Hello everyone,
I'm really hoping that somebody can shed some light on this. I'm posting this on behalf of someone I know who's not a forum member, but has run into a problem with the SONOS Beams that he recently acquired. He reached out to me for some advice over the weekend and we spent quite a long time talking through the setup over the phone, and trying various things, and I must admit I'm scratching my head a little bit (to put it mildly) with this one.
The environment is as follows:
The issue is this:
The SONOS S2 app shows "Audio In: Stereo PCM 2.0" even though both Virgin V6 TV boxes are set to output Dolby Digital - not the Dolby Digital to PCM option.
Both of the JVC TVs have a "Digital Out" setting, both in the internal and external speaker settings known as "AMPLIFIER" (which is selected as they are connectd to a soundbar). However it's not clear in the manual - or on the TVs themsevles - if this setting relates to the HDMI output (via ARC) or the SPDIF Optical Digital Out.
Neither of the JVC TVs has any setting that explicitly show a setting for HDMI Audio Output, like I see on my Panasonic TVs. Setting the Digital Out to "Compressed" on the JVC TVs still results in the SONOS Beam (via the SONOS S2 app) reporting that a Stereo PCM 2.0 signal is being received.
Interestingly, the newer 4K TV also has "Passthrough" as an option for Digital Out, in addition to PCM and Compressed. But the result is the same - the SONOS app still shows Stereo PCM 2.0.
I'm not familiar with the SONOS products and I'm not familiar with the Virgin Media boxes either but this should be a straightforward set up, should it not? Connect the Beams via ARC, set the Virgin V6 boxes to output Dolby Digital and away you go. But this is not happening here!!!
The only thing I could think of is that either the SONOS S2 app is mis-reporting the Audio In information....and it's actually a Dolby Digital signal that is being received...or the JVC TVs simply cannot pass DD audio via ARC. Not being able to pass the DD signal from the Virgin box to the Beam via ARC would seem somewhat strange to me. If that's the case then why have a Digital Out setting, or is that really just for SPDIF Optical and not ARC?
Does anyone have any ideas as to what is going on here? Some help/clarification would be very much appreciated!
I'm really hoping that somebody can shed some light on this. I'm posting this on behalf of someone I know who's not a forum member, but has run into a problem with the SONOS Beams that he recently acquired. He reached out to me for some advice over the weekend and we spent quite a long time talking through the setup over the phone, and trying various things, and I must admit I'm scratching my head a little bit (to put it mildly) with this one.
The environment is as follows:
- 2 x SONOS Beam soundbars connected to TVs in two different rooms in the house.
- TV in the lounge is a JVC HD LT-49C790, TV upstairs is a JVC 4K LT-43C890
- Both Beams are connected to the TVs via the HDMI ARC sockets.
- All TV viewing is via Virgin Media (V6) TV boxes
The issue is this:
The SONOS S2 app shows "Audio In: Stereo PCM 2.0" even though both Virgin V6 TV boxes are set to output Dolby Digital - not the Dolby Digital to PCM option.
Both of the JVC TVs have a "Digital Out" setting, both in the internal and external speaker settings known as "AMPLIFIER" (which is selected as they are connectd to a soundbar). However it's not clear in the manual - or on the TVs themsevles - if this setting relates to the HDMI output (via ARC) or the SPDIF Optical Digital Out.
Neither of the JVC TVs has any setting that explicitly show a setting for HDMI Audio Output, like I see on my Panasonic TVs. Setting the Digital Out to "Compressed" on the JVC TVs still results in the SONOS Beam (via the SONOS S2 app) reporting that a Stereo PCM 2.0 signal is being received.
Interestingly, the newer 4K TV also has "Passthrough" as an option for Digital Out, in addition to PCM and Compressed. But the result is the same - the SONOS app still shows Stereo PCM 2.0.
I'm not familiar with the SONOS products and I'm not familiar with the Virgin Media boxes either but this should be a straightforward set up, should it not? Connect the Beams via ARC, set the Virgin V6 boxes to output Dolby Digital and away you go. But this is not happening here!!!
The only thing I could think of is that either the SONOS S2 app is mis-reporting the Audio In information....and it's actually a Dolby Digital signal that is being received...or the JVC TVs simply cannot pass DD audio via ARC. Not being able to pass the DD signal from the Virgin box to the Beam via ARC would seem somewhat strange to me. If that's the case then why have a Digital Out setting, or is that really just for SPDIF Optical and not ARC?
Does anyone have any ideas as to what is going on here? Some help/clarification would be very much appreciated!
