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Ya know how we have the option for full stereo or ambient when listening to music in a full 5.1 sonos stet-up?  Can we get that with TV output as well, please?  There is still plenty of content that is stereo output on many internet streams and traditional media.  Having full stereo helps create an enveloping sound field when outputted via the playbar and the surrounds.
Me too but mainly when watching or listening to music channels on TV or music based smart TV content. There should be a 'music' button between 'speech enhancement' and 'night mode' that uses the 'full' or 'ambient' setting of the app
Also want a full stereo option when watching TV....
Sounds good to me, please sonos make this an option.
I want that too
I was just thinking about this while watching a football game the other day. Excellent feature request.
I am an installer and would also like to have a multi-channel stereo option.  Most clients want to fill the room with sound when watching basic TV.
I have the SONOS system (PlayBar, SUB, 2x Play:1) but have not recommended it to anyone, because I am disappointed for multiple reasons. Mainly the issue described in this thread.



I'm definitely no audio-techie, and not interested in becoming one. I just wanted nice "surround sound" when listening music and watching TV, without any cables. I understand that there are different "kinds" of surround sound, and that "real" 5.1 surround sound sometimes isn't available, but can be emulated. My very, very oldskool old wired amplifier had this option and this worked fine for me. Sound "from around" is real enough surround sound for me.



Now I have a new "modern" SONOS system, and my back speakers are almost silent most of the time; main volume blaring from the Playbar just in front of the TV. So the back speakers are almost useless to say the least.

Reading the forum I have to conclude this is by design, so maybe I should have done more research. Some lessons are (much...) more expensive than others apparently.

As far as support goes, I also would NOT like to be reminded of the room/surround-settings. Of course I've fiddled around with ALL the settings, but none of them had the desired result. If this is a feature that can be build in then I definitely recommend doing so, to prevent users from being felt ripped off.
Same as previous post. As electronics dealers/installers, it is very difficult for us to offer Sonos as a living room solution when we know that the rear speakers will barely play at all for most of our customers' everday programming. As mentioned, your system sounds great when a multichannel signal is coming in, coded with surround sound, but rears are almost always completely silent for most TV viewing and other stereo sources. "Multichannel Stereo" is a standard feature on just about every A/V receiver, and we'd love to offer Sonos as a competitive alternative. We simply can't do that in good conscience until the rear speakers can EASILY be switched to a room filling, all-channel stereo mode... Thank you for listening.
Me too but mainly when watching or listening to music channels on TV or music based smart TV content. There should be a 'music' button between 'speech enhancement' and 'night mode' that uses the 'full' or 'ambient' setting of the app



If thisis possible that would be a massive benifit to me as well.



Most of out TV is Stereo and the surrounds are redundant, would be nice for them to fill the space.
Add me to the list as well.  I would love to be able to play full stereo sound to by "rear" speakers paired with my playbar while watching fooltball and other TV shows/movies.  Where is SONOS' response on this issue? 
Multichannel-Stereo is a BASIC functionality of every A/V Receiver since about 2003... I really cannot fathom how Sonos could even bring the Playbar to market without this feature. The current way 2.0 (Stereo) TV Sources are handled is abysmal for most content and lacking for the rest.Please fix this!
Sonos for some reason hates user toggles.  To an extreme extent that keeps them from adding some versatility.  It seems to be a design philosophy that they still try to hold on to - although I have to say the market is dictating they start making some exceptions.I find the philosophy too ridged.  Especially with the playbar since they already have 2 user toggles in night mode and vocal enhance.  May as well add a Stereo mode one too.
Holy crap. I just came across this thread.



So I assume you have a 5.1 setup (LCR in front, LS, RS in rear, .1 as the LFE). Regardless of your preprocessor, when you device gets device gets a stereo signal (Left and Right, 2.0 channels) from say a music source, It will play Left and Right. But you want it to play through all six speakers. Well therein lies your problem. Stereo is a two channel signal, and you want it to play 5.1. Some systems call this "party" mode. Sonos isn't doing anything wrong, it is just playing the signal it decodes. Maybe that's not what you want, but it's not wrong.



Think about it this way. When you watch a movie that was originally recorded in black and white, do you expect to see it in color on your new $3,000 flat screen? No, because the information was not there in the first place. So for Sonos, or any manufacture for that matter, they have to "colorize" the sound by adding a "party mode" feature, basically fill up the extra channels. But again, currently I don't think they aren't doing anything wrong.



Some of my audio systems have a 5CH Stereo (kind of a colorized black and white) mode, same kind thing.

Andrew




You are technically correct but in my opinion your analogy with a black & white movie is disingenuous. A better analogy would be if you bought a new 4K TV and watched a 1080p source you would expect the TV to upscale it to 4K. Now of course this wouldn't be native 4K - the TV is just approximating the extra non-existent pixels from those around them - but this more comparable to 'upscaling' stereo by duplicating the left channel to the left surround and the right channel to the right surround.



So while they aren't doing anything wrong (just as a 4K TV displaying 1080p content at its native res isn't doing anything wrong) it would be nice to have the option to duplicate stereo to the surrounds.



+1 from me for this trivial software tweak of a feature - seriously, how can this have been unacknowledged for almost a year??
Hi Folks,



There's some great discussion here. I know this thread is a bit old, but it's been pretty active lately. Adding a toggle for the surrounds to turn them into multi-channel stereo is a great suggestion. In fact, the full option for music playback on the rear speakers came from customers requesting that feature.



As always, we can't comment on possible future products or features. This feature request has been noted though. We'll be sure to make an announcement as soon as we have something we can share.
yes pretty please add a full stereo option for tv audio. The full music audio is great, non surround tv would benefit greatly using those rear speakers.

Thanks
Hi Folks,



There's some great discussion here. I know this thread is a bit old, but it's been pretty active lately. Adding a toggle for the surrounds to turn them into multi-channel stereo is a great suggestion. In fact, the full option for music playback on the rear speakers came from customers requesting that feature.



As always, we can't comment on possible future products or features. This feature request has been noted though. We'll be sure to make an announcement as soon as we have something we can share.




thanks Jeff - nice to see this finally acknowledged - hopefully a software update will follow soon 🙂
Another request for adding a toggle for the surrounds to turn them into multi-channel stereo.

Any updates so far ? I feel like this request would not be the most difficult to implement and would make a lot of Sonos 5.1 owners happy.

Thanks.
Wow. Three-year-old thread and this must have feature is still not there. Sonos are you listening?
+++++1



I would love to have this feature, we have a Sonos One in the kitchen and would like to still hear the TV while cooking.



Please Sonos add this feature.




Not really what this thread is about. If you wish to hear TV over your Sonos units that are not set up as surrounds, simply group it with your TV room.
I want that too

I want, don't get
I definitely wanted to add my vote for this capability! When I have non-surround inputs - I want my speakers to still work! See below for the support request to Sonos. They recommended adding a vote to this forum and hopefully the capability will be added. I purchased a set of Sonos for my media room a few days ago and have been putting it through its paces. For the most part have had a great experience, but am having some trouble with the play 3s (part of a playbar / sub / boost / play 3 / play 3 surround sound setup) My surrounds (play 3s) go silent with certain media (stereo inputs?). For example, watching Andy Griffith on Netflix or playing an audio book on Kindle through the TV using Air Play. Newer netflix content and and TV programs through Verizon FIOS seem to work fine with the surround system. For non surround sound content, I was expecting some way still use the speakers, even if the sound is not just a surround sound speaker channel. Am I missing a setting? Any guidance is appreciated.
I think it should be an option right beside night mode
10 months on and still no official response ?!!  How hard can this be ?Users do it already using the very tedious process of unbonding & grouping their rear speakers then the 're-bonding' setup again.  Problem with this (aside from the steps involved) is the delay that is inherent in grouping vs bonding.  Why not a button that can simulate this effect of grouping but without the delay ? 
OMG, this is basic stereo functionality. I cannot believe that you all have been begging for this for over a year, and no response from Sonos. I bought my system yesterday ($2000) and am frustrated that this basic mode, is non-existent. I agree with whoever made the comment about using this mode for football games too, in addition to what I asked for in the other blog.



I have 14 days to return this system. I do like the sound and the surround and the idea behind it.... but this is discouraging.
Another vote for this!!! PLEASE Sonos add this to the under consideration list and get it into Beta.



You've already given us the functionality to choose between ambient and full playback when playing music through the Sonos App. Surely it can't be that much harder to give us the same option when playing music through the TV or other external source. We can already achieve it by unlinking the surrounds and regrouping as a stereo pair (and then back again next time we want to watch TV). But that's way too clunky and manual for such a slick sophisticated system (and now you've made that method even more time consuming by prompting us to retune Trueplay each time we de-link and regroup - so much so that i'm now skipping the Trueplay step which surely defeats the object of you spending months developing it!!!)



Come on Sonos, where are you on this??????