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Hello,



We currently have 4 Sonos Play:1s, including a pair in a L/R configuration in our living room. We have an Epson 710HD projector that I've been considering using in a home theater setup.



I plan on hooking up a Roku device and Steam Link to the projector via HDMI. What I was originally planning on was getting a Play:5 since it has the line input and I was thinking I could go projector RCA out to 3.5 line input on the Play:5. In this scenario, my home theater sound would be 2x Play:1s and the Play:5. But then I realized that the projector doesn't have an audio output!



To get around this, I'm considering getting an HDMI Audio Extractor Splitter so the configuration would look like this:







I considered replacing the Play:5 with a Sonos Playbar but the cost of the Playbar and Subwoofer together is prohibitive. Plus, we're more of a music house than a video house so the music will be listened to much more than the projector will be used and I think the Play:5 is better for this purpose. Finally, I would like to eventually add a record player to this setup, for which I think I could also use the line in input on the Play:5.



Will this work? Am I thinking about this correctly or am I making this more complex than necessary? We're already far enough down the Sonos path and have really enjoyed them that I'd like to stick to Sonos productsas much as possible. Thanks in advance for any brainstorms on this thrown my way.



Steve
Should work. There is going to be about a 70ms delay in audio vs. video. I don't find it noticeable but I seen on here people that did. Make sure the line in is set to uncompressed on the Play:5 as to avoid additional delay (with compressed on there can be a delay of over a second).
Important to note that not only will you have the delay, but you're not going to be able to have any 5.1 ability, as the line in on the PLAY:5 is stereo only, and can't handle a Dolby Digital signal.
I know you mentioned Playbar + Sub was cost prohibitive, but I wanted to address your comment about being a "music house". That's the way I am as well. I have a Playbar setup and 80-90% of the time I'm listening to music instead of watching TV. It's awesome. I've been through the whole progression. Started with just the Playbar, added two Play:1's, and then finally the sub. The Playbar alone is already really good. The rear surrounds are nice, but if you are going to listen through music via optical in, it's not going to add much since you can only get ambient from the rear speakers in this configuration. But the sub, oh the sub. It makes everything sound so good! There must be some additional processing going on when the sub is active, because even the Playbar sounds better with the sub on (bass aside). Even for TV, Playbar+Sub is MUCH more impactful than Playbar + Rear Surrounds.



TL;DR Playbar is awesome for music even without a sub or surrounds, sub adds a whole lot to the sound, rear surrounds provide less of an improvement (but still good).
Thanks for all the feedback. The 70ms delay for the line-in is something that I hadn't realized but is very helpful to know.



Well, my fear of being convinced to go the Playbar route was not unfounded 😉 I'm now considering this as an option even though I hadn't anticipated spendig that much. The thing that's not ideal about the room layout I'm considering is that the projector screen is going to be pulldown from a ceiling beam so I would either have to place the Playbar very close to the ceiling, which I'm thinking wouldn't be good for sound projection, or I would have to vertically place it on the side of the screen. Maybe I'll have to rethink the layout.



Once I get everything in place I'll update the thread with my layout and the results.



Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback!
Hi poppenschmaltz, just want to know if the 70ms delay is really a problem. I am trying to setup a projector at home with similar speakers.
I ended up replacing the Play:5 in my above scenario with a Playbar/Subwoofer combo so we didn't end up having to use a line-in. We run the audio from the HDMI splitter box to the Playbar via an optical cable. So, sorry, but I can't comment on the 70ms delay. I highly recommend the Playbar/subwoofer combo, but now they have the Beam I believe, which is the next generation Playbar.



If it helps, we went with this HDMI Audio Extractor from Amazon and it has worked great:



iArkPower 3 Port HDMI Switch with Optical Toslink SPDIF & RCA L/R Audio Out, 3x1 HDMI Audio Extractor Splitter with Remote, Supports 4Kx2K@30Hz, Full 3D, 1080P, ARC



After I got my home theater setup, we did end up getting a Play:5 but don't use it in the home theater setup. We use that with a record player so we do end up having a line-in now, but it's not used with video.
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