Samsung HW-E450 Soundbar - Page 8

Possumgirl where are you? We are hanging the wall mount now so close to setting up. You seem extremely knowledgeable very closet set up. Thanks for your help. Rustyallen.

That's what they make hole saws for

Seriously, if you're going for a wall-mounted installation (with totally concealed wiring) it should be a relatively simple matter to make an additional hole in the wall directly behind the sound bar & route your wires accordingly. Just make certain before drilling that you're drilling into a wall cavity that is common with the TV cabling hole(s) and not offset with a framing stud in the middle. Ordinarily wall mount installations (with the proper tools, which includes a reliable stud-finder) and working within interior walls are "duck soup" simple.

Thank you. I figured as much but just for my comfort wanted to hear it from someone else. Thank you for your help.

Glad someone was able to answer your wall mounting questions because I'd be totally useless on that subject. And since installation is in progress, I may be too late on the connection question.

Customer support always takes the "easy" route, but doesn't tell you that for blu-ray in particular, you will only get 2 ch. stereo if it's hooked to the TV. Also, since both the TV and soundbar support ARC, using an optical cable shouldn't be necessary. That said, this thread and others are full of posts about Sammy TVs and soundbars not fully supporting HDMI-CTL and ARC. Or at least not being able to predict what will work with what. You should be able to connect the BD player via HDMI to the soundbar and then HDMI from soundbar to ARC in on the TV. That part will work fine. The STB will need to be connected to the TV. The only question is whether ARC will work or if you will need to use optical from TV to soundbar.

Awesome thank you I think I have it. Really appreciate all of the help. Read very post las night (all 208at the time and was very confused). Appreciate it very much.

Wow - this is some thread. I read though a lot of it, but hoping someone can advise me directly...

SO - I have a Panasonic TV that supports ARC. I know I can use optical out, but was hoping to utilize the hdmi port, as my TV only has 2 (sucks)

I read and pretty much understand the arc. The reason why i liked the optical was so I could use the soundbar for everything coming out of the tv (wii, roku, bluray, fios box), but the limit on my tv is just two inputs. Does the soundbar work as a passthough? I am a little lost.

Do you see any solutions or advice.

Totally a vague email - hope you can help.

Please excuse my OCD while I try to put my best connection options with this soundbar to bed. My wife made the mistake of asking me to bring the groceries in with this sitting in the trunk. I have learned a lot from reading everything here but I would just like to make sure that I completely understand everything involved before I place an order at Monoprice. I have a Samsung (non-ARC) LED TV (http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/UN46C6300SFXZA) and would like to connect a Samsung BD player (http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/BD-C5500/XAA), my HD DVR from the cable company, and an XBox 360 Kinect. The way that I see it, I have 3 main options:

1. Purchase an HDMI switch, connect the BD player, DVR, and XBox to the switch via HDMI, connect the switch to the soundbar via HDMI IN, and connect the soundbar HDMI OUT to the TV.
2. Purchase a Toslink cable, connect the BD player, DVR, and XBox to my TV via HDMI, and connect the TV to the soundbar via Toslink.
3. Purchase a Toslink cable, connect the BD player to the soundbar via HDMI IN, connect the soundbar HDMI OUT to the TV, connect the DVR and XBox to the TV via HDMI, and connect the TV to the soundbar via Toslink.

My main concern is maximizing the sound quality. As far as I can tell, #1 above will accomplish that because I would be directly connecting everything to the soundbar. Is it really necessary to do that with the DVR and XBox? I understand that the sound quality will only be as good as the weakest link in the equation so I guess I'm asking if the output of my HD DVR or XBox 360 Kinect is good enough at the source to warrant connecting them directly into the soundbar or if I wouldn't notice a difference if I used #2 or #3 above.

Thanks in advance. I promise that I will go back to trying to do nothing but help people after I figure this out.
Edited by Doctego - 12/11/12 at 1:36pm

Connect the Blu-ray to the sound bar via HDMI so you can take advantage of LPCM.

Connect found bar to TVs ARC HDMI input.

Xbox and DVR to the TV. I seem to recall my Samsung UN55C7000 being able to pass through the Xbox360s Dolby digital over ARC. Check to see if that's true with your TV. Not sure if the DVR can do the same but it doesn't hurt to try. You can always run optical direct to the sound bar

I am picking this up on Thursday and its going to be replacing my out of date surround sound system. I swore I would NEVER buy another Samsung product but after the sales rep demo it for me I was very impressed by the sound. I also cant believe I am going to pair it with my Sony HX750 and Sony BDP S570 but if it does its job thats all I care about. I will give my thoughts about it once I have it all set up and running on Thursday. Hopefully this isnt something I am going to come to regret getting. I know its not a full blown surround sound system but for size room I have it should be good enough......if it does what its supposed to do that is. We shall see.

I could have sworn that I added the fact that my TV doesn't have ARC but I omitted that. It has since been updated. My apologies.

You've done a good job of evaluating all your options. My suggestion is start with option #3 because it's only going to cost you an optical cable which is cheaper than the switch.

After you get things connected and have listened for awhile, move the DVR to connect it directly to the soundbar. Does it sound different? Better? If not, reconnect it to the TV and be done with it. If you notice a big difference with a direct connection, then go buy the switch.

Thanks for the reply. I will give that a shot. I'm unfamiliar with the sound output from the XBox 360 Kinect to know whether it would sound better connected directly to the soundbar rather than to the TV first.

Hey guys before I pick up this soundbar on Thursday how does it work with other tv's? Will it play "nice" with my HX750 is what I am really asking? My tv has the ARC thing so thats no worry. I just want to make sure this will be a good match with my tv. So if anyone can help me out on this I would appreciate it.

Bluetooth audio works perfectly with my iPhone 4S music library

Does anyone have recommended settings for this bar? Sound mode, subwoofer level, etc?

I currently have the sound effects off, smart volume on, and the sub woofer level at 5. I'm pretty happy with it, but wondered if others had subwoofer and sound mode differences.

Thanks.

Started reading this thread and there is lots of info. I do have a question.
What I have:
Samsung ES8000 TV with ARC
Samsung BD ES6000 Player
Samsung HW-E450 Soundbar on the way.
Monoprice 4x1 HDMI High Speed splitter

My question is this: Right now, the BD player and my cable box are in a closet connected to the splitter. The cable out goes through the wall and connects to HDMI 1. All works fine. All are using Anynet +. I'm thinking that once I get the Soundbar, I would take the HDMI cable from the TV, plug it into the Soundbar HDMI in, and connect a cable from the HDMI out on the Soundbar to HDMI 2 (ARC) on the tv.
Does this sound correct?
Thanks for any help you can give me.

^^^
That should work.

Well folks picked up my Samsung soundbar this afternoon and here are my thoughts. First it was simple to hook up. I have got the audio cables (Red and White) hooked directly up to my Directv HD Box and the 3D Sound is excellent. Then I have the HDMI cables hooked up to my Sony BDP S570 and again everything is working excellent. The Sub is also giving off good bass. Now this isnt giving off full blown surround sound like an AV Reciever would do but for the size room my setup is in its doing what its supposed to do and thats give great sound and good Bass. Its what I have been looking for and what I needed. So far well worth it. I may not like Samsungs tv's but I sure do like their Soundbar!

Glad you are enjoying it. I might be hooking mine up tomorrow. You should get better sound if you connect your DirecTV receiver to the soundbar via optical, though.

I would do that BUT my Directv HD Reciever dont have an optical port! Right now though its putting out very good sound though, better then I thought it would. I had the sales person demo it for me and it sounded good in the store but it sounds even better in my room. Very surprised.

Interesting. The ultimate test is your ears. If you're satisfied with the sound, that's all that matters.

The sound is pretty good so yes I am satisfied with it but here's the thing's I aint happy about.

1-The Remote. I think it sucks that it wont control other brands of tv's except for Samsung tv's and its not backlit.
2-You cant sync the sound bar with other remotes such as my Directv Remote.
3-Lastly I aint to thrilled with the HDMI hookup feature. I have Bravia sync turned on for my tv and Blu ray player so they can pretty much work together but when I run the HDMI cable from the Blu ray player to the Soundbar then an HDMI cable from the soundbar to the tv the Bravia sync wont work. So I got rid of that and am gonna run an optical cable from my Blu ray player to the soundbar. No big deal.

So thats pretty much it as far as the things I dont like about the soundbar and I cant expect miracles because it is what it is and thats a soundbar! It cant do alot of the things an AVR can do and I expected that. But for the sound it gives off its worth the money and watching a Blu ray movie sounds very very good.

I just purchased the HW-E450 Soundbar, I have a Samsung HL67A750 DLP TV and a samsung Blu Ray player (TV and Blu Ray hooked together with HDMI). I was wondering exactly how do I hook them up so the sound comes through the sound bar for all of them?

Please be detailed, as my experence with this is very limited.

Thanks!

If that's all that you have, you can just connect the HDMI from the BD player to the HDMI IN on the soundbar. From there, connect HDMI OUT to the TV.

So I hooked this soundbar up tonight. My temporary hookup is my HD DVR connected to the HDMI IN on the soundbar. HDMI OUT from the soundbar goes to the TV. That's it for now. Some of my observations have been discussed before.

The bar itself sounds really good. Toggling back and forth between the soundbar and the TV speakers shows what a difference it makes. The subwoofer seems to be really lacking, though. No matter what setting I have it on, I can barely hear any bass. Is this normal? I know that it's not going to rock the house but I expected more. I placed the sub on the other side of the room, about 15 feet from the soundbar (if that matters).

Every time I turn the soundbar on, it defaults to D.IN. I have nothing connected via optical. My only connection is via HDMI. A minor nuisance but I'll get over it.

I have AnyNet on and my cable box remote controls the volume. When I turn the TV off with the same remote, the soundbar turns off. When I turn it on with that remote, the soundbar does NOT turn on. I'm fine with that but wanted to pass that along.

Lastly, i know nothing about the audio output of my HD DVR but I went into GENERAL SETTINGS - AUDIO: DIGITAL OUT - and tried the different choices. OTHER and DOLBY DIGITAL output no sound. HDMI outputs sound to the soundbar. This makes sense since that's how I have it set up but is there any way to output Dolby Digital? Am I actually doing this with my setup? Like I said, I'm a novice with that. Here's a link to the manual for my HD DVR:

http://www.scientificatlanta.com/ExplorerClubGuides/getting_started/4004007.pdf
Edited by Doctego - 12/14/12 at 7:57pm

Thanks, but what HDMI input do I plug the HDMI wire into the TV, it has HDMI 1 (Direct TV is in here); HDMI 2 (Blu Ray) or HDMI 3 (nothing)?

Thanks!

Don't use the Digital Audio wire for anything?

You omitted DirecTV from your original question. Does your DirecTV receiver have an optical output? If so, you can connect HDMI OUT from the DTV receiver to the TV, optical out from the DTV receiver to the soundbar, HDMI from the BD player to the HDMI IN on the soundbar, and HDMI from the HDMI OUT on the soundbar to the TV. If the DTV receiver is plugged into HDMI 1 on your TV, either #2 or #3 will be fine from the soundbar to the TV.

Thanks Doctego, I'm going to give it a try this weekend (if I have time with Christmas), but Thanks a bunch...

If anyone can address my issues in post #235, it would be greatly appreciated.