Sonos Playbar

5* review here.

This looks very interesting! One thing I'm pondering though is the Sky connectivity. I've read in a few places that the Sky box does not output 5.1 via hdmi. If you were to have the full Sonos AV setup i.e. an Playbar, Sub and 2 Play 3's, what sound config would you get when you listened to a Sky channel. I cant see how you would get 5.1 into the TV as it only has an optical out, therefore, unless some clever decoding is done on the playbar itself, wouldnt you just end up with stereo?

Pete

As long as you go sky -> optical -> tv -> optical -> playbar, you should get 5.1 as I understand it.

Or:

a) If Sky channels are all you watch, you can run the optical directly into the Playbar (just mute the TV sound)

b) Use an optical switch and run both TV and Sky box in to the Playbar. We're currently doing some testing to work out the best kit and settings to achieve this (and many other permutations) and will let the WHF team know our findings....

My TV (Samsung 6 Series) only outputs 2.1 CH via the optical jack if the source is connected through HDMI and this apparently is quite common spec.  So the switch idea might be good but is it automatic?

That's what we're testing at the moment...

And re the 2.1 issue - Sonos engineers say the Playbar is capable of 'rebuilding' the 5.1 signal where TVs do downmix.

Playbar connectivity kit all tested - all products covered in this WHF news story

It surprises me as to why Sonos didn't include more connectivity options, forcing users to buy another product to overcome this deficiency.

CYP looks like a European (British) company. What are they doing about connectivity in the US?

I'm sure someone must be working on it, or similar products may be available there already. Need to check on my computer when I get home.

just using the sonos sub with the playbar sounds interesting but how will the playbar output to the sub when the pb isnt directly connected to the sub or the bridge?

Wirelessly. 

I only know European situation, i'm afraid.

Sure there will be plenty of enterprising companies/retailers doing the same Stateside.

I have just bought the Playbar and sub and set it up in 5.1 format with two Play:3 speakers.  Unfortunately, my Pioneer Kuro (4280xd) does not pass audio through its optical output, so I have my Bluray player and Sky HD connected to the Playbar using an optical splitter. The primary problem with this is that the Playbar's main specification hole (the lack of DTS decoding) means we simply don't get audio from Bluray discs that don't have a 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack (which is most of them). It seems unbelievable to me that Sonos hasn't included this functionality within what is clearly intended to be a premium product - it means essentially that in order to get surround sound, we have to go back to the reduced picture quality of DVDs. Is there any way round this problem, short of buying a new TV (which I am not going to do!)?

I have also noticed that the sound quality from Bluray (even where there is a DD 5.1 soundtrack) seems noticeably lower in quality than with Sky HD (with movies, for example), which is not what I had expected. In particular, the sound is significantly more enveloping from Sky than from Bluray. Does anyone have any ideas as to why this might be?

Thanks.

As I understand it, including DTS would require the payment of an additional license, something in the region of $40 per device. Many people already think the Playbar is too expensive but Sonos have said they could add DTS with a future update, so clearly they're thinking about it, but how they'd get around the license fee for existing customers I don't know.

Check what format your blu-ray player is sending out through the optical output, possibly it's only sending stereo?