Solving playback issues

[Korba]

Hello there, 

I have a problem with audio optical out input. I have connected to tv with no issues however I want to play audio to my external receiver and unfortunately can’t do it. Any way I can connect my receiver to listed the sound in my home theater speakers ? I have a really struggle with this and cannot make it happen. Any help would be appreciated. 

Joe.

[atc98092]

Not following your question, it's very short on detail. Is this a Roku TV, or do you have a Roku player connected to another TV? Either way we need to know the model. Is any audio working, or only from some sources? What is the make/model of your receiver?

[Korba]

Hi and thank you for quick replay, greatly appraised. 

Just to clarify my issue here. 

My Roku Streambar connects to my TV with no problems via HDMI and works great. However I want to connect the streambar to an external speaker, such as AVR, via optical output and its not working. Is there any way I can connect the audio from the streambar to my Sony AVR rather than have the audio go through my TV speakers?

[atc98092]

Thanks for the clarification. The Soundbar does have an optical out, so I'm assuming you are trying to connect it to the Sony, and not from the TV optical output.

Optical has limitations on the audio codecs supported. Most online streaming sites use Dolby Digital Plus (EAC-3) because they can reduce the bandwidth used without impacting the sound. But optical doesn't always work well with DD+. What you can try is changing the audio settings in your Soundbar to Stereo and see if you now get sound. Of course, you'll lose the 5.1 audio that way. I don't have any Roku using optical, so I can't say what other options might be in the audio section. If there's a setting for PCM, that might retain the 5.1 channels. 

It's also possible that the DD+ is going out via optical, but your Sony might not recognize the codec. Older receivers might support DD+. 

The way to get the best sound is via HDMI, but that doesn't work with a Soundbar, as it only has an HDMI output to the TV. If your Sony has HDMI ports, and both it and your TV support ARC, you might get the full audio via that method. Of course, if your Sony has HDMI ports you can simply connect the Soundbar to one of its inputs and then the AVR will handle all the audio.

[Korba]

Thank you so much for your time. I will try this and see if it works. I will keep updating on the status once I try different methods.. 

Joe.

[StreamerUser]

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@Korba wrote:

Hello there, 

I have a problem with audio optical out input. I have connected to tv with no issues however I want to play audio to my external receiver and unfortunately can’t do it. Any way I can connect my receiver to listed the sound in my home theater speakers ? I have a really struggle with this and cannot make it happen. Any help would be appreciated. 

Joe.

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I think there is some confusion here - the Streambar only has an Optical input (its not an output) for connection from your TV to the Streambar.

You should only use this if your TV does not have an HDMI/ARC port (so that when watching TV via the tuner or other HDMI sources you can hear the audio through the Streambar).

The HDMI/ARC connection is preferred because it simplifies setup (one cable) and ARC supports more audio formats than Optical.

If you want to use an AVR for sound from your TV, you need to connect it via HDMI/ARC or Optical and connect the Streambar to another (non ARC) HDMI port (on your TV or AVR), and just use it as regular Roku device (should be possible).

However, if you have an AVR (which should be directly connected to your TV as described above) you shouldnt have a Streambar, but rather a player model (Streaming Stick+, Premiere, Ultra, etc).

[atc98092]

@StreamerUser that was a great catch. I'm so accustomed to devices have an optical out, it never occurred to me that it was an input. 

You are absolutely correct. The only way to get the audio from the Soundbar into the AVR is to either connect it directly to an AVR via HDMI, or using the optical from the TV and send the audio back from the TV. However, since the Soundbar is, you know, a sound bar speaker system, it might not even send its audio to the TV.

I have to agree that using a Soundbar with an AVR is a waste of money. You would not be using the internal speakers, and a standalone Premiere, Streaming Stick+ or even Ultra would cost far less.