Question Odd Problem with Bluetooth Sound Bar

[DennisMG]

I have an older Samsung plasma 51" tv. On the digital audio out, I have a Bluetooth transmitter, sending the audio to an RCA soundbar across the room. I've been running this setup for about two years with no problems. Yesterday I lost audio. I booted the transmitter and let it reconnect, still no sound. I had the TV on my local antenna at the time. I switched the tv back to internal speakers and continued to watch tv. A little later, I switched to my ROKU to watch some Netflix. I immediately noticed echo on the sound, as the internal speakers and the Bluetooth soundbar were both working. I turned off the internal speakers. Later I switched back to the local antenna, no sound. What would cause this problem? The output from the tv is not being changed, just the source? How would that cause the Bluetooth setup to fail? Any ideas?

 

[americanaudiophile]

Since the soundbar works with the Roku it is still connected to the TV with bluetooth.
I would suggest you check any audio settings in the TV. If there are any that relate only to the TV tuner those would be the first to change.

 

[DennisMG]

Since the soundbar works with the Roku it is still connected to the TV with bluetooth.
I would suggest you check any audio settings in the TV. If there are any that relate only to the TV tuner those would be the first to change.

The audio settings on the tv are pretty basic. I've reviewed them several times and have not found any setting that impacts the problem. This tv is getting pretty long in the tooth. Both HDMI inputs are bad. My current setup is ROKU to HDMI to 1080P Component Video converter, then to the YPbPr inputs on the TV. Sound is carried to the Bluetooth transmitter via the digital coax output on the tv. It's worked fine for over a year before this problem cropped up.

 

[DennisMG]

Since the soundbar works with the Roku it is still connected to the TV with bluetooth.
I would suggest you check any audio settings in the TV. If there are any that relate only to the TV tuner those would be the first to change.

Later reply, but you were right. After looking over the user manual, I found that external and internal speakers are activated differently depending on the source (specifically analog channels). Also, by setting the audio to PCM, the problem was fixed. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Now to solve the audio synch problem (new post).