have a new sound bar and cant get it to connect properly to go between tv and Netflix

[mdk]

@Andy2005 -- welcome to this peer-to-peer discussion forum. It is not a path to Shaw Support.

What manufacturer and model of TV do you have?

Is it a "smart-TV", with a built-in Netflix app, as well as the normal HDMI input?  If so, then it is necessary for the TV to have some "audio-output" socket, to connect to the "audio-input" on your new sound-bar. The HDMI cable carries both video & audio into your TV.

You may need to enter "setup" mode on your TV, to configure it to route the TV's audio to the audio-output socket, rather than to the TV's built-in speakers.

[Andy2005]

Yes the TV is a Sony Smart TV with Netflix already programmed in.

To clarify what I have tried:

* I have connected Soundbar (SB) to PVR optical/digital input

* HDMI  connects PVR to TV

* TV is set to auxiliary speakers rather than TV speakers 

* PVR settings I has audio settings set to PMC rather than HDMI

With this set up I can get audio for regular TV through the SB

The problem is when I switch to Netflix I get no audio through the SB. The only way to get that to work is to switch the optical digital audio cable back to TV and reset all settings in TV and PVR. This is of course a real problem having to do this when you simply want to watch one of the streaming channels. There has got to be an easier way - something that I haven’t tried.

The SB (Bomark Topio 111) has the following ports: HDMI ARC, Optical, USB and RCA.

My PVR has only one optical and one HDMI port

My Sony Tv has 2 HDMI ports a USB port, RCA ports and one Optical port

That’s all the info I can provide right now. Any suggestions/ thoughts?

Thank you

@Andy2005 -- welcome to this peer-to-peer discussion forum. It is not a path to Shaw Support.

What manufacturer and model of TV do you have?

Is it a "smart-TV", with a built-in Netflix app, as well as the normal HDMI input?  If so, then it is necessary for the TV to have some "audio-output" socket, to connect to the "audio-input" on your new sound-bar. The HDMI cable carries both video & audio into your TV.

You may need to enter "setup" mode on your TV, to configure it to route the TV's audio to the audio-output socket, rather than to the TV's built-in speakers.

[mdk]

@Andy2005 --  I have connected Soundbar (SB) to PVR optical/digital input

I presume that your sound-bar is connected to the "output": wall-socket -> coaxial cable -> PVR -> HDMI video, & PVR -> sound-bar audio, so that you can see Shaw's channels on your TV, and hear audio through the sound-bar, not through the TV's internal speakers.

Also, you probably have BlueCurve -> Ethernet cable (or WiFi) -> smart-TV -> Netflix app ->  TV's audio & video.

So, when using the Netflix app, you have discovered that you are bypassing the optical-output from the PVR into your sound-bar.

> My Sony TV has ... one Optical port

I would hope that it is optical-output, not optical-input.

Experiment:

Step #1: disconnect the sound-bar from the PVR, then connect the sound-bar to the TV's optical-output, and configure the TV to bypass its internal speakers, namely to route the TV's audio-output to the sound-bar via optical-output, and launch the Netflix app.  The sound should come from the sound-bar. 

Step #2: leaving the above as connected, configure the PVR to route its audio-output through the HDMI cable, rather than to the optical-output port on the PVR. Select a Shaw TV channel, to see if the audio-output goes through the TV to the sound-bar.

Note: connecting a sound-bar to the PVR is the only available option, when one has a TV that does NOT have its own optical-output for its audio.

[rickatk]

@Andy2005 

In simple terms, connect all your devices to the HDMI ports on your new tv. Connect your TV to the SoundBar via the HDMI ports marked ARC.

Ensure CEC is turned on all your devices including  the TV.

Make sure your tv speakers are set to external or similarity named audio setting. 

Enjoy 🤞

Note: HDMI is the best setting for audio and synchronized control of your gear.

[mdk]

@rickatk -- Connect your TV to the SoundBar via the HDMI ports marked ARC.

Huh? Did you really mean to connect the sound-bar to an "HDMI-input" port on the TV? The sound-bar receives audio-output -- it does not send audio-output (nor video-output) through HDMI "into" the TV.

[rickatk]

@mdk I made no mention of “input ports” in my message. I wrote” Connect your TV to the SoundBar via the HDMI ports marked ARC.”

As you are aware the Audio Return Channel (ARC ) carries a wide band digital audio signal from the TV HDMI ARC port to the speaker ARC port. This is generally considered the best way to connect audio channels from the TV to the sound bar these days. Assuming all the components like cable box, games device, BD player are connected to the TV HDMI input ports the TV will push the digital audio signals via the ARC port.

I found this sounds much better that an optical connection and has the added benefit of Consumer Electronics Control(CEC) which optical doest support. 

[mdk]

@rickatk -- Connect your TV to the SoundBar via the HDMI ports marked ARC.

Thanks for the additional information.

I would have written "Connect your PVR via an HDMI cable to the HDMI port on the TV that has the "ARC" label, and then connect the sound-bar to the ARC port on the TV."

Six of one; half-dozen of the other. 🙂

[Andy2005]

Tried Step 1 as suggested. Works fine for TV but Netflix doesn't come through soundbar - no siund at all.

Tried Step 2 as suggested. Doesn't work. Set PVR audio to HDMI - no sound through soundbar.

I would like to clarify again that my TV only has 2 HDMI ports with one of them marked HDMI ARC and the other just HDMI 2.

There is one optical port in TV (out) and one optical port in PVR (unmarked but assume In)

[Andy2005]

Tried connecting PVR via HDMI to HDMI port marked ARC on TV and then connected soundbar via HDMI ro the only other HDMI port on TV (but it isn't marked ARC just HDMI 2).  Nothing works. Tried switching from PCM to HDMI on PVR setting and soundbar with no luck. Confirmed TV is set to external speakers.

The only thing that appears to work right now is using optical connection, with PVR audio set to PCM (rather than HDMI).  However, I have to crawl behind TV and switch optical wire from the PVR to the TV if I want to watch Netflix. This is of course a pain and I think even if willing to live with this that the optical wire or the connection will become damaged over time with excessive connecting/diconnecting.