Playing TV in other rooms

You group those speakers with the TV Room by pressing the group button at the end of the volume control slider (on iOS). You can choose other rooms or select everywhere. You Must do this from the room that is playing the tv source.

Hi CharlieE

The following assumes you know how to Group Sonos speakers. If not let us know.

1. Are you getting an error message when you try to send TV audio to Play 1's and if so what does it say?
2. If no error message then try the following...
3. Make sure the Play 1's are not streaming from another source
4. Make sure the Play 1's do not have an active queue
5. Make sure the Play 1's are not part of another group. Then start TV audio and group the Play 1's

Let us know the results. Cheers!

Here's how to group:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3391?language=en_US

I added the play1 to the TV room and now the surround speakers have stopped playing completely . If I play music through the Sonos app the surround speakers work on ambient or Full. The minute I turn on the TV audio the LS+RS speakers stop working. This just happened after I added the additional Play1 to the TV room and it didn't make any difference when I removed the Play1 the TV surrounds won't work?????

I think we need to confirm what you did. You say you "added the PLAY:1 to the TV room". Which shouldn't be possible, the TV room already had a PLAYBAR and surround speakers, the only thing that should be able to be "added" is a SUB.

Did you instead "group" the PLAY:1 with the TV room, following the instructions listed in jgatie's post?

When you look at the Settings> Room Settings page, what shows up after the name of the room? Does it still show +LS+RS, or have those disappeared?

What are you watching on the TV when the audio stops working? While you're watching that, go in to the Settings page again, and this time click on "About My Sonos System" and let us know what appears at the end of the "Audio In" line underneath your PLAYBAR.

CharlieE wrote:

I added the play1 to the TV room and now the surround speakers have stopped playing completely . If I play music through the Sonos app the surround speakers work on ambient or Full. The minute I turn on the TV audio the LS+RS speakers stop working. This just happened after I added the additional Play1 to the TV room and it didn't make any difference when I removed the Play1 the TV surrounds won't work?????

I don't think the Sonos app would allow you to Bond a 3rd speaker (Play 1) to the Playbar (other than a sub) but of course I've never attempted to. I'm going with the assumption that you Grouped the Play 1 to the Playbar.

Since your issue only occurs when you turn on your TV what source are you using (i.e. cable, OTA or a DVD/BluRay movie). If Cable or OTA the source may not have a secondary channel (surround material) in broadcast. Try playing a DVD/BluRay movie or on-line rental via AppleTV or similar service that would most likely have surround material encoded. See if the surrounds work under those conditions.

Sorry I wasn't clear. Yes, I added another room (play 1) to the TV room. After testing I realized the LS+RS are producing sound but so low you can only hear it if you put your ear directly on the speaker. The Playbar sound level and the Play1 levels are all good and controllable with the volume control on the app. This is now only happening when listening to the TV which has been setup and working for almost 2 yrs. Optical cable directly from the TV to the Playbar. The only thing I did differently was to add the other room to the TV room which seems to have caused this condition. I removed the other room and it had no effect on this issue. When playing music from Amazon Prime or Tunin radio the LS+RS speakers play normally. When I turn on the TV I now get almost no audio out of the LS+RS speakers. Is there a way to separately adjust the volume?

Yes, Go to settings > Room setting > Select the room for your HT >Advanced Audio> Surrounds
You see a volume slider for TV level and also for music (i.e. ambient and Full) Make sure Full is set to the right and TV level at least mid-way.

Still haven't answered my questions:

What are you watching on the TV when the audio stops working? While you're watching that, go in to the Settings page again, and this time click on "About My Sonos System" and let us know what appears at the end of the "Audio In" line underneath your PLAYBAR.

My bet is you're watching a source that's in stereo, not Dolby Digital, which means that there wouldn't normally be a lot of sound out of the surround speakers.

I checked "About my sonos system" and it shows he playbar audio in is Dolby 2.0. Just noticed when I turn on the TV the RS+LS speakers turn off. The light on top goes out. No ambient or Full sound. But when I turn off the TV and turn on any streaming music source both RS+LS speaker lights turn green and start playing music. Now this has been working without any issue for almost 2 years. I've got 6 Play1's and a Playbar. Not sure if this stopped working after a software update the other day or when I tried adding another Play1 to the TV room group. Any ideas?

@CharlieE

Based upon your last post I'm going to say that you most definitely need to submit a diagnostic (or another one) and then call Sonos Tech Support. You may have a failing 5Ghz card on either the Playbar or surrounds.

Sounds like either your TV, or whatever is feeding your TV needs to have the audio settings checked. It should be showing Dolby Digital 5.1, so that's the reason why you're not hearing much out of the surrounds. The Sonos is trying to generate something, but it's usually extremely quiet in comparison to a true 5.1 sound. But you still haven't answered the "What are you watching on the TV when the audio stops working? " question. There's a lot of TV shows that aren't in Dolby Digital, and you'd be getting something like Dolby 2.0 instead of Dolby Digital 5.1. You really need to be watching a movie, either on DVD, or on a movie channel that is guaranteed to have a Dolby Digital signal when you're working on these issues. There are even some TVs that won't let you select Dolby Digital as an option when the signal they are receiving doesn't have it in the stream.

And I'd echo AjTrek1's post....you may be best served by submitting that diagnostic, and calling Sonos. It is indeed possible that you may have a failing wifi card, although I'm willing to bet it's unlikely.