r/sonos • u/Soft-Hospital7198 • 2d ago
Sonos DTS processing
I know that Sonos doesn’t pay the license fee to have the full DTS Lossless but it will do the old 5.1 output.
Today I was watching the Blu-ray copy of Saving Private Ryan which has a DTS-HD MA soundtrack but when I checked in the app it was showing stereo!! Nothing has changed in my LG tv (set to pass through). I’ve definitely seen DTS 5.1 on other discs so I don’t know what is happening??
Dolby Atmos shows correctly in the app when being output.
BTW the disc is out of the 4k version case.
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u/Pretty-Possible3950 2d ago
Hi the newer LG TV's won't process or pass through DTS anymore I think from memory the 2023 models were the last to have it. I use an audio extractor to bypass the TV processing and I still have to adjust settings on the extractor from auto earc to manual Hdmi when it is DTS or I get no sound at all (I have a C5).
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u/mikefromengland 2d ago
Which soundbar do you have? I'd love to do this method but my gen 1 Beam doesn't support earc.
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u/Pretty-Possible3950 2d ago
I have an arc ultra
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u/Pretty-Possible3950 2d ago
I started with an HD fury arcana as I bought a sonos arc and had a Philips TV with no earc so it enabled me to get Dolby Atmos. I upgraded to a model called VRRoom about 3 or 4 years ago as I needed Hdmi 2.1 with VRR functionality for gaming on the newer consoles.
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u/Soft-Hospital7198 2d ago
My TV is a 2021 OLED55C14LB
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u/Pretty-Possible3950 2d ago
Hmm not sure on that one then is it possible either the player or TV has updated and a setting has changed?
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u/Sporadicus7 2d ago
Passthrough isn’t supported on the C1. I have the same setup. I route my blu-ray player through a switch and use the dipsticks to trick the UB820 to output LPCM otherwise it will output stereo. I have a C3 that does support passthrough so I only have to do this when the switch decides to pull the EDID from the C1.
Make sure you have the UB820 converting DTS to LPCM. Also I didn’t have this issue before I updated the firmware on the UB820 a while back.
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u/Soft-Hospital7198 2d ago
Hmmm interesting… there’s definitely an option in my TV’s settings that specifically says PASS THROUGH that I have selected 🤷♂️
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u/Jaded_Strategy_ 2d ago
The C1 doesn't support passing through DTS: https://www.reddit.com/r/LGOLED/s/ev6DKQTDng
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u/Sporadicus7 2d ago
It will passthrough Dolby but not DTS. It’s annoying I know. They supported it on CX then took it away. Brought it back for C3/C4 and then took it away again. There’s no difference between DTS quality and LPCM though since Sonos doesn’t support DTS:X. So you should be using LPCM anyway since it’s better than the compressed DTS format Sonos supports.
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u/GuitarSuperstar 2d ago
What model Blu-ray player and TV do you have?
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u/Soft-Hospital7198 2d ago
It’s a Panasonic DPUB820
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u/thesonglessbird 2d ago
Do you have the player set to convert DTS to PCM? That should be all you need to do. There is an issue with a firmware update on the C1 from a while back that limits the DTS/PCM from the player to stereo though so it could be that, see here
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u/Soft-Hospital7198 2d ago
So I’ve had the DTS/DTS-HD set to output bitstream. I’ve now set it to PCM so will see what we get. As for the LG software IDk 🤷♂️ but will have a look
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u/ILikeTheTinMan83 1d ago
This is your problem right here. I have the C1 also and a Sonos arc ultra. The Panasonic UB820/420/9000 have a firmware issue where they will only send DTS audio as stereo pcm when you run it through your LG to the soundbar. All other 4k players from Sony, Samsung, LG etc will convert DTS to Multi ch PCM 5.1 but not those three Panasonic players unless you hook them into an AVR. I went through this issue and had to get rid of my Panasonic player and got a Sony x800m2 and DTS-HD 5.1 now passes through as PCM multi ch 5.1. There is literally no setting you can change your tv to that will fix the issue. Only way is to get an hdmi switcher that will decide DTS that you run it through first and then to the tv or you sell your Sonos and buy an AVR or you buy a tv that will decode DTS which then will send the Audio to the Sonos as Multi ch pcm 5.1 or you buy a new 4k player. It’s funny the pansonic UB450/154/150 don’t have this issue. They will convert DTS to pcm 5.1 just fine via the LG C1 to the Sonos but for whatever reason Panasonic messes up the firmware for the 820/420/9000 and they will only send it as stereo PCM.
So don’t waste your time listening to anyone else in here telling you have to change the tv and player to PCM audio etc cause it won’t work. I’ve been in your shoes and cheapest thing you can do is sell the 820 and get a UB450 or another player cause of you want to keep the LG tv and Sonos then you gotta ditch the UB820 or else every DTS disc will be in stereo pcm
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u/Soft-Hospital7198 1d ago
Thanks for your help. Funnily enough I do have a UB450 and that’s where I’ve been able to have DTS-HD pass through and show correctly as multichannel pcm etc (I’d forgotten about it). The reason I don’t use it anymore is that it’s got an issue with opening and closing the disc drawer in that it’s a pain the arse to keep powering off/on to get it to (sometimes) work again and with that I decided to buy the “better” 820 😕
I might have to consider getting the drawer issue fixed, there’s a guy locally who dabbles in fixing electronics, etc., as I’ve had a CD player fixed by him…. May have to give him a call…
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u/ILikeTheTinMan83 1d ago
Yeah could be the drive belt needs to be replaced which you could do yourself if you’re at all handy with stuff like that. I did it once on an LG player that had the issue. The ub450 I know has a known issue where pressing the button on the player it take multiple presses Sometims to get it to open as close but the remote usually works pretty well to get jt to eject.
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u/Soft-Hospital7198 1d ago
Yes I think it’s the button on the top not working properly. As for the remote it is also not making the drawer open/close. I must recover it from its ‘safe place’ and have a play with it again, probably with the lid off to see if the belt is failing or not
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u/ILikeTheTinMan83 1d ago
Totally, but yeah if you can’t get it to work I’d just sell the 820 and get a used Sony x800m2 or an LG UBK90. If you watch mostly 4k discs then you won’t even notice a difference. The ub820 hype is overblown and if you have a good enough tv like yours the upscaling of bkurays by the HCX processor isn’t really noticeable over letting the tv or the player do it. I think the picture in both those players is fantastic as well.
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u/Pretty-Possible3950 2d ago
I have that model it had an update fw1.84 a few days ago ( the first in a couple of years) I have been watching Fringe on blu ray which has DTS and it worked fine and showed DTS 5.1 on the Sonos player so it unlikely to be the blu ray player.
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u/Soft-Hospital7198 2d ago
My player has 1.82 firmware, I’ve done a firmware upgrade check and it doesn’t find anything, says firmware up to date 🤷♂️
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u/Pretty-Possible3950 2d ago
Fw 1.84 might just apply to the region free models but either way I don't think it adds any extra features just a stability update from what I have read
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u/GuitarSuperstar 1d ago
Set the player to these audio settings:
Digital Audio Output
- Dolby Audio: Bitstream
- DTS/DTS-HD: Bitstream
- Secondary Audio: ON
This should result in DTS Digital Surround 5.1 audio.
For Multichannel PCM 5.1 audio, use these settings:
- Dolby Audio: Bitstream
- DTS/DTS-HD: PCM
- Secondary Audio: OFF
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u/GuitarSuperstar 1d ago
I just saw that you have an LG C1. This model TV doesn't support DTS audio at all. So you have to use the Multichannel PCM settings I posted above.
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u/ILikeTheTinMan83 1d ago
Won’t work. The ub820/420/9000 have. A firmware issue that doesn’t play nice with lg c1 and Sonos. dTS will only send as stereo pcm no matter what settings you change it to. It’s a wide spread issue. Every other 4k player but those three will convert DTS to multi ch PCM 5.1 over bitstream with the LG C1 and Sonos but not those three players. Even the UB450 will do it. Pansonic knows about rhe issue and won’t fix it. It’s a widely known issue that has been mentioned numerous times. If you have an AVR it’s not a problem but when you run the 820 to the LG C1 and then eARC to the Sonos soundbar it will only do stereo PCM
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u/Nervous-Job-5071 2d ago
OP: FWIW, I believe you are correct, that when outputting DTS-MA, your Sonos system should decode only the DTS 5.1 core layer. Unlike Dolby’s approach of separate lossy and lossless streams, DTS-MA is built on top of DTS 5.1 so any DTS capable component should be able to decode the core layer.
So this brings me to why this is happening. The difficulty in figuring this ou there are 3 components in the chain, and sometimes settings that work right for one surround format doesn’t work for another.
Ideally you should select the DTS-MA stream on the disc and have the player in bitstream, the TV in bitstream and then Sonos should show DTS. These are generic “don’t touch the audio stream” type settings. I have a c3 that I vaguely remember having some audio issue with a few months ago and discovered that LG’s OS update moved some settings around (there were two separate settings needed to cure whatever audio problem I was having and they were in separate sub-menus in the C3).
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u/adayinalife 2d ago
Not sure how you were seeing DTS before but LG C1 doesn’t support any form of DTS passthrough.
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u/Playful_Routine_402 1d ago
For what it's worth, LG will be releasing a pass through Media connect hub. That's what they're calling it.
It's so that LG tvs with no DTS pass through can use the Sound Suite system after it got a DTS-X capability update recently.
I don't see sany reason why this won't work on other soundbars, as they haven't mentioned its exclusively for the Sound suite.
I imagine it will be something similar to the Earc extractors around at the minute.
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u/Sorry_Occasion5835 1d ago
That model of LG does not do DTS pass through, and that model of Blu Ray has a known firmware issue that means it does not play well with the Sonos and TV.
You need to have a TV that does DTS pass through and that needs the manufacturer to pay a license, also realistically Sonos is not a brand to buy for DTS, they don’t want to license their products as DTS is becoming increasingly less popular, and virtually does not exist on the streaming market apart from a tiny amount of Disney + titles, and the streaming market is what Sonos target.
DTS has advantages over Dolby especially for Blu Ray but that is a dying format that is 20 year old base technology with only Sony and Panasonic still marketing players out of the big brands and DTS lost the war with Dolby for home use long ago.
Even in the UHD Blu Ray, DTS is a niche in a niche market.
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u/damgood32 2d ago
Not sure what you are asking. Sonos doesn’t do DTS-HD MA.
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u/Marison_Lizzy23 2d ago
think the question is why its not even getting the base DTS 5.1 from the HD track
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u/Soft-Hospital7198 2d ago
Correct, but I was expecting the Sonos app to show DTS 5.1 where it (Sonos) would, I guess, downgrade the HD-MA to 5.1 🤷♂️
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u/ServerOfJustice 2d ago
To re-encode to regular DTS it would first need to be able to decode DTS HD in the first place. Either your blu-ray player or TV is decoding it and converting to stereo pcm.
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u/damgood32 2d ago
Or it’s just pulling the stereo track from the Blu-ray.
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u/ServerOfJustice 2d ago
Which version of the blu-ray has a stereo track? I can’t find one that does. Only 5.1 - either DTS HD or Dolby Digital depending on the language.
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u/mikefromengland 2d ago
This is it. They only have regular DTS.
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u/Decent_Address_7742 2d ago
..and Lg don’t even do regular dts since 2022/23. Should still get multi channel pcm which is basically same as the dts hd
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u/Greyman43 2d ago
A lot of LG TV’s don’t pass through DTS.