Smart Speaker Firmware Update - Nov 2019

[Wayne_M]

Firmware Update Details 

Starting on Tuesday, November 5^th, a firmware update will be rolled out for Bose Smart Home Speakers and Soundbars. The update will roll out in phases and you may not receive the update until November 13^th.  We appreciate your patience and ask that you leave your speakers connected to the network and let the update occur in due time. There is no Bose Music App update to accompany this firmware update.

On November 13^th, as part of the update, Smart home users on the latest firmware below are now able to access Spotify for free! Please click here for the full announcement details.

List of Products receiving the Firmware/Version numbers

  Portable Home Speaker- 3.0.8

  Home Speaker 300- 3.0.9

  Home Speaker 450- 6.1.10

  Home Speaker 500- 6.0.10

  Soundbar 500/700- 6.0.15

What is in this release?  

General: 

• Dolby latency reduction
• Security Improvements:  CVE-2019-9506: Key Negotiation of Bluetooth (KNOB) Vulnerability 

Alexa: 

• Improvements for Alexa to mute audio while responding to commands and receiving notifications

<Edit 11/14- Changed additional features to now link to our Spotify for free announcement.>

[SyXbiT]

hang on a minute. There are 510 complaints regarding broken HDMI ARC functionality that render the Soundbar 700 worthless. Literally the 700 is a paperweight. I need to powercycle/reset it every 2 days.

And yet, after 2 months of complaints, it's still not fixed?

[afcchris]

I’m sure this update will do the same as the last one and fix a few people but break even more people. Not sure what Bose need to convince them to fix this. [Removed by Moderator]

[afcchris]

@SyXbiT it’s been going on a lot longer than 2 months! 

[ThierryB]

Really pathetic.

No fix for the CEC/HDMI/ARC issue, or sound drop-out. Yet we can an update for Alexa  - what sort of joke is that ??? WHO CARES ABOUT ALEXA WHEN YOUR SOUNDBAR CANNOT PRODUCE SOUND PROPERLY WHEN CONNECTED????

AND STILL ZERO COMMUNICATION FROM BOSE ON A COMING FIX ??????

For the ones with a working soundbar, I strongly advise you to disconnect permanently the soundbar from the network, or add firewall rules to cut internet for the IP of your soundbar between 2am and 5am when the update will be pushed.

For the ones like us with a non working soundbar... We just have a flip a coin. Since there is no mention of fix, based on history... there is a good chance that this update will fix some of our soundbar since Bose has no clue about what they are updating on each firmware update, and what they will break. But there is a good chance as well that this firmware will break even more things...

The update to Dolby Digital is quite concerning...

Good luck to all.

[bkc1980]

What about HDMI-ARC issues??? Thousands of people are having the same issue. It is shameful to see no accountability from BOSE. Instead, the customer service reps are asking us to reset hdmi ports of our tvs.....THERE IS COMMON DENOMINATOR, which is the bose soundbar.....Take responsibility and atleast acknowledge the issue........

[RAMSHIK]

Last year AIRPLAY2 does not work !!!
Two years have passed Deezer HIFI does not work !!!
Last year, the soundbar 700, surround speakers 700, bass module 700 are not working properly.
Last year, we still did not see full support for all ALEXA and Google Assistant languages, even Chinese manufacturers have this functionality in all languages ​​on board BOSE not.

Cram your firmware with ALEXA in your as...........s !!!!Herd of animals!!!

[RAMSHIK]

everything is seething in me, I spent the annual salary on this system and what I got a bunch of **bleep** that does not work even with what is in the specification, from month to month I see that not only I have problems, but bose doesn't solve anything and it doesn’t compete with other manufacturers. I’m very upset that I didn’t buy myself SONOS. great software implementation; everything works as indicated on the cover.

[Wayne_M]

Sorry to hear some of you are still experiencing issues with HDMI ARC. If you have updated to the latest firmware on your soundbar and are still experiencing issues, we'd like to understand the specific issue, your configuration including make/model of TV, and any troubleshooting you've done to date. Please let us know here.

As always, if you are having any issue with your Bose products that you contact support in your region here worldwide.Bose.com/support.

[SyXbiT]

>>Sorry to hear some of you are still experiencing issues with HDMI ARC

It's actually a LOT of us. We've been complaining about it for months here https://community.bose.com/t5/Smart-Home/Bose-Soundbar-700-HDMI-Arc-issue/td-p/147882/jump-to/first-...

I can't find the thread right now (did Bose delete it), but on a previous firmware update this issue was acknowledged and said Bose were working on it. That was >2 months ago.

What's worse, this was working before. It broke sometime in the last 4 months.

Every support call or email or forum thread is the same. Bose has me reboot/reset everything taking 15 minutes. It works, so Bose checks it off the list. Only it's temporary. My speaker will stop working again 2 days later. So we have to reboot or reset this $1000 speaker every 2 days to just get sound. Bose makes good hardware, but the software side is not good enough. Not when competitors like Sonos have a better app, hardware that doesn't require reboots, and, equally importantly, they support their hardware for way longer than bose (don't get me started on the terrible idea Bose had to create a new app and not support SoundTouch..... Sonos would never do that. They understand the value of a shared ecosystem)

You can probably understand why people are so annoyed.