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#1 ·
I was really excited to try out this upcoming Vizio soundbar, but they just posted the manual on their site and it looks like it only has a single optical and 2 analog audio inputs. Does this seem strange? I assumed it would have atleast a single HDMI...and what is up with 2 analog inputs.

http://www.vizio.com/assets/0/92/440...5a69d6188b.pdf
 
#52 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Topmounter /forum/post/17720243


1) Does the Vizio sound bar have any sort of cross-over or do the speakers in the sound bar continue to output the same frequencies when an external sub is connected?


2) Does the volume adjustment on the sound bar adjust the level on the sub output? I had to order an optical cable, but have it connected with an RCA cable right now so there probably isn't much low frequency audio being passed from the tv to the sound bar (and/or I have the sub crossed over too low right now). I would have preferred to run the output from the TV into the sub and the high-pass output of the sub to the sound bar, but the audio output from the tv is fixed.

1. The sound bar has no crossover - speakers continue full range when sub is connected. They seem to roll off sharply below about 80hz, so the lack of a low end crossover shouldn't matter very much.


2. The volume adjustment on the sound bar does control the level to the sub output. Actually, the bass passed to the the soundbar/sub should be the same whether using optical or RCA.


I am using a similar setup and must confess, this sounds much better than the Yamaha sound projector sound bar costing ten times as much that I was using prior to this.


I don't care too much for either of the sound processing modes. The both add a definite sonic signature to the sound.


Hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine.
 
#53 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by mauidj /forum/post/17722768


Many mahalos for the input guys.

One question.

Right now I have the Vizio bar and sub connected to my Panasonic via SPDIF.

From what I have read here that will not work in certain circumstances.

So would I be better served connecting the BR player using SPDIF and the TV or cable box via RCA's?

BTW.....I am a bit of an audio nut and I own a very high end system. I am very happy with the sound quality of the Vizio bar so far. Especially for the price. :)

I currently have my Vizio soundbar connected to the TV via RCA because it was easier to get to without moving the TV. Lazy. I have all of my components connected to the TV via HDMI. This way I don't have to change anything but the source on the television and I have not noticed any sound deficiency via RCA.


My high end system is now strictly stereo with subs and is in another room where my wife listen to music and read. The Vizio is an excellent upgrade to the built in speakers with most TV's. I tried it just to see what things sounded like in a $127 soundbar and was so thrilled I kept this and gave my much fancier Yamaha to my son.


I am not sure about the remotes. I use a Logitech Harmony and it controls the Vizio without difficulty. I purchased the Logitech three years ago after finding that there were no codes for my Scientific Atlanta remote that would work with the Yamaha. It was a good purchase and can make anyone's life much simpler.
 
#54 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjfeo /forum/post/17724874


I have a question about this soundbar. I currently have my Samsung TV hooked up to a shelf system (the stereo is several years old), and I noticed that if I have the sound going through the stereo and the TV at the same time, that the sound comes out of the TV a split second sooner than the stereo (I have D* going into the TV via HDMI. I have the stereo connected with av cables (red and white), and I have already connected the audio out (red and white) from the D* receiver directly to the stereo. I stopped into to Wally World and looked at this sound bar, and the only connections are red/white. Does the sound come out of this behind HDMI like what I have now? Or is there something else I can do with the sound to my shelf system? All I am looking to do is get better sound than the TV speakers. If I can do something to my current setup, that is fine too.


I will say that it sounded good (obviously not great) with the setup that WM was using.

Usually the best way to connect a soundbar, HTIB, or full fledged surround system is to turn off the internal speakers with the TV. If your TV has variable out, then you should be totally ready to go. If not, you will need to control the sound to the Vizio with their supplied remote or look into an all-in-one remote like the Logitech Harmony.


The sound from this little unit is truly amazing. It will definitely beat the internal speakers from most TV's and actually sounds better than any other soundbar or HTIB that I have heard costing less the $2,000.00. And I have heard quite a few in quite a few different homes.


Plus, no wires running everywhere.
 
#55 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by drfreeman60 /forum/post/17725855


Usually the best way to connect a soundbar, HTIB, or full fledged surround system is to turn off the internal speakers with the TV. If your TV has variable out, then you should be totally ready to go. If not, you will need to control the sound to the Vizio with their supplied remote or look into an all-in-one remote like the Logitech Harmony.


The sound from this little unit is truly amazing. It will definitely beat the internal speakers from most TV's and actually sounds better than any other soundbar or HTIB that I have heard costing less the $2,000.00. And I have heard quite a few in quite a few different homes.


Plus, no wires running everywhere.

OK. What is variable out? Without being at the TV, I know there is red/white out.
 
#58 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by drfreeman60 /forum/post/17725785


1. The sound bar has no crossover - speakers continue full range when sub is connected. They seem to roll off sharply below about 80hz, so the lack of a low end crossover shouldn't matter very much.

They likely have a built-in crossover (probably only a cap) associated with the sub output. Not that it is an issue in any case.
 
#59 ·
Just wanted to share:

My father owns a YSP-3500 that he probably overpaid for, and a yamaha sub hooked up along with a 50in samsung plasma in his living room, which is a fairly large room, and it sounds amazing. Upstairs he had the Bose 321 (thanks to my mother), and would continually complain about not hearing dialogue, poor bass response, etc. He finally had it after the dvd player that comes with the system just stopped playing half of his very large dvd collection.


I took him on a trip to best buy, purchased a samsung blu ray player (p1600, they had it marked down to 129 and he had a bunch of Best Buy gift cards.) We then walked over to Sams Club and picked up the Vizio with wireless sub after much convincing (he truly believed that it would be a piece of junk.)


Long story short, Had everything hooked up for him in about 20min, threw on Transporter 3 on blu ray, and proceeded to shake the house. The sub was placed in the back of the room, behind the listening positions, and we could not tell the difference between this 260 dollar piece of equipment and the ysp downstairs. It sounded great, and he is now pissed that he spent about 900-1000 bucks on the ysp-3500 downstairs.

Thank you AVS forum!
 
#60 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChevChelios /forum/post/17801600


Just wanted to share:

My father owns a YSP-3500 that he probably overpaid for, and a yamaha sub hooked up along with a 50in samsung plasma in his living room, which is a fairly large room, and it sounds amazing. Upstairs he had the Bose 321 (thanks to my mother), and would continually complain about not hearing dialogue, poor bass response, etc. He finally had it after the dvd player that comes with the system just stopped playing half of his very large dvd collection.


I took him on a trip to best buy, purchased a samsung blu ray player (p1600, they had it marked down to 129 and he had a bunch of Best Buy gift cards.) We then walked over to Sams Club and picked up the Vizio with wireless sub after much convincing (he truly believed that it would be a piece of junk.)


Long story short, Had everything hooked up for him in about 20min, threw on Transporter 3 on blu ray, and proceeded to shake the house. The sub was placed in the back of the room, behind the listening positions, and we could not tell the difference between this 260 dollar piece of equipment and the ysp downstairs. It sounded great, and he is now pissed that he spent about 900-1000 bucks on the ysp-3500 downstairs.

Thank you AVS forum!

Yep,, the Vizio w/the wirless sub is pretty impressive.


I have owned a bunch of YSP's and the Sonys CT-100 and CT-500 and I am very happy with my current Vizio.


I actually purchased the Vizio w/sub thinkng I would be returning it the next day,,,, what a supprise it was after I hooked it up and turned it on.


Cheers

Davyo
 
#61 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by davyo /forum/post/17803926


Yep,, the Vizio w/the wirless sub is pretty impressive.


I have owned a bunch of YSP's and the Sonys CT-100 and CT-500 and I am very happy with my current Vizio.


I actually purchased the Vizio w/sub thinkng I would be returning it the next day,,,, what a supprise it was after I hooked it up and turned it on.


Cheers

Davyo

I have a zvox 325 in my living room currently (with no external sub) and I am now thinking of selling it and picking up the vizio, it was that impressive.
 
#62 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by davyo /forum/post/17803926


Yep,, the Vizio w/the wirless sub is pretty impressive.


I have owned a bunch of YSP's and the Sonys CT-100 and CT-500 and I am very happy with my current Vizio.


I actually purchased the Vizio w/sub thinkng I would be returning it the next day,,,, what a supprise it was after I hooked it up and turned it on.


Cheers

Davyo

Perhaps Davyo or others could chime in with thoughts

I got the Vizio for Christmas, hooked it up and pretty impressed

My question is about Davyo's suggested "mount it high"

The TV is a Pioneer plasma and there's not a real wide mounting platform on top of the set for the "Davyo velcro mount" ( I would prefer not to do a wall monut )


The soundbar has a little weight so I'm wondering:

1) Will the velcro secure this thing to the top of my plasma

2) How hard will it be ( if possible ) to remove the velcro tape from the TV should I stop using the soundbar at some point? Anytime I've ever tried to remove velcro tape it's a chore, and the surface on my TV directly behind the glass appears to be a black plastic of some sort.
 
#63 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Johnston /forum/post/17807632


Perhaps Davyo or others could chime in with thoughts

I got the Vizio for Christmas, hooked it up and pretty impressed

My question is about Davyo's suggested "mount it high"

The TV is a Pioneer plasma and there's not a real wide mounting platform on top of the set for the "Davyo velcro mount" ( I would prefer not to do a wall monut )


The soundbar has a little weight so I'm wondering:

1) Will the velcro secure this thing to the top of my plasma

2) How hard will it be ( if possible ) to remove the velcro tape from the TV should I stop using the soundbar at some point? Anytime I've ever tried to remove velcro tape it's a chore, and the surface on my TV directly behind the glass appears to be a black plastic of some sort.


Agreed, the Pioneer does not have a very wide area on top for doing the velcro trick,, if you were mounting the Sony CT-100 or CT-500 thats easy doing the velcro trick,, but the Vizio bar is much heavy'er and bigger,,, personaly I would not mount the Vizio to the top of a Pioneer plasma.


Wall mounting above your panel is really the best.


Here is another option, when I had my 60" Pioneer plasma and my Yamaha YSP-4000 I couldnt do a wall mount (sliding glass door behind my Pioneer plasma that was on a stand) so here is how I mounted the YSP-4000 above my panel.


Went to HomeDepot and bought 3 peices of that 1" wide steel (I forget what its called, they are flat peices of steel about 1" wide, have holes pre-drilled in them and come in all different lenghts),, anyhow I mounted two of the metal strips to the back of the plasma "verticly",,,,, bolting them into the plasma using the hole's that are for a wall mount plate, I mounted them so the tops of the verticly mounted steel peices were about 6" higher than the top of my bezel, I then bolted the 3rd steel peice horizontly across to the tops of the 2 other steel peices,,,,, wha-la,,, a home made mount for my YSP-4000 at a cost of about 20 bucks.


It worked great and actually looked very cool.


I wish I had taken some pictures of it.


Cheers

Davyo
 
#64 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by davyo /forum/post/17808742


Agreed, the Pioneer does not have a very wide area on top for doing the velcro trick,, if you were mounting the Sony CT-100 or CT-500 thats easy doing the velcro trick,, but the Vizio bar is much heavy'er and bigger,,, personaly I would not mount the Vizio to the top of a Pioneer plasma.


Wall mounting above your panel is really the best.


Here is another option, when I had my 60" Pioneer plasma and my Yamaha YSP-4000 I couldnt do a wall mount (sliding glass door behind my Pioneer plasma that was on a stand) so here is how I mounted the YSP-4000 above my panel.


Went to HomeDepot and bought 3 peices of that 1" wide steel (I forget what its called, they are flat peices of steel about 1" wide, have holes pre-drilled in them and come in all different lenghts),, anyhow I mounted two of the metal strips to the back of the plasma "verticly",,,,, bolting them into the plasma using the hole's that are for a wall mount plate, I mounted them so the tops of the verticly mounted steel peices were about 6" higher than the top of my bezel, I then bolted the 3rd steel peice horizontly across to the tops of the 2 other steel peices,,,,, wha-la,,, a home made mount for my YSP-4000 at a cost of about 20 bucks.


It worked great and actually looked very cool.


I wish I had taken some pictures of it.


Cheers

Davyo

That sounds like a winner

Just need to test any sound differences with current location versus the elevated location before I make the trip to Home Depot

But I like the metal bar solution much better than velcro

Thanks Davyo for the idea


One other question for anyone regarding the seemingly crappy remote

Even with a clear line of sight to the soundbar, the Vizio remote I got isn't very responsive, often requiring a couple of button presses to activate a command. I haven't had a chance to check a Harmony remote I have

Is the Vizio remote a problem, or do I just have a bad one?
 
#65 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Johnston /forum/post/17809224


That sounds like a winner

Just need to test any sound differences with current location versus the elevated location before I make the trip to Home Depot

But I like the metal bar solution much better than velcro

Thanks Davyo for the idea


One other question for anyone regarding the seemingly crappy remote

Even with a clear line of sight to the soundbar, the Vizio remote I got isn't very responsive, often requiring a couple of button presses to activate a command. I haven't had a chance to check a Harmony remote I have

Is the Vizio remote a problem, or do I just have a bad one?

Yes, by all means test to see if mounting higher will sound better before going thru all the steps of making a mount,, have some friends hold the vizio on the top of your panel and A/B the sound above and below.


As far as the Vizio remote not being responsive, here is the fix,,, pull back the cover off the speakerbar,,, around the remote sensor and the LED's you will see some foam, tear off the foam (carefully),, dont know why Vizio put that foam around the sensor as it blocks the path of the remotes signals.


Anyhow,, I removed the foam and it made a big difference, the LED's are also brighter and easier to see,,, perhaps Vizio put the foam over the LED's so they would not be as bright,,, with the foam taken off they are not too bright at all.


Cheers

Davyo
 
#66 ·
Having an issue w/ the Vizio soundbar w/ the wireless sub....no matter which device I attach the SB to via optical I get a popping sound when changing channels. I even thought I had a defective product so I exchanged it for a new one and still having the issue. The analog inpouts work fine but I notice I lose quit a bit of kick going from optical to analog on the SB. Any ideas what is going on with the popping noise. I have changed optical cables checked the settings on the TV.......Speakers off and PCM selected for the optical out on the TV.


Thanks
 
#67 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Govnah /forum/post/17819578


Having an issue w/ the Vizio soundbar w/ the wireless sub....no matter which device I attach the SB to via optical I get a popping sound when changing channels. I even thought I had a defective product so I exchanged it for a new one and still having the issue. The analog inpouts work fine but I notice I lose quit a bit of kick going from optical to analog on the SB. Any ideas what is going on with the popping noise. I have changed optical cables checked the settings on the TV.......Speakers off and PCM selected for the optical out on the TV.


Thanks

A poping sound is not something that you should be getting with the Vizio, perhaps its a compatabilty issue with your panel,,, or perhaps you got 2 bad Vizio's in a row.


Which TV/panel do you own,, when asking for help with a tec issue it's usually best to list the TV/panel you are using.


Cheers

Davyo
 
#68 ·
I have the SV422XVT,SV320XVT and a Samsung 62" LED, but in my previois post if I attatch the SB to any other device such as my cable box via the optical out as well as my Bryston processor the SB pops. Can't believe I have 2 defective SB. I have quit a bit of audio gear and all works as designed. I even swapped optical cables. Driving me crazy.


Thanks
 
#69 ·
I had a similiar issue. Although not only did it pop but it would kick the TV out of PCM mode causing me to re enter the audio setting and take it out and than back into PCM every time I changed the channel. After a lengthy phone call to Vizio they thought my TV needed repair and wanted to schedule an appt.

Some research and I found that if you are using a comcast HD cable box you have to go into the audio settings on that and change the HDMI audio to L-PCM.

The sound bar and wireless Sub work beautifully and I love rattling the windows and hearing my wife yell "Turn it down!"
 
#73 ·
I just installed my soundbar system and initially had a problem with the volume. It was necessary on my Panasonic plasma to go to other adj on the audio menu and change the HDMI setting from Auto to Digital. I have to adjust the soundbar using the small Vizio soundbar but I am still able to adjust the TV speakers with my remote for Dish TV/TV.

This is the first sound system I have ever had or worked with.

The remote really has a very small area where it will work 10* up and down and 30* side to side. I also removed the grill (pulled straight off top and bottom), and removed the foam padding to increase sensitivity.
 
#75 ·
t-bone123


Just basic thought but sometime we ought to forgot small things......Did you pull the small plastic from the bottom of the remote which is for battery protection.

If yes then please try pointing the remote towards the right hand side of the soundbar (while facing the soundbar where the white/blue LEDs are).
 
#76 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by t-bone123 /forum/post/17995520


Anyone have trouble with the remote not working at all. I purchased this from Sam's last night and cannot get the remote to do anything! Really impressed w/ the sound so far just wanting to crank up the sub but can't

Save your receipt, the new up-graded Vizio bar is out any day, it has a re-designed remote and decode's Dolbly Digital.


As far as your current remote situation, if the remte is now working and your not going to get the up-graded Vizio bar, a hint for you to make the remote work better (if it is now working).


Pull back the speaker grill off the bar, around the remote sensor and LED lights you will see some foam padding,,,,, carefully remove the foam padding, and then replace the speaker grill.


Not sure why that padding is there, but without it, the remote and the bar work better.


Cheers

Davyo
 
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