5.1 from PC to TV (SONOS System)

[Radox-0]

That won't work on Sonos sorry.

That 5.1 Option you see in Windows is Uncompressed. As such the Sonos product will play it as Stereo.

Sonos only accepts an Pre Encoded Dolby Digital signal for 5.1 surround sound. And Windows doesn't encode sound output into Dolby formats, because they would have to pay a very expensive license to Dolby to have this feature.

This works for you because your receiver is capable of playing uncompressed multi-channel audio, Sonos products cannot do this.


@OP: If this is all starting to sound very complicated that's because it is. You may even wish to get rid of the Sonos product and buy another branded soundbard - one that can play multichannel uncompressed audio.

ahhh thanks, did not know of Sonos’s quirks. That does suck then.

 

[kinger8938]

I have a Sonos playbar 5.1 setup - it took a while to figure it out as there isnt much help on the interwebs.

You need a soundcard for your PC that can encode Dolby Digital 5.1 on the fly. Most Creative branded soundcards can do it, I use this one as it was the cheapest I could find: https://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-omni-surround-5-1

Once you have the soundcard, you need to run an Optical cable from the soundcard into the Sonos playbar/beam.

Lastly enable Dolby Digital in the soundcard's software and boom it's done - you'll have 5.1 surround sound which you can also confirm using the phone app - in the Sonos phone app you can see what the input sound is - it should say "Dolby Digital 5.1"

You can then still run HDMI from the beam to the TV and use that for non PC sound. You will not be able to run everything through the TV I'm afraid - too many issues like your graphics card will not send Dolby Digital 5.1 over HDMI, it will just send multi channel uncompressed audio or 2 channel audio (because the Graphics card doesn't know about your soundbar, it will only see your 2 chanel TV and send audio for that) and your TV won't do audio encoding and will pass through whatever it gets - so your Sonos soundbar will just play two channel audio.

If there is a way to get Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3) from a PC into your Sonos beam without using a soundcard and optical cable I'm all ears - but after a whole week of research it was the only solution I could find for Sonos products.

I went ahead and ordered an Omni from CEX for £35 just now! Hopefully it's in good shape, but they cover all their goods for 2 years so sure it will be ok.

Hopefully this is all I need

 

[kinger8938]

Arrived today, set it up and sonos app was showing as 5.1 being recieved however I had no sound. Changed default audio device to Omni Speaker instead of SPDIF and now my game that I'm currently playing is working in 5.1 as it should

Are there any "Best settings" to set in the creative software or just leave it as it is?

 

[b00merang69]

The soundcard would need to support DD Live or/and DTS Connect like the some of the SoundBlaster range they Creative have paid for the licence to do so but AFAIR some cards had it removed in later driver updates due to said licence.

The external SoundBlaster G6 might work as it supports DD Encoding but I am sure the
X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro does as it supports Dolby Digital Live as does the new X3


https://uk.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blasterx-g6

https://uk.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blaster-x-fi-surround-5-1-pro

https://uk.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-x3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital#Dolby_Digital_Live

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTS_(sound_system)#DTS_Connect + https://www.audioholics.com/audio-technologies/dts-interactive-technology

 

[kinger8938]

The soundcard would need to support DD Live or/and DTS Connect like the some of the SoundBlaster range they Creative have paid for the licence to do so but AFAIR some cards had it removed in later driver updates due to said licence.

The external SoundBlaster G6 might work as it supports DD Encoding but I am sure the
X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro does as it supports Dolby Digital Live as does the new X3


https://uk.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blasterx-g6

https://uk.creative.com/p/sound-cards/sound-blaster-x-fi-surround-5-1-pro

https://uk.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-x3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital#Dolby_Digital_Live

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTS_(sound_system)#DTS_Connect + https://www.audioholics.com/audio-technologies/dts-interactive-technology

Appreciate that, luckily it seems to be working as it should now! I'll try another game or 2 but impressed so far

 

[Grim5]

I think there is a bug in the creative software - if you enable dolby digital live, you won't get sound over Optical if you select optical as the sound output. You have to select Speakers output and then press the button that says "duplicate sound to optical output" - then you will get proper 5.1 sound - if you do have speakers on your PC like me, I just turn my speaker sound to 0 when doing the 5.1 over optical

 

[b00merang69]

Hmm mines use to work but now I am getting the issue you said above, where is this setting you mentioned?

For some strange reason I have MIC icon stating something is using my MIC, so these two things are related.

EDIT: Changed to speakers output and as you said it works and I see the Encoder LED lit on my Z906's so it really is working not Fake Surround/5.1 (the 3 LED's bellow it) but I do not see the setting you mentioned.

This is recent as it worked before this.

 

[Grim5]

Hmm mines use to work but now I am getting the issue you said above, where is this setting you mentioned?

For some strange reason I have MIC icon stating something is using my MIC, so these two things are related.

EDIT: Changed to speakers output and as you said it works and I see the Encoder LED lit on my Z906's so it really is working not Fake Surround/5.1 (the 3 LED's bellow it) but I do not see the setting you mentioned.

This is recent as it worked before this.

 

[b00merang69]

Not got that, may be as your card is USB.

 

[kinger8938]

This was what I found too.

However just fired the PC up and the settings seem to have changed themselves. No encoder was selected, and the bottom box was ticked. Doesnt then let you select the DTS encoder unless you first unpick the bottom box, then you can re-tick it once the dts encoder is selected :/ weird.

 

[b00merang69]

I do not think that card has the DTS equivalent of the DD Live, look at my screen for ZxR and I only get that if I use the Daughter card.

 

[kinger8938]

I do not think that card has the DTS equivalent of the DD Live, look at my screen for ZxR and I only get that if I use the Daughter card.

Pretty sure DTS isnt supported by our Sonos Equipment, so DD Live is what we are after?

 

[b00merang69]

Yes but just I saw you mention "Doesnt then let you select the DTS encoder unless you first unpick the bottom box, then you can re-tick it once the dts encoder is selected :/ weird."

 

[Minstadave]

Pretty sure DTS isnt supported by our Sonos Equipment, so DD Live is what we are after?

Yup. Sonos codec support is a joke.

The Playbase didnt fix it, the Beam came along and still no fix. I have a lot of Sonos kit but the lack of codec support and not even HDMI support until the Beam is just too hard to swallow at their prices.

If the updated the Soundbar or Playbase with HDMI, Hidef formats and added Atmos I'd be on it in a flash.

 

[kinger8938]

Yes but just I saw you mention "Doesnt then let you select the DTS encoder unless you first unpick the bottom box, then you can re-tick it once the dts encoder is selected :/ weird."

Sorry excuse me, I meant DD Live Encoder (as seen in the screenshot), new to all this jargon.

 

[CapitalOne]

Sorry to bump the thread but I have to say thanks as it's been really useful. I put a beam on one of the PC's and found it a little lacking (previously had a soundbar+sub and an Asus Xonar) so I thought I would add a couple of 3's that weren't really in use as surrounds. It's made a big difference on games that support proper surround - especially the BF series.

I bought an Omni and use optical out to the HDMI adapter into the beam (under monitor) and the 3's at the back end of the room (10ft or so) with the volume up on these to +8. There was no need to use the Creative softward. All I needed to change was the output in control panel -> sound to Soundblaster optical (not speaker) and set as default. Very pleased so thankyou all again.

ETA, I have a sub on the TV and was tempted to "augment" this PC with one and I tried it - it doesn't add £700 to the experience!