Thread: Surround Sound from internet to home theater through TV

I have a samsung Blu-ray 5.1 home theater connected to a TV with an HDMI cable. The Samsung receives internet content (music) and shows the intenet video on the TV scree. I can only get surround sound to the ss speakers if the sound goes through the TV. when TV volume is zero, and the sound comes strictly from the samsung, I get no signal to the surround sound speakers?

Does this make sense??

OK, trying to understand. The HDMI connection is an input to the TV. IT will pass video and possibly audio, depending on settings from the Samsung to the TV.

How are you receiving the internet content? Is it built into the Samsung, or do you have a BluRay, Roku, AppleTV or something similar? What else is connected to the samsung. It would be helpful if you provided all model numbers as there is a range of possible answers.

For example, some HTIB receivers only provide HDMI pass through capability. That means that they don't decode the audio and the receiver is only used as a switch. In those setups, you need to connect a TOSLINK (digital audio) cable from the source box to the receiver.

Also, how are the rear channels hooked up? Are they connected to the receiver or the TV? It looks like the audio being passed uses the TV volume control. There is usually an option in the TV menu that lets you switch between volume control and raw audio output.

My set-up is:

1-Uverse box (Motorola): input is co-ax cable. HDMI to Logitech Revue and Optical cable to TV
2-Logitech revue (google TV): input from wireless internet (Uverse); HDMI-in from Uverse box, HDMI-out to TV; and optical cable to Samsung
3-Samsung HT-C5500 blue ray 5.1 home theater, input from wireless internet (Uverse); HDMI conection with TV; Optical cable with Logitech Revue; Output to 4 front speakers and two wireless surreound speakers
4-Panasonic TC-P50U2, HDMI-1 from Samsung; HDMI-2 from Logitech Revue; and Optical cable from Uverse box

Symptoms:

1- When receving internet music from blue-ray the surround sound speakers do not receive any signal unless the TV speakers are turned-on. If TV speakers are off, the surround sound signal stops.
2- when receiving internet music from Logitech Revue, the surround sound is on regardless of whether the TV speakers are on or off. but the sound quality to the SS speakers is poor - a lot of noise.
3- blu-ray or DVD surround sound is good, no problem there.

am I connecting the system correctly?

No, the connections are likely not correct or sufficient. However, there may be limitations on what you can do. We need to seperate the audio and video paths and deal with them individually.

The video path is DVD/BR from Samsung via HDMI2. Revue and Uverse (through Revue) via HDMI1. This is good.
Audio path: Internal to Samsung for DVD/BR. TOSLINK from Revue/UVerse via AUX input. In addition, there is an audio path from the LogiTek to the TV via HDMI.

The optical cable from the UVerse box to the TV is unnecessary and is likely causing a conflict. Disconnect this cable.

You will need to select the proper inputs on both the Samsung HTIB and the TV in order to get what you need. I think under the current setup you will find that the Revue/Uverse audio is coming from the TV speakers and not the HTIB speakers. Turn off the TV speakers so the only sound comes from the Samsung HTIB. Reconfigure the TV to eliminate the optical connection to HDMI-2 if necessary.

To watch BR/DVD, select HDMI-1 on the TV and DVD/BR on the samsung.
To watch the UVerse/Revue, select HDMI-2 on the TV and AUX on the Samsung.

This should get you surround everywhere. I haven't explained the garbled sound from the surrounds. Are they wireless rear speakers? There have been a lot of complaints about noise and unreliability of wireless rears, especially with wireless internet nearby. Try hard wiring the speakers if they are wireless and see if that fixes it. At least it will narrow the problem some.