Help with Connecting DAV-IS50 Sound System to 55AG9 TV

[nontechmike]

I have a new AG9 and a rather old DAVIS50 Audio system I am trying to connect.  I want to use the TV as the Centre Speaker of my 5 channel Audio System.

I have already connected the new SkyQ box to the AG9 using an HDMI and to the Audio Box with an Optical cable.  All works fine when Source on Audio Box is set to Sat/Cable.

I have connected the Audio Box to the AG9 using an HDMI cable into the eARC/ARC HDMI socket on the AG9.  However, pretty sure the Audio Box does not support eARC/ARC so not surprisingly I dont get any audio when the Source on the Audio Box is set to TV.  I therefore need to connect TV audio output to the Audio Box separately.  My problem is compatibility of available outputs on AG9 and Audio inputs on Audio Box.

AG9 outputs available

• HDMI
• Headphone

The AG9 Optical output is already connected to the SkyQ Box and I assume the AV IN socket is an input not an output?

Audio Box inputs available

• Audio Jack (1 left and 1 right)
• Optical Plug
• Digital Coax Plug
• Digital Media port jack
• Video plug (as names suggests I guess this is only for video)
• Component Video plugs x3 (again I assume just for Video)

The Audio Box single HDMI socket is already used connecting to the AG9.

So I tried using the Headphone socket on the AG9 into the Audio L+R plugs.   This did give me sound with Source on Audio box set to TV but the TV no longer operates as a Centre speaker neither for listening to Sky Q nor AG9.

So short of buying a new Sound System or giving up on wanting to use the TV as the Centre speaker is there a way to fix this eg Cable convertors/splitters/adaptors or a different set config to that described above??  

If only I wasn't using the Optical connection into the Sky Q then this would have provided a solution ie use Optical connection between AG9 and Audio Box - unfortunately then the problem just moves over to how to get audio from the SkyQ Box.

Is a special HDMI cable needed to use the eARC/ARC capability?

[Sean_Mc]

Hi Mike,

Let me look into this for you and I will update the thread when I have an answer for you.

Best wishes,

Sean 

[royabrown2]

@nontechmike 

Youre doing pretty good so far.... excellent scene setting.

And yes, I’m pretty sure the DAV won’t have ARC, and it certainly won’t have eARC.

But when you wrote:-

The AG9 Optical output is already connected to the SkyQ Box

did you mean to say:-

the Optical In on the DAV-IS50 is already taken up by the Sky Q box?

If not, please explain, because the above is the only way I can see to make sense of the optical connection.

I reckon you should disconnect the optical cable from the Sky Q box as unnecessary, and plug it between the optical Out of the TV and the optical In of the DAV.

I figure the HDMI from the Sky Q box will take its audio to the TV, and then the audio from that, or any other source on the TV, will go down the optical to the DAV-IS50.

Using the optical also needn’t mute the TV speakers, though you may need to configure that on the TV, and ideally, you want to set the optical out to have the sound variable, so the TV remote controls its volume.

You then set the volume on the DAV so its speakers are in sound balance with the TV as centre speaker, and pretty much not use the DAV remote’s volume controls after that.

A few issues you may have:

Firstly, you may find the TV and the DAV are out of phase, which gives a curious hollow sound. If so, swap all the speaker terminals on the DAV over, red to black and black to red.

Secondly, you may find a slight time difference between the TV and the DAV; if so, you can maybe adjust the Audio Sync on the DAV to correct this.

Thirdly, if/when you play DVDs on the DAV, I think it will only send video up the HDMI, so you will be centre speakerless. So you might want to keep on the DAV’s centre speaker, but have it turned right down when the TV is doing the job, but turn it up again when playing DVDs.

Disclaimer: I’m not there with your kit in front of me, I have neither your TV nor your DAV nor your Sky Q box myself, I haven’t read the manuals for any of them, and I’m just going from general experience here.

But I would be interested to know if my educated guesses turn out to be accurate or not.

Oh, and the thing with ARC and eARC Is that you can put ARC over an ordinary HDMI cable (as the wire used for this was mandated for HDMI cables even before they found this use for it) but eARC needs an ‘HDMI plus Ethernet’ cable, where the extra strand for Ethernet gets used for the e in eARC.

All academic for you though, unless you junk the DAV for something more modern. Which, fingers crossed, you can avoid, for the moment at least.

[nontechmike]

Many thanks for the ideas.

You were right about my reference to where existing Optical cable was routed.

As suggested I have now connected the SkyQ to the TV via the eARC HDMI input (albeit I think its a standard HDMI cable I have used).   I have also routed the Optical cable between the TV and the DAV.  For now I have the TV speakers deselected but with DAV connected to centre speaker.

This seems to work - no sync issues with TV or DVD outputs.   The only issue I do have is there is now a lip sync issue with SkyQ.  I realise the delay is adjustable inside the Sky Setup options but the delay I have is the other way round and increasing the delay adjustment in Sky just makes it worse.

So I am going to try using a 2 into 1 optical cable so that both Sky and DAV can be connected to TV.   I think as long as the TV is off/output off when I want to listen to Sky sources and visa versa this should work.  Juts waiting for one to arrive and I will report back.

PS.  I have not yet tried leaving TV speakers selected and setting the volume on the DAV so its speakers are in sound balance with the TV as centre speaker, so that I can then leave the DAV remote’s volume controls only and control output volume with Sky/TV remote.

[royabrown2]

Cheers @nontechmike , good progress

It doesn’t matter which HDMI input on the TV you use for the Sky Q box, as neither eARC nor regular ARC are in use, and you don’t anyway have a device that can use either.

Though personally, I would put the HDMI lead from the DAV into that particular input, just since if you ever get a device that uses ARC or eARC, it’s going to be the DAV it replaces, and everything else can stay on the inputs that you will have got used to by then. Not a big thing, though.

If you got a device that could use eARC in the future, and connected it with your ordinary HDMI cable to the TV eARC input, it would all work, but the two devices would only be able to negotiate plain ARC. So if you ever get a device like that, make sure you also get an ‘HDMI plus Ethernet’ cable, to get the best out if it, with eARC.

A difficulty I can see with the 2 into 1 Optical is that when you are watching the Sky Q box, you will want the TV on as well for the picture, so you will need to make sure the 2 into 1 is switchable, so you can switch off the TV side at such times. Hopefully that’s how it works, rather than auto-sensing. And hopefully, it comes with a remote you can switch with!

e.g.:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neoteck-Switcher-Supported-Dolby-AC3-Amplifier/dp/B074FWQPDL/ref=pd_sbs_107...

Also ensure it passes all the audio formats you might be using, as this seems to be a bit of a crapshoot also.

[Pat100]

Probably a minor point but when I used a 2 into 1 unpowered splitter it was unreliable as the optical strength was halved. I got a powered switched one and that was a big improvement. Search amazon.co.uk for 670924939597 in case that is any help. 

[nontechmike]

I had ordered an Optical cable splitter but given all the feedback I think I will return this when it arrives tomorrow and order a remote controllable 2 into 1 optical switch instead - easy enough to build this into the Harmony Activity set for watching TV and watching Sky.   Thanks for your help.

[royabrown2]

@nontechmike 

Yes, you have to watch which way these things go, as while a passive splitter doesn’t have the issue of what it will and won’t pass, if you make the single end the sink, as you were planning, then you almost certainly couldn’t run both sources at once, as the two signals would be added together, and not understood.

The clue is in the name splitter; 1 into 2, while you need a switch, 2 into 1, and only one at a time. You will probably need three optical cables to run it as well, so if you only have one, you will need to buy two more.

[Win_88]

Hi Everyone,

Apart from the idea of using an adaptor, from what I see here, if the lip sync only happens when the input of the Sky Q box is selected, but everything else works as expected, I think you should contact Sky about this as there could be a workaround they can suggest.

Win_88