Problems with my Panasonic home theatre & PS3 setup

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caveman27

13 posts

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#77152 11-Feb-2011 11:59

Hi there,

I am looking for a bit of help setting up my Panasonic TV & home theatre and Play station 3. The issues I am looking to sort are with sound coming through the home theatre.

Problem 1: When I am using the PS3 (both bleary & DVD/CD) sound only comes through the TV speakers. The PS3 is connected directly to the HDMI 1 port on the TV. I am pretty sure I need an optical cable to go from the TV’s optical out to the home theatres optical in, so I can get sound going through to the home theatre speakers. Is the correct thing to do?

Problem 2: When watching TV, the sound only comes out of the TV speaker, when I would like to use the home theatre speakers. I am wondering if an optical connection between the TV and home theatre will solve this? However, because there is only one optical port on the home theatre unit, would that not be reserved for the PS3? Or by linking the TV and home theatre, the sound from the PS3 would also go through the home theatres speakers?

Problem 3: ARC connection on home theatre to TV. From my reading and understanding of the manuals, and ARC connection can be setup between the home theatre and the TV allowing sound to come out the home theatre speakers. However, in practice this doesn’t work. The only sound i seem to be getting through the home theatre is when I am using the DVD (Although i change the settings to DVD – which i think i should be doing anyway)

Any help would be appreciated to solve the above, Thanks in advance.

Mike

Equipment:

50" Full HD Plasma TH-P50U20Z

http://www.panasonic.co.nz/viera/plasma/th-p54v20z.html

SC-PT980GN-K Home theatre

http://www.panasonic.co.nz/at-home/entertainment/cinema/sc-pt980gn-k.html

Sony PS3 – Slimline 320gb

Talkiet

4792 posts

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#438245 11-Feb-2011 12:10

For a start - well done on the problem description and including links to the equipment.

Overall, this will not be a simple or expandable setup unfortunately as the Home theatre system is a one trick pony, and not really intended to be the centre of a multi-input system.

That said...

1) Yes, you should be able to get proper sound from the HT system for PS3 by connecting them via a toslink optical cable.

2&3) You should be able to get sound from the HT unit when watching TV by using the Audio Return Channel (ARC) functionality. There may be some more setup required in the TV to enable this. Some TVs only have ARC functionality on some HDMI ports, so look into that.

Where you might get unstuck is if you wanted to add something like MySky HDi. You would still be able to use another HDMI port on the TV, but I'm not sure if the TV will then feed the audio back to the AMP over ARC? I don't think that's the way it works - you may be stuck with audio only from the TV in that case.

Still... Very good choice of TV. If you end up wanting lots of sources (Some crazy people buy multiple Game systems!) you may have to look at a different approach tot he home theatre (proper amp + speakers)

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Jaxson

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#438247 11-Feb-2011 12:16

Can't comment on the ARC, but....

There is no hdmi in on the HT unit, only optical.

Both the TV and the PS3 are capable of generating 5.1 sound (freeview HD on TV or games/DVD/Bluray on PS3).

The optical input will carry the 5.1 sound so you should use this for the component you want more.

You can use the stereo analogue cable input into the HT unit for the other. There is an Aux input to the HT unit, but this will obviously only be 2 channel, not 5.1

If you can get the TV to send 5.1 sound back through an ARC then that's cool. I'd probably use the PS3 for the optical connection.

Or get an optical switch and manually change sources perhaps?

http://jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=AC1675&keywords=optical+switch&form=KEYWORD

And yes, thanks for the great up front info too!

caveman27

13 posts

Geek

#438252 11-Feb-2011 12:32

Thanks for the speedy replies, Jaxson & Talkiet.

Sounds like I am on the correct track with needing a toslink optical cable. I'll check to TV setup in regards to the ARC connection as I fairly sure I haven't set anything up on the TV for this. I'll do this first and see how i go.

Mysky HDI won't be a problem as I'm not planning on using it, for the foreseeable future anyway. Freeview HD is fine for my requirements ( I have direct line of site with the MT Kaukau tower and reception is excellent).

Thanks again.

mike

timmmay

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#438276 11-Feb-2011 13:37

Optical input to the receiver sounds like the best option.

If you decide to upgrade to a proper receiver you can get an Onkyo for about $600, and you should be able to use your existing speakers. You might need to upgrade to a powered sub, not sure about that. Then you route everything through the receiver and output HDMI to your receiver.

caveman27

13 posts

Geek

#438279 11-Feb-2011 13:43

Hi Timmmay,

Would love to upgrade to a receiver base solution but $$$ are a bit tight at the moment so I'm trying to make do.

Cheers anyway.

mike

caveman27

13 posts

Geek

#438384 11-Feb-2011 18:00

All sorted now.

The HDMI cable between the home theater and the TV needed to be v1.4, i'm not sure what version I had but as soon as i changed it to a "known" v1.4 HDMI cable, ARC kicked in almost immediately. I also made sure that the connection was on HDMI 2 as the manual had some obscure reference to it.

i have also connected an optical cable between the PS3 and the home theater and I have my home theater humming!

So pretty much I'm all sorted. Big thanks to those who offered their help.

Cheers

Mike

Talkiet

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#438396 11-Feb-2011 18:20

Good stuff - thanks for reporting back. ENjoy it!

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

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Dunnersfella

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#438407 11-Feb-2011 18:41

Nicely sorted - the only thing I'd add...
Is that if you do want to upgrade to a different amp in the future, you'll need to change sub to a powered subwoofer, as well as ALL your speakers. Unfortunately your home theatre system isn't exactly flexible.
How do you find the ARC? Do you have to turn the volume up quite a bit higher than when you're playing a DVD?