# what am I doing wrong? No sound in digital channels: Panasonic TV & home theater



## MauriS69 (Jun 14, 2014)

I moved and can't get sound when watching digital channels at the new place. I connected my TV to my home theater according to the manuals but can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Please help. Here's my set up:
Panasonic TC-P50U2 TV
Panasonic SC-BT230 HT (home theater)

Details:
-HDMI cable going from the TV's AV IN "HDMI 1 (ARC)" port to the HT's AV OUT "HDMI (ARC)" port 
-Optical digital audio cable going from the TV's "Digital audio out" port to the HT's "Digital audio In" port # 1
-No cable box, coaxial cable plugged directly to the TV's "Antenna Cable In" port
-HT menu to select source: "Input Select" --> "ARC"... no digital sound. Same when selecting "AUX", "Digital In 1" or "Digital In 2". 
-I do get sound in digital channels if the TV is not connected to the HT.
-When HT is connected to TV the image is fine in digital channels but there's no sound. No problem when watching analog channels or when playing DVDs/blue rays.
-Had no problems before the move, only difference is that I had a DVR at the old place. That shouldn't matter, or should it?

I have gone through the manuals of both the TV & HT but I'm obviously not techie enough to figure it out.

I'm thinking is just some setting on the TV or HT menus, but for the life of me, I can't figure it out. Sorry if this is a stupid question, please be kind on me and let me know if there's more info I need to provide.

Thanks!


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## eyespy39 (Aug 23, 2013)

Just a guess: did you set anything at your TV or HT concerning HD-audio format, e.g. DTS or Dolby or Bitstream or PCM? To me, it seems to be a data format compatibility issue rather than a wiring issue. Have you turned Viera link on?
Then, there maybe a setting in your TV and your HT, too, where you can explicitely specify that sound is played via TV speakers or via HT/AVR/Amp. Have you checked that?
On the TV, this is set via VieraLink Control->Speaker output.
Usually, you don't need to select an input port. It should be enough to turn your Home theatre on whith your TV already running. When ARC is wired correctly, and when those output options TV vs. HT are set correctly, sour TV ought to mute and your HT ought to switch to the appropriate input. If so, your wiring appears to be correct and the problem seems to stem from the mentioned Audio format problems.
The TV's manual advices in case of sound problems to set the Amp or HT Audio digital input to "Linear PCM"

Hope to have helped…


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## rab-byte (Feb 1, 2011)

ARC needs HDMI control turned on both in the TV and the AVR. I assume your AVR also supports ARC. 

Opting to just do optical may be a more solid fix because HDMI-CEC controls can be funny sometimes; especially if you're using a universal remote like a harmony. 

If you go with optical you may need to turn off the TV speakers and set them to external. Then you'll just set the receiver input to optical. HDMI CEC would require you to put the TV to the TV input and the AVR should automaticity switch to ACR.


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## primetimeguy (Jun 3, 2006)

With hdmi and arc there should be no need for the optical cable, so I would disconnect it as it may cause more confusion trying to troubleshoot. The make sure you have TV and receiver settings correct for arc. Note many devices require you to power cycle both devices after making changes to these settings before they take effect. If you can't get that to work then add your optical cable back in and turn off arc, maybe using different inputs and outputs on the devices as often times only one supports arc. You may need to tell the receiver to use the optical audio rather than hdmi.


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