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Audio connection suggestion requested

post #1 of 4
1/19/13 at 4:55pm
Thread Starter 
I am not a very sophisticated AV person, so pardon my simple description below.

Setup:
* Sharp Aquos TV with either analog or coaxial audio output.
* I connect my TiVo (component) and laptop (HDMI) to the TV.
* Sound bar from Vizio has eith analog audio or TOSLINK optical input.

Situation:
1. When using TV's analog audio out and soundbar's analog audio in, I hear sounds from both TiVo and PC
2. When using TV's coaxial out and soundbar's TOSLINK audio in (using a converter), I only get sound from TiVo and NOT from PC on my soundbar. TV has sound.
3. If I change my TiVo out to HDMI, no sound is coming out of the soundbar

So it seem like any digital sound source coming into the TV does not output through digital coaxial out. I called Sharp and according to the rep, any digital signal is passed through directly to the output, and if it is not one of the acceptable PCM format, the setup would work. I have no way to select a PCM format in TiVo or from my laptop's setup, so in order to get sound from all sources, I went back to point 1 above.

Does any one have a suggestion on a remedy for my situation?

If I get a receiver that takes component, TOSLINK, and HDMI AV source, I can output the video through HDMI out to the TV. For audio, does a typical receiver have a TOSLINK audio out for me to connect to the soundbar? I checked out one receiver but only saw TOSLINK in, not out.

Thanks in advance for the help, John
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post #2 of 4
1/20/13 at 4:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JHinOC View Post

I am not a very sophisticated AV person, so pardon my simple description below.

Setup:
* Sharp Aquos TV with either analog or coaxial audio output.
* I connect my TiVo (component) and laptop (HDMI) to the TV.
* Sound bar from Vizio has eith analog audio or TOSLINK optical input.

Situation:
1. When using TV's analog audio out and soundbar's analog audio in, I hear sounds from both TiVo and PC
2. When using TV's coaxial out and soundbar's TOSLINK audio in (using a converter), I only get sound from TiVo and NOT from PC on my soundbar. TV has sound.
3. If I change my TiVo out to HDMI, no sound is coming out of the soundbar

So it seem like any digital sound source coming into the TV does not output through digital coaxial out. I called Sharp and according to the rep, any digital signal is passed through directly to the output, and if it is not one of the acceptable PCM format, the setup would work. I have no way to select a PCM format in TiVo or from my laptop's setup, so in order to get sound from all sources, I went back to point 1 above.

Does any one have a suggestion on a remedy for my situation?

If analog works and digital doesn't, why not just stick with analog?
Quote:
If I get a receiver that takes component, TOSLINK, and HDMI AV source, I can output the video through HDMI out to the TV. For audio, does a typical receiver have a TOSLINK audio out for me to connect to the soundbar?

I've never ever seen such a thing.
Quote:
I checked out one receiver but only saw TOSLINK in, not out.

If you checked out 99 receivers, you'd probably see the same thing x 99. It is the way of the world!

You have to pay a premium to obtain a receiver that just has a full set of analog outs. They are called preamp outs and you only find them on higher end receivers. On low and mid-range receivers, the only analog outs are the speaker outs.

If you go the AVR route, you are no doubt consigning the sound bar to your store room.
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post #3 of 4
1/20/13 at 6:16am
Thread Starter 
Arnyk,

Thanks for the input. I guess I will be sticking with analog output to the speakers.
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post #4 of 4
1/20/13 at 1:59pm
Almost all TV's I've seen can not split the digital audio out of HDMI and output it on the AES/SPDI/F output, they just don't have the processing / circuitry to do that. So, passthrough just doesn't work when using the HDMI inputs.
Quote:
If I get a receiver that takes component, TOSLINK, and HDMI AV source, I can output the video through HDMI out to the TV.

Yes you can. Many modern receivers can do this, older gen didn't. You'll need to research it a bit though as it isn't always an obvious feature nor does it have a single name. Onkyo for example calls it " Analog To HDMI UpConversion" and I think the cheapest current model with it is this one.
Quote:
For audio, does a typical receiver have a TOSLINK audio out for me to connect to the soundbar? I checked out one receiver but only saw TOSLINK in, not out.

This is much more difficult to find. I don't know of any off hand that allow pass-through of the audio to toslink.
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