Weird soundbar problem - no sound from PC optical

Participant · 21 Apr 2023 at 22:14

Hi all

I have a Yamaha ysp2700 soundbar. I've connected an optical cable from the optical output of my onboard PC soundcard to the optical input of the soundbar.

Windows recognises the device and there are green bars flashing when I test the sound in Windows sound settings, so the PC seems ok.

The soundbar is set to the optical input but I'm getting no sound. The soundbar produces sound fine from other inputs and there are red lights on the optical sockets.

The reason I'm using optical direct from PC to soundbar at all is because I'm getting audio / video sync issues going from PC --> TV --> soundbar.

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks.

hornetstinger · 21 Apr 2023 at 22:51

in foobar have you set optical output? And in your soundcard app?

Participant · 22 Apr 2023 at 07:48

hornetstinger said:
in foobar have you set optical output? And in your soundcard app?

Not using foobar, just selected the Realtek SPDIF output in Windows sound settings.

Dazzy · 23 Apr 2023 at 11:24

You could try adjusting the bitrate to rule out the pc sending a signal the sound bar isn't compatible with.

Other than that would try obvious things to narrow it down:

Different cable
Reinstall drivers etc

Terminal_Boy · 23 Apr 2023 at 11:27

Check the sound bar is working when connected to a known good optical audio source?

Participant · 24 Apr 2023 at 09:08

Dazzy said:
You could try adjusting the bitrate to rule out the pc sending a signal the sound bar isn't compatible with.

Other than that would try obvious things to narrow it down:

Different cable
Reinstall drivers etc

Thanks - I know the menus you mean, but in this case I can't see any way to adjust the bit rate in Windows sound properties.

The optical socket I'm connecting to on the soundbar (the only one) is actually labelled 'TV' - not sure if this is something to do with it, i.e. it's expecting optical from a TV rather than a soundbar?

Terminal_Boy said:
Check the sound bar is working when connected to a known good optical audio source?

Good idea I'll try that.

Participant · 8 May 2023 at 08:50

Just to follow up on this - I confirmed that the optical channel on the soundbar was working fine by connecting it to my TV, but could not get the optical from PC to soundbar working correctly.

I have given up and am using the sound signal from the HDMI cable going from the PC to the TV, then from TV to soundbar via the ARC cable.

The lip sync issues I had seem to have spontaneously resolved when the next version of the Nvidia drivers were installed.

I am getting DD+ at the soundbar, but not the HD audio formats I was getting when running a separate HDMI cable from the PC display port output. However with that setup windows insisted on recognising two displays for some stupid reason, which was causing other issues.

So until I have a soundbar capable of HD audios formats over eARC, I'm settling for DD+.