Connection problem with home cinema amplifier and LCD TV

by ASJ
(UK)

I have an optical cable linking my home cinema amp to lcd tv. This gives sound through my speakers ONLY for dvd. When watching TV, I only hear a muffled static sound. How can I remedy this?


Hi

You don't provide enough information to be sure where your problem is - but I would guess you haven't wired your devices together correctly.

It would be useful to know the models of each device in your system.

With a home cinema amplifier, you should wire it something like this:

Connecting AV receiver and HDTV

So your DVD goes into the amplifier, which plays the sound and passes the picture to the TV.

For the sound from TV programmes, it depends on how you are receiving them. If you have a cable/satellite TV box (or external freeview tuner), then you would connect in a similar way to the diagram above.

If you are using an internal tuner built-in to the TV for broadcast TV, then your TV needs to have an optical audio OUTPUT, so you can send this audio to your amplifier.

If your TV doesn't have an audio output (many don't), then you can't send sound to your surround system and will have to rely on the TV speakers for this sound. You mention an optical connection, but we don't know if your TV has an optical audio output.

Once you are sure you have it connected correctly, then you can look into other reasons why you get no sound. First place, check the TV manual and see what it says about sending audio out to an external amplifier. There may be a menu option to enable this.

Hope that helps.

Paul (Site Editor)

Feel free to join in this discussion by adding your own comments below...

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Comments for Connection problem with home cinema amplifier and LCD TV

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No sound from my HDTV to my AV receiver.
by: Anonymous

Hi,

What if my cable receiver is not HD and it therefore connected via a scart socket; how do i get the sound from HDTV to my AV receiver? I have tried plugging an HDMI cable from the TV to the AV receiver; however, when i switch on the AV the TV sound goes off and no sound emits from the AV receiver. Do i need another audio cable from the TV to the AV receiver?

Greatly appreciate your advice.
Sound from HDTV to receiver
by: Paul (Site Editor)

Hi

It would be easier to advise if you gave the model numbers. However, the only way to get sound from the TV into the receiver is if it has a dedicated audio output.

This may be digital optical - or maybe analog stereo (red and white RCA connections).

HDMI on the rear of a TV is an input only - it does not send audio out.......unless the TV and receiver are brand new and both have HDMI 1.4 (another story).

Many TVs do not have an audio output - check the manual or look on the back and see if anything is labelled 'audio out'.

Other workarounds are:

1. Buy a cheap external freeview box and use this instead of the internal freeview of the TV. These will have separate audio outputs to connect to the receiver.

2. If the TV has a headphone output - get a mini jack to stereo RCA audio cable and use this to connect to your receiver. Not ideal, but you may get something that is usable.

Check our home theater wiring guide for more on these connection types.

All the best.

Paul
Home Cinema Connection
by: Brian

I have an LG 47LD450 TV with built in Freeview,a Sony RDR-DC100 DVD recorder & a Sky Decoder which I'm trying to connect to a Panasonic SC-PT480 Home Cinema.The TV & DVD have Optical & HMDI connections Can you advise how to set up?
how do i wire my surround sound system
by: Wendy

I have just bought a new lg 42" tv can someone tell me how to wire a panasonic sc-dt100 5.1 surround sound system to the tv so that i can get surround sound on the tv and not just the dvd.
Audio from TV
by: Paul (Site Editor)

Wendy

See my reply above (just above Brians question).

If you are using the internal freeview tuner on the TV (via an external aerial), you need to connect an audio output from your TV to your Panasonic 5.1 system. If it doesn't have one then consider the options given above.

If you are using a Sky or Virgin cable box, then you can use the audio from these into your Panasonic system.

Hope that helps.

Paul
as above
by: james

Hi, have a toshiba 32in EL833 lcd/led tv with very limited audio out sockets. 1 scart and 1 orange audio digital. I want to connect LG44S blue-ray 2.1 cinema system. Hdmi works great but I want tv sound through speakers could you please tell me if this is possible. thanks James.
Connecting LG home cinema system
by: Paul (Site Editor)

Hi

The orange digital audio connection sounds like a coaxial digital audio output. To connect the sound from your TV to the speakers you will need a coaxial audio INPUT on the LG system.

If it doesn't have one, then maybe it has an optical audio input? If so, you could buy something like this SPDIF coaxial to optical TOSlink converter to convert the coaxial output from the TV to an optical input for the LG.

Hope that helps.

Paul

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About Home Cinema Guide

Paul started the Home Cinema Guide to help less-experienced users get the most out of today's audio-visual technology. He has worked as a sound, lighting and audio-visual engineer for around 20 years. At home, he has spent more time than is probably healthy installing, configuring, testing, de-rigging, fixing, tweaking, re-installing again (and sometimes using) various pieces of hi-fi and home cinema equipment.

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