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cgogerty
cgogerty
Enthusiast I
October 9, 2026

📺 Sky Stream + Sonos — what audio settings are UK owners using?

I thought this might be a useful UK-specific discussion for anyone using Sky Stream with Sonos home theatre.

 

I have Sky Stream Multiroom, with several Stream pucks connected to modern Samsung eARC TVs and Sonos home theatre setups. All of the Samsung TVs themselves are set to Passthrough.

On most of the Sky Stream pucks, I also have the audio output set to Passthrough, and they work perfectly.

However, on one particular setup I occasionally get garbled audio or no sound, usually around advert/programme transitions on Dolby 5.1 channels such as Channel 4 or Channel 5.

Changing only the Sky Stream puck's audio setting from Passthrough to Auto completely stops the problem. The Samsung TV itself remains set to Passthrough.

Interestingly, it also appears isolated to Sky Stream on that TV. The TV's own streaming apps, Apple TV and Blu-ray player all work perfectly, including surround/Atmos content.

It got me wondering what other UK owners are finding:

📺 Sky Stream or Sky Q?
🔊 Which Sonos home theatre setup and TV?
⚙️ What audio setting are you using on the Sky box/puck?
🎬 Any quirks with Dolby 5.1 or Atmos?

It would be interesting to compare setups and see whether any patterns emerge. 👍

1 reply

yasir_pk
Lyricist II
October 9, 2026

Good detective work, and your finding matches what a lot of people see with broadcast TV. The garbled audio at ad breaks is almost certainly the audio format switching: programmes on Channel 4/5 are Dolby 5.1 while adverts are often plain stereo, and with Passthrough the puck hands the raw bitstream straight to the TV and Sonos. Some TV/Sonos chains stumble for a moment when the format changes mid-stream, which is exactly the garbled sound or dropout you describe. Setting the puck to Auto lets the puck decode and re-encode to a consistent Dolby signal, so the downstream chain never sees the switch, which is why your problem disappears. Your TV staying on Passthrough is the right call, so the Sonos still gets the best available format from other sources. For that one setup I would just leave the puck on Auto. If you ever want to dig further, swapping the HDMI cable on that TV is worth trying, since marginal cables can make format-switch glitches worse, but honestly Auto on the puck is a perfectly good permanent fix.

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