Why won't Sonos allow wireless audio streaming for movies from Mac/PC?

You might find some useful suggestions here.

I appreciate the link, but it doesn't help. I'm not interested in complicated or inconvenient work arounds. I'd like to know why Sonos isn't doing something about this. I'd like an explanation. Here's what I came up with for their reasons. I'm assuming they prefer to fine tune the sound of their speakers by also having a degree of control over fine-tuning the sources through their app. Having it be a blind output device on a Mac/PC, would remove that degree of optimal fine-tuning, as you could throw any app at it, and it may or may not sound optimal. But the I suppose my theory is challenged, because the Play 5 has an Aux-In, which makes it capable of being a blind output device.

I appreciate the link, but it doesn't help. I'm not interested in complicated or inconvenient work arounds. I'd like to know why Sonos isn't doing something about this. I'd like an explanation. Here's what I came up with for their reasons. I'm assuming they prefer to fine tune the sound of their speakers by also having a degree of control over fine-tuning the sources through their app. Having it be a blind output device on a Mac/PC, would remove that degree of optimal fine-tuning, as you could throw any app at it, and it may or may not sound optimal. But the I suppose my theory is challenged, because the Play 5 has an Aux-In, which makes it capable of being a blind output device.
As you are aware this isn't possible at the moment, please refer to our answer here. There's some good advice there as well. Otherwise I recommend you contribute to the conversation in the idea thread, hopefully it will be possible in the near future.

Hi User 529764, based on Sonos inaction on anything other than what suits them, a cynic might suggest that the reason is that they wouldn't make a buck out of this. I'd love Sonos to prove me wrong but, hey, we're only customers and have already bought all their hardware so we are no longer their market...

Hi there Mohammed H, Official Rep.

Both your answers are incredibly patronizing and smarmy - as well as totally unsatisfying and unhelpful, of which you are clearly aware.

Being arrogant utterly fails to conceal your company's indifference to YEARS of customer complaints and requests.

One possible reason is that streaming movies from a PC would result in the sound being out of sync with the video due to encoding and caching delays. The only reason a Playbar can handle movie audio is because of the special low latency link built into it. This could not be reproduced in a PC application without special hardware on the PC side to support it.

Irrelevant, streaming audio from a PC has been done over uPnP, why this isn't a supported feature is beyond me - and with an increasingly lucrative batch of alternative systems, Sonos need to stop sitting on their laurels and innovate for the first time in about 8 years; Bose, LG, Pure and HK are hot on their heels - Bose a serious contender for replacing the 2 x Connect, 2 x Play:3 and 1 x Play:1 in my house

Here's a solution I just tried, and found that actually works  for sound! (I'm assuming that the video and sound would be out of sync).

I would assume that SONOS might be able to offer a similar solution, unless (of course) licensing issues prevent them from doing it without permission from Apple.  (Don't know... just speculating here).

This software solution provides an "airplay" driver on your mac that points to one of your Sonos players.  Once it's installed, you use it with three simple steps.

Step 1)  Open a terminal prompt (command prompt) and type airsonos.  This starts the driver.
Don't close the session.  It's OK to minimize the window.

Step 2) You use the Mac's "System Preferences..." , "Sound" to select the sonos as the output for your sound.  Now, play some music on your mac, and turn up the volume, and the sound comes out of your Sonos" instead of your Mac.   No wires.  No hassle.

Step 3) Grin from ear to ear as any and all Mac sound streams wirelessly to your Sonos!

HERE'S HOW TO INSTALL THE DRIVERS, 
PLUS LINKS TO WHERE I FOUND THE SOLUTION.

(I can't take credit for creating it, but I'm so happy to have found it... thank you Stephen! ... that I'm willing to share it far and wide!)

airsonos a Node.js application, and it's free!   

You need to install the right version of Node.js (it's an older version),

and then you need to use npm (the Node package manager) which will download, compile and i

install airsonos.   It's all pretty easy.  You don't need more than basic computer skills to get it done.

-----------------------------

I found info here:  

 https://medium.com/@stephencwan/hacking-airplay-into-sonos-93a41a1fcfbb

and installation instructions here:

https://github.com/stephen/airsonos

IMPORTANT NOTE: It states it requires Node.js version v0.10.33 or greater.

I tried it with the current release of Node.js (v0.12.xx) and it wouldn't compile. 

When I downloaded and installed Node.js version v0.10.33, and then tried to install it everything worked!

Here are the brief instructions:

Step 1)

Download Node.js v0.10.33 from here: 

http://blog.nodejs.org/2014/10/23/node-v0-10-33-stable/

or use google to find it.

Step 2) Run the install (node-v0.10.33.pkg) to install Node.js

Step 3)  Open a terminal prompt, and at the command line type:

sudo npm install airsonos -g

This will cause the npm (the node package manager) to download, compile and install airsonos and the packages it requires.  It took about 5 or 10 minutes to complete.

Now it's installed!

To use it, it's two simple steps:

*** First) open a terminal and at the command prompt type:

  airsonos

./

You should see output similar to:

MacBook-Pro:~user$ airsonos 

Searching for Sonos devices on network...

Setting up AirSonos for Basement {192.168.0.10:1400}

Setting up AirSonos for Office {192.168.0.20:1400}

On my machine these messages were repeated several times.  

LEAVE THE TERMINAL WINDOW.  Don't close it, or kill the airsonos app.

It *IS* OK to minimize the window.

*** Second)

Go to system preferences... (under the apple menu), select "Sound" and for "Output" create one of the airsonos outputs.  For instance, in my situation I selected .

"Office (AirSonos)                  AirPlay".

Now play some music on your mac, turn up the volume on your mac, and listen the music come out through Sonos!

This is awesome.  You can now send steaming services to Sonos, you can output your itunes music to sonos.  Want to hear a playlist of songs from youtube... done,  amazon music prime... it now works!, etc, etc.

Many, many thanks to Stephen for creating this and sharing the info.

I didn't create any of this, I'm just sharing the information since I've wanted this feature for so long, I'm happy to finally find a quality solution that works!

-Phil

Irrelevant, streaming audio from a PC has been done over uPnP, why this isn't a supported feature is beyond me - and with an increasingly lucrative batch of alternative systems, Sonos need to stop sitting on their laurels and innovate for the first time in about 8 years; Bose, LG, Pure and HK are hot on their heels - Bose a serious contender for replacing the 2 x Connect, 2 x Play:3 and 1 x Play:1 in my house
Yeah, I agree. Beginning to hire/consult the Airsonos developer to make it an official APP 

Irrelevant, streaming audio from a PC has been done over uPnP, why this isn't a supported feature is beyond me - and with an increasingly lucrative batch of alternative systems, Sonos need to stop sitting on their laurels and innovate for the first time in about 8 years; Bose, LG, Pure and HK are hot on their heels - Bose a serious contender for replacing the 2 x Connect, 2 x Play:3 and 1 x Play:1 in my house
Airsonos is an unlicensed/uncertified hack that bypasses Apple's proprietary encryption. Since it's only one guy in his shed, Apple tolerates it. If Sonos were to adopt it officially, the lawsuit would be filed immediately.