Looking for anyone in the world who has gotten 5.1 surround working via Play-Fi

[MGWHAT]

I just got the RSB-14 and two RW-1's as satellites.  Hooked them all up via Play-Fi and have tried everything under the sun and the moon to get surround to work.

 

My problem is that no sound comes out of the satellites at all in surround mode.

 

I've tried every possible configuration.  On my 2.4 ghz network, 5ghz network, splitting between the two.  I have tried every possible setting on my Blu ray player, PCM, Bitstream decode to DTS, bitstream Dolby.  I have tried every source, PS4, cable, Blu Ray player.  I've confirmed they are all outputting 5.1.  I've tried both the DTS Play-Fi native iOS app and the new Klipsch Stream app.

 

I know the satellites are set up properly because when I don't have them set up as surround I can connect to each of them independently to play music etc, and can also have them set up as a 'group' up to have music coming out of all speakers simultaneously.

 

The Play-Fi app confirms the surround is set up properly, and I even get the nice "DING" sound out of each speaker when the surround setup is complete.  But alas, after that there is no sound from any source on any setting.

 

I have also the Disney WOW calibration Blu Ray and have tested speaker output there.  Interestingly, when I do the 5.1 speaker identification test, the Soundbar itself (not the satellites) outputs sound on both the rear surround test tones.  So I feel like this might be related to the problem.  It's like the Play-Fi app and the RW-1 surrounds want to receive the surround signal, but the soundbar itself is not broadcasting the signal, even though it's set up as surround. But don't know how to change settings on the soundbar itself obviously as there is no configuration interface.

 

So I'm totally at a loss here.  Unfortunately since the products are so new I haven't found any info or troubleshooting / solutions anywhere online.  I feel like there must be something I'm missing.  But after so many retries my mind is too clouded to see what is hopefully an obvious solution.

 

Thanks if you made it this far

[Dkfan9]

I'm not sure this soundbar outputs signal for wireless surrounds.

[MGWHAT]

I figured out a lot since my last post so thought I'd update anyone curious about this issue

So my satellites work fine once I realized wtf was happening. It turns out when you have the speakers set up as a surround kit with the soundbar, they cannot be used independently at the same time. You go from having 3 selectable speakers in the Play-Fi app to having one ‘speaker’. This caused me a lot of confusion as I thought the satellites kept dropping out, when in fact they were not selectable due to the surround configuration I set up. I’m not a network engineer or anything, but basically what’s happening is that when you set up surround, the soundbar is set up as a wifi access point, and the satellites are connecting via WiFi to the soundbar. So since the satellites are on the soundbar’s ‘network’ they cease to be selectable in the app, until you undo the surround configuration. Once the surround is removed, I can see all three speakers again, move them around the house and hear anything out of any speaker, group them up etc.

All the above said, surround itself is still not working. I called Klipsch and emailed Play-Fi customer support about the actual surround functionality. They both said that they plan on releasing a firmware update late Jan 2017 which will enable surround functionality.

So I’m bummed that surround doesn’t work out the box and have to sit on my hands waiting until Jan (hopefully) for them to work how I intended, but at least I’m not crazy and I don’t have a DOA kit.

[Steve S]

The firmware updates are out. I have a similar config with an RSB-8 with 2 RW-1's.. All three needed updates to enable surround. 

[troydfrazier]

i just picked up the RSB-14 and the RW-1 kit and applied the latest firmware which includes the support for Surround (allegedly) but it still doesn't work after configuring per their instructions.  I just go it last week and for the kind of money they're getting for this set one would expect it to work out of the box.  I'll just get a Sonos set up  which have many many 5 star ratings on amazon, whereas this set up has 1 review with 1 star and the user having the exact same complaint.

 

This is my first time using Klicpsh and while the sound from the soundbar is good i don't need to bookends with these RW1 speakers.

 

pitty l....

[avguytx]

I had actually thought about getting one of these RSB-14's for the living room in our new house as I don't care anything about surround in the LR and primarily want it for listening to music on occasion.  It would have been cool, in theory, to hook the TV and PS3 into it and stream Spotify and JRiver FLAC files from my NAS to it but it sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth.  I'm not going to use big speakers in the living room as that's why I'm having a room built upstairs.  I guess I'll stay with my original plan of buying an Onkyo TX-8270 and maybe a new pair of RP-160M since I can get Onkyo and Klipsch for either rep sample price or employee purchase price.  Or, I'll just save the money and use a pair of Dynaco A25's to start.  It's just for tunes in the living room, anyway.

[bakeras]

I was able to get the RSB-14 and the RW-1s working for a surround setup.  It took a while with the tech support, but I got it figured out.  I had a few issues.  One I had was verifying my source was a Dolby 5.1, which I was able to do.  Another was my home network.  I had to upgrade my router to a faster one that is on the DTS Play-Fi recommended list.  The DTS Play-Fi site has a lot of good troubleshooting information and explanation on how to setup your network.

 

http://assets.klipsch.com/files/Play-Fi-Compatible-Routers-tested-by-Klipsch.pdf

https://play-fi.com/faq/entry/recommended-routers-and-network-specifications

 

The last bit that got me over the hump was that I thought I had installed the proper firmware on the RSB-14.  The About in the app said I was using 4.008 firmware, but the install did not complete.  I tried a few times with one flash drive, but I would get an install error.  When I tried another flash drive, the installation completed successfully.  I was then able to get audio from my rear channels when I made the surround group.