HTPC to 5.1 speakers help

[Vanguardas]

A friend of mine bought these speakers http://www.samsung.com/ph/audio-video/blu-ray-home-entertainement-system-j5130hk/ , but he can't seem to connect it to his HTPC. Is there a way for him to connect it?

[Marine_Boy]

17 minutes ago, Vanguardas said:

A friend of mine bought these speakers http://www.samsung.com/ph/audio-video/blu-ray-home-entertainement-system-j5130hk/ , but he can't seem to connect it to his HTPC. Is there a way for him to connect it?

Why is he unable to connect them? They doesn't work after he connects them or what? 

[vong]

35 minutes ago, Vanguardas said:

A friend of mine bought these speakers http://www.samsung.com/ph/audio-video/blu-ray-home-entertainement-system-j5130hk/ , but he can't seem to connect it to his HTPC. Is there a way for him to connect it?

 

Your friend bought the wrong system, you don't buy a BD system for a HTPC. It can work but but mostly likely won't sound good but I don't know. See if he can connect his to pc to the tv first then get an 3.5 to RCA and use that to connect the htpc to the system.

 

http://www.samsung.com/ph/support/skp/faq/

[Vanguardas]

1 hour ago, vong said:

 

Your friend bought the wrong system, you don't buy a BD system for a HTPC. It can work but but mostly likely won't sound good but I don't know. See if he can connect his to pc to the tv first then get an 3.5 to RCA and use that to connect the htpc to the system.

 

http://www.samsung.com/ph/support/skp/faq/

I'll tell him. I also have no idea to connect it. That's why I asked here. Thanks!

[Vanguardas]

1 hour ago, Marine_Boy said:

Why is he unable to connect them? They doesn't work after he connects them or what? 

He can't seem to find a way to connect it to the PC. The usual 3.5mm jacks? I can't seem to figure them out too. Suggested to him that worst case scenario, he'll just have to use the TV's built in speakers or he buys 2.1 speakers. It would still be a waste if there was a way to connect it, so I'm asking here just in case.

[johnny5c]

I have a similar Samsung J5500W system with a HTPC at my cabin and you have two options.  If the TV has a optical output you can run a cable to the optical input on the receiver/player or you can use the ARC (audio return channel) over HDMI.  A third option is to connect the HTPC directly to the receiver/player with a optical cable but the first two options are better because you'll only have to select the input source on the TV.

[Vanguardas]

3 hours ago, johnny5c said:

I have a similar Samsung J5500W system with a HTPC at my cabin and you have two options.  If the TV has a optical output you can run a cable to the optical input on the receiver/player or you can use the ARC (audio return channel) over HDMI.  A third option is to connect the HTPC directly to the receiver/player with a optical cable but the first two options are better because you'll only have to select the input source on the TV.

 "If the TV has a optical output you can run a cable to the optical input on the receiver/player" How does that connect to the PC? I don't get it. Sorry.

 

The ARC suggestion sounds good! We'll try that later. Thanks!  

[AshleyAshes]

3 hours ago, Vanguardas said:

 "If the TV has a optical output you can run a cable to the optical input on the receiver/player" How does that connect to the PC? I don't get it. Sorry.

The PC is connected to the TV over HDMI.  The TV is then connected to the sound kit using TOSLINK. The downside here is that TOSLINK can only transport stereo LPCM audio, or 5.1 in DTS or Dolby Digital, no other audio formats 'fit' in the bandwidth of the TOSLINK.

So if the HDMI ARC works, go with that first.

[dalekphalm]

18 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

The PC is connected to the TV over HDMI.  The TV is then connected to the sound kit using TOSLINK. The downside here is that TOSLINK can only transport stereo LPCM audio, or 5.1 in DTS or Dolby Digital, no other audio formats 'fit' in the bandwidth of the TOSLINK.

So if the HDMI ARC works, go with that first.

 

On 07/04/2017 at 1:59 PM, johnny5c said:

I have a similar Samsung J5500W system with a HTPC at my cabin and you have two options.  If the TV has a optical output you can run a cable to the optical input on the receiver/player or you can use the ARC (audio return channel) over HDMI.  A third option is to connect the HTPC directly to the receiver/player with a optical cable but the first two options are better because you'll only have to select the input source on the TV.

I don't see how ARC would work in this scenario.

 

The Speaker System 1 HDMI output - for the Blu-Ray player. It has no HDMI input. Nor would the TV be on that particular HDMI input if he were using the HTPC. Unless ARC works even when a different input is selected?

 

I think using TOSLINK is the best choice - whether he does this via from the TV Output into the Speaker System, or if his PC happens to have TOSLINK out, he could directly do it that way.

 

Either way, @Vanguardas if your friend wants to keep that system, he should use TOSLINK. Otherwise, he should return it and get a Speaker System that has HDMI Passthrough instead (Generally more expensive though, and he might have difficulty finding one that also has a built-in blu-ray player).

[AshleyAshes]

4 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

 

I don't see how ARC would work in this scenario.

 

The Speaker System 1 HDMI output - for the Blu-Ray player. It has no HDMI input. Nor would the TV be on that particular HDMI input if he were using the HTPC. Unless ARC works even when a different input is selected?

 

I think using TOSLINK is the best choice - whether he does this via from the TV Output into the Speaker System, or if his PC happens to have TOSLINK out, he could directly do it that way.

 

Either way, @Vanguardas if your friend wants to keep that system, he should use TOSLINK. Otherwise, he should return it and get a Speaker System that has HDMI Passthrough instead (Generally more expensive though, and he might have difficulty finding one that also has a built-in blu-ray player).

I don't own this, I didn't research this before writing this post here, but from the manual it seems there's a function that can work.  To quote exactly:

 

Quote

Connect an HDMI cable from the HDMI OUT jack on the back of the product to the HDMI IN jack on your TV. If the TV supports ARC, you can hear the audio from your TV through the home theater with only this cable connected.

So, assuming it works as worded, the HDMI Out on the soundbar normally feeds video to the TV form the soundbar, but it can do ARC and take audio from the TV to the soundbar in the other direction.

 

Quote

Audio Return Channel:

Lets you direct the sound from the TV to the Home Theater speakers. Requires an HDMI connection and an Audio Return Channel (ARC) compatible TV.

• If Audio Return Channel is set to on and you are using an HDMI cable to connect the product to the TV, digital optical input will not work.

• If Audio Return Channel is set to Auto and you are using an HDMI cable to connect the product to the TV, ARC or digital optical input is selected automatically.

Ya know, assuming your TV supports ARC and this all works but in all honesty, I've never used ARC itself but I know it can be 'tricky' at times.  But I assume this is to allow any device connected to the TV, game console, HTPC, cable box or just the TV's own reception of OTA broadcasts and get the soundbar to playback audio.  This appears to be the ONLY digital input to the soundbar other than TOSLINK though which is a pretty limited selection of inputs for a $1000 soundbar.

[dalekphalm]

21 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

I don't own this, I didn't research this before writing this post here, but from the manual it seems there's a function that can work.  To quote exactly:

 

So, assuming it works as worded, the HDMI Out on the soundbar normally feeds video to the TV form the soundbar, but it can do ARC and take audio from the TV to the soundbar in the other direction.

 

Ya know, assuming your TV supports ARC and this all works but in all honesty, I've never used ARC itself but I know it can be 'tricky' at times.  But I assume this is to allow any device connected to the TV, game console, HTPC, cable box or just the TV's own reception of OTA broadcasts and get the soundbar to playback audio.  This appears to be the ONLY digital input to the soundbar other than TOSLINK though which is a pretty limited selection of inputs for a $1000 soundbar.

Very odd wording - I've never owned any sound system that supported HDMI at all, let alone ARC, so I've never tried it either.

[johnny5c]

14 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

 

I don't see how ARC would work in this scenario.

 

The Speaker System 1 HDMI output - for the Blu-Ray player. It has no HDMI input. Nor would the TV be on that particular HDMI input if he were using the HTPC. Unless ARC works even when a different input is selected?

 

I think using TOSLINK is the best choice - whether he does this via from the TV Output into the Speaker System, or if his PC happens to have TOSLINK out, he could directly do it that way.

 

Either way, @Vanguardas if your friend wants to keep that system, he should use TOSLINK. Otherwise, he should return it and get a Speaker System that has HDMI Passthrough instead (Generally more expensive though, and he might have difficulty finding one that also has a built-in blu-ray player).

The receiver/blu-ray player supports ARC just like a  normal standalone home theater receiver would, I've had a few of these Samsung 5.1 systems and they've all supported it.  I have the J5500W system connected to the HDMI-1 ARC input on a 55" Samsung TV,  then I have a HTPC, satellite box, and a Wii U connected to to other HDMI inputs on the TV and it works perfectly.

[Vanguardas]

Thanks everyone! Sorry for the late reply. Been busy lately. I hope you all have a nice day when you're reading this :3