Sonos Desktop Windows App possible conflict with NVIDIA HD sound drivers ?

  • 16 April 2023
  • 7 replies
  • 135 views
C

Hi,

I've been using a Sonos Playbar and a few Play 1 speakers for many years now for a 5.0 type configuration. For playing music we mostly use a handy iOS device and this works very well. Occasionally the nearby Windows 10 PC hooked-up to the Bravia TV is also used to play music on the local NAS, using the Sonos windows application.

After a recent upgrade of the motherboard and a higher gen Intel CPU, I've noticed some strange occurrences with the NVIDIA HD audio drivers freshly installed on the “new” upgraded desktop PC. Some problems encountered : (1) Audio cutting out when booting the PC, (2) some crackling/popping sounds when playing YouTube videos, (3) booting the PC and finding my audio settings in the sound panel reset to default stereo, 16-bit 44.1KHz (this happens 70% of the time), and generally a problematic audio output coming from the NVIDIA graphics card that’s going to the Bravia TV via HDMI (and to the Sonos Playbar via optical).

Not ever suspecting that the Sonos windows app might cause some conflict with the NVIDIA HD audio drivers, I was looking at other possible sources of conflicts between windows drivers. Reinstalled many times, including previous drivers from last year, did not solve the audio issue. There always seemed to be a way for the HD audio to loose quality, or reset to default stereo or just be switched of at bootup, or become distorted when moving the mouse over a video playing… One sure thing though, launching the Sonos app on the PC and playing music or audio test sounds etc, never seemed to cause any sound fidelity issues to the hearing, which further confirmed my cabling and hardware must be fine, and it must be some software driver issue on the PC.

I then decided to just uninstall the Sonos desktop app (as we can always use the Sonos iOS app) to see if this changes anything. It appears since I’ve done this I don’t seem (so far so good) to have any more NVIDIA HD audio problems any longer.

I am not sure why but there appears to be a conflict between the installed Sonos application on Windows 10, and the other HD audio drivers (NVIDIA in my case, or maybe the generic HD audio that’s supplied with Windows 10 or both). In any case, I am now watching if the HDMI audio is now “stable” and clean, as I never had this issue with the older MB that I upgraded from … (or maybe I did but it was too subtle to notice …) I’ve also tried a third-party app from the MS Store and this lets me play music on the NAS library like I did before etc…

I am wondering if anybody else has had issues with audio quality playback on Windows PC with modern HDMI graphics cards installed, and with the Sonos windows app installed ? For some reason I am (was) having audio quality issues when the Sonos app was installed, and uninstalling it seemed to have resolved (for now) the NVIDIA HD driver issue.

Is there possibly an updated version that one could use ? Has this possible audio conflict been observed before ? There must many users of Sonos speakers and NVIDIA RTX graphics cards to have possibly raised the likelihood of this possible driver conflict with the Sonos windows app ??

Cheers, Citizen

 

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7 replies

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @citizen 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

For the first part of your description, I was thinking to myself that you needed to reboot your TV by unplugging it for at least a couple of minutes. I still think you should try this.

Once you mentioned uninstalling the Sonos app, however, you kind of lost me. The Sonos app doesn’t make any sounds, and therefore doesn’t interact with the Windows audio subsystem in any way - I just don’t see how it could be the cause of what you describe, and I suspect we would need to see some pretty solid evidence before we accepted the possibility. The Sonos app is just a remote control for your Sonos products - it does not need to have any audio capability whatsoever, and therefore doesn’t have it, simply put.

In addition, you’ve mentioned that it wasn’t due to the Sonos app running, but it merely being installed. This would imply that the issue was due to either the background Music Library service (also unlikely, for the same reasons), or the installation itself, ie. files added to the system for the installation. Again, as we don’t interact with the audio subsystem, none of the files added as part of the installation are going to relate to audio.

Having said all that, you’ve experienced what you’ve experienced. While I think this much more likely to be coincidental than anything with a causal link, I don’t mind testing - I have a RTX 3060 Ti, but rarely have the Sonos app open on my Windows computer - it sounds like I have a good excuse to play some games (with the Sonos app open) while working, so thank you for that! I will let you know how I get on. Please note, however, that I have had the Sonos app installed on my PC for years and have never noticed any such issue.

As to what I think might be causing the issue, I would be more inclined to look at the TV and the other devices connected to it. Although PCs don’t interact with HDMI-CEC, some other devices that do could be causing problems for it for some reason. Please test with other devices (other than the Playbar) disconnected from the TV. Please also reboot the TV by unplugging it for at least a couple of minutes.

I hope this helps, and I will get back to you.

 

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
C

Hi there Corry,

Thanks for your suggestions. I haven't thought of switching off the TV I must admit. Most modern TVs don't have a switch-off button anymore and one has to unplug it to get the same effect. As a matter of interest (not that it’s relevant) I've started inserting lamp type switches in-line with my unearthed appliance power cables just to be able to do that ;-) haven't gotten around to the TV and the Playbar yet though …

So just to clarify a few things. I was having the audio problems whilst having the Sonos Windows app installed, but not whilst playing any music using the Sonos Windows app. The sound always worked 100%, no distortion and no cut-outs etc when using the app. However when the Sonos app wasn't running on the PC in question, I was quite often having sound problems with Windows sound notification sounds, or just playing some YouTube videos etc. got this crackling, fuzz kind of effect… (or when booting the PC finding the sound panel settings reset to default, i.e. stereo with 16bit 44.1KHz many times). It just seemed very strange how this was happening. I even turned off the Hardware Acceleration in my Chrome browser and this seemed to help with the video's audio quality somewhat… but did nothing for the Windows sounds during notifications.

Additionally the exact NVIDIA 3000 series graphics card I'm using now was being used in exactly the same way on my older PC that got recently upgraded to the new upgrade with a more modern motherboard and a modern Intel CPU. That is to say : from PC → TV (via HDMI) → Sonos Playbar (via optical). In all cases the PC, the TV and the Sonos bar are also connected to the local network. This way I had sound either from the TV (when no HDMI was detected by the TV) or from the PC through the HDMI interface. The TV in question is a very recent 4K Bravia with eARC and HDMI 2.1 capability...

Nevertheless I did not have to do much to hear the digital distortion coming occasionally just from the Windows system sounds that one gets also with notifications (this was then immediately confirmed by opening the sound panel and clicking on the test audio button that plays the bell sounds in each speaker in turn). So I wasn't using the Sonos app at the same time, as running other audio apps or watching YouTube or other stuff like that...  pretty much when the Windows Sonos app plays music all other sounds are no longer heard by default it would appear. I guess this might have to do with the sound panel's default setting for "taking over exclusive control” of the HD audio source (in this case the NVIDIA HD audio driver… but maybe not.

So without knowing all the details of how the Sonos app plays the sounds, it must be at some point telling the Windows HD audio services to play sounds that it takes off the local NAS source as mp3 files and then Windows does the rest etc. So yeah sure maybe the Sonos app isn't directly playing any sound, but there is some level of interaction with the existing PC audio drivers at some point perhaps …

Having said that, well I must admit that simply switching off and on the TV sounds like a good idea to reset and clear any cached settings that may have somehow gotten corrupted or whatever, so I'll give that a go.

Otherwise on the TV side, my audio settings are simply Dolby Digital as HDMI input with a 5.0 channel format that should be coming through the HDMI and passed onto the Playbar via optical. I know for sure that the Playbar has no Atmos capability even though Windows now offers it as an option in the sound panel. So I pretty much stayed away from any other fancy settings, and am just using the front L/R, Center and Back L/R speaker configuration (no woofer). I never had an issue with my other PCs (including the Intel NUC that at one time was plugged-in the exact same way) …

So to cut a long story short, now I'm not using the Sonos windows app any more on the PC, but after I do a cold start of the TV I will reinstall it just to see if the issue(s) comes back at some point. Otherwise, it is not excluded that the latest audio graphics drivers might also have some lingering and yet undetected issues, so I will update them at the earliest convenience when they are released … Windows 11 is pretty much a fresh install and this was also giving me a problem on the previously installed Windows 10 which was the original OS in question … It kind of made me accept the MS offer to upgrade to Win 11 via updates just to see if things change ...

Will keep you posted about the TV cold start hopefully this will reset something somewhere for the better ;-) Good to know that this is always a last resort - an even better motivation for installing the in-line switches on the power cables of devices that have no other means to switch them off/on ...

Cheers, MM

 

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @citizen 

So without knowing all the details of how the Sonos app plays the sounds, it must be at some point telling the Windows HD audio services to play sounds that it takes off the local NAS source as mp3 files and then Windows does the rest etc. So yeah sure maybe the Sonos app isn't directly playing any sound, but there is some level of interaction with the existing PC audio drivers at some point perhaps …

I do hope the reboot of the TV helps, but I’ll say it again for emphasis - the Sonos app has no audio capability whatsoever. When, for example, you ask the app to play music on your Sonos system, a URL (Universal Resource Locator - just a string of text, really) is sent to the speaker in question, which uses that URL to fetch music to play directly from the source (not the app). When you utilise the Music Library to play, the file (not the audio, but the file that decompresses into audio) is shared to the speaker via HTTP or SMB file sharing - again, this has nothing to do with the Windows audio subsystem and is just basic file sharing.

If any activity within the app (I’m thinking an error of some kind) does produce a sound, this will just be an event sent to Windows - it would be Windows that actions the playing of a standard Windows error sound.

I really do think that this all must be a coincidence of timing, in regards to you not hearing issues after uninstalling the Sonos app. What’s more, I don’t think nVidia have changed their audio subsystems much over the years (though don’t quote me on that), so if there were a conflict between Sonos and their audio drivers, there would be a lot more people than just yourself reporting this issue - including me!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
melvimbe

So without knowing all the details of how the Sonos app plays the sounds, it must be at some point telling the Windows HD audio services to play sounds that it takes off the local NAS source as mp3 files and then Windows does the rest etc. So yeah sure maybe the Sonos app isn't directly playing any sound, but there is some level of interaction with the existing PC audio drivers at some point perhaps …

 

This is incorrect.   The Sonos app, whether on your PC or iOS device is just a remote control that tells your Sonos speaker (playbar) what to do.  The app isn’t capable of sending audio to the playbar, the playbar is instructed to get the audio itself.  If you need to verify this yourself, use the Sonos app to initiate playback of a streaming service, or a file on your NAS, then shutdown the Sonos app.  You could turn on the computer entirely, remove your iOS device from WiFi, etc...the playbar will continue to play.  It’s the same as if you took the batteries out of your TV remote...the TV keeps playing as the video isn’t being process through your TV remote.

Corry’s advice is solid.

The reason why you aren’t hearing any distortion when using the Sonos app is because the audio isn’t coming through your TV to the playbar (Unless you set your source to be TV).  The issue appears to be when you are playing a youtube video and sending the audio from PC to TV to playbar.  Rebooting PC and TV is good, but if that doesn’t work, I would look to isolate the issue to PC or TV.  If you play audio through TV from a cable box or streaming box (not PC), do you still have issues?  If you connect PC audio directly to playbar, do you still have issues?

 

Danny
Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @citizen 

And for what it’s worth, I just tested a game and YouTube playback on my PC, playing via nVidia 3060 HDMI connection to my TV with the Sonos app open in the background and experienced no issues.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
C

Hi there, and thanks again for your input.

I think you are both right, I just had another sound issue with the PC that has nothing to do with the Sonos Windows app. So it looks I will need to isolate the problem between the PC and the TV. I can try a streaming device (can borrow an nVIDIA shield) and connect it to the TV and see how that behaves. Otherwise my PC card has not optical output so I can't try that one out unfortunately as it would have been one of the first things to test.

Thanks for all the suggestions I'll keep monitoring and try to nip it in the bud as they say, some other way.

Just as a matter of interest, the optical link between the Playbar and the TV would be digitally compressed audio or not ? Also the TV has a PCM option (always output in PCM) that I assume works for the optical output, and when I change to this the audio volume seems to drop and also there is some spatial variation to the surround sound … The other two options are Auto 1 (compressed audio without change) and Auto 2 (compressed audio for multi-channel content without change). Auto 1 seems to give a richer and fuller sound overall, but I'm wondering if this option might have something to do with it … would it best just to stick with the PCM instead for the playbar ?

cheers, MM

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @citizen 

In your shoes, my main areas of investigation would be the HDMI cable connecting your PC and TV, and other devices connected to the TV possibly causing the TV to re-evaluate things every so often and produce these problems. If it’s the latter, you may be able to resolve it by disabling CEC on the TV - different manufacturers have different names for CEC, but if you google the manufacturers name and “CEC” you’ll find out what they call it. Please try disabling this feature in the TV’s settings.

Using another device with the same HDMI cable should certainly narrow the possibilities down a bit.

The optical link to the Playbar will be carrying compressed data if playing surround sound audio (Dolby Digital or DTS). When on PCM, the stream will be uncompressed and stereo only. I recommend the use of whatever sounds better to you, but don’t use PCM if you want surround sound (note that if playing games, you will only get stereo PCM from the PC - any surround sound from the PC would have to be pre-recorded and compressed, such as from a movie file).

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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