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TV and stereo connectivity - help please


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Old 27-11-2007, 10:44
nealb1
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Hi,

Can anyone help me connect up my home entertainment gadgets?

I've just bought an LG LCD TV and am wanting to connect it to my stereo (directly from the TV, so it also outputs the sound from my Sky box and Playstation without having to swap wires around).

The TV has a digital out, and the stereo has twin phono input. Is there something out there that will marry the two? I asked in Maplin and they didn't really have a clue...

Surely this isn't too rare a system to connect up?

Any help greatly appreciated.
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Old 27-11-2007, 10:57
broadz
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The TV has a digital out
A digital what out? Optical? Co-axial? Whichever it is, are you sure your amp doesn't have an equivalent in? Is your amp an AV amp, in which case it should have several optical and coaxial ins?

Most TVs have standard RCA stereo outs (not many contain a DD or DTS decoder, so don't usually have a digital audio out). Post the model number of the TV (and stereo, so we can see what audio inputs it has).

If you do have an AV amp, which is capable of decoding DD and DTS signals, you will only achieve full 5.1 surround sound by connecting your Sky and DVD directly to it, not by routing the audio via your TV to it. By all means connect your TV to it (so that Freeview and videos can be listened to in Dolby Pro-Logic sound) but seriously consider whether you want to push your higher quality digital audio sources down the same analogue path.
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Old 27-11-2007, 10:58
Nigel Goodwin
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Are you sure the TV hasn't got a couple of audio output phono sockets?, many have.

The digital output is of no use to you, as it presumably only outputs from a digital source? - and a decoder would be expensive as well.
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Old 27-11-2007, 11:04
nealb1
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Thanks for responses

The TV is an LG 42LF66 and the stereo is a HITACHI AX-M138. As far as I could see there is no phono output on the TV - only an optical out socket. Will this only transmit the audio if the TV is receiving a digital source? Ie the audio from a PS2 would not make it to the stereo?

The only input I can find on the Hitachi is on the subwoofer unit, where it has the red and white phono sockets.
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Old 27-11-2007, 11:11
Nigel Goodwin
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Thanks for responses

The TV is an LG 42LF66 and the stereo is a HITACHI AX-M138. As far as I could see there is no phono output on the TV - only an optical out socket. Will this only transmit the audio if the TV is receiving a digital source? Ie the audio from a PS2 would not make it to the stereo?
No, as far as I'm aware it's only to output digital sound input via the HDMI socket?.
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Old 27-11-2007, 15:02
ColinGodfree
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Thanks for responses

The TV is an LG 42LF66 and the stereo is a HITACHI AX-M138. As far as I could see there is no phono output on the TV - only an optical out socket. Will this only transmit the audio if the TV is receiving a digital source? Ie the audio from a PS2 would not make it to the stereo?

The only input I can find on the Hitachi is on the subwoofer unit, where it has the red and white phono sockets.
What about using Scart2 with a Scart to audio lead to your amp??
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Old 27-11-2007, 15:15
niall campbell
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looks like limited inputs on the hi-fi

I cant find anything in Google for picture of rear, tried Hitachi site and it doesnt know anything about it!!

wonder if its rebranded?
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Old 27-11-2007, 15:20
ColinGodfree
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Top Loading DVD player compatible with CD/CDR/CDRW/MP3/MP4/Picture Disc

*Both DAB and FM Radios

*Illuminated Display Showing Song & Artist Information

*Fully Functional Remote Control

*2 x 50w RMS output

*Subwoofer

*2 x Speakers

*RDS Clock and Sleep Features

*Alarm Clock


From e-bay - not meant to be connected to anything else by the look of it.
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Old 27-11-2007, 15:23
broadz
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I think the fact that it is only a twin-speaker stereo (plus sub-woofer) suggests that it is not intended to be a real AV surround sound system.
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Old 27-11-2007, 15:24
nealb1
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The scart to phono option sounds interesting, would I get decent sound with that method?

I realise I won't get full surround with this stereo, but just mainly keen to get an improvement on the sound that I'm currently getting through the TV's built-in speakers.
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Old 27-11-2007, 15:29
ColinGodfree
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The scart to phono option sounds interesting, would I get decent sound with that method?
No because your Stereo has no inputs to connect to, you will need a new amp or surround system to make this work!
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Old 27-11-2007, 16:07
broadz
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No because your Stereo has no inputs to connect to, you will need a new amp or surround system to make this work!
The OP says that the stereo has inputs via the sub-woofer - but whether they are inputs to the whole stereo from an Auxiliary piece of equipment, or whether they are inputs to the sub-woofer only from an external amp or receiver is difficult to tell.

Given that the stereo has a built-in DVD player I would imagine that it has its own optical or coaxial output, to allow the DVDs that it is playing to be listened to in DD or DTS audio via a real AV amp. Else it seems a very limited piece of equipment - doesn't allow input from anything else, and doesn't even let you listen to your DVDs the way every other DVD player on the planet lets you hear them.

OP, I would strongly consider ditching the Hitachi thing and getting a real DVD player and a real AV amp if you are serious about being able to listen to Sky TV, DVDs and your Playstation in decent sound.
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Old 27-11-2007, 16:56
chrisjr
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According to Currys (hardly an authoritive source I will concede ) the Hitachi stereo system has digital input and output....

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/prod...rmationSection

I wonder if these are the phono sockets refered to? In which case it should be possible to interconnect the TV and stereo digitally using an optical to coaxial convertor sucah as the one sold by Maplin

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=29293

Though this will only work if...

The Currys site is correct and the Hitachi DOES have a digital in.

The TV outputs digital audio from whatever source is being viewed on screen.

Neither of which is guranteed! It is possible the TV will only output digital audio from the HDMI inputs and has no Analogue to Digital converter to allow it to feed digital audio out from anything connected to the SCARTs.
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Old 27-11-2007, 17:40
nealb1
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Sorry for confusion broadz. Although the phono inputs are located on the sub woofer unit, these do allow an auxilliary source to be played through all 3 speakers (have played my iPod through it that way). In my naiivety on these things I don't know if these are a digital input or otherwise...

The Hitachi does have its own output as you suggest, but I'll have to check what type.

chrisjr, looks promising. So I would need an optical to optical lead from the TV to the converter, then a coaxial to twin phono lead from the converter to the stereo?
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Old 27-11-2007, 21:09
chrisjr
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Sorry for confusion broadz. Although the phono inputs are located on the sub woofer unit, these do allow an auxilliary source to be played through all 3 speakers (have played my iPod through it that way). In my naiivety on these things I don't know if these are a digital input or otherwise...

The Hitachi does have its own output as you suggest, but I'll have to check what type.

chrisjr, looks promising. So I would need an optical to optical lead from the TV to the converter, then a coaxial to twin phono lead from the converter to the stereo?
If you connect your iPod via something like a headphone jack to two phono plugs (usually coloured red and either black or white) then the inputs are analogue.

Digital inputs normally use an orange phono socket and there will only be one of them per input or output. Digital connections carry anything from one (mono) to 6 (surround sound) along a single lead whereas analogue requires one lead per channel (hence two for stereo)

If, as seems likely, the Hitachi only has analogue inputs then the optical to coaxial converter I linked to will not help. All this does is convert one form of digital connection to another. It does not convert digital to analogue. That requires rather more than a simple bit of wire.

If you have zero consideration for either your equipment or your ears then you can plug a digital signal into an analogue input. But the result will be rather unpleasant and probably won't do your speakers much good if you forget to turn the volume down first!

Looks like your best bet therefore is to invest in a SCART to phono plug lead like this. Set the switch to the OUT position and ignore the yellow phono plug. You may have to dive into the set-up menus of the TV to enable it to feed a signal out of the SCART socket. Of course this assumes you are not using both SCARTs.

But even that might not be a problem. Using this lead you can replace an existing SCART to SCART lead and use the four break out phono leads to feed audio to your amp. One pair carry audio OUT of the TV one pair INTO the TV, you just need to use the OUT pair. Plug the end with the break out leads into the TV.
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Old 29-11-2007, 13:15
wiggles2
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Just a quick, thought...

Does your LG set have a headphone socket?

If it does you could use a 3.5mm jack to 2 phono (a la ipod) to your amp.

Whatever's connected and showing on your LG that's the sound you get, plus the LG remote will operate the volume via the phono plugs.
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Old 29-11-2007, 13:29
chrisjr
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Just a quick, thought...

Does your LG set have a headphone socket?
Had a look at the manual on the LG website. The only potential source of an analogue audio output the thing has would seem to be the SCART sockets.

It has no headphone jack, no audio out phonos, nothing in fact that makes interfacing with external equipment easy!
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Old 29-11-2007, 13:41
nealb1
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I've just bought a scart to phono lead so will see if that works tonight. Thanks for the suggestions everyone, will post back with the verdict tomorrow.
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Old 03-12-2007, 09:57
nealb1
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Looks like your best bet therefore is to invest in a SCART to phono plug lead like this. Set the switch to the OUT position and ignore the yellow phono plug. You may have to dive into the set-up menus of the TV to enable it to feed a signal out of the SCART socket. Of course this assumes you are not using both SCARTs. .

I got a scart to phono lead and tried it out but still no joy unfortunately. I have switched it to 'output' but it's not having the desired effect. Couldn't see anything in the set up menus of the TV that controls outputting of the scart. Any idea where I'd find this setting under the menus? Cheers
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Old 03-12-2007, 11:15
chrisjr
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Your guess is as good as mine

I had a skim through the on-line manual and, assuming nothing silly like you've given us the wrong model number, there doesn't seem to be any mention anywhere about what comes out of the SCARTs. If indeed anything does and if it does there doesn't appear to ba any setting to control what is output.

The diagrams in the manual show the SCART sockets with a small icon under them that looks like a square with two arrows across the bottom edge. One arrow points into the square and the other out. Which should mena that the SCART socket has both input and output wired up. Both SCARTs seem to have this icon on all the diagrams I saw.

Which makes me wonder why no mention of what if anything comes out of these sockets. Very often when you have multiple SCARTs you can choose between whatever is being shown on the screen and the input on the other SCART. I just wonder if the outputs on the SCART are actually wired to anything, despite what the icon implies?
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Old 04-12-2007, 16:34
nickmoul
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Just a thought, have you selected Aux or Ext as your input into the Hitachi?

Best of luck.

Nick
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Old 04-12-2007, 21:10
ixus
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I also have a problem relating to connectivity ... may I add it to this thread?
I've got 3 items (Sky box, another Sat TV box, and Archos AV500) connected to my DVD recorder via one of these very simple scart switches with 3 buttons A, B, & C.
I only get stereo through buttons A & B, but no right channel through button C. I though the switch box was faulty so bought a new one ... and it does the same thing! Any ideas why?
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Old 05-12-2007, 09:13
chrisjr
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I also have a problem relating to connectivity ... may I add it to this thread?
I've got 3 items (Sky box, another Sat TV box, and Archos AV500) connected to my DVD recorder via one of these very simple scart switches with 3 buttons A, B, & C.
I only get stereo through buttons A & B, but no right channel through button C. I though the switch box was faulty so bought a new one ... and it does the same thing! Any ideas why?
So at the moment you get..

Stereo on A
Stereo on B
Right on C

Correct?

So swap the B and C connections at the switch box. If you now get..

Stereo on A
Right on B
Stereo on C

then the switch box is OK. It is either the device now connected to B or the cable between device B and the switch.

If the devices B and C cables are bog standard SCART to SCART leads swap B and C again but this time at the device end of the leads, ie leave the switch box as it is.

if you still get right on B then the cable plugged into B on the switch box is faulty. If you get Stereo on B and right on C then the cable on B is OK and it is whatever is now on C that is the problem.
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Old 05-12-2007, 10:15
nealb1
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The diagrams in the manual show the SCART sockets with a small icon under them that looks like a square with two arrows across the bottom edge. One arrow points into the square and the other out. Which should mena that the SCART socket has both input and output wired up. Both SCARTs seem to have this icon on all the diagrams I saw.

Which makes me wonder why no mention of what if anything comes out of these sockets. Very often when you have multiple SCARTs you can choose between whatever is being shown on the screen and the input on the other SCART. I just wonder if the outputs on the SCART are actually wired to anything, despite what the icon implies?
Very confusing. I've seen the in/out arrows that you refer to next to the SCART sockets. But there also seems to be no way to select the output. There is an 'Input' menu where you can select an input from one of the SCARTs (or from component, HDMIs etc) but no equivalent output menu.

Are there any other options?
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Old 05-12-2007, 12:36
chrisjr
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Have you got a pair of headphones with a 3.5mm jack plug on, eg from an mp3 player?

Try this.

Plug your SCART to phono lead into the TV but leave the phono end unplugged. If you look at the plug on the headphones you'll see it has three sections, known in the trade as Tip, Ring and Sleeve (should be fairly obvious which is which )

Hold the jack plug so that the tip contact is against the inner pin contact of one of the phono plugs and the sleeve of the jack is against the outer metal ring contact of the phono.

If you hold it just right then you should be able to hear if there is anything coming out of the phono leads. Don't worry if it only comes out of one ear on the headphones, the important thing is if you get any noise at all.

Try both audio phonos (ignore the yellow video one, only bats can hear those frequencies ) and both SCARTs and try the switch in both IN and OUT positions.

That at least will prove whether or not the TV is actually sending anything out of the SCARTs. If you do hear something on the phonos then it is the Hitachi system that needs looking at.
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