Help please

BunkMoreland

I'm looking for a 5.1 speakers for my TV.

I've never owned / used 5.1 speakers so not sure what I'm looking for. They all seems to come with DVD/Blu-ray players which I don't want.

My TV has optical out. I have a satellite receiver, htpc and console plugged into the TV via HDMI. If I then plug a sound system into the TV's optical out, will surround sound get passed through the TV to the sound system, or do I need to plug each individual device directly into the sound system?

Does anyone have any recommendation for a 5.1 system without a player? Is it a safe assumption to think 5.1 system will be better than a sound-bar?

akaSol

BunkMoreland wrote: »

I'm looking for a 5.1 speakers for my TV.

I've never owned / used 5.1 speakers so not sure what I'm looking for. They all seems to come with DVD/Blu-ray players which I don't want.

My TV has optical out. I have a satellite receiver, htpc and console plugged into the TV via HDMI. If I then plug a sound system into the TV's optical out, will surround sound get passed through the TV to the sound system, or do I need to plug each individual device directly into the sound system?

Does anyone have any recommendation for a 5.1 system without a player? Is it a safe assumption to think 5.1 system will be better than a sound-bar?

IMO 5.1 / 7.1 is the best way to immerse your self in a movie. Sound bars are just that, a bar of sound which mimics the reverse channels.
The only reason not to use multi speaker surround sound is space and the bane of the significant other "Cables"

Ideally an AV amp with speakers, yamaha sell one below the €500 mark ( or cheaper if you hunt) which would take the hdmi cables directly and feed one back to the TV.

It's also possible to stream video / audio / Internet radio etc. to higher class AV amps from your phone or natively.

>Sol

BunkMoreland

If everything is plugged into the sound system, then source switching performed on the sound system right?

I'd rather have the scenario where the TV is the central hub, with added 5.1 external speakers. So source switching is performed on the TV.

My TV (LE40C750) has ARC. From reading up it seems the optical out on TVs generally don't pass through 5.1 / 7.1, only down-mixed stereo. So my best hope is 5.1 system which supports ARC it think.

akaSol

BunkMoreland wrote: »

If everything is plugged into the sound system, then source switching performed on the sound system right?

I'd rather have the scenario where the TV is the central hub, with added 5.1 external speakers. So source switching is performed on the TV.

My TV (LE40C750) has ARC. From reading up it seems the optical out on TVs generally don't pass through 5.1 / 7.1, only down-mixed stereo. So my best hope is 5.1 system which supports ARC it think.

Firstly Arc is a highly problematic system, so I would only use its wake up function. Even if your TV could back stream 5.1/ 7.1 ( I'm not exactly sure it's possible to use a TV as a switch ) you still need a way to push the audio to speakers which will require an amplifier connected via hdmi to utilise high res audio and not usually built into TV's.
The av amp, like you pointed out, does the source switching however some amp's have direct pass though - which gives sound and picture to the TV if you don't want it active.

>Sol

BunkMoreland

I went with a Pioneer VSX329 in the end.

Very happy with how seamless ARC works. I had a bit of audio dropping but replaced the HDMI cable between TV and receiver with another and all is fine.

Everything is plugged into the TV and it just sends the audio down to receiver through HDMI. Volume control on TV remote controls the receiver volume via HDMI-CEC.

BunkMoreland

The TV doesn't seem to pass 5.1 back to receiver if playing a movie on the internal media player. And when my computer is connected to TV via HDMI, in sound properties I can't set it above anything other than stereo.

When computer is connected to the AV receiver, I get all the options (2.1, 5.1, 7.1).

Ah well, would have reduced some remotes and input switching if it worked.

akaSol

BunkMoreland wrote: »

The TV doesn't seem to pass 5.1 back to receiver if playing a movie on the internal media player. And when my computer is connected to TV via HDMI, in sound properties I can't set it above anything other than stereo.

When computer is connected to the AV receiver, I get all the options (2.1, 5.1, 7.1).

Ah well, would have reduced some remotes and input switching if it worked.

It's possibly an exotic audio codex which the TV does not recognise. The question is if the media player down scaling to stereo ie does the pioneer recognise it as a 5.1 if played directly from PC rather than internal player

>Sol

BunkMoreland

Pioneer has recognised all correctly when PC is connected directly to receiver.

I tried a couple of files on TVs media player. The only one to send 5.1 over ARC was a sample from Dolby but only after I set "SPDIF Audio Format" to Dolby Digital rather than PCM. This has to be done each time the a file is opened.

On the other files the only option is PCM.

akaSol

BunkMoreland wrote: »

Pioneer has recognised all correctly when PC is connected directly to receiver.

I tried a couple of files on TVs media player. The only one to send 5.1 over ARC was a sample from Dolby but only after I set "SPDIF Audio Format" to Dolby Digital rather than PCM. This has to be done each time the a file is opened.

On the other files the only option is PCM.

So it's the media player on the TV and exotic audio codex. Time to look at a roku / raspberry pi to play the media files

>Sol