Samsung 32F5000 to sound bar noob question - Optical connection and all sorted?

[NeilF]

I have a number of feeds going into a Samsung 32F5000 TV all via HDMI (eg: XBox, Bluray and Boxee Box).

I want to add a Sound Box such as the Denon DHT-T100. If I simply connect the TV to the sound bar via an optical lead - the TV has an optical out- is that it?

So questions:-
1) Will anything played on the TV automatically be fed to the sound bar?
2) What format will the transmission be from the TV to the sound bar? ie: If I tell the Boxee to transmit in DTS will that then get fed via HDMI to the TV and into the sound bar (over optical) for it to then process?

 

[NeilF]

Bump!!!!

I'd still like an answer to this...

If I tell my Boxee (or bluray player) to transmit in DTS to the TV, with that audio signal (DTS or dolby 5.1 for example) then simply pop out of the optical output on the TV, thus offering it to a soundbar?

Or is that optical output on the TV only for broadcasts received?

 

[lucid]

Optical will (or should) pass anything you can hear from the TV speakers out to the sound bar. So if you can hear the sound from a Boxee or Sky or PS4 or TV broadcast or BD player etc etc via the TV's own internal speakers then the Optical should be sending out the same signal.

The thing that Optical won't do is pass the signal from the TV's HDMI inputs in their native form. This means that DD5.1, DTS5.1, Dolby True HD, DTS-Master Audio etc never reach the Optical* of the TV. What happens in general instead that TVs use the HDMI handshake to request a plain stereo PCM version of the signal, or for those multichannel signals they do understand they're downmixed to stereo for the TV speakers and the Optical gets the same feed.

* Optical hasn't got the bandwidth to handle HD audio, so this is a bit of a moot point.

All the above is academic though when the sound bar is stereo anyway. That's what many basic sound bars are. Even if you could get DTS5.1 to it via the TV, the soundbar will simply convert it to stereo in the end regardless so does it matter whether the signal is converted in the TV or the soundbar or at the source device.

 

[NeilF]

All the above is academic though when the sound bar is stereo anyway. That's what many basic sound bars are. Even if you could get DTS5.1 to it via the TV, the soundbar will simply convert it to stereo in the end regardless so does it matter whether the signal is converted in the TV or the soundbar or at the source device.

I think I've just got to that conclusion myself.

So any average soundbar or sound stage is simply 2.1 (stereo). So if I feed a regular stereo signal to the TV (from my blueray or boxee as I currently do), I can then simply plug a optical cable from the TV to the soundbar (which will be transmitting all its stereo signal down that cable)?

So there will be stereo out of the TV and stereo out of the sound bar? So just turn the sound bar on, and the tv volume down?


My only concern would be, is that optical output definately going to be transmitting all (stereo) audio, even stuff in via HDMI?

 

[lucid]

I think I've just got to that conclusion myself.

So any average soundbar or sound stage is simply 2.1 (stereo). So if I feed a regular stereo signal to the TV (from my blueray or boxee as I currently do), I can then simply plug a optical cable from the TV to the soundbar (which will be transmitting all its stereo signal down that cable)?

So there will be stereo out of the TV and stereo out of the sound bar? So just turn the sound bar on, and the tv volume down?


My only concern would be, is that optical output definately going to be transmitting all (stereo) audio, even stuff in via HDMI?

Just clarifying a couple of points:

2.1 isn't pain stereo. It's a stereo signal plus an extra channel (the " .1" part) for a separate and dedicated additional subwoofer bass channel. Plain stereo is written as 2.0 Something in plain stereo will still be full audio frequency (20Hz-20kHz) so whatever bass speakers the soundbar has will still work. The sub channel is extra bass information-a dedicated low frequency effects channel (LFE)-not a replacement or alternative to the bass content already in the 2.0 signal.


Second point: Optical itself doesn't limit whether DD or DTS 5.1 comes out of the TV, that's the TV's doing.



Back to the points from your latest post....

If a soundbar or sound stage is 2.1 then it should really have a subwoofer bass box as an additional item. If it doesn't then strictly speaking it is a 2.0 device regardless of the manufacturer's claims of built-in subwoofers; they're not. They're just mid/bass speakers. So the average soundbar or sound that doesn't have a separate sub is a 2.0 device.

Stereo in digital format is called PCM. A simple PCM signal is the lowest common denominator; it's the signal that all digital audio devices will understand. Your Blu-ray player will default to stereo PCM at 44.1kHz when connected direct to the TV because that's likely to be all the TV can accept via its HDMI inputs.

In very simple terms then, if you can hear the audio from the TV speaker, then you'll be able to hear the same sound but louder and better quality from a soundbar connected via optical. It's really that simple.

If you can't hear it from the TV speakers then it won't be heard from the soundbar, and that's because the TV is stopping the signal getting through.

 

[NeilF]

Stereo in digital format is called PCM. A simple PCM signal is the lowest common denominator; it's the signal that all digital audio devices will understand. Your Blu-ray player will default to stereo PCM at 44.1kHz when connected direct to the TV because that's likely to be all the TV can accept via its HDMI inputs.

In very simple terms then, if you can hear the audio from the TV speaker, then you'll be able to hear the same sound but louder and better quality from a soundbar connected via optical. It's really that simple.

If you can't hear it from the TV speakers then it won't be heard from the soundbar, and that's because the TV is stopping the signal getting through.

OK.... So given the TV has an optical out, I'll plan to use that to connect to a soundstage unit. And all I'll do is keep playing files into the TV in the same format (stereo/PCM) and all the soundstage will do, is give a better version of that stereo than the TV.

Thanks!

 

[wazza300]

you have to set to external speakers in the tv options (after connecting the optical cable)

you can pick external/internal & external or just internal,you can also adjust the lag from the tv speakers and the soundbar if your using both together

 

[NeilF]

you have to set to external speakers in the tv options (after connecting the optical cable)

you can pick external/internal & external or just internal,you can also adjust the lag from the tv speakers and the soundbar if your using both together

Ahhh OK!

I notice some allow you to "pass-thru" one or more HDMIs through the soundbar/soundstage to the TV. I guess that's just a variation/reverse of the same mechanic really...