Home Cinema Setup: Can I use a PlayBar and two Play 1's as a Home Cinema setup?

You can add the 2 x Play 1s to your Playbar and you would then have a Dolby Digital 5.0 set-up. Assuming you feed a true 5.1 signal to the Playbar you will certainly notice the difference during programs/films that make use of it.

Just make sure you are able to feed 5.1 to the Playbar - Priority is to ensure the TV is able to pass 5.1 through to it's optical out either from the TVs own tuner/apps or from separates attached.

Thanks a lot for the reply!

I own a LG 42UB820V TV, about 18 months old, so I believe it should be able to handle this.

This is my exact setup... a Playbar and two Play:1's in a surround sound setup. I was actually surprised at how much bass comes from this setup. Would I like a Sub for MOAR BASS? Absolutely... but the sound from these three components is really good on its own! Plus a Sub isn't in the cards for me, since I know my downstairs neighbor would absolutely kill me if I got one!

My surround doesn't sound very "surround". .i have the same setup as my son and his sounds much better. My two play 1s sound weak.

My surround doesn't sound very "surround". .i have the same setup as my son and his sounds much better. My two play 1s sound weak.

If you're referring to when you play music, there's a setting for that (set music playback to Full). If they're not loud enough in general, then you may want to adjust the volume levels for your Play:1 surround speakers, in the same setting screen.

For more info on how to adjust the settings for your surround speakers, see this support article: Setting up surround sound - Changing Settings

Hi guys, thanks for the help here, I now have the two play-1s connected with the Playbar in a surround system.

It works very well when listening to music, however with the TV, it seems only the "music" seems to come out of the Play 1s, not the voice. Is this to be expected? Or is it a setting I'd need to change?

FYI, my TV is a LG 42UB820V, connected to the Playbar with an optical cable.

Thanks!

5.1 audio attempts to replicate the audio of the scene in 3D. So if the actors are on the screen, the dialog will come from the Playbar. This is the case for the vast majority of scenes. Sometimes you will have ambient voices, or a off-stage actor calling through one of the surrounds, but for the majority of scenes, the dialog is anchored to the screen.

I'm intrigued by your comment about "music", though. Are you hearing actual music through the surrounds? Music which has nothing to do with the film? Because that would be the case if you merely grouped the speakers instead of setting up as surrounds, and then started watching TV. If it is merely background music, or surrounds effects, then you have them set up correctly.

Thanks for the reply.

I meant background music / sound from the movie, so all good.

Your explanation makes sense, thanks for confirming.