Soundbar connection using HDMI for both DVD and Cable Box

davidmmears · Nov 18, 2017

I have a soundbar with one HDMI in and one HDMI out (for ARC capable TV). My question is how do I connect both my cable box and my DVD player to run through the soundbar if there is only one input port? When I connect one of those devices into the soundbar it will only play audio from that source. When I select the other source on my TV (either DVD or Cable Box) it will still only play what is connected to the soundbar. Do I simply need some adapter that allows another input port on the soundbar so I can plug both DVD and Cable box in to it? The optical cable connection works fine as the other choice of course but I hear HDMI inputs allow for better sound/video capabilities? Is this a waste of time?

americanaudiophile · Nov 20, 2017

Without make and model of the TV I can't give you an exact answer. There are a lot of way to connect this gear.
I suggest you use the optical audio output of the TV to the soundbar.
You could get an HDMI inputs selector to expand the input on the soundbar but that could only degrade the picture having to go though the switch and soundbar and would not improve the sound quality.
The only audio that needs HDMI are lossless audio codecs like Dolby TrueHD and even if your soundbar was capable of processing it I doubt you would even notice the difference.

davidmmears · Nov 20, 2017

Thank you. I suspected any benefit of HDMI connection vs. optical was minimal at best so not clear on all the HDMI chatter on running soundbar that way. Now I'm just curious as heck to understand how to actually accomplish what seems to be a fairly common scenario with 2 sources (cable box and DVD player) running through soundbar via HDMI. Thanks again.

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Soundbar connection using HDMI for both DVD and Cable Box

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