Google TV. Sonos Arc. 5.1 Issues

[Techygeek82]

Oh great. Another post with Dolby Digital 5.1 issues. I know, I have poured over the community and nothing out here seems to answer or help!

I have a Vizio OLED TV with eArc support connected to a Sonos Arc external soundbar with 5.1 support (2 satellite speakers and sub). The TV is configured for eARC output. Audio settings are, by default, set to Auto (options being PCM or Dolby. Yes, I have tried every. Single. Combination).

Google TV advanced audio settings are set to Auto (Though I have gone through and toggled each available format one by one manually to see if that helped. My options are Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus. AAC is unsupported).

In Stadia, I can get 4K, HDR and 5.1 all listed as OK (5.1 only seems to be OK if either of the DD or DD+ options are selected manually, not when Atmos is enabled). While that's great, the Sonos app only reports PCM Stereo 2.0 and I'm missing audio. For example, in Watch Dogs Legions, I can hear about everything EXCEPT spoken dialogue.

In Netflix, Disney+, and other media apps, I get the appropriate sound output. Sonos will reflect Dolby Atmos or even multi-channel PCM depending on the source content, so I KNOW it's configured and setup properly.

Any help or feedback would be amazing. Before you ask, after each setting change I did restart the Google TV and TV to make sure it was a clean connection. 

[Midna85]

I might not have the correct answer for your issue as my configuration is somewhat different: my Chromecast is connected to my Pioneer amplifier, which splits the audio to my sound system and the video to my TV. No audio problem on my side.

Did you try the following troubleshooting?

• Connect your TV with your soundbar over an optical cable (I know it won't solve your eARC issue but you would experience 5.1 audio)
• If you are using eARC, I understand that your GoogleTV is connected to your TV over HDMI (normal slot), and your TV is connected to your soundbar over HDMI too (eARC slot). Did you try to launch a game, then unplug your Google TV from your TV and plug it directly into your soundbar to test the audio only?
  This would narrow down whether this is a TV or GoogleTV-related issue
• Is there a way for your TV to report the incoming audio mode from the Google TV?

Best!

[Techygeek82]

I haven't thought about connecting the Google TV to the soundbar directly. I'll have to give it a shot to see. Since it's the Sonos Arc, it does not have an optical in, like the previous Sonos Playbar did. Since 5.1 works in various formats for other media, it leads me to believe that the TV, Google TV and Sonos Arc are talking properly under automatic.

[RXShorty]

Hi @Techygeek82,

If I look at older 5.1 topics of Stadia it states it uses PCM 5.1 audio.
But what I am finding online is that Sonos does support PCM stereo but does not support PCM 5.1 surround.

I am really hoping Stadia is getting Dolby Digital support, please be sure to send your feedback to the Stadia team with the Feedback option within the Stadia app or stadia.com. 

[JohnZoidberg]

Stadia probably can't support Dolby Digital without introducing unacceptable encoding delay (around 40ms), which would require delaying playout of several encoded video frames to keep the audio synchronized. It's not a bad codec for buffered streams, but it has been around almost 30 years at this point.

[Techygeek82]

Sonos Arc does support Multichannel PCM 5.1, I have seen it before streaming Netflix before so I know the TV is also passing it through. Now if that's different than just PCM 5.1, then that could be part of the issue. It's all so darn confusing!

[ChrisFromGoogle]

Hi @Techygeek82, we wanted to follow up and see if @Midna85's solution offered you any resolution. Let us know and we can dig in further.

[Techygeek82]

Finally had a chance to try some things to me ivbt  Sadly, no. I still only get Stereo PCM 2.0. And connecting the Chromecast directly to the Sonos just caused the Chromecast to lock up as I expected it would.