Soundbar Question (1 Viewer)

[follicle]

Hello,

First, I want to thank everyone who has helped me out. I appreciate the feedback.

I had bought an all-in-one Philips Blu-ray 5.1 Home Theater System, but was experiencing some horrible lip syncing issues. After looking through the manual, posting on here, and contacting support, there seems to be no way to remedy the issue. When I played the audio through the television speakers, I had no issue what so ever. So, I went ahead and returned the system today and bought a simple Samsung Blu-ray player.

Even though I won't achieve the same sound I was getting, I was thinking about investing in a Samsung Soundbar and subwoofer. I found a really nice one that I think would work well; however, I am still shopping around.

One thing I've noticed is that the soundbars tend to have different inputs. The Samsung I was looking at has an optical digital in. My television has an optical digital out, so that would be convenient seeing as that I had no lip sync issues with the television itself. Most of the other models I am looking at only have RCA in. Since my television doesn't have an RCA out, I would have to connect the soundbar to my Blu-ray player if I went with one of those models.

My question is: wouldn't optical digital be perfered over RCA? I thought there was some kind of major advantage of optical digital over RCA.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[Al.Anderson]

The advantage of optical (or digital coax) is that it can carry surround signals. For a surround receiver this is very important. Whether or not a soundbar processes those signals is another story; yours may or may not. But it certainly doesn't hurt anything to use it.

 

[cineMANIAC]

Are there headphone jacks on soundbars? I can't listen to movies through my TV - speakers are not very good. Also, I need to use headphones at night when listening to loud audio is not an option. Thanks for the help (I currently do not have a receiver/audio system).

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Soundbars don't have headphone jacks. If the set has analog audio out you can use that. If the analog audio out is two RCA pin jacks you can buy an adapter cable that will convert that to a headphone jack.

 

[schan1269]

Your "best bet"...
If your TV actually does have an optical output...split it via...
http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Go-27027-Toslink-Splitter/dp/B0002344GG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1350405661&sr=1-1&keywords=toslink+splitter
to...
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_12?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=optical%20rca%20adapter&sprefix=optical%20rc&rh=n%3A172282%2Ck%3Aoptical%20rca%20adapter&ajr=2
into...
http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-Pro-PHA40-4-Channel-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B003M8NVFS/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1350405739&sr=1-2&keywords=headphone+amplifier+with+volume+control (first one I found)