Reply With QuoteI suspect there isOriginally Posted by Franco81
I'd suggest typing the questions to get answers!
Is there any AV geeks/specialists on here? I have questions re: my tv and soundbar setup to get the best sound possible. Thanks.
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I suspect there is
I'd suggest typing the questions to get answers!
If you live near me I can pop round if you put the kettle on.
Unfortunately I'm down in Surrey so a long way away.
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Just a bit. However try a question and I will try and help, although often audio setup is best done live in front of the equipment.
Which TV and sound bar? You can also research on 'AV Forums'.
I have a Samsung 4K Tv and a Samsung HW-H751 soundbar with wireless sub. I have a 4K bluray player and Sky Q.
Currently the Tv is wall mounted with only a high quality HDMI cable and power lead chased into the wall, its mostly wired up to sky but when I watch a bluray I have to switched the cable which is a faff (point 1) the sound bar sits under the tv and is linked by Bluetooth to the tv. I am wondering though how much better would the sound be if I hard wired the sound to the tv by hdmi or optical? I understand that the best sound would possibly be from the sky q to the tv but the wall is now chased and filled so not an option.
So to recap, should I get a. HDMI splitter for the blu ray? Will this negate the quality of the lead already chased into the wall?
And how best will I get my sound from my tv?
Thanks.
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I wouldnt get too hung up on the quality of HDMI leads.
Oh really? I did wonder if magazines like what hi fi were just filling column inches.
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Are you saying that you have only a single HDMI port on your Samsung 4k TV?
No I have 4. But I only have 1 cable going from the cupboard through the wall and into the tv
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[QUOTE=Franco81;4456764]Oh really? I did wonder if magazines like what hi fi were just filling column inches. [QUOTE]
What does the D in HDMI stand for? That's right, digital. Either the cable is working to spec, or it's not. If not, it's not an HDMI cable. The cheapest possible cable that works to the spec is still sending the entire digital signal down the line. You can't buy more quality than 100%.
The same is true of Ethernet cables and USB cables, SATA cables, etc.
Then you either have to run a second cable through the wall, or put an HDMI junction box at the bottom of the cable that goes to the TV, and plug both your Blu-ray and your Sky box into that. If you go the junction box route, get one that auto-switches by sensing input, it will minimise the felt kludginess of the solution.
A quick search online shows that 2-port HDMI switches with auto-sensing start at about £10, but a lot of these will only do HD, so you will need to check that any switch you buy says on the box that it will switch a 4k signal.
As said above you need an HDMI switcher - they aren't expensive:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...ds=hdmi+switch
SkyQ into input 1, Bluray into input 2. Ouput goes up the wall HDMI cable to your TV. I don't know if your TV has an optical out (it probably does) so add an optical cable from the TV output into the soundbar. How you control the switch varies from a button on the unit to a remote control. You're not looking at much cost at all.
Here's an example from that page:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/GANA-Intell...%2Bswitch&th=1
Now can someone please explain how the 5 input version can be 10p less than the 3 input one.
Last edited by Mr Pointy; 13th August 2017 at 21:46.
[QUOTE=seffrican;4456797][QUOTE=Franco81;4456764]Oh really? I did wonder if magazines like what hi fi were just filling column inches.Great! Thanks!
What does the D in HDMI stand for? That's right, digital. Either the cable is working to spec, or it's not. If not, it's not an HDMI cable. The cheapest possible cable that works to the spec is still sending the entire digital signal down the line. You can't buy more quality than 100%.
The same is true of Ethernet cables and USB cables, SATA cables, etc.
Then you either have to run a second cable through the wall, or put an HDMI junction box at the bottom of the cable that goes to the TV, and plug both your Blu-ray and your Sky box into that. If you go the junction box route, get one that auto-switches by sensing input, it will minimise the felt kludginess of the solution.
A quick search online shows that 2-port HDMI switches with auto-sensing start at about £10, but a lot of these will only do HD, so you will need to check that any switch you buy says on the box that it will switch a 4k signal.
So I'll order said junction box and won't worry about my perceived loss of quality as that is nonsense.
On the optical cable front. Are you saying that if I connect the bar straight to my to via optical that that would work? And give better sound than the current Bluetooth connection that I have? Also is optical for sound better than if I connected both via hdmi? Thanks.
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Looking at the specs (http://www.samsung.com/uk/audio-vide...75x/HW-H751XU/) the soundbar only has one HDMI in and one out. It also doesn’t support 4K video passthrough. This means it isn’t really suited to getting the best out of your blu ray player. By far the best option is to run two additional HDMI cables to the TV, one for the blu ray and one for the Sky Q. You can then connect the original to the soundbar. If you set the TV up correctly, sound from will go from the TV to the soundbar for all sources. The biggest issue you have is the lack of 4K passthrough.
I read/saw someone stating hdmi doesn't really have grades. It either works or doesn't. over a longer length it may help but the theory I buy into is a £2.99 lead is just as good as a £80 lead from Curry's.
True or false I don't know. I'm not bothered enough to put them against each other myself!
The sky Q box has Bluetooth if that assists any set up potential for OP
There are different HDMI standards which mainly describe the bandwidth the port and cable can support. Provided the cable supports the standard, any cable should work.
I think the Bluetooth is only for the remote?
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Ok so scrap the idea of the hdmi as I now have built in cupboards so that's not an option. How about the optical cable from tv direct into soundbar?
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If you open Spotify for example you can see your sky box as a device to play it on just as you would a Bluetooth speaker.
Does your TV have optical out? We don't know the model number.
[QUOTE=Franco81;4456843][QUOTE=seffrican;4456797]The setup we have (Samsung TV and soundbar also) is the sources all running directly to the TV's HDMI ports, and the soundbar paired to the TV using the optical cable. I haven't tried running HDMI to the soundbar to compare, or using Bluetooth, but the optical link works just fine.
The TV is also connected to the 5.1 (yes, I haven't updated it for a long time) system, but mostly we just end up using the soundbar for everyday viewing.
[QUOTE=seffrican;4456886][QUOTE=Franco81;4456843]Thanks I'll give this a go tomorrow.
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Yes it does and the soundbar also has one
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Just to add, sound via an optical cable directly to the TV will absolutely sound better than sound via a Bluetooth connection.
Yes, TOSLINK is minimum stereo PCM, Bluetooth is compressed. HJMI can be better or worse than TOSLINK depending on the capability of the hardware. I doubt there's a noticeable difference between TOSLINK and HDMI with a soundbar, though, even a good one.
My personal recommendation would be to take the plunge and go whole hog, AV Receiver with 2.1 system as the results are fantastic. I have a pair of Bower and Wilkins 684 S2 coupled with a Marantz AV Receiver which can handle 4K signals perfectly.
I'd love to and did contemplate it but I hate wires and didn't want to wreck my flat walls in the need of great sound my Mrs would constantly be moaning is too loud!
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This is only true in theory. In the real world, people (manufacturers in this case) lie.
There are a couple of outfits that test cables, and verify that they meet the standards as described. Silicon Image and DPL Labs are two such test centers/services.
Verifying the cables meet the standard is not terribly important for short runs at 1080p, nearly every cable will do that. But when using "Deep Color" and 4k resolutions, and over long distances (6 meters and up), the failure rates are very high.
So I plugged my tv into my soundbar last via the optical as per below, I expected this amazing sound to below out and I was surprised to find it was actually a worse sound than using the soundbar via bluetooth...
surely this shouldn't be right?
I bought a home cinema set up and had the same, I threw away the optical and used HDMi instead and it was transformed. Maybe this is what you need to do also. good luck.
HDMI would theoretically carry the best sound from video sources, Toslink second best of these options, and Bluetooth last. But, with a soundbar the difference can be minuscule. The number of compromises made in a typical soundbar in sound quality for some other characteristic, be it size, or cost, weight, power consumption, etc is myriad. Most of them sound quite a bit worse than an entry level set of shelf mount speakers. Its the convenience of the form factor that sells that product, not how well it does the job.
I went HDMI to my Soundbar rather than Optical when I found not only did I have to power up the Soundbar separately but there were awful lip sync issues which you had to adjust for every time and often between TV channels.
The HDMI connection seems to have cured these so I would ensure the system works well with Optical before chasing & filling in the wall again.
I will try the HDMI route tonight then as the optical isn’t the solution. I’m too hoping that this will cure syncing issues I’m having. Thanks.
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