Solved! Best connection for LG Soundbar (SK10Y) to LG TV (4K OLED)

[mab581]

Been trying to find an answer, maybe there isn't one.

I have an LG SK10Y soundbar and an LG 4K OLED TV. I have the cables and inputs/outputs to connect every possible way:

• Digital Optical
• HDMI with ARC
• LG SoundSync

I currently use LG SoundSync because it's the fewest number of cables (zero), but I would like to know if there are advantages to using Digital Optical or HDMI+ARC.

Additionally, I'm wondering if there are any advantages to plugging devices such as a gaming console into the soundbar (obviously when the soundbar is connected to the TV via HDMI+ARC) versus just plugging the devices directly into the TV and having the TV send the audio signal to the soundbar. The obvious advantage would be the number of cables going to the TV, but is that it?

Thanks in advance!

Follow-up question: if I decide to go with HDMI+ARC through the soundbar, can I still switch inputs using the TV remote or will I need to dust off the soundbar remote?

 

[americanaudiophile]

LG Soundsync is bluetooth so would offer the lowest quality and to my knowledge will only send 2 channels to the soundbar. Since the soundbar supports 5.1.2 I would consider it useless.
HDMI-ARC and optical audio are equal in quality but optical doesn't allow for CEC control over the HDMI cable. It should let you use the TV remote for volume but I think you would still need the soundbar remote to select the soundbar HDMI input rather than HDMI-ARC.
Any sources that support lossless audio such as Dolby TrueHD or Atmos should be connected directly to the soundbar unless the TV has the newer eARC. That would will pass those audio codecs to the soundbar (which ARC does not).
You can add an HDMI input selector to expand the single HDMI input to as many as you need.