topic Re: Not enough hdmi ports in Sky Q

Not enough hdmi ports

Olly01 — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 08:00:33 GMT

Hi we have got sky q and have just bought a fire stick. We are thinking of getting a sound bar rather than using our outdated amplifier. What do we need to be able to connect sky q and fire stick to soundbar. There are only 2 hdmi ports on TV. Thanks

Re: Not enough hdmi ports

stereohaven — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 08:07:39 GMT

@Olly01

Plug Sky Q and the Fire TV stick into the TV HDMI ports and connect the soundbar to the TV via an optical cable.

If your TV only has two HDMI ports I doubt one of them is ARC or eARC or the TV supports Dolby Atmos, so you are not losing anything by using optical, but it all depends on the actual TV and soundbar specs.

Re: Not enough hdmi ports

TimmyBGood — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 08:28:28 GMT

@Olly01

Connecting an HDMI switch (not a 'splitter') to the television set is another potential solution.

Re: Not enough hdmi ports

nigea99 — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 08:42:00 GMT

hi @Olly01

Note some Soundbars do not have an optical input but may allow connection via optional converters

Some Soundbars do have extra HDMI inputs allowing video pass through to the TV which means you might be able to connect either or both SKY Q & Firestick directly to it - although again note some so do not

If your TV only has 2 HDMI inputs also check that the TV has one of them designated as ARC (Audio return Channel) otherwise connection from the TV to the sound bar may be limited to optical (as @stereohaven alludes to)

Thus it really does depend on which Soundbar and your TV's capability for audio outputs (ARC and/or optical)

Re: Not enough hdmi ports

Olly01 — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 17:32:14 GMT

Hi convinced that I don't have a arc. Got the soundbar today, but can't get sound through it. Have connected TV to soundbar using an optical cable - no sound. So took out fire stick and connected hdmi cable to soundbar also. Still no sound. Changed speaker to amplifier setting from TV. Can anyone suggest anything please, pulling my hair out now.

Re: Not enough hdmi ports

oldfella — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 17:40:06 GMT

@Olly01 wrote:

Hi convinced that I don't have a arc. Got the soundbar today, but can't get sound through it. Have connected TV to soundbar using an optical cable - no sound. So took out fire stick and connected hdmi cable to soundbar also. Still no sound. Changed speaker to amplifier setting from TV. Can anyone suggest anything please, pulling my hair out now.

Hi @Olly01

If using Q box Optical out and you have no sound try changing the Q box Optical Audio Outup to Normal.

This setting can be found in Q box Home menu.

Home - Settings - Setup -,Audio Visual.

Change Optical Audio output to Normal

Re: Not enough hdmi ports

nigea99 — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 17:42:14 GMT

@Olly01 wrote:

Hi convinced that I don't have a arc. Got the soundbar today, but can't get sound through it. Have connected TV to soundbar using an optical cable - no sound. So took out fire stick and connected hdmi cable to soundbar also. Still no sound. Changed speaker to amplifier setting from TV. Can anyone suggest anything please, pulling my hair out now.

Can you tell us the Make & models of both your TV & especially the Soundbar so we can look up details to assist

Re: Not enough hdmi ports

Olly01 — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 18:10:23 GMT

Hi I stupidly thought that as I hadn't got an arc I shouldn't use the arc hdmi port on the soundbar, but after increasing the instructions it seems I should have used this port. Now got sound, so need to be able to use sky q and fire stick from other port. So now thinking that I need a HDMI switch as mentioned in this post earlier, if so can someone tell me what I should be looking for please. Probably my last prime day purchase.

For information I have a Hitachi 48HBT62U K TV and a Denon DHT-D216 sound bar.

Thanks for all of your advice.

Re: Not enough hdmi ports

nigea99 — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 18:36:26 GMT

@Olly01 wrote:

Hi I stupidly thought that as I hadn't got an arc I shouldn't use the arc hdmi port on the soundbar, but after increasing the instructions it seems I should have used this port. Now got sound, so need to be able to use sky q and fire stick from other port. So now thinking that I need a HDMI switch as mentioned in this post earlier, if so can someone tell me what I should be looking for please. Probably my last prime day purchase.

For information I have a Hitachi 48HBT62U K TV and a Denon DHT-D216 sound bar.

Thanks for all of your advice.

hi @Olly01

if your sound bar has an HDMI port in addition to the one labelled ARC (which as you have found out is the correct connection to the TV ) then you can try connecting either SKY Q or your Firestick direct to the Sound bar which will free up a port on the TV

If you do this then to watch you will need to select the HDMI input on your TV connected to the Soundbar

Edit : Thanks for the info on the SOund bar & TV - as the TV is only Full HD then routing one device via the Soundbar should be a good option and less likely to introduce Lip Synch problems

BTW The sound bar does also decode Dolby Digital so you should be able to use this

Re: Not enough hdmi ports

nigea99 — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 18:34:24 GMT

@Olly01

Reading the manual I found for your TV it does seem your TV has ARC although it is not fully clear which port supports it (but optical from the TV should also work)

I am guessing it is HDMI 2 as the connections in the diagrams show other equipment being connected to HDMI 1

Re: Not enough hdmi ports

Olly01 — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 18:43:45 GMT

Hi @nigea99 I plugged the fire stick into the soundbar and it worked successfully. Thanks so much for your advice I would never thought of doing that, so pleased.

Thanks to everyone else on this thread too.