No sound to soundbar with Roku, but Xbox and other sources work just fine.

kyria9

Estimable
Sep 17, 2014
3
0
4,510
We have an older Philips TV, I think its this one: https://www.usa.philips.com/c-p/42PFL5332D_37/107cm-42-inch-lcd-integrated-digital/specifications

We have used it for various older consoles using the hdmi and component inputs, and an antenna through a converter box, since the coax input is not working. As far as I can tell the coax is the only thing that does not work properly.
We also have a Vizio soundbar: https://www.vizio.com/audio/home-theater/sb3820c6.html connected with an RCA cable. This setup has worked wonderfully until I tried to add a Roku express to the mix.

We had been using an Xbox 360 to use Netflix and Mlb.tv. When we tried to use it with MLB this year we got a message that it was no longer supported on the Xbox. after looking at all the options I decided to try the Roku. Everything seemed fine until it went to detect the TV settings. Now it will not pass any sound at all through to the soundbar. If we don't use the soundbar it will work through the tv speakers, but of course the reason we got the soundbar is because the speakers are awful. I can get sound if i use the tv headphone jack and hook that up to the soundbar, but its a very noisy connection, lots of static.

I've tried every possible connection combination I can think of, I've delved deep into various settings menus on the tv for anything that could possibly be relevant, to no avail. What did work briefly was taking the Roku to a friend's house and hooking it up to thier tv, and letting it auto detect. Then when we brought it back to our own tv it worked ok for a little while, until it detected our own tv again.

I'm ready to give up and just get a different tv, but we really can't afford it right now. Any ideas to make this work would be much appreciated.

Thanks

edit: A friend said it may have something to do with the anti-copyright features built into hdmi, and my tv may not be compatible, but it seems like that would have come up as a problem long before now. Anything is possible though I guess...
 
Solution
It's not an HDCP issue. You would'nt get any picture or sound at all if it was.
Try changing the audio output type in the Roku menu.
Try changing the audio output type in the TV audio menu.

kyria9

Estimable
Sep 17, 2014
3
0
4,510
After failing to get the Roku working I got an Amazon Fire stick. Using the exact same connections and settings it works fine. On sale it was the same price.