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Sonos Beam (gen 2) and Samsung RU8000

D

Hello everyone,

I am the owner of a 65-inch Samsung RU8000 (2019 edition). I would like to buy a Sonos Beam (Gen 2) to experience a better audio and the Dolby Atmos experience.
The soundbar will be connected through HDMI ARC.

Before buying, I would like to understand:

1) The compatibility between my TV and the soundbar: are they fully compatible? Will the soundbar turn on automatically when I turn o the tv? Can I control the soundbar using the same TV remote?


2) What are the limitations of my TV in audio terms. For this purpose, I attach you a picture found in this forum about the audio characteristics of my TV. Could you please help me to better understand what can I get from the combination of RU8000 with Sonos Beam (Gen 2)?
As far I have understood, I can get dolby atmos only from Netflix and Prime. But what will be the "experience" with other sources (for instance, for normal TV or by using a Bluray external source)? Will the soundabar work with them?

Thank you very much for any help you can provide me.
David

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Best answer by GuitarSuperstar 3 November 2022, 15:01

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11 replies

G
Userlevel 7

Yes, your TV will work with the Beam and you will be able to use the TV remote to control the volume on the Beam. When you turn on the TV, the Beam will automatically wake from idle mode once it detects an audio signal.

As you mentioned, your TV should be able to support Dolby Atmos audio from the TV’s native Netflix and Prime Video apps. With other apps that support 5.1 audio, you should get Dolby Digital Plus or Dolby Digital audio. All stereo content will play as Stereo PCM.

There is also a possibility the TV could pass through Dolby Atmos audio from an external streaming device like a Roku Ultra or Nvidia Shield so you can get Atmos from other apps like Disney+ or HBO Max. But you will have to test this yourself.

If you connect a cable box, you should be able to get Dolby Digital audio from 5.1 sources and Stereo PCM from stereo sources.

Because your TV isn’t equipped with HDMI eARC and doesn’t support DTS audio, if you connect a Blu-ray player to your TV, you will either get standard Dolby Digital or Stereo PCM audio from Dolby-encoded Blu-ray discs (hopefully the former) and just Stereo PCM audio from all DTS-encoded discs.

If you watch a lot of Blu-rays and want the highest quality audio like Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos, and Multichannel PCM from your discs, consider getting the HDFury Arcana eARC adapter (or similar device) that will allow any external media device to bypass your TV and send audio directly to the Beam. I use the Arcana with my old plasma TV and Sonos Arc and it works great.

https://hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
D

Thank you very much for the great response, I really appreciate it. Actually, I do not see many Blu-rays, but I do have an Xbox Series X and some games support Dolby Atmos. From you response, I understand I will not have DolbyAtmos given the limitations of the TV - let’s say this ok for now (thank you for the suggestion of the Arcana external device, but seems too expensive for my actual needs).

Just a last question: I understand that the Sonos has a function to emphasize the voice (TruePlay or something similar). I really need this function, especially during the night watching, where I need to keep the volume down and voices become difficult to understand.

However, if I have correctly understood, this function can be activated only using an app that can be installed in iOs devices (iPhone and similar)… is this true? It would be a big pity, as I have only Android devices in my home, and I would not understand why this function of the soundbar could not be activated by an Android device!

Airgetlam

I think you’re conflating two things, TruePlay, and speech enhancement . TruePlay might possibly help, but more likely not, in your situation, and you would need an iOS device for 10 minutes or so to set it up. But I think what you’re really looking for is speech enhancement , which is available to everyone, regardless of where their controller is running. 

For what it’s worth, there’s also night mode, which anyone can use. 

 

 

 

Bruce
D

Thank you, I was actually mixing up different functionalities. Now it is clearer, thank for the help!

Airgetlam

An easy thing to do, unless your actively interacting with the controller while reading the forum, not something I’ve been successful at ;)

You’re most welcome!

FWIW, if you’ve done a good job of speaker placement, TruePlay is an overblown marketing thing. I’ll give them props for adjusting for bad speaker placement, but in my mind, it’s a ‘nice, not required’ feature. As many have suggested before me, borrow a friend, give them a drink while you use their iPhone, and you can then turn it off or on using your android device.

 

Bruce
K

Hi, could you make some update about compatibility of ru8000 with beam 2 regarding atmos? Have you bought? Does atmos work fine and with which apps? Same case here, I own ru8000 and considering to buy beam2 :)

D

Hello, yes, I bought it and it most likely as mentioned by GuitarSuperstar. I tried it with native apps of the TV (like Netflix and Prime). If the selected film has Atmos (in Netflix, you can use the term “Atmos” in the search bar to find appropriate contents), the Sonos will work with Atmos. An important note: for most of the Netflix contents, only the original audio is Atmos. So, if you choose “Original (English)” in most of the video, you will get Atmos. If you will change the language, you will have (most likely) Dolby Digital Plus. I tried with “El Camino” in English and Atmos does work, in other language does not.

For Prime Video it should be the same, but the content in Atmos are lower than Netflix and harder to find (the search term “Atmos” does not work for Prime, I guess).

Nice thing is that the app of Sonos shows you the “current” audio format: so after having launched the video on tv, you can check your smartphone to understand which format is played by the soundbar.

I tried also external device (XboX series X), but the quality is only PCM (our TV does not have the passthrough from another HDMI port differen than the one where the Soundbar is connected, I guess).

Hope this helps!

D

An additional note: with the native app of Disney+ installed on the TV, you “only” have Dolby Digital Plus (checked with few movies and series).

K

Thanks for detailed answer! Capabilities you mentioned totally suits me so probably I’ll get my beam 2 today :) Have a good day and many fun with beam 2. 

K

Bought Beam 2 and overall impression is very good. Any idea why native Disney plus app doesn’t support atmos for Beam 2?

Airgetlam

You’d probably want to ask Samsung, unfortunately. 

Bruce
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