HTIB and TV opitical out problems

[mattg1981]

I'll try to keep this simple.

TV: Sony KDS-50A2000
HTIB: Panasonic PT-960

Problem:
From everything I've read and understand, I can connect all 3 of my inputs to the TV and run a digital optical wire out to the HTIB 'receiver's' input and it would just route all the audio, no matter the source, to the HTIB speakers. Well the problem is that it isnt. I have my xbox and my ps3 connected to TV through HDMI, and i have off the air antenna for my tv.

I went to a store and told them my problem, and originally i had my xbox connected through components and they said that was the problem with that, because component is analog and optical is digital. So i got the cheap xbox with HDMI thinking it would solve the problem. They also said I needed to set my PS3 audio to send bitstream from the settings.

I still have no audio, the xbox I selected for audio 'Dolby Digital 5.1" and same with the PS3. I dont see any 'bitstream' options in the PS3 except for under the blueray player options.

Can anyone help or know what the problem could be? Are there settings that I am missing? Can my TV not decode the audio it is getting from HDMI? IDK what to do.

P.S. - the cable is good .. i have audio on my TV, if I plug it into the 360 digital out, i have audio, and same for the PS3. Receiver only has 1 digital optical in, and I am trying to avoid unplugging and replugging the cable into which ever source is currently running. (I have to select optical out in the PS3 settings for audio to occur btw).

 

[spidey07]

Many TVs will not output dolby digital from their optical outputs except from over the air HDTV. Try reading the manual on your TV to see what is supported.

If this is the case you can try setting your 360 or PS3 to only output 2 channel PCM to test. If you get audio with this then it's your TV and everything else is working properly.

 

[mattg1981]

from what the guy at the store said, to use optical out, you cant use PCM cause its not a bitstream and thats what optical out requires.

However, i did do the test that you said and no audio output occured (in fact the tv said unrecognized audio signal)

 

[spidey07]

First off, don't listen to the guy in the store. They're clueless.

If I'm understanding you correctly you do get audio from your TV speakers using HDMI from your 360 and ps3, just not your HTIB from optical output of your TV to your HTIB. If so follow these steps:

1) Make sure you have selected or assigned the optical input of your HTIB. You can test this by hooking up the optical output of your game consoles directly to the HTIB. This will take the TV out of the question and make sure your sources and HTIB settings are good.
2) If #1 works then refer to the manual of your TV on what it will output from it's optical out, this is dependant on the source and the manual should specify this. I still think this is what you're running into.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Originally posted by: spidey07
First off, don't listen to the guy in the store. They're clueless.

If I'm understanding you correctly you do get audio from your TV speakers using HDMI from your 360 and ps3, just not your HTIB from optical output of your TV to your HTIB. If so follow these steps:

1) Make sure you have selected or assigned the optical input of your HTIB. You can test this by hooking up the optical output of your game consoles directly to the HTIB. This will take the TV out of the question and make sure your sources and HTIB settings are good.
2) If #1 works then refer to the manual of your TV on what it will output from it's optical out, this is dependant on the source and the manual should specify this. I still think this is what you're running into.

lol i was waiting for that

 

[mattg1981]

Originally posted by: spidey07
First off, don't listen to the guy in the store. They're clueless.

If I'm understanding you correctly you do get audio from your TV speakers using HDMI from your 360 and ps3, just not your HTIB from optical output of your TV to your HTIB. If so follow these steps:

1) Make sure you have selected or assigned the optical input of your HTIB. You can test this by hooking up the optical output of your game consoles directly to the HTIB. This will take the TV out of the question and make sure your sources and HTIB settings are good.
2) If #1 works then refer to the manual of your TV on what it will output from it's optical out, this is dependant on the source and the manual should specify this. I still think this is what you're running into.

Yes, you do understand me correctly. The TV speakers work fine for my PS3 and Xbox when connected via HDMI.

1) I have done so. I can connect the optical output xbox->htib, tv->htib, and ps3->htib directly and they all work fine. The problem, obviously, is that I dont always want to have to disconnect/reconnect everytime i change the source.

2) Here is a link to the manaul in pdf form. I noticed this in it on page 20: "Digital Out (Optical): Connects to the optical audio input of digital audio equipment that is PCM/Dolby* digital
compatible. (DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) is only available for digital channels.)

The sound settings are on page 37-38 of the manual as well, Sound troubleshooting is on page 57 (I am not at home right now so I cannot test this out until later). Specifications are on page 61.

I am obviously no expert, but it looks like it should be compatible, just some settings somewhere need to be tweaked

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: mattg1981

2) Here is a link to the manaul in pdf form. I noticed this in it on page 20: "Digital Out (Optical): Connects to the optical audio input of digital audio equipment that is PCM/Dolby* digital
compatible. (DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) is only available for digital channels.)

That was what I alluded to in my first response. Your optical audio out is only used for digital channels (the tuner). You can't do what you want and this is normal for most TVs.

You can purchase a toslink optical switch to achieve what you're going for.

To put it simply - what you are trying to do cannot be done without swapping cables or adding a optical switch.

 

[mattg1981]

well that is just absolutly rediculous ... but its my own fault, i guess, for not doing enough research when purchasing this tv 2 years ago

Thank you so much for your help, I wish the outcome was different, but your help was very much appreciated along the way

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: mattg1981
well that is just absolutly rediculous ... but its my own fault, i guess, for not doing enough research when purchasing this tv 2 years ago

It's a pretty good TV - I have the A3000. You just need a better receiver.

 

[mattg1981]

yea i guess so .. guess im just upset is all ... never had any complaints about the tv before now ... and yes, depending on how you wire it, either the TV or the receiver is the bottleneck and I agree that the receiver is a much larger bottleneck than the TV