I have a fairly new Samsung TV (indoors) connected via HDMI to a Polk Audio sound bar. The sound bar also has optical and Bluetooth inputs, but using the HDMI it allows me to only use the TV remote, and the sound bar powers up when the TV does, and the TV remote’s volume control handles the volume. All my TV reception comes over WiFi, the HDMI is only for the audio output to the sound bar.
I would like to add speakers on my patio to this system, so that I can stream music from my TV, and occasionally maybe even have the sound from a football game playing on the patio in addition to inside the house. I already have speaker wires run from behind the TV to the patio. How can I do this?
Some audio amps have HDMI inputs and outputs - is there an amp that could sit between the TV and the sound bar, and send the audio to the speaker wires, while still sending the audio over HDMI to the sound bar? Or are there other ways that I should know about?
I have a Samsung TV I purchased earlier this year. Mine has a TOSlink (fiberoptic) output that can be turned on independently of the HDMI connection. In my case, the TOSlink connects to a small bluetooth transmitter powered from the USB port on the back of the TV. I use this for bluetooth headphones even while the sound system works independently. (I could have used the internal TV bluetooth feature, but the latency is objectionable. My external transmitter has a very low latency.)
In your case, you could certainly use a simple receiver or amplifier that accepts a TOSlink input and then wire to your outdoor speakers. I believe that you can choose whether the volume changes on this output when you use your TV remote, but I’m not absolutely sure.
Or, you could use the BT feature of the TV itself (which is probably present on your model) to connect to BT speakers. This would obviously require that the outdoor speakers be within range and have power available to them.