PS4 to soundbar

[BertyFish]

After a little help as I’m not great at this kind of thing.

Picked up GT7 for my boy at Christmas,
Plan to finally get him out the house and into a garage loft room for gaming.
TV and soundbar basic Hisense but new models.

Quick read suggest I should go hdmi from tv to soundbar and then hdmi from soundbar to tv?
Problem is the soundbar only has 1x hdmi.

Do I need an optical sound cable?

[TheGroover]

Do any of the HDMI ports on the TV have "ARC" labelled on them? That's the one you should use to connect the TV to the soundbar. On both my TVs with soundbars that's the only cable I've needed.

[snoopy25]

Does the TV have a HDMI arc port? (Should be labelled on HDMI port) If so HDMI from sound bar goes to that and then HDMI from Playstation goes into another HDMI port on the TV

[Condi]

If the soundbar does optical that is easiest

[Lucas Ayde]

Condi said:

If the soundbar does optical that is easiest

Yep, I've got a nice basic Q Acoustics M4 stereo soundbar on my telly and optical from TV to it works great. The TV will take whatever audio comes in on HDMI and pipe it via optical to the soundbar.

Might be more complex if its a fancy surround soundbar that expects some sort of 5.1 signal in which case you might have to use ARC/HDMI out. I guess that would depend on the telly and whether or not it would accept 5.1 (DD or DTS) over HDMI and resend via optical.

TBH unless it's one of the really good (expensive) soundbars that actually can make a decent stab at simulated surround, stereo is a better idea anyway.

[gangzoom]

Condi said:

If the soundbar does optical that is easiest

HDMI arc will allow volume control from the source device though, optical connection I think can only be volume controlled from the sound device.

[Condi]

gangzoom said:

HDMI arc will allow volume control from the source device though, optical connection I think can only be volume controlled from the sound device.

You are correct, optical likely needs 2 remote's (TV + soundbar), but IMO is still easier and simpler. No settings to worry about, just plug and play.

HDMI ARC will need setting up on the TV as I recall.

[Baldchap]

ARC should be plug and play. It'll just work in my experience.

Worst case you might want to turn off the TV speakers and select external speakers, but it'll be straightforward. Just Google it for your specific TV.

ARC is better quality than optical too.

Do it properly, do it once. No pissing about with seperate remotes etc.

[Defcon5]

I have every input connected to the TV via HDMI, and then have the soundbar connected to the TV via optical.

I then use my sky remote to control the TV and soundbar, even when I’m using the PlayStation