SONOS Home Theatre Speakers And TV Requirements

While most TVs are compatible with Sonos home theater speakers, some may need additional configuration or may not work with Sonos. This article will describe some basic requirements when using Sonos speakers with your TV.

If you do not see some of the ports of menu options mentioned below, consult your TV or external source device’s manual or manufacturer support for help.

TV REQUIREMENTS

Ray, Playbar, and Playbase require a TV with a digital optical audio output.

Arc, Beam, and Amp require a TV with an HDMI ARC port in order to utilize CEC, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant to control your TV. If your TV does not have an HDMI ARC port, you can connect Arc, Beam, or Amp to a digital optical audio output using the optical audio adapter (only included with Arc and Beam). You will not be able to control your TV using CEC or voice when using the optical connection. If you encounter issues related to HDMI ARC during setup, see our article about troubleshooting HDMI ARC errors.

Dolby Atmos requirements

Sonos Arc and Beam (Gen 2) support playback of Dolby Atmos audio via Dolby Digital Plus or Dolby TrueHD. They must be connected to HDMI ARC or HDMI eARC to play any Dolby Atmos content. You can find more information about playing Atmos audio on Sonos in our Dolby Atmos article.

Surround sound requirements

Sonos home theatre speakers support Dolby Digital 5.0 and 5.1 surround sound. Home theatre speakers running Sonos S2 also support decoding DTS Digital Surround. Make sure your TV and any external source device like a gaming console or cable box are set to a supported surround sound audio format.

Blu-ray discs commonly use the DTS Digital Surround audio format, which is not supported by Sonos S1 systems. Some Blu-ray players and game consoles can transcode DTS Digital Surround into a format that Sonos S1 supports, such as Dolby Digital 5.1. Consult the product manual for your game console or Blu-ray player for specific instructions and settings.

We recommend updating to Sonos S2 if you want to play content with DTS Digital Surround audio.