I'm wanting to basically get my LG TV sound to go through the soundbar a different way from what I have setup. For instance this is what my TV has.

2 HDMI inputs. 2 phono inputs for sound, other phone for video input/output. Optical.

My soundbar however has phono input/ AUX/COAX.

The soundbar has 3 settings. TV/COAX/AUX.



With my digital TV box i have red and white phono cables going from the digital box to the soundbar. The soundbar recognizes this as TV setting.

I then have a coax cable going from the Blu Ray player I have into the soundbar. This obviously is the COAX setting.

This leaves AUX.


Now the first thing I thought of and tried was phono cables from the back of the TV into the soundbar because the digital box, blu ray player are all connected via HDMI so i thought that would carry the video. The digital box already works that way so why wouldn't it work? I tried it and it doesn't work. I then go into the TVs sound settings and the options are sound via the TV and the other options are optical options. Nothing for phono at all and there is no AUX at all.


I know the first thing you will all tell me to do is get a different soundbar with an optical connection in it. This one I have is fine and loud enough but do you think there is another way of doing it? The main reason I ask is because I play videos via USB on my blu ray player and it goes through the soundbar and it sounds great but some videos I have are long, around 2-3 hours and what I've noticed is fast forwarding them is very slow. If i plug my USB into the TV I've noticed it fast forwards just fine so ideally i'd like to just keep the blu ray player for when I'm playing discs but for the USB i'd rather just plug it into the TV, even the picture is better. The TV just doesn't seem to want to give you anything other than using an optical connection or the TVs own speakers which are not great........especially when you have a pretty loud soundbar there.

I'm betting you made the same mistake as countless thousands of others before you. Those phono sockets on the TV; are they marked "_____ IN" by any chance? If so, then that's the reason they don't work.

Inputs and Outputs serve different functions. Think of Inputs as an entrance and an Output as an exit. Now imagine a turnstyle on each so it's only possible to pass one way. That's how signals work. An Output means there some signal coming OUT of a device. You then connect that to a socket marked Input which (unsurprisingly) is a socket for getting a signal IN TO a device. You connected two INPUTS together.

Most new-ish TVs no longer have audio Outputs on phono/RCA sockets. They use Optical instead. It is possible to convert Optical in to an analogue stereo signal, but it requires a converter box to turn the light signal in to something electronic. It can't be done with just adapters. Something like this will do, and it's not much money.

It says AUDIO/VIDEO IN.


Is there a big difference in sound quality going from optical to optical to optical to phono? I have a PS4 aswell with a optical connection on the back but can't use that with the soundbar either. That's the reason why I keep the blu ray player I have because the blu ray player has a coax connection on the back also and that's what I use going into the soundbar. Also the PS4 does not allow any video playback from USB so it's a bit complicated lol.


Ideally I'd like everything to work through the soundbar but I don't know if it is possible.

So it's what I predicted; you were connecting to INs together so there was no signal.


Not that you'd hear with a sound bar.

Optical can carry several different formats of audio, but as far as sound via a TV set is concerned the two main versions are the digital version of stereo audio known as PCM, and there's 5.1 surround sound in a compressed (bitstream) format called Dolby Digital.

PCM is universally understood. Dolby Digital (DD) is also widely supported. There is a second, less common, bitstream format called DTS. Some TVs support it, but many don't.

There's a fair chance that your sound bar will understand DD but then down-convert it to stereo. In that case you won't hear much if any difference between PCM and DD. Set your sources to "downmix to PCM" (see the manuals).

As for connections, you can use the TV as HDMI switching hub. The sound going in via HDMI will then be ported out via the Optical and converted to stereo by the Opt-to-stereo audio box. Depending on the number of HDMI sources versus the socket on the TV you might have enough coverage. If not, consider a HDMI switch box.

This still leaves you with two spare inputs on the sound bar: they are HDMI and Optical.

No it's not like that . The sound bar inputs do not have HDMI or optical. I can't connect them to the sound bar. The sound bar only has phono, coax and aux. Those are the only 3 i can connect to it.


I am going to get a HDMI hub because the TV has 2 HDMI sockets on them and right now i have 3 things with HDMI so if I want to use the PS4 or BLu ray player i need to unplug one. That is fine, I understand how that works.


Are you sure I wouldn't need some kind of phono hub? Because the way I get sound just now is from my Digital TV box which has HDMI going into the TV and then phono into the sound bar. You can also use the volume control using the digital TV remote this way when watching TV channels on it. If i did it the way you are suggesting, when I'm flicking through the channels on this digital box, would the sound still come out through the sound bar despite there not being any phono cables from the digital box to the sound bar?

What I would do is have every source connected to the TV, whether that needs a HDMI switch box or not is not a major factor to getting sound out of the soundbar. Provided you can get sound from everything on the TV speakers you will be able to also get sound from the soundbar.

The fact that the TV has optical out and the soundbar has coax in is no problem. It is trivially easy to convert one to the other. For example using one of these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aptii-Optica...dp/B005M1ME8S/

Connect the optical digital out of the TV to the optical in of the converter and the coax out of the converter to the coax in on the soundbar. If you can hear it on the TV speakers than you should be able to hear it on the soundbar as well.

The optical out of the TV will not be affected by the TV volume control so you can mute the TV speakers and just use the soundbar volume control to adjust the noise level.

What do you think about the PS4? Do you think there is any way of getting that on the soundbar? Would i need two of those boxes and then use the red and white cables for that?

Stop thinking that things need to be connected directly to the soundbar. That is just clouding the issue. Like I posted provided everything is connected to the TV and you can hear sound from all sources on the TV you only have to connect the TV to the soundbar. Nothing else has to be connected to it.

The TV acts as the source switch for the soundbar there is absolutely no need whatsoever to duplicate that switching.

The one time you may want to connect something directly to the soundbar is when it is audio only like a radio or CD player when you don't want or need the TV turned on.

I think I understand it now. So I would buy one of those boxes and then use a optical cable to connect from the TV into it, then use a coaxial cable into the sound bar. Then I change the audio on my tv to External Speaker (optical) and this means if I am watching TV via the digital box or I am using my PS4 I will get sound through the sound bar?


On my TV there are 3 options. For sound out there is TV Speaker, External Speaker (optical) and LG Sound Sync (optical). I did try them out and when I click on External Speaker there are 2 more options, Auto and PCM. I don't know what Sound Sync is. I don't know where the best place to buy an optical cable is. Is this one an OK one?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nedis-Qualit...=optical+cable

Exactly that.



You use External Speaker and select PCM as the soundbar may not decode any/some of the surround sound formats that your external kit can throw at it. PCM is basically plain vanilla stereo which everything understands. And if it doesn't take it outside and adjust it with one of these.

http://www.yeskey.com/uploadfile/c7/...75951771-0.jpg




TVs take longer to process the pictures than the sound. So without any form of processing the sound would lead the images, ie you'd hear people talking a fraction of a second before they open their gobs. So the TV delays the sound to sync picture and sound again. The Sound Sync option lets you control how much delay is inserted. Most of the time you can leave it in Auto and it sorts itself out (at least that's what I do with my LG telly)



It's as good as any. You certainly don't need to spend huge sums on one. Provided it transfers the digital information from one end to the other without corrupting it in any way it is all that is required. Spending more will not make a blind bit of difference to the sound quality no matter what the lunatic fringe of the audiophile community will claim.

Yeah a lot of people will spend over £50 on a cable that's digital. I will order the box and the cable. Thank you for all your help

The stuff came a few days late but it is set up now. It wouldn't work with just the coaxial cable connected, i had to connect the phono cables aswell from the digital box aswell but now all sound works through the tv and the sound from the PS4 works through the sound bar aswell Thank you both for all the help!