Hi,
I am in the market for a simple soundbar. After selling my 5.1 home theater system I want to go as simple as possible by just having a soundbar for my TV and the devices connected to the television. I have a Samsung F6470 which is roughly 4 years old. To that I have a PS4 connected for Blu-Rays and Games and a cable box for swiss television both via HDMI and my television can directly access streaming services like Netflix. The television has a optical output which I would use for the connection to the Sonos Playbar/Playbase.
Now my questions: If I solely use the Playbar/Playbase as the only speaker in my living room can I run into any trouble for this simple stereo setup? Does a 5.1 HDMI Tosslink passthrough to the Soundbar/Soundbase have any benefit over the TV just passing a simple stereo signal over the optical out? What would happen if I add a Sub to the setup?
Thank you for answers in advance.
Hendrik
Answered
Playbar just for stereo sound
Best answer by AtterKing
If you're adding a Sub for 3.1 then I'd send a 5.1 signal to it. This may present an additional problem for you. If your TV can't pass through a DD5.1 signal (not sure if yours does or not) then you'd need a splitter of some kind. My old TV didn't do the pass through so I bought a cheap Toslink switch and that worked fine.
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If you just want stereo (PCM) output to a PlayBar then yes, simply connect the PlayBar to your TV via the supplied optical cable. All your HDMI sources will play through the PlayBar. You may need to tell the TV to output to external speakers too.
thank you AtterKing. So sound-wise it is irrelevant whether the Soundbar/Soundbase (+Sub) receive a PCM stereo signal or a 5.1 signal and spread it across the internal speakers? I am asking because Sonos says the Soundbar/Soundbase is 3.0 and together with a Sub it is 3.1. So it would need to map/upstream a 2.0 PCM stereo signal to a 3.0/3.1 speaker system and I think that downstreaming 5.1 to 3.0/3.1 may be easier/produce better results.
I hope I get my point accross 😃
I hope I get my point accross 😃
If you're adding a Sub for 3.1 then I'd send a 5.1 signal to it. This may present an additional problem for you. If your TV can't pass through a DD5.1 signal (not sure if yours does or not) then you'd need a splitter of some kind. My old TV didn't do the pass through so I bought a cheap Toslink switch and that worked fine.
Ok thanks. That is what I wanted to know. One more thing: do you have any latency issues with such a switch? I know from the past that having the signal separated before the tv can cause some bad latency problems depending on the response time of the panel.
The Toslink switch I used was perfect. I believe latency may be an issue if you use a HDMI switch though. If you're only using a PS4 and a STB, I'd go for the Toslink switch. If you are planning to add more devices later then consider the HDMI switch as the best option.
Ok, thank you for your help. I think I'll go for the Playbase once it is out and stick to 3.0 or 3.1 with the Sub added to it later and hope for optical not to become obsolete once I update my TV 😃
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