Tech question: Not Bike related..... Audio info on a soundbar system for TV

[Snaggletooth]

I'm trying to help my good friend and his wife out with a problem. So far all three of us are scratching our heads.

 

A couple years back they bought a Panasonic TC-P46G25 50" flat screen TV. Hooked it up thought the COX cable/Sat box. Always worked great. For Xmas this year they bought a Sony HT-CT180 sound bar system to add onto that TV.

 

So they hooked it up and the sound bar is showing it has power and full function from the unit function buttons and the remote. But no sound from the sound bar. So I went over the installed to run through what they did. That's where it gets confusing and the sound bar instructions are a bit vague. The instructions say to connect to the TV/Cable box/Sat box. The cable that came with the sound bar is labeled optical/digital and the one end matches sound bar input. The other end, it only matched the optical output on the cable box. So that was where they plugged it in. I checked for an output to match that jack on the TV itself but all I'm seeing is a Digital output connection point but it's under a factory plug that I haven't dug out yet so see if it's a match.

 

Even the sub woofer is a WiFi feed from the soundbar, sitting right next to it and it shows a functional connection, but no sound from it either.

 

So ran the entire system through every possible path, Optical, Analog, Surround, even ClearAudio settings. Everything but the Bluetooth. I've gone through every set up instruction to test every function but no sound at all. Not a whimper, except from my friends.

 

So from this info..... anything I might have missed? Any suggestions? Should I been looking at a direct connection to the TV instead of through the cable box?

[Condor]

I had that problem with my first Polk Soundbar when I switched from my Panasonic 50" to the newer 65" Smart. It seems the older bar didn't understand digital. Analog only. Anyway I found one of the newer Polk's in an auction and it's working great. They do make digital to analog to digital converters.

[Snaggletooth]

Thanks Condor, I'll look into that. Their cable box is older model. Might be something to do with that. I keep remembering when I working in retail a lot of stores were griping about returns on TV's and sound systems that weren't "compatable".

 

Did you plug yours into a cable/Sat box or to the TV directly?

[Freebird]

I don't claim to have a lot of experience with this but I can relate what little I know. I recently set one up and plugged it into the optical output of the TV. I didn't plug anything into the cable box. I don't think that plugging it into the cable box would work with a lot of systems. For example, the one that I did didn't have it's own box. The cable box was in another room on a different TV. It is a multi-room box and with only one box to run a couple or more different rooms.

 

I did have to go into the TV's menu though and find it's audio output. It was set to "internal speakers" and I had to switch it to the optical output.

[Snaggletooth]

Hi Don. Hey you have more experience than I do. LOL. Been almost ten years since I lost my hearing. My only concern with TV these days is closed captioning. I'm digging this 50" thing. I can read the CC from across the room. I used to stay on top of the audio stuff with my computer system, my music and my recording studio mixer stuff, but that's been a while back now. Now the deaf guy is trying to help out my friends with a sound system? Duh. But waiting for them get home and I'll pull that factory plug out of the TV output and see what happens. I think going direct from the TV might be the answer.

 

[Condor]

Thanks Condor, I'll look into that. Their cable box is older model. Might be something to do with that. I keep remembering when I working in retail a lot of stores were griping about returns on TV's and sound systems that weren't "compatable".

 

Did you plug yours into a cable/Sat box or to the TV directly?

 

Don's right on about where to plug the thing in. There's a lot of different audio sources going thru the TV. By plugging into the cable or satellite box you're only using one of the sources... Anything connecting to your wifi with a smart TV isn't going to make it... However, if the cable is your only source it doesn't really make a difference... Good Luck... :-)

[Snaggletooth]

Mission accomplished!!! And people think you guys only fix motorcycles. LOL. There is always somebody around this site that has answers to everything. With you guys helping it got me trying new things. Always fun when when two other people have been trying for hours to get it all to work before I got involved. (That sounds like a lot of motorcycle stories don't it?) So I had been looking at that black plug on the back of the TV. It turned out someone and covered the Digital Output with black Duct tape. Got that scraped off and there was a lil hinged door under it. Popped that open and low and behold there was the exact plug to the cable supplied. So changed the connection from the cable box to TV output and magic started happen. But not quite there yet. Remember I said by friend and his wife had been working for several hours trying to get this to work? You probably understand how much stuff can be changed by accident by two people (not technically inclined) with three remotes between them.

 

So I went back to square one with three different manuals and went through EVERYTHING. Found all the correct setting and got sound. BUT the sound was coming from the TV only. Went back and reset the TV speakers to OFF and boosted the BASS to the highest setting and hit the Volume on the sound bar and the woofer started dancing. Turned around and they were grinning ear to ear. They say the sound quality is far beyond what they had with the TV speakers. Well yeah!! That's why they bought in the first place right?

 

But I have happy friends now and I got dinner out of it. So all is good. LOL.

 

Thanks guys for the info and leading me to the right path. Thank you.