Virgin Media Community

[Buckman]

I've recently had an upgrade to a 360 box. Unfortunately it's not compatible with my Panasonic sound bar. This means I'm not able to use my sound bar if watching the television. The bar itself works fine and still works with my Blue-ray player. In the setting of the 360 there's a compatibility option for external devices. I've used this and after setup it says can I use the remote of the 360 to raise the volume of the bar. Well the answer is yes. However, there's still no actual sound coming through it.

I've connected it from the 360 to the HDMI socket3, this isn't HDMI-ARC

Virgin Media isn't interested as the bar isn't anything to do with them. They wouldn't even point me in the settings direction.

Has anybody else had this issue and solved it? with a sound bar I mean.

[roy247 · Accepted solution]

As a starting point does the 360 play sound through the TV speaker so we know it's then the link from the TV to the sound bar which I assume is connected using HDMI-ARC.

[Buckman]

Hi

Thanks for the reply. My bar was working perfectly until the upgrade. I was working on it for most of the day.

I've solved the issue, sort of.

I removed the HTMI cable that went to the bar and reluctantly replaced it with an optical cable. I got the sound back from the telly. Unfortunately it's a compromise, as I now have to manually turn off the telly speakers and active external speakers. This was automatic before, if this isn't done, then I get sound from both bar and television.

I also had to connect the DVDs directly to the TV with a HTMI cable. So this is working. But before, if I turned on the DVDs, the television would turn on and change to the appropriate amplifier. This now has to be done manually.

It's much more inconvenient, but at least I can now use the bar. All being that the sound quality isn't as good as a good HTMI cable and socket.

I really think I should have stuck with the Ti-VO box, I don't like the 360 very much at all.

Peter 

[roy247]

Hi Peter,

What TV and soundbar do you have, if you have a HDMI IN on the soundbar you can connect the 360 to that and if you also have have a HDMI-ARC connector the TV can connect to that, and with HDMI control turned on you should be able to turn the TV, soundbar and 360 on with one button.

[Mike2479]

I agree. Awful menu, no separate HD menu and sound bar issues similar to yours. I’m having to manually add my sound bar every time I switch it on. Defaults to TV speaker every time. So frustrating 

[Buckman]

I recently was given the same information from an electrical shop. Yes this works.

I don't know how this forum works, so I'm going to add the complete information to each person individually. I will also add a picture. 

Thank you for trying. 

[Buckman]

Hi

This issue has been solved, by a  Mark a chap who has been working in the electrical retail side for years.

My sound bar is a Panasonic SC-HTB690.

I was told, eventually after a few attempts to wire it as follows.

From the Virgin box connect a good HTMI cable to the HTMI In socket of the Soundbar. ( my case this reads  AV IN, BD/DVD.)

From the television, Connect a good HTMI cable into the  HTMI ARC socket and then put the plug on the other end into the HTMI OUT (In my case this reads AV TV (  ARC  )

Other equipment can go into any other available HTMI slot. As you can see, In my case, I've connected my DVD player to the televisions  (DV1) HTMI socket and my Amazon fire stick HTMI 4)

The result of this is that I no longer have to manually change the source to get the device I want, as they now connect automatically and the Lip Synchronisation, works perfectly every time.

What you may find, as I've found with mine, is that to watch recordings the soundbar has to be set to HTMI ( or in my case BC/DVD) Whilst it's connecting, you may find that the TV keeps trying to connect to the Bar, So press source again. This time it will stay on HTMI or in my case BD/DVD and after about twenty seconds. You should get sound through the soundbar. At least, I hope you will, it did in my case. You will also find that the Television screen goes dark for a few seconds whilst the source connects.

You will also find that when you want to retune to your Virgin box, after watching another device, you will have to do that manually as for some reason, the Virgin box, won't do this automatically.

Don't shoot me if it doesn't work. It worked in my case.

Hope this and the diagram help.

Best Regards

Peter