but this makes no sense. AirPlay operates over WiFi, Bluetooth is a direct, device-to-device connection. They have nothing to do with each other and are not similar except in the end result.

You said yourself that things work as expected when using other apps - this means Sonos is working. Everything else comes down to the Smarters app. If you cannot specify which audio output to use within the app, you should ask the authors of the app why this is - especially when they are apparently not using the system defaults.

It’s not down to the m3u or epg, it’s generally whether the apps themselves are using the Apple SDK and media decoders/renderers and have airplay support.

Often the apps use their own media decoder/renderer rather than Apples because they want to support video and audio formats that Apple SDKs don’t support. It’s could also be a paid feature or just a bug in the Smarters app. Have you tried asking their support team?

I don’t have a use for most of the players, so don’t know which would work with AirPlay and the service you use. I prefer near native integration and in the past when I used to watch live TV I had my Sat->IP connected to a vdr/tvheadend server so just used their plugin on my shield tv to make live TV a native GoogleTV source.

We hardly watch any TV in my household for many years now and the TV is mostly a large gaming monitor/movie screen. The only reason I still have a hdhomerun is for family visiting, but even then it’s used less than a dozen times a year. Using Channels on the Apple TV is down to the hdhomerun player being awful and Apple not having a native TV app with source integration like GoogleTV on the Shield has.

@Corry P LOL. Yes, I realized as I typed that “Bluetooth masquerading as AirPlay” would sound like a bonehead comment, and it was.  What I meant by that was that I can see the Era 100 speakers show up on ATV and I can activate them, but I believe they are receiving the signal via Bluetooth based upon the video I watched that showed me how to set this up. The whole issue is that I don’t have a soundbar, which regardless would require a hard connection to an eArc port that my ancient Ben Q projector doesn’t have, and then the soundbar would coordinate with the Era 100s.

@Corry and @sigh, I think you’re right that this comes down to AirPlay support and/or as you say they sidestep Apple’s SDK and/or encoders/decoders. I will look to see if there’s an IPTV player that states that it supports AirPlay etc and see if that solves the problem.

Thanks!

Hi @New Havener 

I was going to bring up the whole “no Home Theatre products in use” thing, but figured the projector would prevent you from using one anyway.

There are third-party devices available that can provide HDMI-ARC signalling when a connected TV/Projector cannot (like the HD Fury Arcana - not a recommendation), but it may even be cheaper to just buy a replacement projector.

It does mainly sound like an app issue, however. I think the answer may indeed lie in another IPTV app - I hope you are able to find one!

@Corry P Yes, I think you’re spot on.  The thing is, I’ve been trying to avoid wires. The bummer with a projector and a soundbar even with eArc is you need the hard HDMI connection between the two just to get started. But this does keep coming back to what we know: this isn’t a technical limitation since other streaming apps work just fine, so it probably is this app’s limitation (though I’ve tried others and had the same result, but it maybe that I just haven’t found the right one).  I’ll search some more.  Many thanks for talking this through with me.

Hi @New Havener 

You are very welcome! If you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate.

The thing with the wires is why I recommend short-throw projectors - it’s the best way of keeping all the connected devices together in one area.

It’s possible that you might find an IPTV app by not looking for one specifically. What I mean is, find a leading video playback app that also handles IPTV, rather than an app that specifically does IPTV, if you catch my meaning? VLC would be one example, but again, that’s not a recommendation and neither Sonos nor I can take any responsibility for third-party apps.

I hope this helps.

@Corry P and @Sigh Just wanted to close the loop with you and thank you. Turns out, it’s indeed the app. I tried out two other apps -- one a demo version, the other an already paid full version -- and they played the IPTV stream without a problem with audio properly routed to the two Sonos 100s. I’m bummed that Smarters doesn’t provide for this, as I like their interface, but I will adjust to iPlay and I’m sure I’ll be fine. Many thanks for looking into this with me, I appreciate your efforts.

Hi @New Havener 

Thanks for updating the thread - glad to hear you can now hear TV through your Sonos speakers!