Connecting an 48" LG C3 OLED, Panasonic UB820 & SONOS Beam Gen2 Soundbar (1 Viewer)

[JDW]

I'm an American living outside the US. I've not had a TV at all since 2011, for various reasons, but I recently moved, and my wife and I decided to do a little Googling in order to purchase a modern setup we consider to be great. We decided to order a table-mounted 48" LG C3 WOLED TV (using the included stand), and that will be delivered in a few days. (This will NOT be mounted on a wall. We have no space for that.) Also, based on what I read about 220 Electronics in this forum and elsewhere, I ordered a Region-Free Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-ray player, since we have a large collection of older DVDs which are a mix of US and Japan regions. I am also pondering the purchase of a SONOS Beam 2 soundbar, but I've not pulled the trigger yet.

Because I am a newbie at all this, I wanted to gather feedback from you experts and experienced users to ensure that I connect everything setup and connected properly.

It's kind of too bad LG didn't make the included TV stand height-adjustable, but I have a couple unused wooden bookcase shelves with a color that somewhat matches my wooden TV table color which I can stick under the foot of the TV to raise it up a tiny bit so the bottom of the screen won't be obscured by the rather tall SONOS Beam 2 soundbar, should I decide to buy that soundbar.

I've not ordered the SoundBar yet only because I want to hear the TV's built-in speakers first to determine if we really need anything else. Everyone seems to be raving online about how soundbars are always needed "for good sound" because of how bad TV speakers are, but I'm a bit skeptical regarding that. The last TV I owned was a SANYO CRT model made in 1995. We've also not had that TV since 2011, so we just might be pleasantly surprised with the 48" LG C3's onboard speakers. Moreover, my wife is somewhat averse to loud and booming TV sounds anyway, and she's also concerned about the neighbors hearing loud sounds from our home too. So whether we need the SONOS or not is still undecided. But I wish to plan for that possible purchase anyway.

In terms of connectivity for the 3 devices mentioned, we have this:

• The TV has 4 HDMI connectors, once of which is called "eARC."
• The Panasonic UB820 Blu-ray player has two HDMI ports, the left one being AUDIO OUT and the right one being AUDIO/VIDEO OUT.
• The SONOS BEAM 2 has a single HDMI port.

All 3 devices have an Ethernet port which seems to be oddly limited to 10/100 Base-T. In this era of 1 & 10 Giga-bit Ethernet, a slow 100BT port seems odd, but it is what it is. Even so, I don't have Ethernet in the walls or anywhere near my TV setup, so I don't see why that port would be needed in my setup. I do have a Wi-Fi 6 Router in the same room as the TV, and we have a fiber optic line coming into our home, offering fast internet speeds.

QUESTIONS:
1. Do I just need to connect an HDMI 2.0 cable between the TV's eARC connector and the SONOS' HDMI connector, then connect an HDMI 2.0 cable between the UB820 player and one of the 3 remaining "regular" HDMI connectors on the C3 TV?

2. I've read that there are newer HDMI 2.1 cables available, but I don't know if those are needed in my setup. I won't be gaming with 120Hz or anything like that. Not sure if the free "gold" HDMI 6' cable included with the UB820 from 220 Electronics is HDMI 2.0 or not, but is included.

3. Any suggestions about the best menu settings for each device to get the best quality and performance?

4. Would buying a soundbar present audio latency issues such as the sound from the soundbar not perfectly matching the lips of people talking? I'm talking about watching TV and watching movies on Netflix and from the UB820 Blu-ray player.

5. Would buying an Apple TV 4K be helpful in my setup? One benefit I see in buying a Sonos Beam 2 is that it supports Airplay 2. We are an all Mac & iOS household, and my wife watches YouTube videos and listens to music on her iPhone. So being able to watch those YouTube videos on the TV and separately also "stream" her audio content to either the TV or Soundbar would be nice. A soundbar probably makes more sense for audio-only streaming. Even if you can stream audio-only to the TV (which I'm not sure is possible), the TV would need to be on for that, and I guess the TV screen would be blank during that time too? Not sure if Apple TV 4K would bring any important benefits to this.

Again, I am a true newbie at all this and nothing I've ordered has yet arrived. As I've said, I still haven't ordered a Sonos Beam 2. I'm still in the preparation stage right now, hence this post today. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thank you!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Welcome to HTF. I will attempt to answer your questions.

1. You will want to connect the TV's eARC port to the soundbar's single HDMI port, which should also support eARC. You will then connect your Panasonic UHD player to one of the other HDMI ports on the TV.

2. You will need at a minimum certified high speed premium HDMI cables, but the newer 8K certified HDMI 2.1 cables are not that much more, if you want to future proof your purchase. You mention that you live outside the US, so I am not sure what your online purchase options are. I would recommend Monoprice cables, which are reasonably-priced and can be purchased either directly through their website or on Amazon. For price comparison on Amazon here in the US, a Monoprice 6 foot 4K cable is $8, while a similar 8K cable in a 3 pack is $18 (so $6 per cable). Prices may vary a little where you reside.

3. I would suggest looking up your TV model on RTINGS.com for recommended calibration settings as a starting point for your display.

4. The soundbar should not have any audio latency issues, but if there are, there should be a menu setting to correct for this. I own soundbars on two of our setups -- a Roku model and a Polk Audio model -- and have not experienced any "lip sync" issues with either setup.

5. Personally, I prefer an external streaming box, such as a Apple TV 4K or Roku, over the built-in streaming apps that come with today's smart TVs. I have Roku devices attached to every display we own, plus one Apple TV 4K attached to the main home theater system. Since you are heavily invested in Apple, the Apple TV 4K would be your best bet, IMO.