Digital Optical Lead Help

[admin_exported]

I have a Bose Lifestyle 35 which has only one optical audio input - I want to connect both my Sky+ box and PS3 to get Dolby 5.1 surround from both - how can I do this ?

At the moment I can connect only one at a time it seems....

From playing around under a mountain of cables, is it right the HDMI carries only the video signals ? Is that correct ?

 

[Andrew Everard]

No, HDMI can carry hi-rez multichannel audio, video and control data - oh, and 5V power - but that's not of much help to you as the Bose deosn't have any HDMI inputs,

You really have two solutions here. One is an optical switcher like this one from Maplin, and the other is an optical to electrical digital converter, such as this one, also from Maplin, which will let you plug one of your optical outputs into one of the electrical digital inputs on the Bose.

Keene Electronics do similar products at similar prices: the optical switch is here, and the optical/electrical converter here

 

[Anonymous]

the Bose came with the VS-2 upscaler which has a few HDMI inputs on it ( a blatant afterhtought from Bose of course...)

the HDMI leads should be carrying Video and Audio right ?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yes, but the Sky HDMI only carries stereo audio, not surround, so you still need the optical. And given that the VS-2 has no audio capability, you'll need the optical connection to the Bose system from the PS3, too.

And BTW the VS-2 is strictly an upconverter, not a scaler, AFAIK.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks v much - its slowly becoming clearer to me.

The Sky+ box does not have HDMI output (only Sky HD boz I think?)so I have scart to TV then optical audio direct to the Bose to get 5.1

Im very much the novice as you can tell...

I want to get the PS3 playing games/BD thru the Bose as 5.1 audio do you know if this is possible also ?

It does not seem to want to carry 5.1 audio over the HDMI cable

Is this a setting within the PS3 ? its driving me up the wall to be honest

thanks for your help..

 

[professorhat]

[quote user="Andrew Everard"]And given that the VS-2 has no audio capability, you'll need the optical connection to the Bose system from the PS3, too.[/quote]

i.e. you'll have to hook them both up using the optical cable, so your only option is a splitter like one of the ones Andrew mentioned in his earlier post.

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="mastermofo"]

I want to get the PS3 playing games/BD thru the Bose as 5.1 audio do you know if this is possible also ?

It does not seem to want to carry 5.1 audio over the HDMI cable

Is this a setting within the PS3 ? its driving me up the wall to be honest
[/quote]

The PS3 probably is outputting audio over the HDMI cable, but there is nothing at the other end to accept the audio. You need the optical digital connection as already explained, but this will only handle standard Dolby/DTS/stereo audio, not the high-resolution audio on some games and Blu-ray discs

 

[Anonymous]

ok all is clear

thanks v much guys - very quick reponses

cheers....