Hi Tibby-
I live by myself in a standalone house, so theoretically I can crank up the sound as loud as I want to. I have bluetooth-enabled ungodly-expensive hearing aids, and come-to-think-of-it, the Best Buy soundbar I just bought is bluetooth-enabled. Lemme see if I can pair them. Good idea.
I always have the captioning on anyway. I listen to lots of British programs, some of them featuring characters with heavy accents.
I’m 70+ years old and don’t know why my hearing is crap, as I never listened to loud rock music as most of my peers did. <shrug> I do love my fancy-schmancy hearing aids, however.
I find it strange that you went through two other sets of speakers which worked fine at first then became ‘scratchy’. That suggests to me there may be a problem with the audio output stage in the TV. Let us know if the soundbar also begins to sound scratchy.
I don’t really understand that either. I figured that it was the TV speakers that were going bad. Theoretically, if the sound was coming strictly out of the computer speakers, I shouldn’t have heard any scratchiness. Except that the computer speakers were plugged into the headphone jack, which I understand, is not ideal. When I set up the soundbar earlier this afternoon, I figured out that the TV volume needed to be turned down so that the sound would come out of the soundbar. It occurs to me that maybe before I didn’t have the TV volume turned down and I was hearing the scratchy TV speaker along with the computer speakers.
If you were plugging computer speakers into the headphone jack you were likely over-driving them. They might have worked fine if you just got a mini-jack to rca conversion cable and plugged them into the RCA jacks. But anyway, your soundbar should be fine.
You are so right. That was the one place out-of-the-way I didn’t photograph. On the diagram, it’s labeled “digital audio out,” right? Ha! At first that diagram made me queasy–now it don’ scare me annymore. Here’s the spot on my tv.
Wolfpup said up above )I wish the posts were numbered like on the old board.)
So I could get one of those cables and use that connection? I’m all for it. I’m assuming that would be in place of the RCA connectors? And what effect would that have?
Optical cable can carry a lot more data, and has been used to carry signals to multiple speakers (i.e. surround sound, which is usually 6 speakers). Your speaker is just left/right, and is serviced quite capably by the RCA cables, which are also left/right.
@Richard_Pearse is probably right that the optical port is there. I had missed the fact that the schematic indicated it to be in a completely different part of the back panel. You need to look at where you have the antenna input plugged in; it looks like it should be just to the right of that.
What effect would it have? In principle, it should sound better because the audio is digital to begin with (in the case of today’s broadcast signal or any streaming service) and you would avoid having the TV do digital-to-analog conversion with probably less than ideal fidelity.
Where it gets a bit complicated and raises questions that I can’t answer because I don’t have enough information about either the Roku, the TV, or the soundbar, is what happens when the audio is Dolby 5.1 or Dolby-plus; I don’t know if you have any sources that would give you more advanced stuff like DTS, Dolby Atmos, and the like, but Dolby 5.1 and Dolby+ (also called Enhanced AC3 or E-AC3) are very common both in broadcasting and streaming. What the TV does with that is anybody’s guess – I suspect it probably downconverts to 2-channel stereo, or it might pass it through the optical connector and then the sound bar would downconvert, since the sound bar is only two channels.
I think all these questions, including the question of whether it’s worth it, can be answered by just trying it, once you’ve confirmed that you have an optical port on the TV. The sound bar may even have come with an optical cable; if not, they’re not very expensive. You made the Big Leap into a soundbar that you’re happy with, so there’s not much downside to giving the optical connection a try. I suspect it will work well without too much trouble, though you may have to look through the TV and sound bar manuals to enable or configure the optical ports.
Might be worth a try to see if you notice any difference. It should just be plug and play, but I don’t think the Best Buy soundbar came with one.
If you do get one, be a little gentle with the cable, sometimes they don’t like rough bends or getting pinched somewhere. There are sometimes caps on the ends that need to be taken off. They are directional in how they fit in the squarish sockets.
UPDATE: It seems to me that last night the sound bar sound sounded a little scratchy. Couldn’t figure out how to use the word sound once more in that sentence. So I went ahead and ordered the digital optical cable. It will be here tomorrow. I shall report.
I have both connectors plugged in. The RCA connector works when I’m watching my over the air station (PBS is all I get OTA) AND on Roku channels. The digital optical cable only works on the Roku stations. When I change from one channel source to another, I use the sound bar remote to switch “channels” on it.
I think the sound is okay either way. I don’t think there is scratchiness… at least not so noticeable as it was before the sound bar. I’m using the digital optical cable because I paid for it and I can. The sound might be better with it. Hard for me to say with my crappy hearing.
So I pronounce the project a success. I wouldn’t have done it with out the help I got here, so mucho thanks to all.
Well, not entirely. I can confirm that I am getting some scratchy sound from the sound bar, both with Roku and OTA channels. Not all the time, and the overall sound is better than with the TV alone or with the computer speakers.
Make sure you aren’t just outputting on RCA. You probably have a setting for which output to use with each source.
Unplug your RCA cables, and see what happens. If Roku still works but the OTA channels don’t, check to see if there is a setting for which output to use with OTA. If the Roku stops working, then you were sending output through the RCA jacks anyway and the optical cable is doing nothing.
If you have a soundbar, it actually wants a multi-channel input like your optical cable, as it will create virtual rear speakers. That doesn’t work with the RCA cables.
Also, your Roku box and OTA box may have settings for whether to output 2 channel or multi-channel sound, and for which output they use. if you have hooked them up with the wrong cables, you’ll lose the ability to have surround-sound.
Thanks for the post. I understand in principle what you’re saying, but not fully knowledgeable about how to implement your suggestions.
After spending some time exploring options on the Roku remote and discussions on the Roku website, I conclude that there may be some limitations re connectivity due to the age of my TV. I’m reasonably content with the current sitch, but may want to get a new TV sometime fairly soon. I appreciate your help with my project.
If it only happened with stuff plugged into the headphone jack, that would be easily explainable. 1/8 inch jacks can be flimsy to begin with.
But all the evidence now points to something other than jacks, something that you can’t get at and probably isn’t worth getting repaired vs. buying a new tv. All of the various jacks aren’t going to be damaged at the same time; whatever is feeding them is damaged.
The sound might be better with it. Hard for me to say with my crappy hearing.