The Official JVC TH-BA1 Owners Thread - Page 5

Will do.

The 360/TV will just have to deal with the TV doing the work.

hello all just ordered the JVC TH-BA1 (thanks to this site and the love of it and you Davyo). I also purchased a TC p42s2 plasma (kicks ass). Anyway I had to get a 42 because of space limitations in the house. I also have no way of placing the sound bar below the tv and was interested in use these
http://soundbarbrackets.com/
I am hoping (now that I ordered the JVC) that it can be mounted use those brackets. Would someone please look at the back your bar and look for me?
I also have directv how can I control the power/volume with the directv remote? I have the directv remote programmed for the panny tv. How can it control both?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks man. I am not wall mounting the plasma it is being placed on an existing corner shelf.
If I could request one other thing I would appreciate it. How tall is the bar in inches?

How would I hook up my xbox 360 and ps3 directly to the JVC TH-BA1 if I'm using HDMI?

Optical from the ps3 to surround bar and just keep the HDMI from the ps3 to the TV? Would that work?

How would I hook my xbox 360? My xbox360 does not have an opitcal out when using HDMI.

This looks like a good bar and I might consider it if Pioneer doesn't work out.

Btw, Davyo, too soon to give up you have not tried Pioneer yet

Well, I was just surprised that you haven't tried Pioneer yet. It's my number one choice for now, if that doesn't work I will be trying JVC.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1237238

Welcome back to the club Davyo. I had a feeling you'd come back!

Quick question. I know a lot of people say an HDMI cord is an HDMI cord but I think differently. I'm wondering what people think about digital optical cables. Is there such thing as a bad brand of digital optical cable or all of them pretty much the same? I've heard about them not fitting in the spot tightly and people having to use tape to keep them in.

1) Should I just go out and buy a 2 dollar digital optical and not care because a digital optical cable is just like any other?
2) How tall is this JVC BA1? I looked at Amazon and this is what I got:

Product Dimensions: 38 x 15.2 x 12.8 inches ; 0.3 ounces

Are you telling me this sucker is a full FOOT tall? Holy CRAP!

http://img72.imageshack.us/i/1111101530.jpg/

At a foot tall it will be blocking my tv. In this picture I'm testing how much room I have. I took this picture but soon realized I can remove the tempered glass to make it a 13 inch tall area. But, even with that I don't think a sound bar would be good at such a low ground level AND in a area like that it could give off a cave like sound.

According to the JVC website its dimensions are:

Soundbar
35-7/16 x 4-15/16 x 3-3/8
Subwoofer
8-1/2 x 13-7/8 x 10

Amazon might have been talking about the entire package size.

OK, thanks. I just took amazon and didn't even consider JVCs website. I thought a foot tall had to be WAY too big.

stinger - I will try field your question on the digital optical cable. And this applies to HDMI equally.

When dealing in the digital domain, if the cable you select is capable of passing the 1's and 0's, the decoder, whether video or audio, will recreate exactly what went in.

I have paid $15 for an optical cable and $35 for an HDMI cable only when I needed one immediately and could not wait three or four days for Amazon (my preference) or Blu-Jean or someone else to send me a reasonably priced cable.

With optical cables, I have never found one that did not fit perfectly as far as connections. I have broken optical cables. Always when stored because I probably rolled them up too tightly. I am only trusting my memory right now, but it seems that the typical price at Amazon for either one of their brands or a competitive brand ranges from about $6 for a 3' cable to about $9 for a 10' cable. And that is also the approximate prices paid for HDMI of similar links.

Anyone that says the get a better picture with an expensive cable (think Monster), is deluding themselves unless the original cable was defective in some way.

With digital, if the cable can pass enough 0's and 1's from source to output, your picture or sound will be as good as it can be from the cable standpoint. If the cable does not pass enough information, you get nothing. If the decoder does not have enough info to do its job, it does nothing.

Someone with a more technical degree than mine could probably elucidate better on this, but it is one of my pet peeves when I read someone post that they have purchased a new cable and now their sound or picture is so much better. Worse than this is when I read someone start debating power cords or speaker cable.

There have been hundreds (thousands) of tests comparing all of these parameters and, especially in the audio world, no one has ever been able to hear a difference when doing double-blind testing.

does your tv have an optical out?

I love this sound bar! I had to velcro it to the top of my Plasma. It doesn't fit square on my Tv due to the slope of the ceiling so it hangs over one side by an inch or two.

For those interested. I did get the DIrectv remote to work. It has normal volume control but used the power button on the Directv remote on the AV1 setting for the power on/off. Due to the height of my placement I really have to point the remote to get the requested action but on the plus side the red lights are hardly noticeable for me (they would not bother me anyway).

I ran HDMI from the Directv receiver and HDMI from the 360 into the TV then used an optical out on the plasma to the JVC. I ran also stupidly ran an optical cable from the receiver to the JVC not really thinking that by running the HDMI into the TV it would send the active signal to the soundbar. Thus, making the second optical cable from the receiver not only redundant but completely unnecessary. No switching required for me!

I also ordered those soundbar brackets but cannot use them. =(
I am attempting to get another TV for the living room to replace an old Toshiba rear projection monstrosity. I will be able to use them on those but it is hard to replace a working hdtv just to use a 50 pair of brackets.

Just ordered this bad boy for 229. Will be getting it Monday unless they ship it to store before the weekend. I've been hearing about bitstream, is that an option on the soundbar?

ok Guys, I need some help here. I'm trying to program my Directv remote to control the volume of the BA1. Every JVC code listed on the Diretv website did not work. I also seem to recall that one must "erase" the TV's volume code first, then put in the JVC code. Can anybody help here?

Hey guys, first off my apologies for not reading through this whole thread ...yet. But I just wanted to throw out a couple questions. Hopefully they werent already answered.

I already have a dedicated Front Projector HT room with all the bells and whistles etc. But thats MINE

Im just about finished my kids large playroom (need carpet). Im going to throw a 60" plasma or something up on the wall for the spoiled brats (mainly for my pleasure since I may spend some time playing the wii with them etc).

I was thinking of this soundbar for the room. The room is pretty large, but since 3 kids will be messing around in there I want to keep the electronics out of reach. I figured the sound bar would be the best solution. Then when we really want BIG sound/Huge picture, we could go into the locked next room over.

Blah blah blah, here are my noob sound bar questions:
- Going to run a Wii and media player into TV. With this BA1, can I just run Audio/Optical out from the TV (not purchased yet) into the back of the soundbar then be done? Is it really that simple?
- If this is the case, would it pass DD/DTS from my media box through TV into the BA-1?
- Also if run this way, is it possible in most cases that I would set the BA1 volume, leave it there, then adjust the volume on the TV or vice versa?

If these questions have already been answered in this thread, I will take no offense if you tell me to shut up and RTFF


Thanks in advance.....davyo and others

You can run optical from the TV to the soundbar to make your life easier.

Most newer TV's will not pass DD/DTS due to DRM. If you want the better sonic experience, the components should be connected directly to the soundbar via optical.

On setting the volume and forgetting it, that depends on whether the new TV has variable output as an option. Most newer TV's have fixed output only meaning you would need to adjust volume via the soundbar. Some remotes will learn the codes for the soundbar, some won't. A Logitech Harmony remote cures all of this.

Ok thanks in response to your reponse:
1) this is fine and no problem, which is what I would do. Does this unit have 2 optical outs?
2) bit of a bummer because I already pre-wired my cables in wall. Might need to figure out a way to run an optical from where the rack will be to hole behind where the tv will be.
3) This is fine. Not a big deal either way since I see the JVC remote has good reviews

thanks again.

Yes, you can hook up two optical cables directly to this unit. You can buy a cheap splitter to hook up more though.

Jesus, why didnt I pre-run some opticals? Can someone tell me? Here's what I pre-wired behind drywall around a couple bends...(which is a pain for pulling new through). I ran, 1 HDMI, 1 Component w/2 RCA, 1 s-video w/2-RCA totalling 9 individual cables!! I must have been drinking not to include the optical. Oh well, at least its a tiny cable, I might be able to run under the baseboard or something worst case.

Oh I am sure they will work. Due to the slope of the ceiling I can't line up the brackets on the panny.

I programmed the Directv remote no problem.

guide--setup--system setup--remote control--program remote-- AV1 (that is what I used)--audio equipment--brand jvc
then follow instructions on screen.
I want to say it was the second code not 100% on that. I works I am using it as I type (is that possible).

Got the soudbar in yesterday. Hooked it up today and I've heard it with assassins creed:brotherhood. Of course it's MUCH better than the TV speakers, especially because my speakers are on the back side of the TV. I've only heard it for 10 minutes. The place I play my games at is my room (man room). I'm trying to move a few things around so that I can sit directly in front of the TV. When I got my LED TV 3 months ago I've had to sit further back from the TV than with my SD because the picture looked like crap. The way I had to do that was to put my gaming chair beside my bed which made my chair not be directly in front of the TV. As of right now I'm trying to move the stand my tv is on to in front of my chair. (That's my life story). But so far, it sounds great! I did have the subwoofer 3 foot from my ear and had to move that because it was too close but I moved it and it sounds pretty good! The subwoofer is nothing to be jumping for joy but it's still good and the actual soundbar also has a big bang.

You mean this is done through the on-screen setup guide? D'Oh!

Another question: Right now, my Directv remote is set to operate the STB (of course) and my Sony tv volume. By going through the steps you describe, will control of the TV volume be "replaced" by the JVC code? I just don't want the remote to control both the soundbar AND the tv...