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Question

Xbox Series S Doesn't Like Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and is Now Causing Live TV to be PCM

  • 11 June 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 42 views

Hi all. I hope you don't mind me asking for some help. I've seen some posts but can't seem to solve my issue.

I have a TCL 50RP620K Roku TV with a Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series S connected. I previously had a Sonos Ray and two Ones as surrounds with this setup and all worked perfectly.

I recently upgraded to a Beam (Gen 2) again with the Ones as surrounds. This meant moving around my connections so the Beam could take HDMI1 which is the only one with ARC.

The Switch works as normal. However, this created a lag with the Xbox. I couldn't play anything as the lag was affecting the control of the game. From checking connections and settings, and moving the Beam to another HDMI input, I discovered that when the Beam was disconnected, the Xbox went back to normal. I was able to solve the Xbox issue by selecting "Passthrough" instead of "Auto" under "Digital output format" from my TV's audio settings.

However, with this selected, audio for live TV is now coming up as PCM where this was previously Dolby Digital and sounded much better. I've tried changing options on the Xbox's audio settings but this has made no difference.

I'm wondering is there anything else I can try to get everything working together again like it was with the Ray? Or do I need to manually change my TV audio's settings between "Auto" and "Passthrough" each time I want to play the Xbox or watch live TV? Thanks for your help!

3 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Passthrough is the correct option for TV audio to avoid the delay. You just need to figure out why Live TV is sending as PCM instead of Dolby Digital. (Assuming Live TV is from the TV, that would be a TV setting somewhere).

Passthrough is the correct option for TV audio to avoid the delay. You just need to figure out why Live TV is sending as PCM instead of Dolby Digital. (Assuming Live TV is from the TV, that would be a TV setting somewhere).

Thanks for your response, controlav. I appreciate the confirmation that “Passthrough” is correct. I have looked through the TV manual and settings again and can’t see any option to choose the live TV audio. The Ray never had this issue, so it’s a bit of a nuisance to have a better quality soundbar with the Beam but receive poorer audio.

Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Passthrough is the correct option for TV audio to avoid the delay. You just need to figure out why Live TV is sending as PCM instead of Dolby Digital. (Assuming Live TV is from the TV, that would be a TV setting somewhere).

Thanks for your response, controlav. I appreciate the confirmation that “Passthrough” is correct. I have looked through the TV manual and settings again and can’t see any option to choose the live TV audio. The Ray never had this issue, so it’s a bit of a nuisance to have a better quality soundbar with the Beam but receive poorer audio.

This TV appears to be limited to ARC, so it should offer similar audio options to the Ray (as ARC is basically optical-over-HDMI). Ask TCL how to get DD from the Live TV signal.

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