Hooking Up New TV To Surround Sound System Existing (1 Viewer)

[kingandsona]

Ok. I have a Marantz surround sound system existing. My cable box and Blu-ray player are hooked into it. No problem. Last weekend I got a Sony x850D tv new which has functions unto itself to watch tv that has nothing to do with the cable box (like Netflix, Amazon prime, Pandora, etc etc). What I need to know is how to get sound to come out of my surround sound system from the tv. at this point, the new tv is of course connected to my HDMI cable which of course goes into the Marantz system, but when I'm running Netflix (and not the cable box), the only sound that's coming out is from the small speaker located on the tv. I want it coming out of my surround sound. I guess I could buy a high-end set of speakers just for the tv, but why do that? what am I missing here?

 

[JohnRice]

There's two possible ways to do this. One is to get a digital optical cable, connect it to the digital audio output on the TV, then connect it to a digital optical input on the Marantz, then assign it to whichever input (which button you push, like TV) on the Marantz to get TV audio.

For the second, it's necessary to know the model of Marantz you have, because older models don't have this feature. The hdmi connection on your TV has a feature called "ARC". If you look at the hdmi connections on the TV, one of them will say (ARC). If your Marantz has ARC, then the hdmi output on the back of it will also say (ARC). ARC (Audio Return Channel) allows you to pass audio back to the Marantz using the same hdmi cable going to the TV. It has to be a compatible cable. Then you configure the ARC audio to the input you want. Personally, I've always thought ARC was more of a pain than it's worth. In the early days of it anyway, it tended to be twitchy. So I just use the optical digital connection.

There's possibly one small disadvantage to using the digital audio cable. IF you stream something that's available with a sound format like Atmos, and IF your Marantz can decode it (it can't) and IF the TV can receive that audio format (I don't think it can, at least not at the moment) then you won't get Atmos. In other words, your system can't do that anyway, but I thought I'd mention it before someone else does. In the real world, in this situation, there is no difference in audio quality between ARC and the digital cable.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Here's an extremely helpful link: https://docs.sony.com/release//Help_C654100121.pdf
On page 312, it instructs to press the Action Menu button on your remote and on the Speakers selection, select Audio System. Out of an abundance of caution, make sure that your HDMI cable running to the receiver is connected to an ARC [Audio Return Channel] enabled HDMI port on the TV. This should be labeled on the TV.