How to send ARC regular tv audio on ERA 300 surrounding speakers?

Hi @YvesB014 

Welcome back to the Sonos Community! And, apologies for the delay!

I am not entirely sure I know what you mean. What do you mean by “a regular TV”?

Are you asking if you can route the audio from a second TV to your surround speakers? If so, the answer is no - surround speakers only ever play what they are told to play by the Home Theatre primary (your Arc), and it only accepts input from one TV at a time.

I hope this answers your question.

Hello
Sorry, I must have misspoken.
There is still only one television, connected to a BluRay DVD player.
When I play a DVD with Dolby, the sound is relayed very well in surround from the ARC to the ERA 300.
However, when I only use the TV, i.e. from the terrestrial network, I have no sound in the ERA 300s. Only the ARC emits sound.
So my question is: is it possible to transmit sound to the ERA 300s when watching terrestrial TV (i.e. without Dolby included)? In other words, is it possible to duplicate ARC sound in the ERA 300?
Kind regards

Sounds like terrestrial TV is Stereo, so the surrounds will be silent, as there is no surround audio. Check your TV settings to see if you can get at least Dolby Digital 2.0, which can give a little surround data if properly used.

Normally I would say check the audio type that is being played in the app, it is likely PCM 2.0. But the geniuses have removed that feature from the v80 app.

Hi.  I suspect @Corry P thought you might be referring to two televisions because you wrote “Arc playbar”.  The Arc is a soundbar, as was the Playbar, and older Sonos soundbar.

So getting back to your question, most TV streams are n 2-channel format, so there is just no feed to send to the rear speakers.  The only way to get sound to the rear speakers would be to change them from surrounds to grouped speakers.  That is a bit of a faff every time you want to change.  It is also of questionable value, as dialogue is best coming from where the people are speaking.

Hi @YvesB014 

As you may have gathered, the answer is no.

Basically, Arc will upmix stereo if the quality of the feed is high enough, as @controlav alluded to - if you don’t get it with PCM, you can try switching to Dolby 2.0 and vice versa. It is not true surround sound, however. As this is always active, there’s no way to duplicate the stereo channels to the surrounds.

I’ll tag this thread as a feature request to have the option to duplicate the front channels to the rears, but this has been requested before without result so my guess is that was decided it would be too easy for users to then mistakenly think they have surround sound when they actually do not. It could be added though, so a feature request it is!

I hope this helps.

Thanks
I set my Sony Bravia TV to Dolby Digital 2 with the HDMI ARC connected to the ARC soundbar.
This configuration is detected by the Sonos app / control center on the smartphone.
But nothing audible comes out of the ERA 300.
Is there a way to independently increase the sound on the ERA 300?

What is the source for TV?  Cable? Dish? OTA?  If cable or Dish, make sure the cable/Dish box is set to digital output and (at least) Dolby Digital format.

Hi @YvesB014 

Our Change surround audio settings help page explains it all. You’ll want to increase the TV Level setting.

I hope this helps.

I also did not get ERA 300 sound with the activated PCM option of my TV...

Is the signal from the tv stereo 2.0 or 5.1? It may show as “Stereo PCM”. If there is no surround/effects information you will get no sound from the Eras.
 

There is no setting for “send the front channel sound to my rear speakers as well”, if that’s what you’re trying to do. 

I can't work out what the Dolby level is on the Sony Bravia 4K GB ATV3 television. In any case, the PCM audio option instead of Audio1 or Audio2 (compressed multichannel sound) greatly reduces the volume of sound emitted by the ARC soundbar.
When I play a Dolby DV, the TV allows surrounding. But the sound of the ERA 300 remains very weak, almost inaudible.
Is there any way of increasing the volume of the ERA 300 independently of the ARC soundbar?

On the other hand, when I want to listen to the radio, the Soundbar and ERA 300 work together. Why can't I have the same thing with terrestrial TV.

well, it seems that depending on the source (terrestrial TV, film recorded on the box, etc.) surround diffusion works, but not as well as I would like in the ERA 300s, the surround adjustment making little difference...
So I'll settle for this...

Too bad, considering the price of these units...

It’s not the speakers that are at fault, from what you’ve posted: it’s your expectations.
 

As we keep telling you, the Eras are rear effects speakers in a DD/Atmos setup. They will sound, for example, when the movie has a plane flying overhead. But for general dialogue the Arc has responsibilities. 
 

I believe you can get programs that are test tones that play to each speaker in turn. Try playing that and see how your setup is. 

you're very probably right, so the best thing is that when I'm listening to TV, which is quite a distance away, I unmute the ERA 300s and switch them from surround to coupled to the ARC.
That's the best way to comfortably hear the TV, isn't it?