Skip to main content
alist
Contributor I
March 9, 2017
Answered

Playbar alternative connections

Why wouldnt you connect your cable/satellite/optik tv to the playbar via the optical link, rather than via your TV as the instructions seem to imply. If your TV doesn't have optical, wouldn't this connection method work? I'm Considering the purchase of a playbar, and even having read acres of tech stuff, forums, threads, reviews and comments and I can't find any reference to this way of connecting. Apologies if this is a dumb question....
    This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.
    Airgetlam
    AirgetlamAnswer
    March 9, 2017
    alist,

    Some people have TVs that don't pass through Dolby Digital, so they instead connect both the Playbar via optical, and the TV via HDMI, and get the full experience they're looking for.

    But the reason that people connect to the TV in most cases is due to the fact that they have more than one stream of data that they watch. Sure, one of them is cable/satellite/optik (?), but others can be game consoles, DVD players, Bluray devices, Chromecast, Amazon Fire stick, pretty much anything that might be connected to a TV. The TV then acts as a switch device, and all of the sound data from those various sources are carried out of the TV's optical port to the Sonos speaker. The at the end of the day, all they have to do is change the channel/input on their TV, and the sound works for everything.

    But if you only have a single device connected to your TV, there's certainly nothing wrong with connecting the Playbar directly to whatever it is.

    Make sense?
    Bruce
    View in thread

    3 replies

    Airgetlam
    AirgetlamAnswer
    March 9, 2017
    alist,

    Some people have TVs that don't pass through Dolby Digital, so they instead connect both the Playbar via optical, and the TV via HDMI, and get the full experience they're looking for.

    But the reason that people connect to the TV in most cases is due to the fact that they have more than one stream of data that they watch. Sure, one of them is cable/satellite/optik (?), but others can be game consoles, DVD players, Bluray devices, Chromecast, Amazon Fire stick, pretty much anything that might be connected to a TV. The TV then acts as a switch device, and all of the sound data from those various sources are carried out of the TV's optical port to the Sonos speaker. The at the end of the day, all they have to do is change the channel/input on their TV, and the sound works for everything.

    But if you only have a single device connected to your TV, there's certainly nothing wrong with connecting the Playbar directly to whatever it is.

    Make sense?
    Bruce
    alistAuthor
    Contributor I
    March 10, 2017
    Many thanks - makes sense now - the TV is the switch. I'm moving in three weeks so my 2 year old Samsung 55"LED Samsung TV is in storage and I don't know if it has optical or not! But I don't think so.....
    Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
    March 10, 2017
    I'd be surprised if a 2 year old TV 55" didn't have optical, so take heart. If it was smaller than 32" or older than probably 5 years, I'd be concerned, but that big and that young, it would be amazing if it didn't.
    Bruce
    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement