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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Case in point 1) I just went through a selection (old to new) of my blu-ray collection and about half were DTS. If I don't have a blu-ray player that supports transcoding I cannot use these discs with the Playbar. Point to note, the newer movies had a much higher percentage of only carrying DTS tracks (Sonos take note - this problem is only going to get worse for you).
Case in point 2) - on the Sonos web site these exact words are stated in the home theatre section "With four versatile performers – PLAYBAR, SUB, and a pair of rear speakers – you’ve got immersive 5.1 sound. And with it? The power to play anything and make it sound amazing."
Actually - you cant play anything. In many countries including the one I live in, this is called misleading advertising.
Case in point 3) - on the specific Playbar page it says these words "Plays all sources plugged in to your HD TV: satellite boxes, Blu-Ray players, and video game consoles. If it’s connected to your HD TV, PLAYBAR will play it."
Actually, you can't. Once again totally misleading advertising.
Case in point 4) - a huge proportion of Sonos sales will be done in stores like BestBuy (US), MediaMarkt (mainland Europe), and Currys/PC World (UK) where badly informed sales people who don't know better will sell a Playbar to a customer who at best has quickly read the 'info' on the Sonos website. Rightly or wrongly, the huge majority of consumers do not do vast amounts of research before buying products - people like that are in the minority.
This is all constructive feedback. No whining here. Nothing but pure and simple facts. I am sure there are plenty of people who are sufficiently disgruntled with Sonos to raise the misleading advertising with the trading standards organisations in their respective countries. I personally am not one of them as for 'music in every room', Sonos is hard to beat. But they have to stop misleading people about their home theatre credentials....
Was sarcastic about the lawyer... My point was if your not happy about something do something to fix it. I put it in the box and stop worrying about that.
@Donovan, you just proved my point. This is not an HiFi home theater system and it is good only for the average Joe (shit that's my name!)
Happy new year!
Case in point 1) I just went through a selection (old to new) of my blu-ray collection and about half were DTS. If I don't have a blu-ray player that supports transcoding I cannot use these discs with the Playbar. Point to note, the newer movies had a much higher percentage of only carrying DTS tracks (Sonos take note - this problem is only going to get worse for you).
Case in point 2) - on the Sonos web site these exact words are stated in the home theatre section "With four versatile performers – PLAYBAR, SUB, and a pair of rear speakers – you’ve got immersive 5.1 sound. And with it? The power to play anything and make it sound amazing."
Actually - you cant play anything. In many countries including the one I live in, this is called misleading advertising.
Case in point 3) - on the specific Playbar page it says these words "Plays all sources plugged in to your HD TV: satellite boxes, Blu-Ray players, and video game consoles. If it’s connected to your HD TV, PLAYBAR will play it."
Actually, you can't. Once again totally misleading advertising.
Case in point 4) - a huge proportion of Sonos sales will be done in stores like BestBuy (US), MediaMarkt (mainland Europe), and Currys/PC World (UK) where badly informed sales people who don't know better will sell a Playbar to a customer who at best has quickly read the 'info' on the Sonos website. Rightly or wrongly, the huge majority of consumers do not do vast amounts of research before buying products - people like that are in the minority.
This is all constructive feedback. No whining here. Nothing but pure and simple facts. I am sure there are plenty of people who are sufficiently disgruntled with Sonos to raise the misleading advertising with the trading standards organisations in their respective countries. I personally am not one of them as for 'music in every room', Sonos is hard to beat. But they have to stop misleading people about their home theatre credentials....
@ Joe. Lol, that's exactly what i did. Bought a Yamaha system for the TV. But until Sonos do something about their advertising others are going to go the same way you did and I nearly did :-D
@ Donovan. A lot of the Dolby Digital tracks are not the main feature audio though. For instance, the Dolby Digital track on Spiderman 2 is actually descriptive track for the visually impaired - i found that out the funny way :-)
I totally agree with your comments on the music front, Sonos is awesome for that, but your comments about the 1 in 100 just goes to prove that there will be a whole load of people getting a Playbar home and wondering why they are not getting any audio from their blu-rays.
Me? For now I will use Sonos for nothing but music - for which it is great.
Last comment from me 🙂
Userlevel 6
+16
Every one complaining about Sonos Playbar lack of DTS then sell it to me, I'll offer you £175 a PlayBar boxed with all the leads etc, and if you selling your Play 1, 3, or 5's then I'll have them too
I'll sell you mine for £1000 because you find the product so awesome.
Userlevel 6
+16
Clearly your understanding of turning a profit matches your understanding of the sonos PlayBar
Userlevel 1
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.
Nobody?
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.
Does the Netflix app output DTS from the SmartHub app then?
Userlevel 1
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'm sorry if I wasn't clear. This is not (directly) related to the DTS issue. I use a hdmi switch to bypass my tv that blocks DD5.1 and DTS. Because of this, there is no direct link between the tv and the playbar. So every INPUT device that is connected to the switch gets its sound perfectly. But the tv is no input device on the switch so when I play something from the smarthub there is of course no sound.
There are options for Blu-rays that encode the audio track in DTS if you're seeking full 5.1 via Dolby Digital. There are several models of blu-ray player available which are capable of transcoding from DTS to Dolby, and the Xbox One is capable of doing this as well (if you happen to be an Xbox owner).
We're always evaluating industry trends for future developments but at this time the other posters are correct - there are no plans to implement DTS for the PLAYBAR in the future.
I have purchased a converter and now a bluray samsung h6500 and still getting no sound from my tv to soundbar .I will be returning sound bar as I am afraid if I buy a tv it will be non compatible also.shame.
There are options for Blu-rays that encode the audio track in DTS if you're seeking full 5.1 via Dolby Digital. There are several models of blu-ray player available which are capable of transcoding from DTS to Dolby, and the Xbox One is capable of doing this as well (if you happen to be an Xbox owner).
We're always evaluating industry trends for future developments but at this time the other posters are correct - there are no plans to implement DTS for the PLAYBAR in the future.
User 176094. I had to change the audio settings on my F6500 to transcode DTS to DD5.1 and from the H6500 manual it looks like the same is required. Have you tried this or just used it "out of the box"? And when you say "no sound from tv to soundbar" what do you mean exactly? What have you got connected to what? What sort of converter do you have? I'm very confident this can be made to work for you. John
There are options for Blu-rays that encode the audio track in DTS if you're seeking full 5.1 via Dolby Digital. There are several models of blu-ray player available which are capable of transcoding from DTS to Dolby, and the Xbox One is capable of doing this as well (if you happen to be an Xbox owner).
We're always evaluating industry trends for future developments but at this time the other posters are correct - there are no plans to implement DTS for the PLAYBAR in the future.
Just connected the blu ray john from box so will try change settings later.basically my sound bar is only playing music wireless tru deezer etc bit my problem is getting sound from my tv. I have a HDMI cable going from tv to blu ray and optical out put to playbar. The converter was a cheap option but have been informed my tv output didn't supporter the converter.will try and change the audio settings when I regain my sanity. Thanks for reply. Get there eventually.
There are options for Blu-rays that encode the audio track in DTS if you're seeking full 5.1 via Dolby Digital. There are several models of blu-ray player available which are capable of transcoding from DTS to Dolby, and the Xbox One is capable of doing this as well (if you happen to be an Xbox owner).
We're always evaluating industry trends for future developments but at this time the other posters are correct - there are no plans to implement DTS for the PLAYBAR in the future.
Hi again User 176094. If your HDMI is going from your Blu-ray out to an HDMI input on your TV, and the optical from your Blu-ray to the Playbar then there is no way for the TV to talk to the Playbar (although I'm not clear where you have the optical coming from, the BR or the TV). Try the following as two separate experiments:
1 With connections HDMI from BR out to TV in, optical from BR to Playbar, set the Blu-ray audio settings to show "Bitstream (re-encoded Dolby D)". Play a DTS encoded Blu-ray and see if you get sound. You can check in your Sonos controller app that you are getting DD5.1.
2. Take the optical out of the Blu-ray and run from the TV instead. You should get sound from the TV. Play your Blu-ray again - you should get sound but likely to be stereo only because processed through the TV.
I'm assuming in all this that you have done the full Playbar set up as specified in the booklet that comes with the Playbar.
Please post back the results and we'll go from there.
John
There are options for Blu-rays that encode the audio track in DTS if you're seeking full 5.1 via Dolby Digital. There are several models of blu-ray player available which are capable of transcoding from DTS to Dolby, and the Xbox One is capable of doing this as well (if you happen to be an Xbox owner).
We're always evaluating industry trends for future developments but at this time the other posters are correct - there are no plans to implement DTS for the PLAYBAR in the future.
Hi John, no luck when I change audio settings to re-encoded Dolby D plus my tv reception is very poor since I connected blu ray player?. I will cut my losses on blu ray player,feeling tv is just not compatible but I have come up with another option. In another Room I have a sky HD box and playbar works perfectly with that I might just bring all my cables in to main room and work play bar off sky HD box till I upgrade tv. A lot of hassle but at least I know it will work.Regards james.
There are options for Blu-rays that encode the audio track in DTS if you're seeking full 5.1 via Dolby Digital. There are several models of blu-ray player available which are capable of transcoding from DTS to Dolby, and the Xbox One is capable of doing this as well (if you happen to be an Xbox owner).
We're always evaluating industry trends for future developments but at this time the other posters are correct - there are no plans to implement DTS for the PLAYBAR in the future.
Fair enough James. If connecting a Blu-ray affects your TV reception then something VERY strange is going on. If you can face one more go then the full set of audio settings that I use is:
Digital Output - Bitstream (re-encoded Dolby D)
PCM Downsampling - On
Dynamic Range Control - Auto
Downmixing Mode -Surround Compatible
DTS Neo:6 Mode - Off
And to test the Blu-ray you must run the optical cable from the BR to the Playbar.
Good luck!
John
Userlevel 6
+16
Does anyone know if my TV supports DTS to DD and would adding a Blue-Ray work, my Toslink is TV to PlayBar and so far all okay. TV is http://www.panasonic.com/uk/consumer/viera-televisions/led/tx-58ax802b.specs.html
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.
Sorry, found the link below.
That is only 2 channels though?
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????
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
You'd need a different switch but not sure which.
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.
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.
Userlevel 1
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 :-(((
Userlevel 1
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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