Samsung connection help needed

philmo

philmo

philmo

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Have just received a Samsung HW-H600 sound-base to use with my UE48H6400 48" smart TV.

Both have multiple hdmi connections and 1 optical.

I also need to connect a Sky + HD box and a to be purchased Samsung Blue ray player (which will have 2+ hdmi).

Can someone please suggest the best connection set-up for all 4.

The TV & Soundbase can be connected via wireless as it has the 'Soundconnect' option - I have tried this and it sounds fine, but want to ensure I will not get better quality via hdmi or optical.

All help much appreciated.
 
A wired connection will always be more reliable than a wireless connection. It also guarantees there won't be any signal compression as might be the case with a wireless signal.

The TV to soundbase connection: your best option is HDMI using the ARC feature. Optical will give you exactly the same audio quality, but with less convenience features that you get with HDMI such as unified volume control.

How you connect the other audio devices is pretty academic. The soundbase isn't a full surround system. It uses some audio processing tricks to try to make the sound more "spacious" (their word, not mine). But essentially it's processing everything in the same way whether it's stereo or Dolby Digital (5.1), or DTS 2 channel (note, not 5.1). There's no mention of handling the HD audio formats from Blu-ray.

You can either connect all the sources to the TV, or directly to the soundbase. The advantage of going via the TV is two-fold. You have the option to use the TV speakers or the soundbase (though that will take some fiddling with the HDMI settings and it does defeat the object of buying the under-TV speaker in the first place). Second, it's simple. Put the TV on to whichever source you want to use and the sound is automatically routed via HDMI ARC to the soundbase.
 
lucid said:
A wired connection will always be more reliable than a wireless connection. It also guarantees there won't be any signal compression as might be the case with a wireless signal.

The TV to soundbase connection: your best option is HDMI using the ARC feature. Optical will give you exactly the same audio quality, but with less convenience features that you get with HDMI such as unified volume control.

How you connect the other audio devices is pretty academic. The soundbase isn't a full surround system. It uses some audio processing tricks to try to make the sound more "spacious" (their word, not mine). But essentially it's processing everything in the same way whether it's stereo or Dolby Digital (5.1), or DTS 2 channel (note, not 5.1). There's no mention of handling the HD audio formats from Blu-ray.

You can either connect all the sources to the TV, or directly to the soundbase. The advantage of going via the TV is two-fold. You have the option to use the TV speakers or the soundbase (though that will take some fiddling with the HDMI settings and it does defeat the object of buying the under-TV speaker in the first place). Second, it's simple. Put the TV on to whichever source you want to use and the sound is automatically routed via HDMI ARC to the soundbase.
Click to expand...

Much appreciated that you took the time to reply.

I have connected the TV to the Soundbase using hdmi (TV hmdi ARC to Soundbase hdmi out). When I then selected hdmi as the source from the soundbase there was no sound (I can still select TV as the source and get decent wireless sound). However when flicking through sound source options without prompting a setting TV ARC did show. I could hear sound but not as impressive as the wireless 'soundconnect' setting. Might this be a case of a poor quality hdmi lead - as surely it should show hdmi ARC.

Thanks again.
 
Wireless sounding "more impressive" could simply be that the soundbase is defaulting to an audio preset that boosts the sound to make it "bigger". There's no reason to suspect that you couldn't select that same mode as the default with an ARC connection.

As for further set-up advice, Samsung insist on using these silly E-manuals which scatter information in a very illogical way. This makes it hard to dip in and just pinpoint specific sections of information quickly for someone who doesn't have the equipment sat in front of them. You're just going to have to work through the info or perhaps try a larger advice base such as AVForums to see if there's some on their who own the same gear.
 
I have checked both presets are the same, and tried a better hdmi lead - it might be my imagination. Also the sound level on soundshare is around 10 points higher.

Have been over e-manuals and will look at further.

Last question, my current connections are:

TV (hdmi ARC) --> Soundbase (hdmi out).
TV (hdmi) --> Sky+ HD (hdmi)
Am about to get as Blue Ray player with hdmi and optical, should I just connect it hdmi to TV and optical to soundbase for sound ?.

Thanks again.
 
I doubt either connection will sound different from the other. The TV converts all audio to basic stereo, and the soundbase does pretty much the same. Try it both ways though and see what you think.
 
So I have connected the Sky HD to Soundbase with optical and the sky box is connected to the TV with hdmi.

In the Sky HD sound settings I have set changed Digital Audio Output - Optical to DOLBY D. This time sound comes out of sound bar ok with both SD and HD channels, so should I assume I am hearing Dolby sound (or scaled down)?.

For info the Digital Audio Output - hdmi is also set to DOLBY D, does this make any difference now?.

So when I get the DVD player if I connect to hdmi via the soundbase will the soundbase will carry the Blue Ray picture via the hdmi to the TV ?.

Thanks.
 
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