Not enough hdmi ports

[Olly01]

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 We are thinking of getting a sound bar rather than using our outdated amplifier.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

[stereohaven]

@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.

[TimmyBGood]

@Olly01 

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

[nigea99]

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)  

[Olly01]

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.

[oldfella]

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@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.

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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

[nigea99]

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@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.

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

[Olly01]

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.

[nigea99]

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@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.

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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 

[nigea99]

@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

[Olly01 · Accepted solution]

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.