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Contributor I
November 25, 2014
Question

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

This has been a long requested feature for years. Why limit the listening experience to music only? I love the sound when pairing two Play Ones. I wanted to keep them, but the fact I couldn't also stream the sound of my movies from my MacBook was a deal breaker. Why would I want to invest hundreds or thousands on a system that's limited to music only. I have a MacBook Pro, and I watch plenty of movies. Why should I have to buy additional speakers from another company just to enjoy movies? No one should have to resort to buying a play5 only to plug it into an airport express through the auxport. No one wants any more wires sticking out of their speakers. Using the auxport defeats the purpose of a wireless solution. Why won't Sonos allow software driver based audio output through their PC/Mac controllers that will allow any app to stream audio. For example, I want to run VLC player or Divx movie player and have the audio stream through the Sonos system. Can we get an explanation as to why this hasn't come to fruition despite an overwhelming number of requests from your customer base? It's almost at 2015, and it has been ignored for years. If this was available, I would've kept the two Play Ones and purchased the sub too.
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    32 replies

    Lyricist II
    January 21, 2016
    thanks bockersjv. could you suggest some of the auction sites you refer to? are there specialized ones besides ebay? many thanks. tdm
    January 21, 2016
    thanks bockersjv. could you suggest some of the auction sites you refer to? are there specialized ones besides ebay? many thanks. tdm

    Let us know what you replace it with that provides you with everything you require.
    jgatie
    January 21, 2016
    My Play1 Tone Limited edition Speakers and Bridge currently for sale on NYC Craigslist.
    I'm over it.....and I'm out.....


    thanks bockersjv. could you suggest some of the auction sites you refer to? are there specialized ones besides ebay? many thanks. tdm

    Anybody else confused? Why would totally disappointed michael be asking for auction sites when his Play:1s are already on Craigslist? And if he knows about e-bay, why put them on Craigslist? Curiouser and curiouser . . .
    jgatie
    January 21, 2016
    Let us know what you replace it with that provides you with everything you require.

    I've asked this 100 times and never can seem to get an answer. 🙂
    Chris
    Lead Maestro
    January 21, 2016
    Mike has been such a great contributor though in his 2 posts about selling his Sonos and bashing me.
    Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)
    Lyricist II
    January 22, 2016
    jgatie,
    i'm asking because for some unknown reason they are not selling, despite the low price i am asking.... go figure.
    and yeah, because i am not experienced at selling things i buy since i'm not easily so disappointed.
    since you asked.
    jgatie
    January 22, 2016
    You'd be the only person in history who wasn't able to sell Sonos gear on the second hand market if that were the case. But whatever.
    Lyricist I
    January 25, 2016
    This has been fun to read. But a little crazy at the same time. You know you can just go out and get a Bluetooth receiver for 3.5 mm jack and plugh it on the back of the Sonos system and you can wireless stream any music on your phone or computer to it. Every company does makes what they think is a good product and better companies usualy leave ways for customers to make modification as the needs of each are different. Just some food for thought. The Bluetooth receiver is like $50 and you can add it all your systems.
    Contributor III
    January 26, 2016
    I found it surprising that I could not play my local audio stream in the way that a number of people have got upset about. When I came to understand the way in which the system works via streaming services I came to understand rather better that the synchronise system does need the speakers to all work together and the stream from my Mac book (or for that matter any customers' random computer) would be difficult to accommodate.

    Having got the Sonos airplay system to work I am now content to use the system as intended for the most part. Just seeing it work served to 'lance the boil' of my frustration and now I am happy. I used node 5.5 with El-Capitan and the fact that I had X-Code installed was necessary to the compilation process. (XCode is free).

    Granted that the Sonos support peoples' tone is a bit patronising and they avoid the issue to an extent that a politician would be proud. On the other hand, the tone of some customers above this post makes me understand why I would swiftly lose a job in any customer facing role.
    Lyricist I
    April 18, 2016
    Gawd, if only i had read these posts before buying 2 x Play1.
    The workaround to get the sound in sync with a movie playing from my macbook is just hilarious.