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Shane_17
Contributor I
April 13, 2014
Question

playbar and comittment for DTS playback firmware upgrade

I have just added the Sonos Playbar to my samsung smart TV and have discovered the lack of DTS functionality through reading this forum. I find it disappointing that the best we can get is a stereo effect through the playbar?  My originial search was based on identifying a way of using my existing Onkyo nr509 AV Amp with the playbar however that appears to be a no go option as well. The concept of buying and adding the playbar as a step change to the surround sound system I had has left me feeling I have done the wrong thing?  Slightly cheated in a sense too, I hear what Sonos are saying that the majority of content is streamed and agree we use netflix however I also enjoy having a collection of Bluray discs and feel Sonos should fulfil both requirements.  If anyone can give us an  idea as to when this may be re-considered as it looks like Sonos have closed the subject down from reading through the forums.  Do I revert to my old system and return the Playbar to John Lewis could buy a couple Play3's instead?  
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      214 replies

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      niltomek
      Enthusiast I
      January 2, 2015
      Ok so there are a few options that you can do here, however part of the issue is with the TVs that most people have. Some, very limited TVs have DTS pass-through as well as DD. This means that even when sending DTS or DD TrueHD it will still be converted back to DD 2.0 through the optic out on your TV, if it allows pass-through. I have an Xbox One, but due to the 5yr old TV I have it won't allow me to pass through the setting required, which are stated on the SONOS website. To alleviate this I purchased a small 4 way HDMI switch box with optical out, that does both DTS Master and DD TrueHD. I since tested this with both the PS3 forcing it to only play DTS and using LOTR Extended and choosing DTS 6.1 from the menu. After that I used the Xbox One on Blueray and it was quiet insane. This little product was $98AUS and I think most people would like something like this added into the product.
      Donovan! What's the  make and model of the switch? I need it. Does it actually transcode all audio to DD5.1? If that is the case I reaay want it. If it is PCM Stereo or DD 2.0 out my TV can do that already.
      niltomek
      Enthusiast I
      January 2, 2015
      Ok so there are a few options that you can do here, however part of the issue is with the TVs that most people have. Some, very limited TVs have DTS pass-through as well as DD. This means that even when sending DTS or DD TrueHD it will still be converted back to DD 2.0 through the optic out on your TV, if it allows pass-through. I have an Xbox One, but due to the 5yr old TV I have it won't allow me to pass through the setting required, which are stated on the SONOS website. To alleviate this I purchased a small 4 way HDMI switch box with optical out, that does both DTS Master and DD TrueHD. I since tested this with both the PS3 forcing it to only play DTS and using LOTR Extended and choosing DTS 6.1 from the menu. After that I used the Xbox One on Blueray and it was quiet insane. This little product was $98AUS and I think most people would like something like this added into the product.
      Sorry, found the link below.
      mdekauwe
      Avid Contributor I
      January 2, 2015
      Ok so there are a few options that you can do here, however part of the issue is with the TVs that most people have. Some, very limited TVs have DTS pass-through as well as DD. This means that even when sending DTS or DD TrueHD it will still be converted back to DD 2.0 through the optic out on your TV, if it allows pass-through. I have an Xbox One, but due to the 5yr old TV I have it won't allow me to pass through the setting required, which are stated on the SONOS website. To alleviate this I purchased a small 4 way HDMI switch box with optical out, that does both DTS Master and DD TrueHD. I since tested this with both the PS3 forcing it to only play DTS and using LOTR Extended and choosing DTS 6.1 from the menu. After that I used the Xbox One on Blueray and it was quiet insane. This little product was $98AUS and I think most people would like something like this added into the product.
      That is only 2 channels though?
      niltomek
      Enthusiast I
      January 2, 2015
      Ok so there are a few options that you can do here, however part of the issue is with the TVs that most people have. Some, very limited TVs have DTS pass-through as well as DD. This means that even when sending DTS or DD TrueHD it will still be converted back to DD 2.0 through the optic out on your TV, if it allows pass-through. I have an Xbox One, but due to the 5yr old TV I have it won't allow me to pass through the setting required, which are stated on the SONOS website. To alleviate this I purchased a small 4 way HDMI switch box with optical out, that does both DTS Master and DD TrueHD. I since tested this with both the PS3 forcing it to only play DTS and using LOTR Extended and choosing DTS 6.1 from the menu. After that I used the Xbox One on Blueray and it was quiet insane. This little product was $98AUS and I think most people would like something like this added into the product.
      There's link to the product below. I just can't figure out from the description if the device actually transcodes ALL the stated digital HDMI input formats and outputs a DD5.1 (Sonos compliant) bitstream on the optical????
      mdekauwe
      Avid Contributor I
      January 2, 2015
      Ok so there are a few options that you can do here, however part of the issue is with the TVs that most people have. Some, very limited TVs have DTS pass-through as well as DD. This means that even when sending DTS or DD TrueHD it will still be converted back to DD 2.0 through the optic out on your TV, if it allows pass-through. I have an Xbox One, but due to the 5yr old TV I have it won't allow me to pass through the setting required, which are stated on the SONOS website. To alleviate this I purchased a small 4 way HDMI switch box with optical out, that does both DTS Master and DD TrueHD. I since tested this with both the PS3 forcing it to only play DTS and using LOTR Extended and choosing DTS 6.1 from the menu. After that I used the Xbox One on Blueray and it was quiet insane. This little product was $98AUS and I think most people would like something like this added into the product.
      It only takes a single input. So that is no good if you have a dvd/blu Ray and a satellite box, Apple TV etc
      mdekauwe
      Avid Contributor I
      January 2, 2015
      Ok so there are a few options that you can do here, however part of the issue is with the TVs that most people have. Some, very limited TVs have DTS pass-through as well as DD. This means that even when sending DTS or DD TrueHD it will still be converted back to DD 2.0 through the optic out on your TV, if it allows pass-through. I have an Xbox One, but due to the 5yr old TV I have it won't allow me to pass through the setting required, which are stated on the SONOS website. To alleviate this I purchased a small 4 way HDMI switch box with optical out, that does both DTS Master and DD TrueHD. I since tested this with both the PS3 forcing it to only play DTS and using LOTR Extended and choosing DTS 6.1 from the menu. After that I used the Xbox One on Blueray and it was quiet insane. This little product was $98AUS and I think most people would like something like this added into the product.
      You'd need a different switch but not sure which.
      niltomek
      Enthusiast I
      January 2, 2015
      Ok so there are a few options that you can do here, however part of the issue is with the TVs that most people have. Some, very limited TVs have DTS pass-through as well as DD. This means that even when sending DTS or DD TrueHD it will still be converted back to DD 2.0 through the optic out on your TV, if it allows pass-through. I have an Xbox One, but due to the 5yr old TV I have it won't allow me to pass through the setting required, which are stated on the SONOS website. To alleviate this I purchased a small 4 way HDMI switch box with optical out, that does both DTS Master and DD TrueHD. I since tested this with both the PS3 forcing it to only play DTS and using LOTR Extended and choosing DTS 6.1 from the menu. After that I used the Xbox One on Blueray and it was quiet insane. This little product was $98AUS and I think most people would like something like this added into the product.
      Well, my TV (Philips 55PUS8809/12) actually passes any active HDMI input through to the TOSLINK so it actually works as an auto-switch. Only problem for me is that the stream will be DTS och DD+ if the source is. DTS don't work at all and DD+ gets very frequent audio drop-outs.
      niltomek
      Enthusiast I
      January 3, 2015
      For Christmas I bought myself a top of the line Panasonic Blu-ray player that has the digital optical cable output. I can finally listen to Blu-rays in theater surround sound on my $2000 Sonos home theater system. I also bought a toslink switch so I can run the optical cable directly to my Sonos Playbar from the TV, Apple TV and my new Blu-ray player. 

      The switch worked perfectly, now I have true surround sound when watching Apple TV, the difference is phenomenal. Then I switched to my new Blu-ray player well all the previews sounded really great I'm thinking man this is what it's all about. Surround sound was fantastic just what I wanted. Then the main feature started and no sound I'm thinking what is wrong with my new Blu-ray player perhaps I have a bad disk. So I put in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie and it played perfectly beautiful surround sound. Then I put in another movie and no sound from the feature film, so I cursed my new Blu-ray player, thinking it's the problem.

      Then I started doing research on the internet trying to figure out what's wrong with my new Blu-ray player. Then I came across this thing called DTS and started reading blogs about how the Sonos is not configured to receive the DTS signal. So I just couldn't believe what I was reading that the problem is my Sonos and not the Blu-ray player. Sonos doesn't support DTS what the heck I replaced a perfectly good Panasonic Home Theater system with what I thought at the time was the most innovative advanced sound system I could buy. Well I must say the Playbar sounds beautiful when playing music from the Sonos app. However I feel cheated when I want to use the system as a home theater. Sonos should have never advertised this system as a home theater when in fact it's not. Enhanced 2 channel surround sound is not what I wanted.

        

                    


      Do you get output on the HDMI-ARC when playing from the TV-app?
      Which switch are you using? I'm ready to get one.
      tboheeren
      Trending Lyricist I
      January 5, 2015
      For Christmas I bought myself a top of the line Panasonic Blu-ray player that has the digital optical cable output. I can finally listen to Blu-rays in theater surround sound on my $2000 Sonos home theater system. I also bought a toslink switch so I can run the optical cable directly to my Sonos Playbar from the TV, Apple TV and my new Blu-ray player. 

      The switch worked perfectly, now I have true surround sound when watching Apple TV, the difference is phenomenal. Then I switched to my new Blu-ray player well all the previews sounded really great I'm thinking man this is what it's all about. Surround sound was fantastic just what I wanted. Then the main feature started and no sound I'm thinking what is wrong with my new Blu-ray player perhaps I have a bad disk. So I put in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie and it played perfectly beautiful surround sound. Then I put in another movie and no sound from the feature film, so I cursed my new Blu-ray player, thinking it's the problem.

      Then I started doing research on the internet trying to figure out what's wrong with my new Blu-ray player. Then I came across this thing called DTS and started reading blogs about how the Sonos is not configured to receive the DTS signal. So I just couldn't believe what I was reading that the problem is my Sonos and not the Blu-ray player. Sonos doesn't support DTS what the heck I replaced a perfectly good Panasonic Home Theater system with what I thought at the time was the most innovative advanced sound system I could buy. Well I must say the Playbar sounds beautiful when playing music from the Sonos app. However I feel cheated when I want to use the system as a home theater. Sonos should have never advertised this system as a home theater when in fact it's not. Enhanced 2 channel surround sound is not what I wanted.

        

                    


      I could get HDMI-ARC out of the TV (using a samsung 46F6770). But i'm using http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HDMI-4-Ports-Switcher-Splitter-with-Audio-Output-3D-compatible-with-v1-4-d... I don't think this one supports ARC :-(((
      Jonathan Whybird
      Contributor I
      January 6, 2015
      To the person who suggested contact a lawyer - what a great idea. I am actually a corporate lawyer and had never looked at the Sonos website which says in terms of surround sound "play anything". This is misleading and deceptive and a breach of Australian consumer laws. Time to contact the ACCC
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