Can't get Samsung setup to work. (1 Viewer)

[Rubenick92]

Hi.


I just got my very first surround sound/home theater system and was very excited to get it up and going. Sadly, it wasn't as easy as I thought even though I have both a Samsung TV and a Samsung home theater system. I also have a PS4 that I'd like to have connected to all of this.


Here's what I got:

TV: Samsung LE32C455E1W (I guess it has a different model name depending on where in the world you are, cause I can't find much info on that model name on American sites, but that's the model name on the sticker on the back of the TV)

Sound system: Samsung 5.1 Blu-Ray HT-J4530


So my current setup is the following. The home theater system is connected via HDMI cable to my TV, I have it in the HDMI 1 socket on my TV. The PS4 is also connected to the TV via a HDMI cable, but it's in the HDMI 2 socket on the TV. The two salesmen I talked to in the local shop said that if I had a "newer" TV (and my TV is 3 years old tops, which might be "old" in tech standards) this setup would work. The TV would be smart enough to distribute the sound to the surround sound speakers if I had the home theater system connected to socket 1 via a good (aka more expensive) HDMI cable.

They also told me to put back the optical (Toslink?) cable I had in my hand cause that would just reduce sound quality, and I blindly complied and bought two more expensive HDMI cables cause I know nothing about this stuff.

Now I've tried the whole day to get this to work. The only thing that makes sound go to the 5.1 surround sound system is the home theater itself.

I've been into the setup menu on my TV and put the sound settings to send sound to "external speakers" (that might not be the correct translation, I'm Finnish), and I've been into the setting menu on the home theater and turned on the Audio Return setting which it said would send the TV audio to the speakers. Still nothing happens.


I did read in the settings that my TV needs to support the audio return setting for it to work. And I fear that my TV might not support this since I haven't gotten it to work. But maybe some kind soul here might be able to help?


Thanks in advance!


-Rubenick

 

[Al.Anderson]

The recommended connection strategy is to connect peripherals to the receiver, but your receiver is a Home-Theater-in-a-Box (HTIB) which doesn't have the proper connections.


Your best option would be to return the Samsung HT and get something that's not a HTIB. HTIBs are not well thought of because they have fewer connections, often have proprietary connections, and usually have to be replaced wholesale if you need to upgrade or something breaks.


I realize most people don't want to return what's already out of the box in their house, but think really hard on this - HIGHLY recommended. If you are considering it, here are two in the right ballpark for a replacement:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yamaha-Channel-Home-Theatre-System/dp/B00LW5WKC8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449941000&sr=8-1&keywords=yamaha+home+theater

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ONKYO-Channel-Cinema-Receiver-Speaker/dp/B00M73JK22/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1449941157&sr=8-7&keywords=onkyo+home+theater


But if not, try turning on the TV's CEC option. And if that doesn't work, go back to the optical. An optical will give identical sound to an HDMI connection for all except Bluray HD tracks. And even then, the old DD or DTS will almost always be included on the disc and they are pretty fantastic sounding too, so you're not losing too much.


Oh, and also try to return the expensive HDMI cables, an inexpensive cable will sound just as good as an expensive one.