Confused about adding a soundbar to my TV/Blu-ray setup

[Spooked]

Most of the in-depth home theater discussion is way over my head (and budget), so bear with me if I seem a little slow on the uptake here.

My bedroom currently has a 42" Samsung Series 6 6300 television, a Sony BDP-S5100 Blu-ray player, and I'm looking at adding a soundbar to he mix. I'm leaning towards the Denon DHT-S216 Slim Home Theater Sound Bar.



So using the 'Setup 2' option I found at https://www.cnet.com/news/hdmi-audio...for-beginners/, should I anticipate problems with audio lag? (Second graphic above) It's the one thing that probably bugs me more than anything when it comes to watching movies, and coming from the days of single left and right speakers, this new method just looks... fishy? I don't know, I guess I'm just not sure how there wouldn't be lag. My brain is looking at the graphic above and saying "Well the sound from the Blu-ray player will arrive before the picture and throw everything slightly off..."

I use this television for watching movies on disc only, so I don't have to contend with any issues of cable / streaming / gaming, ect. Does anyone have any advice or experience with these kinds of setups?

[omenboy]

Originally Posted by Spooked

Most of the in-depth home theater discussion is way over my head (and budget), so bear with me if I seem a little slow on the uptake here.

My bedroom currently has a 42" Samsung Series 6 6300 television, a Sony BDP-S5100 Blu-ray player, and I'm looking at adding a soundbar to he mix. I'm leaning towards the Denon DHT-S216 Slim Home Theater Sound Bar.



So using the 'Setup 2' option I found at https://www.cnet.com/news/hdmi-audio...for-beginners/, should I anticipate problems with audio lag? (Second graphic above) It's the one thing that probably bugs me more than anything when it comes to watching movies, and coming from the days of single left and right speakers, this new method just looks... fishy? I don't know, I guess I'm just not sure how there wouldn't be lag. My brain is looking at the graphic above and saying "Well the sound from the Blu-ray player will arrive before the picture and throw everything slightly off..."

I use this television for watching movies on disc only, so I don't have to contend with any issues of cable / streaming / gaming, ect. Does anyone have any advice or experience with these kinds of setups?

I have this type of setup in my bedroom and it’s very simple. The Blu-ray player plugs into the TV via hdmi cable and the soundbar uses an optical cable to hook directly into the Optical input on the tv. There is no issue with audio lag or anything. You might have to go into your tv menu settings to choose the soundbar as your audio source - I’m not an expert at these things, but that is what I had to do with my Sony Bravia.

I don’t have a soundbar with satellite speakers in my bedroom setup but I do have one with satellite speakers and Bluetooth subwoofer with my projector setup in my home theater. With that, I ran the optical cable directly from the soundbar to the Blu-ray player and the blu ray player goes into the projector. There is no lag whatsoever and I imagine if I replaced the projector with a tv it would be exactly the same.

[Spooked]

Thank you. With the Denon Soundbar I'm looking at, it seems that I could do either option. I had read that audio put through an optical cable wasn't as good - quality-wise - as an HDMI connection, which makes me a bit leery of relying on that method. (The irony here is that I probably couldn't tell the difference anyway.) Perhaps it's not as noticeable as some of these audiophile websites make it out to be.

But it's good to know that you've had success with 2 entirely different setups. It gives me hope!

[omenboy]

Originally Posted by Spooked

Thank you. With the Denon Soundbar I'm looking at, it seems that I could do either option. I had read that audio put through an optical cable wasn't as good - quality-wise - as an HDMI connection, which makes me a bit leery of relying on that method. (The irony here is that I probably couldn't tell the difference anyway.) Perhaps it's not as noticeable as some of these audiophile websites make it out to be.

But it's good to know that you've had success with 2 entirely different setups. It gives me hope!

The optical cable method sounds damn good to me while I’m watching lol. I think it’s the quality of the soundbar that would be the issue. I am no audiophile either, but I think the optical cable is worth a try.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Spooked

Thank you. With the Denon Soundbar I'm looking at, it seems that I could do either option. I had read that audio put through an optical cable wasn't as good - quality-wise - as an HDMI connection, which makes me a bit leery of relying on that method. (The irony here is that I probably couldn't tell the difference anyway.) Perhaps it's not as noticeable as some of these audiophile websites make it out to be.

But it's good to know that you've had success with 2 entirely different setups. It gives me hope!

There isn't any need to connect your player into the sound bar if your TV has ARC, juts plug the player into your TV and connect the TV and sound bar ARC to ARC with an HDMI lead. You shouldn't need to use the optical cable.

[Spooked]

Originally Posted by chip75

There isn't any need to connect your player into the sound bar if your TV has ARC, juts plug the player into your TV and connect the TV and sound bar ARC to ARC with an HDMI lead. You shouldn't need to use the optical cable.

Thank you. It's very difficult to add or upgrade these things one at a time. Something new is always coming along, and something old is always becoming obsolete, so getting everything to work together is more than a little trying.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Spooked

Thank you. It's very difficult to add or upgrade these things one at a time. Something new is always coming along, and something old is always becoming obsolete, so getting everything to work together is more than a little trying.

Sound bars are designed to be pretty straightforward, especially with ARC.