Hi.

My parents are looking to improve the lousy sound quality produced by their ageing TV without having to splash out on new equipment. It might be down to the basic and dated nature of the equipment being used that it wont be possible to do anything except replace or buy new equipment. Sadly though my parents don't have much money, but I will happily buy what they need if the following can't be done.

My hope is that it might be possible to hook up their micro system to the TV so that they can hear both SKY TV and DVD's through it, but the problem is I don't really know how.

I have taken photos of the rear of each device and posted them on Flickr (below):

https://flic.kr/s/aHsk9QDTUR

Many thanks

The two sockets (red/white) at the bottom right of the Sony TV are audio outputs (notice the arrow is pointing OUT) - you just need a twin phono lead from that to the aux IN sockets (bottom left of picture) on the Denon, and switch the Denon to Aux.

Hi Nigel. I didn't realise it was that simple. So by doing that they will get audio from both the Sky box and when playing DVD's?
Some years a go an old friend of mine tried something similar but the only sound coming through the HiFi speakers were from the televisions analog signal. Neither DVD or SKY TV could be heard.

It seems that some TV sets are limited to outputing just the TV (analogue) signal from the AV2 SCART socket which is intended for connection to a VCR but the RCA (Red and White phono) output Nigel is talking about should work regardless.

That said maybe it is like my ancient Denon AV amp which does not pass through digital audio to its Tape Monitor analogue output (which I use to connect my wireless headphones). In which case you may need to add a cheap audio switch to the back of the micro hi-fi such as this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gembird-Manu.../dp/B007QU1C7C

No need for a switch, the sound system has two audio inputs. Connect the one to the Aux in and the other to the Tape in. Select Aux or Tape to listen to either.

Samsung - AV Out - Red and White Sockets
DVD - Line 2 out - Red and White Sockets.

My bad. I assumed that the micro stereo was an all in one with no Tape In. OTOH the OP may need to also connect their Sky box. If they never really bother using the TV tuner or even if they do just to catch up with the news where better sound is not really needed then just connect the Sky box and DVD directly to the stereo.

But, only go down that route if Nigel's initial suggestion does not work for all sources.

It should be that simple. Generally when a TV has dedicated audio outputs on their own sockets whatever sound would normally come out of the TV speakers will come out of the dedicated audio sockets. That has certainly been the case with numerous TVs I have owned or operated over the years.

It is only when you use the SCART socket to get an audio out that you may run into problems. Very often the only thing you get out of those is audio from whatever Freeview channel you watch. Switch to Sky or DVD and you get nothing.

Though having analogue outputs is becoming less common these days. Much more likely to find a digital (usually optical) output on modern sets.

Lots of helpful ideas, thank you.
Hopefully the first suggestion will be fine, so I will try that first and then let you all know how I get on.
Perhaps my old friends unsuccessful attempt with his was due to using a SCART, as Chrisjr did touch upon those being problematic.

Yes, it's that simple - that's EXACTLY what the sockets are there for, they output all audio.


They did something wrong then - possibly coming out of the SCART socket, which (depending on design, and which socket you use) 'may' only output the sets internal tuner.

Hi all

It worked a dream

Thanks for everyone's help, especially Nigel who I shouldn't have doubted in the first place.

You wouldn't believe how many Sony TV's I've installed

Hi all

I thought I could ask another question regarding the same television.

Whenever the TV is switched on, it's always set to a digital channel (001), which they don't use. So they have to repeatedly tap the channel button on the TV (the remote broke ages ago) until it gets to the correct AV channel.
I don't understand why the TV doesn't stay on AV4. Obviously it's not the biggest problem in the world but it is an annoyance which I hope can easily be rectified in the settings. I just can't see anything in the TV settings that would solve the problem.

Thanks

Some makes of TV are like that with a poorly thought through usability. Sounds like your Sony is one of them. Or perhaps they are pressing the 1 button to turn the TV on rather than the dedicated ON/OFF button?

Some sets stay on the input you set, some revert to normal TV - and this set is probably too old for auto-switching via HDMI.

As gomezz suggested, he is turning it ON with the ON/OFF button?, and not a channel button (including channel up/down).

Thanks for the suggestion. Sadly they are using the power button.

Thinking about it. My much newer panasonic viera does the same thing, but I must just switch it to the HDMI input without thinking.

All this sophistication and they can't create a telly that remembers the channel lol

What is on AV4? And what order do they switch things on in? If they turn on whatever is connected to AV4 first then the telly try reversing that.

It might be that when the TV sees whatever is on AV4 wake up it will switch to it but doesn't do so if AV4 is active already when the TV turns on.

Panasonic TV's usually have a option (buried in the menus) that goes directly to the last used AV input on boot rather than the TV tuner. If you post the model then most Panny TV manuals are available online.

I use a Harmony activity based remote which takes care of switching the TV to the right input but as the OP was looking for no/cheap-cost answers I suspect this is not an option for them.

It seems that this is a very old TV so presumably your parents are happy with the sound it has produced over the years. If the sound bothers you it would only be reasonable for you to bear the cost of any improvements not them. Any changes will also make the system more complex for them as well.

Hi. Ok ill take a good look through the menu's. Thanks

Hi. Thanks for your input. The sound is mow excellent due to the above solution.