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Swap soundbar in surround system


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I currently have a surround system using a sonos beam generation 1 and 2 sonos one.

I have just bought a Sonos beam generation 2 and was thinking about changing my surround system by swapping the Sonos beam Gen 2 with the Gen 1 and using the Gen 1 elsewhere.

Is it worth doing or will it be more hassle than it’s worth?

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Best answer by GuitarSuperstar 4 June 2022, 19:40

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Yes, it is worth swapping. The Beam Gen 2 is a better sound bar than the Gen 1 and supports lossless and Dolby Atmos audio (if your TV supports it).

First, remove the Ones as surrounds from the Beam Gen 1 in the Sonos app. Then rename the room for the Beam Gen 1 to the room it will be moved to. Then set up the Beam Gen 2 using the TV Setup process in the Sonos app. After the Beam has been set up, add the Ones as surrounds.

If you have an iOS device, perform Trueplay tuning for both Beams after you have set them up.

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Thanks for the advice I’ll get on it tomorrow and sort it out.

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I swapped the sound bar and I am experiencing issue that I haven’t had with my Generation 1 Beam.

Basically, my Virginmedia TV 360 only has choices relating to PCM 5.1 and PCM 2.

I have the TV on bitstream so what is happening at the moment with these selections is when streaming Netflix via the Virginmedia TV360 box, it stops streaming and gives me the following error message tvq-pb-101(5.2.15) and I have to log out of Netflix and log back in.

After 3 attempts I have to reset the TV 360 box.

Also with the TV set to bitstream and the TV360 box set to PCM 5.1 or PCM2, the picture on the TV goes off for about 2-3 seconds so I have a black screen.

The screen then resets itself and the picture comes back on.

A bit annoying if you’re watching something.

With both the TV360 and TV set to PCM then all seems to be stable so far.

If I leave both at PCM how will this affect the sound quality through my beam and Sonos One speakers which form my surround sound system.

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PCM 2.0 would not be surround. DD 5.1 is surround.

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Did you mean PCM 5.1 because there is no DD 5.1 available to select on the TV 360 box.

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@Laguna8 Is there an “Always convert” or “Follow content” setting? What is it currently set on?

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Did you mean PCM 5.1 because there is no DD 5.1 available to select on the TV 360 box.

Sorry, I misread your post. That's strange, because many TV channels will send DD 5.1.

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@GuitarSuperstar  

There is a follow content and it is currently set to that.

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@Laguna8 Keep the setting set to “Follow content” and make sure you are using the new Sonos-supplied HDMI cable that came with the Beam (Gen 2). Don’t use the old cable that you used with the Beam (Gen 1).

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@GuitarSuperstar 

I didn’t change the cable, just used the old one so I’ll do that when I get home from work tonight.

Last night with the TV on PCM and the Virgin box on Follow content there was no flickering of the TV or Netflix crashes.

The sound through the speaker was Stereo PCM though.

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@GuitarSuperstar 

Unfortunately changing the cable made no difference at all.

I tried the HDMI setting on the TV using Bitstream and Auto and playing Netflix through the TV 360 box and it was freezing up about every 10-15 minutes.

When the TV and TV360 box were on PCM and follow contents respectively there is no issue at all.

Userlevel 7

@Laguna8 What specific model TV do you have? If you use the TV’s native Netflix app, do you experience any problems or are the problems only when using the 360 box?

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@GuitarSuperstar 
It is a Panasonic 65EZ Series and using Netflix through the TV everything is perfect.

Through the Virgin Media TV 360 box is the only time I have a problem, the Netflix crashes repeatedly and the TV picture flickers unless everything is set to PCM.

It’s really annoying and only started when I swapped the Soundbar to the Gen 2.

Panasonic are so temperamental