Hi All, I recently got a Sonos beam and so far I'm very happy with how it sounds. However, there is one niggling issue that is really doing my nut: PS4 (not PRO) and failing surround sound. Allow me to explain: For those of you unfamiliar with this speaker, it is a small soundbar that can work alongside any existing Sonos speakers you have (I have a couple of Play1's) to allow surround sound. The way I have it set up (and the way that Sonos recommends) is via the ARC channel from my Samsung 8000 series TV. Sky, Amazon and Netflix all pump out surround sound from the TV to the Beam no issues at all and it all sounds great. However, when I want to watch a blueray/DVD in surround from my PS4 the sound only comes out Stereo (this is confirmed via the Sonus App).. I do have a work around - plug in a PS3 (after dusting it off) and it all works, so I know that the route I'm using is viable. This also means that the PS4 isn't playing games in surround sound which is frustrating as my old soundbar (that broke) had this functionality (granted that wasn't via ARC but that is the only option I have with the Beam). I know the simple answer is:Stop moaning and use the PS3 for movies, and just live with stereo for your games, but that's not my preferred option - I've got a PS4 and damn it I want to use it properly. I've tried every setting on the PS4 and the TV that I can find in possibly every combination I can think of. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem and if they've had any success getting it working. Cheers All.
I don't have your setup, but am I right in thinking that everything is going in to your TV, then your TV feeds sound to the Sonos via HDMI? This being the case then your TV is not routing surround sound from the PS4 when playing BluRay's, which can mean one of 2 things. Either the TV can't loop the players surround sound format, or the players audio output is set incorrectly (you can check the last bit by switching the PS4 audio between Bitstream or LPCM). Also, if you were able to get surround sound from the PS3, was this connected in the same way as the PS4 i.e. HDMI straight to the TV, not via Optical or via the soundbar?
Just for fun I did some digging. The most pertinent link to the PS4 forum thing I cant get to from work...it tells me access denied! - it's a link buried in the AVForum page on post #10 Good luck with it! What is ARC Any ideas how to get 5.1 working on PS4 using ARC?
@Muffking Yep - it goes PS4 -> TV -> beam via ARC (HDMI). When I tested the PS3 and it worked all i did was unplug the HDMI out of the PS3 and then plugged in the PS4 - I didn't move the HDMI cable. There is no optical involved at all. This shows to me that the TV can pass through 5.1 no issue, I think that the PS4 is seeing the next thing in the chain (the TV) and saying 'I know that you've asked me to pump out sweet surround, but this next device only has 2 speakers, so I'll only give you stereo', where the PS3 says 'I don't care I'll just send whatever you ask me to'. One thing I didn't mention earlier, in case it muddied the waters, is that I borrowed a panasonic blueray player and that's failing in exactly the same way as the PS4 using the same connection methods. @hitch - thanks for the link - I'll take a look.
Whilst writing my reply I did think that it may come across a bit scientific to anyone reading who didn't know this kind of thing.
I think you've both got confirmed my suspicion. The PS4 (and the Panasonic player) think they know best by outputting stereo instead of surround sound. Go back in to the player(s) and fiddle with the HDMI/Audio output settings. You can usually change format that they output.
I just haven't kept pace with this stuff. You might recall my pre-Christmas naivety about gaming consoles. Once upon a time, I had a great collection of vinyl LPs; the good diamond needles; Bose speakers etc. Only CD player I had was in my car. Now, I get by with a Tesco special of about 2 watts per channel. Got a good Samsung TV though, with LG Sound Bar, (assuming mis-matched electronics are acceptable) but come to diagnostics and plug ins - I'm lost.
Thanks for the replies guys. That avforum post was illuminating and seemed to get quite heated, but from what I can tell it looks like expecting surround sound from the PS4, via ARC, looks like it's a non starter. I'm happy to be proved wrong though. Looks like the PS3 is going to get a new lease of life .
Hi All. In case anyone is interested I've fixed the issue. So, as we've established I can't get surround out of the PS4 via the TV's ARC output to the Sonos Beam. The way I got this working was to simply connect the PS4 directly to the Beam using the included Optical to HDMI converter (i.e. optical out of the PS4 into the converter and then into the Beam's (only input) HDMI port. This means that the magic that you get when you use the ARC isn't going to work (ie can't control the beam via the TV remote, no visual indication of the volume on the screen, no Alexa TV control (such as it was)). Theses are all minor issues that are far outweighed by the fact that I now have a functioning PS4 surround sound set up. The only issue is that when I want to watch anything in surround out of SKY I have to re-plug in the ARC HDMI, but this massive heartache and inconvenience will soon be alleviated when the HDMI splitter that I've ordered arrives. I hope that this helps someone else out, but if not, then just know that I'm happy now and you can all stop worrying about me .
