Soundbar/Soundbase connections before I buy

ufo550

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I'm after some advice about connections between my devices before I buy. This stuff confuses me.

We've moved to a new house, so the old amp & speakers are not allowed into the living room. I thought the simplest option would be to buy a soundbar or soundbase etc. I'm not a sound aficionado, just want something better than the tv speakers I'm currently relying on, although Dolby Atmos would be nice, to watch movies & F1, but I suppose anything's better than I have now.

What confuses me are the hdmi connections. I have a just a TV, Sky Q & Blu-ray player. Most of the cheaper end soundbars only seem to have one hdmi in. My Sony tv has a ARC hdmi socket.

So how would I connect up a potential soundbar, and would I always have to use the soundbar to watch TV, like the news first thing in the morning etc?

I did have a sound issue with Sony UBP-X800, where I could never get sound to my amp via hdmi, so bit weary of buying something else and having problems.
 
Lower cost bars tend to only support 1 x ARC HDMI plus 1 x Optical Input with the assumption being you connect your Sources to your Smart TV and then use ARC or Optical from the TV to the Soundbar.

ARC in theory has the edge over Optical in terms of supported audio formats plus the ability to control all devices with a single remote using CEC - the downside is CEC can be a real mess and you may have to disable CEC/ARC and revert to Optical.

Either option (ARC/Optical) allows you to listen via the TV speakers or the Soundbar.

A Surround Sound or Immersive Bar is very reliant on positioning within your room and the ability to bounce sound off of walls and your ceiling.

Joe
 
Thanks Joe, (never resolved that issue I had with my audio from my Blu-ray box!).
Not too concerned about the quality of sound, our lounge is oblong, with the tv in the middle on the long wall.

So from what you say, I connect my Sky box to my tv and Blu-ray to tv both by hdmi, then tv to soundbar via the ARC hdmi socket?

Edit; I have a lyp sync issue with Sky Q & Ultra HD channels (noticed when watching F1), the sound arrives late. Thats just the tv speakers. So concerned adding a soundbar will make things even worse.
 
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You got it - though ensure you have an Optical cable to hand just in case CEC doesn’t work for you (you require CEC to work before you can enable ARC).

Joe
 
Could the CEC thing be the cause of the lyp sync issue I mentioned in my edit?

No, not if it's happening using the TV's internal speakers.
Trying rebooting your Sky Q box.
 
No, not if it's happening using the TV's internal speakers.
Trying rebooting your Sky Q box.

Thanks, I've tried that. When we moved the Sky engineer had a look, and suggested a new box.

Bought the Sony HTXF9000 this afternoon. Fingers crossed it all goes well.
 

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