Solved! Is there any advantage to connect cable box to soundbar?

[ljsummerlin]

I have a setup with 4k Samsung tv, Sony soundbar, blu ray player, PS4.

I'm upgrading the blu ray player to a 4k player and will also redo the existing connections so that I can take advantage of lossless audio. TV has 4 HDMI ports (1 ARC). Soundbar has 3 HDMI In and one HDMI out. However only one of the 3 HDMI In ports is HDCP 2.2. BD player has 2 HDMI out (one audio only). I don't think I need to use both connections on the BD player since my TV supports ARC?

I plan to connect the BD player and the PS4 to the soundbar and then the soundbar to the TV using the ARC port.

I'm not sure what to do about the cable box. Is there an advantage to connect that through the soundbar also (for better audio; do streaming apps even support lossless audio formats)? If so, would the cable box need to be connected to the HDCP 2.2 port on the soundbar? In this case, I might have an issue because won't the BD player and the cable box both need HDCP 2.2 for 4k content? (I haven't actually streamed anything in 4k; just looking ahead. I have my cables running through the wall and it's a pain to change them.)

Or could this work: Connect cable to HDCP 2.2 on the soundbar. Connect BD player audio out to soundbar, Connect the other BD player HDMI out to the TV (which would be HDCP 2.2). Connect PS4 to soundbar. Connect soundbar to ARC input on TV.

Thanks for any suggestions - I'm pretty much a novice at this.

 

[jsmithepa]

Standard hookup: All Sources --> SB (ARC) ---> (ARC) TV.

There is no need to make a separate audio connection set-top box to SB since the HDMI carries both video and audio.

UHD BR has 2 HDMI, one for 4K and another for 1080, since all of your components are 4K aware, just use the 4K then. Hookup the HDCP 2.2 here.

Cable companies just starting to send 4K signals apparently, so if that's important to you, need SB with more than one HDCP port. The 2nd 4K source can potentially be hooked up directly to TV HDCP but not as nice as everything to SB.

 

[sanctempdyra]

I think jsmithepa is right. eventhough you want to connect it. Do connect and one important note: "ARC is activated in the D-IN mode. To turn off ARC you must disable Anynet."

Thankyou.

 

[americanaudiophile]

You don't need to use the ARC (audio return channel) HDMI jack of the TV unless you are using the TV tuner or apps built into the TV. Any HDMI input will work fine for the sources connected directly to the soundbar.

 

[ljsummerlin]

Thank you, @jsmithepa and @americanaudiophole. My main dilemma is wanting to connect everything through the soundbar to take advantage of lossless audio but having only one HDCP HDMI In port on the soundbar and possibly two 4k sources (BD Player and Cable). Right now I don't think I even have any 4k content available through cable, so I will connect the BD Player to HDCP. I guess that if I want 4k cable content at some point, I can upgrade the soundbar to one with more than one HDCP port as @jsmithepa suggested. Or could I use an HDMI switcher?

I need to connect the soundbar to the TV via HDMI to be able to access the soundbar menu, so I may as well use the ARC connection; I can't think of a downside. I may occasionally stream Amazon or Hulu through the TV apps so then I'd be set for that. The 4k BD player I'm getting (Panasonic) has limited streaming options (just Netflix, Youtube).

 

[jsmithepa]

Another thing is, don't take your sweet time putting these through their paces. Sometimes HDMI switching is PITA, some devices just won't play nice with each other, and u wait too long, now can't return them.