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Anyone use a soundbar with their HDTV?

BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

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Looking into Sound Bars, trying to stay on the cheaper side (less than $200) - curious if anyone has any experience. Last thing I want is another remote so I like that JBL has one that learns the volume up/down of your TV remote and works off that.

Amazon.com JBL Cinema SB100 Soundbar Speaker System - Black Electronics

But reviews are mixed- a lot of complaints of the optical input not working and it losing signal during low volumes or quiet scenes. I suppose I could return it if it doesn't work like it should but its a fair amount of work to move the TV for someone like me so I much prefer getting things right the first time.
 
J

Justin

Damn.
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No personal experience with one.

Will sound much better than TV internal speakers, will not sound as good as a real surround setup.
 
themonk

themonk

ex-monk.
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Justin said:
No personal experience with one.

Will sound much better than TV internal speakers, will not sound as good as a real surround setup.
Click to expand...
I would second this assessment. Most anything will be an improvement over the built in speakers.
 
Ralph

Ralph

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As far as the remote issues are concerned, just get a Harmony remote. So much easier to deal with, and most manufacturers aren't good at everything, so then you're not stuck with a good TV and a shitty sound system, for example, if you wanted to combine remotes anyway..
 
BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

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Am I reading this right... I have my Cable Box, Xbox 360, Fire TV all hooked up to my TV via HDMI cables.

I was going to run the optical out of the TV to the Optical In of a soundbar.

Now I'm reading that the optical cable will only carry the audio of ONE of the HDMI Inputs? The one that says "ARC" over it which happens to be the Fire TV... The Cable Box and XBox 360 audio isn't converted from HDMI to optical by the TV? :puzzled:

WTF... Why don't sound bars have 4 optical inputs then (or at least more than one) if they god damn know every device needs its own f*ckin optical connection.

Please tell me I'm wrong and it will "just work." :panic:
 
J

Justin

Damn.
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ARC or "audio return channel" is meant to send compressed digital audio streams (Dolby Digital, DTS, etc.) over HDMI to a receiver to be decoded.

I'm not seeing where the soundbar in question here does any decoding of compressed digital audio streams, it seems to be expecting a 2-channel uncompressed audio stream.

Since you are only using your TV speakers for sound currently you are already running everything with uncompressed stereo streams, so flipping your TV sound output option from internal to external I imagine would pipe all output to the optical digital output. Your TV might be weird though. :shrug:
 
Hooligan

Hooligan

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I have a Sony soundbar and a Samsung TV. Having two remotes is mildly annoying, but not enough that I have bothered to get a universal remote.

The sound quality is far superior but hardly home theater level.
 
BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

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The remotes I currently have on the little hospital bed type table that holds my laptop already: Cable box, TV, Bose Radio, Amazon Fire TV, Remote for a stand up fan, and also the gamepad for the Amazon Fire TV. :loopy:
 
S

skeptic

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Justin said:
ARC or "audio return channel" is meant to send compressed digital audio streams (Dolby Digital, DTS, etc.) over HDMI to a receiver to be decoded.

I'm not seeing where the soundbar in question here does any decoding of compressed digital audio streams, it seems to be expecting a 2-channel uncompressed audio stream.

Since you are only using your TV speakers for sound currently you are already running everything with uncompressed stereo streams, so flipping your TV sound output option from internal to external I imagine would pipe all output to the optical digital output. Your TV might be weird though. :shrug:
Click to expand...
This should be correct, plus it should let you control volume via TV remote with the correct mode (just set the sound bar volume fairly loud and TV volume turned down unless you want to crank it up). Doing this you are likely to lose surround sound, depending on the capabilities of the TV, but if it's just a stereo sound bar anyway.....

Optical out from TV to sound bar, various HDMI inputs plus cable if you have cable. I was running this setup for a while until I switched from Roku to FireTV and was able to get surround sound again.
 
BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

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BobKid said:
I know it's a bit over your preferred price point, but after looking at a bunch and hating the cheap LG soundbar I picked up at WalMart, I went with this one - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F3JW37G/?tag=joesultofftop-20

It lives up to its reviews on AMAZON and really fills my living room with sound. And it also learns the TV's remote, so single clicker FTW! :rockz:
Click to expand...
That would have been ideal had I seen that before I purchased both a stand to raise the TV a few inches and the soundbar already- in fact it wouldn't have been much more expensive.
 
BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

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BirdOPrey5 said:
Am I reading this right... I have my Cable Box, Xbox 360, Fire TV all hooked up to my TV via HDMI cables.

I was going to run the optical out of the TV to the Optical In of a soundbar.

Now I'm reading that the optical cable will only carry the audio of ONE of the HDMI Inputs? The one that says "ARC" over it which happens to be the Fire TV... The Cable Box and XBox 360 audio isn't converted from HDMI to optical by the TV? :puzzled:

WTF... Why don't sound bars have 4 optical inputs then (or at least more than one) if they god damn know every device needs its own f*ckin optical connection.

Please tell me I'm wrong and it will "just work." :panic:
Click to expand...
Unfortunately I was right. The TV only outputs audio over the optical output for the one device plugged into the "ARC" HDMI port which is the Amazon Fire TV, which is fine because if I was going to watch a movie it would likely be off that. For the Cable Box and Xbox it only works via the analog audio... Since it is basically stereo speakers doesn't really make a difference.

Audio quality is marginally better than the TV, need to try it with something to test the capability.

What this soundbar does have going for it is an output to a powered subwoofer should I decide to buy one in the future.
 
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