Greetings from a simple audio person with simple audio needs.

[porcinedrone]

Hey all. Pleased to meet you.

I am not an audiophile by any means. But this weekend I thought I'd splurge and get us a 5.1 Surround DVD speaker system thingie by Philips. $169.99 from Target. I'm sure it's a fine product.

After wrestling with my wires for the better part of Saturday, i sent them a little note. it read:

I own a Sharp LC 47SB57UT, and I just purchased your product. I don't know how to make the TV audio come out of the speakers I just purchased. A chat person pointed me to your website FAQ but the Sharp doesn't have a one-plug input that can be connected to the coaxial thingie.

Can you PLEASE check out the specs for my TV and see how they are connected? Also, will my Wii sound through the speakers as well?


They didn't respond before I discovered that there's no practical way to do this. I returned it.

Now, still in full flush of consumerism, I am back to square one. I guess I need a receiver and some speakers for the living room. It's a small living room, maybe 15 x 15. A cell really. But it sure would be nice to have a system that wasn't too expensive and could work within that scale.

Hey, brutha. Can you help me out?


Thanks

[bobsticks]

Hey hey Mr. porcinedrone, welcome to the forums.

Are you running cable or satellite? Define "coaxial thingie" please...

[JoeE SP9]

Welcome to AR!

What Bobsticks asked.

[Feanor]

Hey all. Pleased to meet you.

I am not an audiophile by any means. But this weekend I thought I'd splurge and get us a 5.1 Surround DVD speaker system thingie by Philips. $169.99 from Target. I'm sure it's a fine product.

After wrestling with my wires for the better part of Saturday, i sent them a little note. it read:

I own a Sharp LC 47SB57UT, and I just purchased your product. I don't know how to make the TV audio come out of the speakers I just purchased. A chat person pointed me to your website FAQ but the Sharp doesn't have a one-plug input that can be connected to the coaxial thingie.

Can you PLEASE check out the specs for my TV and see how they are connected? Also, will my Wii sound through the speakers as well?

They didn't respond before I discovered that there's no practical way to do this. I returned it.

Now, still in full flush of consumerism, I am back to square one. I guess I need a receiver and some speakers for the living room. It's a small living room, maybe 15 x 15. A cell really. But it sure would be nice to have a system that wasn't too expensive and could work within that scale.

Hey, brutha. Can you help me out?

Thanks

Hi, Porc,

I assume you have some sort of antenna, cable, or satellite input to your TV and you want to get the sound from your TV to the Philps or similiar home theatre-in-box (HTIB) unit.

One way is to take the audio signal out of the TV and run to the HBIT. OK, so the Sharp model you memtion above does have a digital audio output but this is an optical (vs. coax) connection, which is a problem if you HBIT has only a coax input. Alternatively your antenna/cable/satellite box might have a digital coax Output that you could connect to the HBIT's digital Input. (This connections would by-pass the TV itself.)

If you content with stereo from TV, (and most network TV is stereo, not 5.1), then the Sharp also has a pair of analog "Audio Out" connections, (Left+Right). I would be extremely surprised if your HTIB doesn't have corresponding pair of analog "Audio In" connections. Connect the TV's Audio Out to the HBIT's Audio In connectors with a pair of RCA cables, then made the appropriate Input selection on the HBIT to hear the TV sound. (You might have to make some settings on the TV so it sound to the analog Audio Outs.)

[bobsticks]

However the Sharp also has a pair of analog "Audio Out" connections, (Left+Right. I would be extremely surprised if your HTIB doesn't have corresponding pair of analog "Audio In" connections. Connect the TV's Audio Out to the HBIT's Audio In connectors with a pair of RCA cables, then made the appropriate Input selection on the HBIT to hear the TV sound. (You might have to make some settings on the TV so it sound to the analog Audio Outs.

Feanor is right on time with the info and this is apparently true...uppermost left area of the connections port, "Analog Out"...the $199 pricepoint is a tough one. if you could stretch it just a couple few bucks you might be able to get into a Sony or Onkyo HTItB which might offer you more connectivity options.

[porcinedrone]

Hey hey Mr. porcinedrone, welcome to the forums.

Are you running cable or satellite? Define "coaxial thingie" please...

The coaxial connection on the defunct Philips unit was similar to an RCA jack. But there was no singular corresponding output on the TV I own.

I have TIme Warner DVR running into the TV. The Wii goes into the TV as well. The Philips is back in the store now. I returned it. The dude said I need a receiver and speakers instead of a DVD system, but all I see is expensive home theater setups. I know I know. This is a home theater setup Im asking about. But my needs are really small. All I see out there are $3-500 systems. Surely there's something that's smaller but sounds good, no?

Apologies for the vagueness.

Also, I did try to connect the RCA jacks to the corresponding outs on my TV but there was no sound. I guess I couldnt get to the right commands.

[bobsticks]

The coaxial connection on the defunct Philips unit was similar to an RCA jack. But there was no singular corresponding output on the TV I own.

I have TIme Warner DVR running into the TV. The Wii goes into the TV as well. The Philips is back in the store now. I returned it. The dude said I need a receiver and speakers instead of a DVD system, but all I see is expensive home theater setups. I know I know. This is a home theater setup Im asking about. But my needs are really small. All I see out there are $3-500 systems. Surely there's something that's smaller but sounds good, no?

Apologies for the vagueness.

Also, I did try to connect the RCA jacks to the corresponding outs on my TV but there was no sound. I guess I couldnt get to the right commands.

Gotcha, gotcha...you might be better served to purchase a used HTItB off of Craig'sList and either used speakers or a new 5.1 setup in order to achieve your budget.

[porcinedrone]

Thanks bob and everyone. Much to think about.

[bobsticks]

Not Craig'sList per se, but the seller seems to be reputable...in any case, this type of combination is what I'm talkembout...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ONKYO-TX-DS595-H...item35affca05c

along with:

http://cgi.ebay.com/LG-5-1-SURROUND-...item19c3545c4f

[swan24]

Welcome... I'm sure you'll find plenty of help on here... One word of caution: There is no return from the abyss... (m.)

[porcinedrone]

Feanor is right on time with the info and this is apparently true...uppermost left area of the connections port, "Analog Out"...the $199 pricepoint is a tough one. if you could stretch it just a couple few bucks you might be able to get into a Sony or Onkyo HTItB which might offer you more connectivity options.

Well, I returned it, but have subsequently just heard from Philips:

1. Please connect the Digital Coaxial cable to the Audio Out on the back of your television and to the Audio In on the home theater system.

2. Please press the Audio Source button repeatedly until “Coax In” is displayed on the display panel.

My question: Do YOU see an "audio out" digital coaxial cable output on my TV? I don't.

[blackraven]

The Digital Audio out is the Square box just to the right of the red RCA Audio out jack. It is a digital optical audioout.

[Nasir]

I am NOT going to be of any help, but here in Europe we have an extra connector known as SCART. I have yet to be defeated in connecting audio or video from TVs, receivers with DVD players, HT systems, cable tv boxes and satellite receivers. Of course, one has to get the right sort of cables that convert from what is available on the Scart to whatever is accepted by where you want to plug it into!! Scart has helped when the Digital output audio that uses the glass fiber cable ( Toss link, I think its called ) and other RCA connectors fail. Of course, one look at the amount of cables and switch box buttons hidden away from sight is enough to put a fainthearted person off, but it works for me.