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Digital output help on soundbar (1 Viewer)

Andycrokes

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hi
I have a samsung sound bar i want to connect to my hitachi tv using the digital optical cable however my tv doesnt have that facility (should have checked before buying i agree). Is there an adapter or anything i could use to convert to my outputs on my tv? I currently have the following outputs, hdmi, scart, coax out abd vga.
Thanks
 

Andycrokes

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Rear of tv set up
 

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Jason Charlton

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All of those connections are inputs except for the coaxial digital output. What you need is a coaxial to optical (toslink) adapter. Amazon has many to choose from, like this one. Most (if not all) will be powered and need to be plugged into a wall outlet.
 

Andycrokes

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Thanks. Im going to ask a proper amateur question, i put the digital optical cable into the sound bar and into the convertor, power up the converter and out rca cables into the tv? That right?
 

Jason Charlton

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Kind of... although what you wrote is not incorrect, I believe things would be a lot clearer to you if you think about it in terms of signal flow.

I like to think of it this way: you're not connecting the sound bar to the TV, you're connecting the TV to the sound bar: i.e. the audio signal originates in the TV (or your cable box, or satellite box or whatever) and flows OUT of the TV and INTO the soundbar (then OUT of the soundbar, through the air and INTO your ears, lol).

If you look at the images of the converter box I linked to my last post, you can see that the coaxial connection is labeled input and the optical connection is labeled output.

You always connect an output to an input. So (following the audio signal flow) you connect a single coaxial cable from the coaxial OUT on the TV to the coaxial IN on the converter. You connect an optical cable from the optical OUT on the converter to the optical IN on the sound bar.

Now the signal flows out of the TV, into/out of the converter and finally into the soundbar.

Run power to the converter and you should be all set.

Lots of people get confused over which cable should be connected where and into what plug. Thinking about things from the standpoint of signal flow is one of the best ways to get around the confusion - of course members here are always happy to help, too.

Good luck! Hope everything works out for you.
 

Andycrokes

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Jason that makes sense thanks! I have a coxaial cable lying around i could make good use of! Ive just purchased the uk version of that link so thanks for your help! Hopefully i will be good to go this week when it arrives
 

Jason Charlton

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No. That cable is just an optical cable with two different types of optical connections at either end - one being the typical Toslink and the other end being "mini Toslink" which is not the same as digital coax.

Mini toslink is about the same size as your typical 3.5 mm headphone jack, only optical (using a beam of light instead of an electromagnetic wave).

Unfortunately, you won't ever find a single cable that is optical at one end and coaxial at the other end. The transmission medium is fundamentally different, hence the need for a converter box to make the change.
 

Martino

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That is not going to work - that is an optical cable - that has a different connection on each end.

You have 1 Digital output - coming from your TV - and 1 toshlink input need on your sound bar.

RCA output from the TV - to RCA input on the converter - then a toshlink cable running from the output of your converter to the input of your sound bar.

The original converter will work.

From someone who bought that converter - and is in the same situation as you are:

"I made the mistake of getting a soundbar with optical input, only, and didn't see that the TV had no optical output. All of the tech forums said to send it back. This product worked flawlessly. Installed in seconds. I added a velcro strip to mount it to the back of the TV and it is invisible. Great value. Beats the heck outta the headache of returning my soundbar."
 
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