ARC and Optical?

NorthstaNder

NorthstaNder

NorthstaNder

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Joined
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Ipswich, Suffolk
Hello all.

I have a simple set up with a Samsung HW-Q70R soundbar. Connected to that is my blu ray player then there is an arc connection to my TV.

To the TV is a PS4, Switch and Virgin box.

I'm having trouble with ARC (surprise!) So was wondering if I could use an optical cable for sound from my TV. Would this intefere with the sound feomy Blu-ray which pushed out Atmos, dtsx etc.

Thanks in advance
 
Well, thanks for the er...advise!

Lead purchased and plugged in. Works a treat, regardless of whether the bar is on D.IN or TV ARC.

I've set up my sons playmobil fire station next to the sub, just in case :D
 
NorthstaNder said:
Lead purchased and plugged in. Works a treat, regardless of whether the bar is on D.IN or TV ARC.
Click to expand...
Yep, Optical does the same job as ARC but without the HDMI-controllyness* and the controllyness issues that sometimes go with it.


* Controllyness - a technical term and also word of the day. ;)


NorthstaNder said:
I've set up my sons playmobil fire station next to the sub, just in case :D
Click to expand...

I'm sure @hornetstinger will be most relieved to hear it.
 
Controllyness….I like it. Good word!

Unfortunately I still need the HDMI Arc to carry the Blu-ray picture to the TV via the soundbar otherwise I'd do away with it altogether.

I tested it last night using Avengers Infinity War and the noise actually woke my wife up who was asleep upstairs! She was not happy, haha!! (I secretly was though!)
That thing sure is loud, especially with an atmos soundtrack.
 
I don't think you really need HDMI ARC. HDMI, yes, but not the ARC bit of it.

ARC stands for Audio Return Channel. Before we had ARC you would have connected exactly as you do now, and switched to HDMI on the TV and soundbar for your BD player going direct to the sound bar, and for anything going in to the TV first you would have changed to the correct input ion the TV and switched the soundbar to the Optical input.

HDMI ARC was designed to replace the Optical connection and simplify the switching.

The idea was (or is) that the HDMI lead goes from being a one way street to handling two-way traffic. As a one way connection the signal travels in from the soundbar to the TV. This is what you have with picture part of the signal from the Blu-ray player. For any sources built in to the TV (tuner, apps, USB file playback) where you want the sound handled by the soundbar, then ARC makes it possible for that HDMI lead to carry sound signals to the soundbar.

You already know that for HDMI ARC to work, both the TV and soundbar need the feature. It also needs HDMI control (CEC) to be switched on. Samsung calls the CEC feature Anynet+. Switching to the Optical input effectively bypasses HDMI ARC.
 
@lucid I know what you mean and understand how ARC is supposed to work. However...it's just do unreliable. My soundbar has two inputs in one effectively. D.IN and TV ARC. It's supposed to switch to ARC when it detects a signal, but it just doesn't half the time and I have to end up faffing around turning anynet+ off then on etc or doing a power reset. It's just annoying, hence the back up of the optical cable so I'll still get sound if it doesn't switch to ARC.

It's only ever the sound that's the problem. Not the picture.

Also, I do need the ARC cable sadly as without it I won't get a picture from my Blu-Ray which is connected directly to the soundbar for all those lovely Atmos and DTSX soundtracks :)
 
HDMI control is flaky. In theory it shouldn't be. The protocols are all laid out, but manufacturers don't implement them consistently. Stupid really, but there it is.

If you can do without HDMI control in the sound bar, then switch it off in that device's menu.

Regarding the HDMI cable, yes, of course you need it otherwise the picture pass-through from the BD player wouldn't work. It's not really an ARC cable though. It's only a minor point, but any High-Speed HDMI cable will carry the ARC signal, so it's just a HDMI cable rather than a HDMI ARC cable. :)
 
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