Noob question about soundbar set up

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Ok so a year after having my tv I've decided I should splash a little cash on a soundbar. I'm thinking of buying a Samsung HW-F551 to go with my Samsung ES6710 tv. Now here comes the "noob" part I have no idea how to set this up, I was thinking of having a optical cable from the tv to the soundbar, now is that right or should it be something else?

My tv has 3 HDMI ports 1 is the Sky HD box, Xbox 360 and the other will be for the Xbox one. I'm guessing if the soundbar is hooked up to the tv via optical cable I will be able to use the soundbar with all these devices, correct? :confused:
 
I just had a look and the HDMI 2 Port is ARC, but if I plug the soundbar to that one I will lose one of the devices since I was planning on using all three hdmi ports (sky, xbox, xbox one).
 
Looking at it the soundbar does have a pass through and also as mentioned above the xbox one will also have one. Looks like I'm all sorted.

Just had a little read around and I could also use "soundshare" and it would connect to the tv via wireless but somehow my tv model doesn't support it. :(
 
So optical from the soundbar to the tv? That's probably easier for me to set up with the cabling and what not. Do not like seeing any cables on show, I'm too fussy.

I should have the bar on wednesday so will try both optical and hdmi arc. Probably go for optical if it all works fine.
 
Personally I think I'd be looking at another model, after owning a Samsung home theatre kit I don't rate their audio stuff at all. Build quality was abysmal.
Any other recommendation? I just thought that £240 for this Samsung one was a steal.

Keep in mind that if you add anything that uses DTS or Dolby TrueHD audio like a Blu Ray player, the optical will not be able to transmit the HD sound.
Will only have the two xbox's and sky hd box not sure if any of those uses it.
 
Yea I definitely want to stick with the soundbar route, especially since this is going to be in my bedroom and not in a living room.

Well I will try the hdmi way and optical and see if I notice any difference, I'm not really a huge audiophile as you can tell I've been using tv speakers :p.

Hopefully the soundbar will be here tomorrow or wednesday haven't checked the tracking status. Anyone ever used or ordered from totaldigital?
 
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