Soundbar and 360

[Jeff15]

I have a samsung ue50tu7020kxxu and it supports e-arc. I bought a new soundbar which has dolby atmos. Now, when I hooked it all up it had audio sync issues, it turns out the best way to correct this is to connect my 360 box to the soundbar. This worked a treat but now the tv won't let me change my audio setting from pcm, everything else is greyed out. The soundbar lets me know when my content is dolby atmos and changes accordingly but I'm not sure im getting what i should be getting. Does the audio setting need to be changed from pcm?

[roy247]

You need the 360 set to 'Follow Content' for any bitstream audio like Dolby Atmos when it's available on content.

My LG TV  and soundbar are connected using eARC, in the TV's audio settings I have;

Digital Sound output > Pass Through

your Samsung TV may have something similar, 360 is connected to my TV.

[Jeff15]

 I'm set up the same but I was getting an audio sync issue which was solved by running the 360 through the soundbar which as I've said solved the issue. Before I ran it through the soundbar I was able to change the audio on the tv to auto which then allowed the tv to change from pcm to dolby to dolby plus accordingly. Now it's going through the soundbar it's pcm on the tv only but the soundbar display is doing the switching. So I'm wondering does the tv being stuck on pcm make any difference now? Any ideas?

[Client62]

"it's PCM on the TV only" is this because the TV has stereo speakers ( 2.0 format & no Dolby decoder.).

Our two Sony TVs with stereo speakers also take stereo PCM audio via HDMI as they lack the
speakers and lack the surround decoder for 5.1 / 7.1.

Any surround audio is down mixed to stereo PCM by the bluray or Sky Q box etc for compatibility a stereo TV.

[Jeff15]

It has dolby digital plus output, Its only been stuck on pcm since I ran the 360 through the soundbar. I'm just wondering if that makes any difference since the soundbar seems to be doing all of the work now.

[Client62]

Does the sound bar have the option to send either PCM/Stereo/Normal vs Dolby Surround/Bitstream to the TV ?

[Jeff15]

 Really don't know, it's this. Hopefully this pic is clear.

[roy247 · Accepted solution]

If you are only watching using the 360 then the sound options on the TV are redundant because the soundbar will only be using the audio in from the 360 and the TV speakers will not be used.

If you have Freeview through an aerial on your TV or any apps you can watch something with what sound options do you then get on your TV, you could also try disconnecting the 360 from the soundbar just to rule that out of the equation.

Below is from the Samsung user guide for your TV,

External speakers may not be controlled with the remote control. When an external speaker is enabled, some sound menus are not supported.

Edited to say I assume all the options come back if you disconnect the soundbar, I had a Samsung TV and the sound options did change when connected to the soundbar I had at that time.

[Jeff15]

Thanks for your time, that's exactly what I wanted to hear.