Sonos stuck playing Stereo PCM

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
September 3, 2025
12 replies
608 views

I'm having an issue with getting 5.1 (always shows SPDIF Stereo PCM in Sonos app) to work despite having the following equipment:

- Beam (gen 1)

- Sub Mini

- 2x Play 1s

I use a nvidia shield for playing media, but unfortunately, my projector does not support audio passthrough or have eARC so I have used a hdmi switch that supports dolby/dts 5.1.

I understand that (without replacing my projector or buying an audio extractor) my current set-up won't work for dolby digital or dolby atmos, but it should still support 5.1.

Any tips to fix this?

Thanks in advance!

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Best answer by Dnydam

I’m confused. The Sonos app doesn’t have the ability to change a format. The speaker (the Beam in this case) plays what it is handed. Which was called out by @106rallye in his second response.

I’m with @nik9669a and @106rallye , in this case, I suspect the issue is your NVIDIA shield isn’t sending the correct format to either your HDMI switch ( and then along via optical to the Beam) or to the TVs involved.

I meant the app displayed that it was updated to HDMI being the input and stereo still remaining the output. Not that it actually was used to change the input/output.

Anyways, just got it working now in Kodi by updating the Kodi audio output settings to "Enable Dolby Digital (AC3) transcoding". Didn't know that wasn't selected and needed to be.

Still not working on Netflix, but I can do without that (unless anybody has a simple fix). My NVIDIA shield is set to have audio output sent as Dolby Digital.

Show previous replies

D

DnydamAuthorAnswer

Contributor I

I’m confused. The Sonos app doesn’t have the ability to change a format. The speaker (the Beam in this case) plays what it is handed. Which was called out by @106rallye in his second response.

I’m with @nik9669a and @106rallye , in this case, I suspect the issue is your NVIDIA shield isn’t sending the correct format to either your HDMI switch ( and then along via optical to the Beam) or to the TVs involved.

I meant the app displayed that it was updated to HDMI being the input and stereo still remaining the output. Not that it actually was used to change the input/output.

Anyways, just got it working now in Kodi by updating the Kodi audio output settings to "Enable Dolby Digital (AC3) transcoding". Didn't know that wasn't selected and needed to be.

Still not working on Netflix, but I can do without that (unless anybody has a simple fix). My NVIDIA shield is set to have audio output sent as Dolby Digital.

N

nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

Just to clarify, for anyone reading this thread at a future time:

The Sonos app simply reports what it’s receiving. SPDIF and HDMI are input connections, not audio formats. The app will report the audio format it’s receiving - eg Stereo or Dolby Digital. The Beam cannot convert formats, so the format of the audio input to the Beam is what matters, and hence my suggestion above.

I’m glad you’ve got something more useable now, @Dnydam.

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