# Need Help with Basic Home Theater Setups



## heirdy (Mar 31, 2016)

Hello All,

I recently bought a Sony bluray 5.1 home theater system. I'm trying to get the 5.1 Dolby sound from my HD digital set up box through this new HTS for the HD channels. How do I go about doing that? My TV only has two normal HDMI ports, no HDMI ARC or Optical ports. Is that still possible to get the 5.1 surround sound when I watch the HD channels that comes with 5.1 Dolby sound?

I'm not that much familiar with home theater or audio setups. Thanks for all your help!


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

heirdy said:


> Hello All,
> 
> I recently bought a Sony bluray 5.1 home theater system. I'm trying to get the 5.1 Dolby sound from my HD digital set up box through this new HTS for the HD channels. How do I go about doing that? My TV only has two normal HDMI ports, no HDMI ARC or Optical ports. Is that still possible to get the 5.1 surround sound when I watch the HD channels that comes with 5.1 Dolby sound?
> 
> I'm not that much familiar with home theater or audio setups. Thanks for all your help!


Without knowing what your particular equipment is, the general advice is to connect the set-top box to the Sony HT with HDMI and, in turn, connect the Sony to the TV with another HDMI cable.


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## heirdy (Mar 31, 2016)

Kal Rubinson said:


> Without knowing what your particular equipment is, the general advice is to connect the set-top box to the Sony HT with HDMI and, in turn, connect the Sony to the TV with another HDMI cable.


Thanks so much for answering. It's Sony BDV E4100 model which comes with a single HDMI output. So, I don't think that will work in my case :crying:

This is how I connected them now. Sony HT to TV, Set-top box to TV. Now the two HDMI ports in my TV are occupied leaving no room for any other connections. And about Sony HT, I should have read the specifications before buying that it has only one HDMI output. I think it will work well with a Sony TV with a HDMI ARC through Bravia Sync though. Am I doing something wrong?


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

heirdy said:


> Thanks so much for answering. It's Sony BDV E4100 model which comes with a single HDMI output. So, I don't think that will work in my case :crying:


One output is all you need. What inputs does it have?



> This is how I connected them now. Sony HT to TV, ...


OK.


> ...Set-top box to TV. ........


No. Set-top to Sony HT.


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## Tonto (Jun 30, 2007)

Input and Output Terminals
ANALOG AUDIO INPUT: PIN JACK (1)
ETHERNET CONNECTION (1)
HDMI IN/OUT (0/1)
OPTICAL AUDIO INPUT (1)
USB INPUT (1 Front)
USB Keyboard

I'm surprised it doesn't have an HDMI input! If your set top box doesn't have an "optical out," you will need to call your cable company to see it they have one that does. That looks like your only solution. Kal is right that the HTS will do the switching of the sources internally & only utilize 1 HDMI cable to send the signal to the TV.

I guess you could run the HDMI for the STB to the TV & connect the analog outputs on it to the analog inputs on the HTS. You would then use the TV's menu & select that HDMI input when watching TV & in the HTS's menu, select the "analog input." You wont get Dolby Digital audio but you will get a HD picture.


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

Tonto said:


> Input and Output Terminals
> ANALOG AUDIO INPUT: PIN JACK (1)
> ETHERNET CONNECTION (1)
> HDMI IN/OUT (0/1)
> ...


There should be a minimum standard feature set to permit a manufacturer/vendor to label a product as "Blu-ray Home Cinema System with Bluetooth" and one of these features should be at least one video input, preferably HDMI. This product is just a Bluray player with speakers. Shameful.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Kal Rubinson said:


> There should be a minimum standard feature set to permit a manufacturer/vendor to label a product as "Blu-ray Home Cinema System with Bluetooth" and one of these features should be at least one video input, preferably HDMI. This product is just a Bluray player with speakers. Shameful.



Precisely. A BD player with speakers. He could probably make it work, but what a convoluted way to do it. I'd buy this. It looks less expensive too. 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00...me+theater&dpPl=1&dpID=31dcGizJ68L&ref=plSrch
Then he could switch all inputs in one place. And have a little more power with likely better sound. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## heirdy (Mar 31, 2016)

> One output is all you need. What inputs does it have?


The TV has the following connectivity options,
2 HDMI
1 USB
Antenna F-type
Component Video (YPbPr) input
Composite video (CVBS) input
PC-In VGA
Audio L/R in
YPbPr
CVBS in
VGA-in (5x cinch RGB+H/V)
Composite (CVBS) x1



> No. Set-top to Sony HT.


Both the Set-top and Sony HT has one HDMI port and one Optical port each. And they are HDMI out not HDMI in?! Thanks!


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## heirdy (Mar 31, 2016)

Tonto said:


> If your set top box doesn't have an "optical out," you will need to call your cable company to see it they have one that does.


Okay. So, can connecting my STB to HTS through optical solve the problem? But I read somewhere that the optical don't pass 5.1 Dolby sound like the HDMI. If that's the case, do I have any other option than swapping my TV with one that has HDMI ARC, preferably Sony for easy syncing option with the HTS being the same brand? Thanks!


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## heirdy (Mar 31, 2016)

willis7469 said:


> Precisely. A BD player with speakers. He could probably make it work, but what a convoluted way to do it. I'd buy this. It looks less expensive too.
> Then he could switch all inputs in one place. And have a little more power with likely better sound.


That Yamaha model was in my list of choices too. May be it's because of the bluray player and the brand Sony I chose it. May be I should have bought Yamaha and hooked it up to a bluray player.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

heirdy said:


> That Yamaha model was in my list of choices too. May be it's because of the bluray player and the brand Sony I chose it. May be I should have bought Yamaha and hooked it up to a bluray player.



I'd say that would have been best. Cost wouldn't have been a lot more, and it would have been more future proof, but hey, that's how it goes sometimes. 


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## heirdy (Mar 31, 2016)

Hi Again!

I bought an optical cable separably from Amazon and connected it between the STB optical output and HTS optical input. But still I don't hear anything through the HTS when I watch any channels. I'm just fed up and greatly disappointed. Can you all please tell me if my setup is correct? Thanks a ton!

TV: Two HDMI Input
STB: One HDMI Output/One Optical Output
HTS: One HDMI Output/One Optical Input

STB: HDMI -> TV
STB: Optical -> HTS
HTS: HDMI -> TV


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

From the quick start manual....with (or set top box) inserted for clarity.......

Connect an HDMI cable to watch the image on the TV. 
To enjoy the TV sound (or the set top box sound) via the system, connect an optical digital cord to the TV (or set top box) in addition to the HDMI cable. 
Be sure to press FUNCTION repeatedly to select “TV”. 

Depending what set top box you have you may need to enable the optical output in it's setting and select multi-channel audio output.


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

Forgot to add the link.
https://docs.sony.com/release//BDVE6100_E4100_E3100_E2100_qs_EN_FR_ES.pdf


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Might have to enable pcm in the stb for the optical to work. Might not too. 


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## heirdy (Mar 31, 2016)

Thanks all!

I got it working by clicking on the 'function' button in my HTS remote where it allows me to choose the audio output from TV. Also, my STB has some audio options like PCM, Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus. There's quite a difference between PCM and Dolby Digital and I like to keep it in 'Dolby Digital' mode.

Btw, what's is it with the Dolby Digital Plus? I read that my HTS doesn't have Dolby Digital Plus. Is that a let down at all? Thanks!


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

PCM = TrueHD = DTS-MA -- these are "lossless" tracks and are considered 'best'.

Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HR are approximately equal...lossy HD codecs, but very good.

DTS is the best of the older DVD codecs.

Dolby Digital is the most compressed of the codecs and it still sounds good...but not as good as any of the above. 

Do not mistake volume level for audio quality, the PCM may be at a lower volume level but most likely it is the best quality you have available.


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## heirdy (Mar 31, 2016)

Thanks :smile:

But I only get 2.1 with PCM for both HD channels and non-HD channels. And when I change it to Dolby Digital I get 5.1 for HD channels and 2.1 for non-HD channels. That's why I liked to keep it on Dolby Digital mode. Nevertheless, I can feel a better quality with PCM even when it's playing 2.1. 

Is that common for HD channels to play in 2.1 when the audio is set to PCM?


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

I just saw your last post.
You found this out by just trying the various options.
Reference page 63 of the user manual.
The TV digital input ( optical cable) only supports 2 channel audio with LPCM selected.
With the optical cable being connected to a set top box you are not losing any quality by selecting Dolby Digital.


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## heirdy (Mar 31, 2016)

Thanks...the LPM on my STB is much louder than the Dolby digital even though it's just 2.1 

Also I'm going nuts when the YouTube videos are playing in 5.1 when I do an audio reset in my HTS and the same goes out after a few minutes to 2.1. Some problem with the player's decoding ability of YouTube videos?!


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