Sony HT-CT150 and CT350 - Page 34

Has anyone had any luck getting the CT150 powered on with an LG TV? If I turn the LG TV off it turns off the CT150, but turning on the TV has no effect.
I know that the Simplink is working, though, because when I turn my Samsung Blu-Ray player on, the TV powers up.

Is attempting to employ cross-vendor HDMI CEC a mug's game?

~f

just found this negative review on amazon:


i like many potential CT350 buyers don't like these kind of reviews...it scares us; what do you owners think?

I was a skeptic when I first installed this. I wasn't thrilled with OTB performance. I mentioned earlier the mid's weren't the best. After two weeks of ownership i can say I'm happy. I don't know if I just found the sweet spot in the settings, or if the speakers have a break in period, but I can safely say I'm keeping it. I will hang onto the box for 2 more weeks just to be sure nothing breaks, so that if I need to return to Amazon, I can, but I am not keeping the box for "mind-changes".

The mid's are still only so-so, but with a lower subwoofer setting and higher center output, you get good lows with audible mids and highs. I think it sounds good now. Not 5.1, but I didn't buy it thinking this was the miracle elixir, I bought it knowing the NX810 speakers sucked and this was an affordable medium without going full surround.

Overall, I'm not unhappy with the $350 price tag. I would be happier at $300, but $350 is fair.

By chance, does the LG have separate settings for auto-on and auto-off? I had the same thing with my Panny until I discovered there were two settings and only the "off" was enabled. Now it works seamlessly turning off and on!

I have a KDL55NX810. When you press display on the remote there should be a D with the Dolby double D logo up in the right hand corner. If not, you may be having the same problem as some of us have/did have.

@reb41 - I played with a lot of settings so I can't tell you exactly what I did. I can tell you I updated the firmware on the BD and soon after it worked. Maybe that's what did the trick for me. I have a Sony BDP-S470.

I've poked around in the menus and only figured out what the 'Simplink' menu was after reading the on-line manual. Unfortunately, the Speaker selection is greyed out even when the CT150 is plugged in the HDMI port and turned on.

~f

SO it is confirmed to be a problem, but neither Sony nor DirecTV is taking ownership yet, how lovely

Here is Sony's response:

Bill and PossumGirl,

First let me say to Bill, I don't own a Cobra so there is no need to be jealous. I am just a fan of old, fast cars, especially the Shelbys. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to afford a nice replica.

Thanks to both of you (and others) who take the time to respond to help out the ones of us who are technically challenged. I went into the menu of the HT and made sure the CTRL HDMI was on and I also changed the PASS THRU setting from AUTO to ON. I then tried the TV with the soundbar off and it seems to be working great. I would have never figured that out without this forum.

I am just getting started with all this AV stuff, so I am sure I will have tons more questions. But at least I know I have a great resource of information with this forum.

Thanks again!
Bill

Just purchased the CT350 on B u y . c o m. They finally got some more inventory.

The Owner's manual says the Digital Optical Cord for the TV is included. Is this true? If so, how long is that cord?

Thanks again to all who helped provide advice in this great thread!

Yes it includes the optical cable. IIRC it's about 6' long. My cat bit through it within 2 days so I got a thicker one.

thanks Possumgirl.

Stupid newbie question.. but exactly what type of connectors does this cable have?

If I wanted to buy a longer cable from Monoprice.com, which cable should I be considering? Will this work:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...02&cp_id=10229 ??

^^^
Any of those that are toslink to toslink will work for you.

Does PS3 only put out 2.1? I was watching Predators bluray tonight and it was only coming through as 2.1 according to the ct350(even though the TV displayed it as 5.1). OTOH, if I watch satellite/dvr, it's coming through as 5.1 according to both the tv and the ct350.

DVR-VIP612HD --HDMI 1.3b-->TV
PS3 --HDMI 1.3b-->TV
TV-55nx810 --HDMI 1.3b-->CT350

@nick:

thanx for the details earlier. The thing that bothers me is your TV NX810 has indeed speakers that suck, but me like possumgirl have Good audio on our TV's (Panasonic)
so i am very sceptical if the improvement will be good enough.....
possumgirl literally said that the CT350 "wipes the flour with the Panasonic speakers"; still i am not totally convinced.

Nenito2k, if it help's, I also have a Sony 52w4100 that has very respectable speakers for a flat screen, and I think the ct350 would make an excellent addition to it. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a ct350 for that TV if I had a need for it. The 52w4100 is in my bedroom so the soundbar would be way overkill for how often I use it, and I don't think my wife would appreciate me watching Saving Private Ryan at 3am with the subwoofer and bass both at +3 while she is trying to sleep.

It seems to me like you are trying to talk yourself out of it. If you have $350 to spend, and really want the soundbar, get it from Amazon. If you don't like it, return it saying it underperformed your expectations. No hassle return, no restock fee, they pay return shipping. It's a win-win

I am moving things back to my main system, if anyone wants a 350 PM me.

@nick, thanx again man; unfortunately i am not in the US nor in Europe...but in Africa and where i live we depend on Sony MEA....the CT350 will be sold here in less than 2 months so will wait and bother you in the meantime

It all makes sense now. I was wondering why you didn't just buy it to try it. Since you can't get it for 2 months, I can ship mine to you in 1 month for $700, then maybe I would get that second CT350 for the bedroom after all

Good luck, I don't think you will be disappointed

I don't think I mentioned "flour" at all...that could get quite messy.

Nenito, I'm guessing you'll never be totally convinced until you hear a CT-xxx and decide for yourself if it's right for you. Although I might have thought the Panny speakers were "okay", after 5+ months with my CT-350 I don't use the TV speakers even for the nightly news anymore. Everything just sounds better using the soundbar.

Thanks Possumgirl! I assumed I was getting the right audio format to my soundbar. With your help, not Sony's, I found I was not. You may laugh a little when I say that, even at condo appropriate low volume levels, there is a nice difference with 5.1. The HT-CT150 "Night Mode" is a nice feature for condo dwellers that helps make the 5.1 a nice experience.

When I asked how to tell if I was getting 5.1 to the HT-CT150, you wrote:


I tried that and the display showed "2.0 CH" and, in very tiny letters on the primary screen, you can see the Dolby logo followed by "PLII". In other words, it appeared 5.1 was not getting to the soundbar from the TV.

So I did some checking in the online Sony KDL-55HX800 TV i-Manual. It says:
"Speakers:
-Select TV speakers or external audio system connected to the TV to output TV sound.
-To use multi-channel audio, select external audio system and connect optical out for equipment compatible with Dolby Digital.
-'Audio System' must be selected to listen to 5.1 multi-channel audio. "

Note that it does not say an HDMI connection works or not. It only says "optical out". I no longer have any HDMIs going to the soundbar so I can't test that mode. Others may try it, but results will probably vary by TV brand and model.

For the record, I have all the component HDMIs going to the TV and only a optical cable from the TV to the soundbar. All speakers were capable of responding to volume control from each remote.

When I switched to "Audio System" on the TV, I can no longer change the volume on the TV speakers. They are disabled. When I try, I get an error displayed on the screen. The headphones attached to the simple RCA "Audio Out" on the TV still work fine.

With "Audio System" selected on the TV, pressing "Display" on the soundbar remote provides the satisfying joy of seeing "5.1 CH" on the LED readout. Also, the tiny "PLII" changes to "0".

Now what I need is the code for the soundbar so I can try to program the DirecTV remote!

Thanks again possumgirl! I spent the money to improve the TV sound with a Sony soundbar to match my new Sony LED TV and I was getting a lot less than what I paid for.

Where do I send the "Hero of the Day" award?

Bill

"Everything just sounds better using the soundbar"... if you are actually getting 5.1 to the soundbar!

It's good to know things are now working the way you want! That Hero award belongs to all the knowledgeable posters here because that's how I've learned about this stuff. A year ago I knew nothing.

I keep my components attached to the sub as that works best for me, but I know not everyone likes that arrangement.

Okay, after some patient noodling, I stumbled upon the Simplink menu with the Speaker selection available for selection! Selecting that, I was able to choose HT-Speakers, but I've found no way to enable synchronized power-on (though volume control and mute from the LG remote controls the CT150). I have no idea why it suddenly started working, and it seems to stop working seemingly randomly also. When it stops working, I have had some luck changing the ID value in the Options menu (no idea what it's really supposed to be for) and powering off/on. 'Sweird.

~f

Ok, can someone please help me out. I finally got all of my cables from monoprice and trying to get the thing setup.

I have all of my components: DirecTV HD DVR, xbox 360 and Samsung BD Player all directly hooked into the CT-350. I then have a HDMI cable going from HDMI 2 (ARC) going to/from the CT-350.

The xbox and BD player work correctly from their respective inputs from the 350 but i cannot get the DirectTV DVR to work. I unplugged the HDMI cable from the Cable/Sat connection on the sub and put it on the BD input and it works. However, the DirecTV 3D channels won't work. I haven't had a chance to read over the whole thread so I'm not sure if this is a problem.

As I am typing this I connected the hdmi cable from the DirecTV HD DVR right to the TV (HDMI 1) and everything seems to be working correctly. Is there any downside in doing this rather then have all of the inputs connected directly to the 350?

Connecting one or more of your components to the TV is fine, especially if it works around the 3D issue. You may want to read back starting at post #924 and then read posts folllowing that one regarding a problem with DirecTV 3D channels and the CT-xxx models.

I'll check em out thanks. Is there any reason why the DVR won't work when connected to the sat/tv input? The BD input and DVD input both work correctly.

Can't think of anything other than maybe the connector is bad which should be covered by warranty. Have you tried connecting the xbox or BD player to that port to see if they work there?

I'm still at this Dolby 5.1 stuff!

The "display" button on the HT-CT150 soundbar remote showed "5.1 CH" on the LED readout when watching the DirecTV HR24-200 after tweaking the KDL-55HX800 TV. I thought I had it!

Wrong. When I tried watching the Sony BDP-S570, the sound bar reverted back to ""2.0 CH". A search here and a Google there lead to discovering a setting on the BDP-S570 called "BD Audio Mix". Out of the box it is "on". If you turn it "off", the sound bar shows "5.1 CH" on the LED readout while playing Blu-Ray disk.

I bought a whole new Sony system expecting it to be easy and make sense. Why are so many critical setting so hard to discover? I'm spending more time finding out how to work it that watch and listen to it!

Bill

@Possumgirl: thanx for the clarification; i meant FLOOR not FLOUR

i am glad i got to know people like you here; since our tv speakers are the same (even if mine is LCD panasonic) i guess the CT350 will still be a huge improvement, as i mainly do ps3 and HD movies and both will be 5.1....

BTW don't remember if you said it or not...for 2.0 channels is the soundbar still better than TV speakers ?

@bsprague, glad you finally managed to get 5.1 displayed and like possum said you did indeed hear the difference !

This works fine for video, but may not be ideal for audio.

You should note that directly connecting devices to a display, and using ARC or the Digital Optical Out will have varying results as even some new displays do not support 5.1 return channel via HDMI or optical back to the CT350.

For example here is a Panasonic VT25, manual states the following (HDMI 1 is the ARC connection):


I tested this out and the only way to get DD 5.1 is to connect the DirecTV receiver to the CT350 directly. This of course has a problem with 3D 720p/60 and 1080p/24 modes currently.

I still have a case open with Sony engineering, no progress yet....

Point being while most newer displays support ARC, it appears it is not mandated that 5.1 DD audio be sent back over an HDMI ARC enabled input. In the 2010 Panasonic VT25's case, it LPCM only.

This is probably why there is so much variance in user experience and setup with this box...