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Question

Speaker output goes to SPDIF instead of HDMI


Sometimes, when we select TV as our source, it gives us sound from our Sonos Beam, but not our additional living room speakers. When we try to add those speakers and hit Apply, we lose all sound, and “SPDIF: shows under the TV audio label instead of HDMI. 

Why does this setting get turned on and how do we avoid it?

26 replies

Are you attempting to setup a surround system?

Userlevel 1

No. We’ve had this setup of just our tv (set up with Beam soundbar) and two external speakers that connect a Sonos Amp to Connect for quite a while.

It seems the latest app updates are far from being improvements, and maybe this is one more glitch to add to the list  


 

I have a similar issue, playing audio from tv to beam.. I used to be able to play this audio on my move paired with the beam. Does not work now after this new upgrade. I can play other audio on the pair just not the tv optical output. It only plays on the beam. 

Same issue, my ARC has bee attached to my TV for 16 months and was working fine. Now sonos app want to play everything on SPDIF which is the TV speaker. This new update stinks.

This has happened to me too. Has taken out the arc and the sub in the tv room.

anyone help with a fix? Please

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I have the same issue on my arc sl. Can someone flag this for support to issue a fix? 

 

 

Today I was trying to play audio from tv to living room (beam plus two ones) and to media room, which has speakers connected through amp, the source showed as TV SPDIF although it is connected as HDMI. When TV was selected as source and when I  selected living room (where beam and two ones are located) and media room, I got nothing. Sound does play through beam and the ones, but would not play through media room.  I am pretty certain I used to be able to do this.

I believe there are a number of us affected by some issues not previously noted.

i resolved my issue by disconnecting hdmi leads and power, resetting my tv autoplay and reconnecting. 
For my situation I will avoid playing direct audio through my tv room surround system.

Best of luck with your challenge

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Sonos Amp in my music room claims it is playing sound from “TV Audio SPDIF.”  I have no idea what that is. Moreover, I can’t use the Sonos app to stop or pause sound from this supposed source. Not that anything is playing anyway. 

I have a Sonos Arc with a Sonos Sub and a Sonos Amp for the rear channels. The Arc is connected to a Samsung TV via eARC. There is no SPDIF in the system anywhere. WTF?

Of course, if I want to play audio from the TV / Sonos home theater setup to other Sonos speakers in the house, I can’t.  It seems there’s no way to do that anymore.

Is there a reason Sonos hasn’t fired everyone associated with the new app? What a disaster. 

Userlevel 2
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Sometimes, when we select TV as our source, it gives us sound from our Sonos Beam, but not our additional living room speakers. When we try to add those speakers and hit Apply, we lose all sound, and “SPDIF: shows under the TV audio label instead of HDMI. 

Why does this setting get turned on and how do we avoid it?

Same now happening to us when playing from TV. No SPDIF, all hdmi. Just started appearing. Super weird. 

Did anyone find a solution to this issue?

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No. Someone from Sonos support help!

Sonos Support doesn’t live in these forums, only Sonos Forum moderators, of which there are very few. 

I would recommend that you make sure your Sonos is up to date with both software (controller) and firmware (speakers), and then  submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

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Thanks. Sounds like a good plan. :)

May be slightly painful, in terms of waiting, but they’re much more likely to have an answer than this community is ;)

I called Sonos tech support when this issue came up. The guy seemed unaware that others were experiencing this problem. He ha me do a number of things to try to fix the problem—hard reset, swap HDMI cable— but none worked. His solution? Send me a new Sonos HDMI cable. Just arrived this morning. I’m skeptical, to say the least. I’ll update this post after I’ve had a chance to make the switch.

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Hey at least you got a new HDMI cable!

Don’t overlook the silly. In a few cases the HDMI cable was not making full contact in its socket. Sometimes a little extra push is necessary.

I have the same issue! No red light from the optical cable coming out of the back of my Playbar. Was gone out of the house for a week and came back and had this issue. Any progress or fixes? Also seeing the SPDIF input instead of HDMI

I’m concerned about your post…the red light comes out of the TV, and is transmitted to the PLAYBAR. There is no red light emitted by the Sonos. 

Because you’re using SPDIF, with a PLAYBAR, that’s what you should be seeing. Unless you don’t have a PLAYBAR, but instead a Sonos soundbar that uses ARC.

This is what I see. And I’ve turned my Samsung TV to “optical” for audio output, but I don’t hear anything. Previously, it said “HDMI” under TV AUDIO on the Sonos app, but now it says SPDIF and the audio has stopped working

 

Same issue.  Lv Rm plays TV HDMI and the other 2 amps Back Porch and Kitchen only read SPDIF.  No way to switch this.  Any help?  When you go to Source the only option is TV Audio.  Sure would like to play Youtube concerts over the whole system.  What a novel idea.  Analog never has this problem.  Found the receivers on both the TV and Data Room and both are hooked up to ARC In and ARC Out.  Wondering if I switch this to SPDIF In and SPDIF Out.  But my guess is I will lose TV Audio Sound?  Do i need to power down the whole system in order to make this change?

 

I have the same issues. Samsung frame connected to Sonos Arc but app says SPDIF and no audio coming through Arc, only using TV audio. Started happening immediately after update.

Here is what worked for me -

  1. Pushed in the HDMI more firmly at both the tv and ARC end. Changed audio settings under advanced on tv to eARC (maybe overwritten by a Samsung update rather than Sonos?) as it wasn’t correctly set. Then set up tv in Sonos app and suddenly went from SPDIF to HDMI! Hooray! Hope it works for anyone else with similar issues.

I think it’s a Samsung issue. Most people here so far have said Samsung. Only thing I have found that fixes this every time is resetting Samsung tv back to factory default settings. Once I do this will go back to normal. 

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