Level entry Samsung Soundbar (HW-F350) and Samsung TV D5520

bernard56

bernard56

bernard56

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Hi All,

First post here :)

I hope you can be helpful for my issue.

I have a Samsung Smart TV D5520 (2 years old, still good TV I guess) and I never liked the speakers of the TV, they are quite crappy with too much medium.

I decided to invest in a level entry soundbar from Samsung (I saw the HW-F350, good price - Around 120 pounds at currys), I'm not looking for surround or high quality sound, I do not have the room to install a good sound system (Cables, Speaker, Receiver..), I just need some better speakers than the original speakers of the TV.

I do not have any DVD/Blu-ray player and I do not want to have 1, I do not have any game console, I have only the TV. I just want to have the TV and the soundbar, I will be happy with it.

I'm watching movies stored on my PC through my network (TV connected on the router by ethernet and my PC upstairs connected on the router by powerline devices - all fine - I stream easily movies) , I'm using Netflix or Lovefilm through the TV app also and I watch normal TV as well. This is it for what I'm doing with my TV.

I know the HW-F350 (http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd...amsung-hw-f350-2-1-soundbar-21295588-pdt.html) has an optical/digital connexion and my TV also so I guess I have to use this connection to connect the TV and the soundbar.

1) My issue is that I read on several forums over the web that through optical/digital audio link, the Samsung TV apps (media player of the TV, Youtube, Netflix, Lovefilms etc) sound is not working. I mean, if I understood well, that though the optical the TV will send only the sound of the Tuner (TV channels) but not the sound of the Smart TV apps, is it true ? Is it depending on the model of the TV ? If yes, how can I know if my TV can work with it or not ?

2) If it is the lottery (meaning it could or it could not work with optical and I won't know before I try), I was thinking at worst to put a bit more money and to take a Samsung soundbar with HDMI (like this one HW-F450 http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd...ms/samsung-hw-f450-soundbar-21295587-pdt.html). My TV is Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC) and I have read that I could connect my soundbar directly in HDMI to my TV (ARC..But does ARC=Anynet+ or HDMI-CEC ? is it the same ?) and it would work...Can somebody confirm this ?

Thank you very much for any help you could provide about these questions.

Have a nice weekend !
 
Anynet+ = HDMI-CEC. It's Samsung's trade name for it, other manufacturers do the same, Panasonic have Viera Link, Sony have Bravia Link. They will work together so it's a load of hooey! They'd rather you bought muitple devices from their brand, and it looks more impressive on the box.
 
MagicBoy said:
Anynet+ = HDMI-CEC. It's Samsung's trade name for it, other manufacturers do the same, Panasonic have Viera Link, Sony have Bravia Link. They will work together so it's a load of hooey! They'd rather you bought muitple devices from their brand, and it looks more impressive on the box.
Click to expand...

cheers.

But If your TV is Anynet+, does it mean that your TV is Also ARC (Audio Return Channel) ?

Thank you
 
MagicBoy said:
No. ARC is an HDMI 1.4 feature, CEC was part of the original standard.

Check the book of words.
Click to expand...

Ok, I did not find the Specification on the samsung website but I found the specification here :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-UE37D5520-Widescreen-Internet-Freeview/dp/tech-data/B004TB4VU6

It says clearly HDMI 1.4 with Audio Return.

So My TV is ARC :)

Thank you for the help, It is a bit much clearer now :)

Nobody has any clue about the Samsung apps sound which would not go through digital connexion but only to the TV speaker ? The discussions I have read about this are quite old so maybe it is not an issue anymore. It is important for me because my main issue with the speaker of my TV is when I watch Movies on the media player of the smart TV. Therefore, it would be sad if the sound bar was not working when I watch a Movie on my network.

I would still prefer to spend 120 pounds for the low entry soudn bar HW-F350 :)
 
The sound issue with the Apps (Lovefilm/Amazon and Netflix) isn't sound/no sound; it's to do with the type of sound.

Any Samsung TV with the Smarthub internet features will give you sound from Lovefilm and Netflix. What you won't get though is the discrete surround sound audio formats of Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1

Discrete surround is where there are 6 separate channels of audio: Five for the surround speakers and one for the sub. With the channel information kept separate in this way it gives a superior surround sound result. The other format is Dolby Surrond. This is where you use ProLogic decoding. The signal is either stereo, or it is stereo with some extra information for the centre and rear surround channels hidden inside the stereo signal. When the signal is purely stereo then the amp's ProLogic decoding is making up information for the centre and rear channels. If the signal is encoded with Dolby Surround then the amp's ProLogic decoder will extract the centre and rear channel information. It's never quite as clear though as discrete 5.1 and there's no separate subwoofer sound track.

So, how does this all tie together.

Well, for a start if you are listening via a basic soundbar then it's unlikely you'll hear much difference between DD/DTS and stereo.

Next, AFAIK Lovefilm doesn't carry DD5.1 audio anyway. They flag it as DD5.1 but it's actually incorrect. The stream is DD2.0 (stereo in Dolby Digital format). It's a while since I had a look at this, so they may have sorted the flagging, but I haven't heard any reports to say that they're doing better than DD2.0

Netflix does carry Dolby Digital 5.1 So in reality this is the only service that is limited by the Samsung TV, and then it's only noticeable if the audio system is good enough to reveal the differences.
 
Thank you very much for this clear answer. So if it is the sound format issue, I guess I can force the decoding of sound in another format for the sound bar to interpret it ? I mean that for example, if I listen/watch a movie on my network with DDS or a format that the digital link does not restitute, I can perfectly force the format in something else (Simple Stereo or something like this) ? OR if the audio of my movie is DDS 5.1, there is no solution to render it on the soundbar ?

Edit : sorry, I just understood a bit better your post. In fact, it is just that the soundbar is not rendering some Sound effect. So nothing to do with the optical/digital link not able to transport DDS 5.1 but more to see with the soundbar capability ?

I will go to buy the HW-F350 today and will try it I think :)

Will give a feedback later on ;)
 
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There is some information on Optical Out from the E-manual on the Samsung D5520 series suggests. It suggests that Optical will do only 2.0 in either Dolby Digital (Dolby Plus) or DTS. However, in another part of the manual it says that the TV supports audio file formats that include AC3 (we know it more commonly as Dolby Digital), and DTS-core. Yet it doesn't specify how many channels.

There isn't enough detail in the manual to be certain, but my best guess would be that the TV down-converts multichannel DD and DTS to stereo DD and DTS at the Optical Out.

The TV also supports basic stereo audio in digital format (LPCM 2ch).

With LPCM you will be able to use the audio processing features of the soundbar (3D Sound Plus) to make pseudo surround effects. These look to be Samsung's own audio processing modes; they're not Dolby ProLogic. I think it will do the same with DTS 2.0 and DD 2.0. You'll be able to use the 3D Sound Plus to make a surround effect. Really though, the only way to be sure is to try it.
 
Hi Lucid, thank you very much again or all these information.

Just installed the sound bar, it works like a charm with everything and this is a real improvement compare to the TV speakers. I did not need to do anything specific, not even set up the TV on external speaker, I connected it via the optical cable and it worked perfectly directly. The controller of the soundbar enables you to control the TV as well..great ! Not all the function but the main ones.

I will test a variety of video and audio format to see if some of them have some issues. I have only tested 2 or 3 blu ray rip through the network and it works perfectly well (can't say what format is the audio, I guess it is AC3).

For the funny story, I was on my way to currys to buy it new when somebody from gumtree (a person who was selling the same soundbar + digital cable new and unopened, she never used it, on gumtree to who I sent an email 2 days ago) answered me telling me that the soundbar was still available. I finally had the soundbar + digital cable for 70 quids instead of 140 price new :P It was my lucky day ;)

Thank you very much for the help anyway ;)
 
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