How best to connect to a soundbar

[admin_exported]

I am considering downgrading from a 5.1 system to a simple soundbar. The surround sound speakers have done little more than collect dust as the TV is not connected to the analogue amplifier, since upgrading the TV and I have little time to watch DVDs.

As I have a Samsung TV it seems to make sense to go for Samsung soundbar, in my opinion, to avoid any compatibility issues. However, the soundbars only seem to have one input ?!?!? This seems to be alot less than my amplifier with 4 digital and 8 analogue inputs.

How does one go about connecting up a blue ray player, TV and satellite receiver. Do I have to connect everything to the TV first then connect only the TV to the soundbar? Does this effect the sound quality opposed to connecting the blue-ray separately to the soundbar?

I understand the soundbar is not a replacement for the separates to which I am used to, but it will clear up the clutter (perhaps I'm getting old :-(). Does anyone have any other comments?

 

[KeithT]

Can't help with the Samsung soundbar, but I'm dabbling with the Yamaha before going 5.1 and it's easy. I've connected my bluray & virgin box via hdmi into the bar then one hdmi into the TV.

 

[richardw42]

To the OP.

I think in this case. As you say You'd connect all your sources into the TV as normal and then run an optical cable from the TVs optical out to the sound bars optical in (assuming the have those connections).

If doing with optical wouldn't have thought there'd be any affect to SQ.

 

[daveh75]

To the OP.

I think in this case. As you say You'd connect all your sources into the TV as normal and then run an optical cable from the TVs optical out to the sound bars optical in (assuming the have those connections).

Assuming the TV allows audio passthrough from connected sources, some will only output sound from the internal tuner.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the replies, I am slowly learning ...

I have located in the manual that the TV only outputs stereo signal for external sources. A 5.1 signal is outputted for the intermal TV tuner, if available. Does anybody know if the soundbar performs better with a 5.1 signal instead of stereo? In which case I'll definatly be looking for a soundbar with more inputs.