Digital audio out Optical cable Samsung
Considering this is a low-end Series 6 TV, I would expect it works on all higher Series Samsung models (I believe they all use the same SmartTV OS).
I posted this in avsforum but I thought I would also post here.
The issue was getting Dolby Digital selected...
Seems that the option to select Dolby Digital was grayed out and only PCM was selectable (well, and a DTS Neo 2:5 which I didn't know what that is). Sending a DD 5.1 signal to TV but the Playbar would still only see a stereo signal.
On my TV... Menu, Sound, Additional Settings, Audio Format.
What I eventually figured out is that I had to play back a video with Dolby Digital, and "while" it was playing, then I could go into this same TV settings menu and then select Dolby Digital. Once I did this, the TV seems to remember the setting and will flip between PCM and Dolby Digital depending on the source.
I also use AppleTV and MrMC (which is a Kodi port). After setting the TV as above, it was working for DD 5.1 but I could not get DTS transcode to work. I followed these instructions I found online to set MrMC sound settings:
Set "number of channels" to 2.0.
"Output configuration" to optimised.
"Enable Passthrough" on
"AC3 capable receiver" on
" - Enable Dolby Digital transcoding" on
"DTS capable receiver" off
This is supposed to transcode to DD5.1 on the fly but I just get silence when playing a DTS movie.
After experimenting I changed the first line, number of channels, from 2.0 to 5.1 and now it works perfect. MrMC transcodes DTS to Dolby Digital 5.1 on the fly. I can verify in Sonos App it sees Dolby Digital 5.1 (Sonos, About Sonos System).
Plex on AppleTV also is transcoding same DTS to Dolby Digital 5.1 without any additional settings (believe it picks up AppleTV settings) and maybe the server is doing something... I don't really use Plex that much and prefer MrMC but this is nice to know. Infuse - didn't bother trying.
However there is something to be aware of - Plex App on Samsung TV outputs Dolby 5.1 movies but when it sees a DTS it won't transcode DTS to Dolby Digital 5.1 and defaults to PCM. Here is strange thing - I find that once after playing a DTS movie in this TV Plex app then everything else plays as PCM Stereo. I have to go back and manually select Dolby Digital again in the TV for subsequently DD 5.1 videos afterwards (eg. playing back from AppleTV) or it defaults to PCM/Stereo in the TV optical out. Not sure if other TV apps have same affect. Keep this in mind that the settings may change if using the SmartTV apps. I checked all the sound settings and this is not fixable. Solution for now is to not use the SmartTV Plex app (I just was curious about it and how it worked on the TV anyways).
Hope this helps those who are having issues with Samsung TVs and Sonos Playbar.
BTW, I just added a Sonos sub and it makes a HUGE difference. Much more noticeable at home than the bad demo setup in Best Buy..