help connecting my projector / computer / soundbar
April 3, 2024 11:25 AM   Subscribe

Looking for confirmation that I can connect three pieces of electronic equipment to pipe 1. audio from my computer to a soundbar, and 2. video from my computer to a projector!

I have the following equipment with the following inputs/outputs:

- Samsung HW-S60B soundbar, with Digital Audio In (optical) and HDMI (ARC) [pic here]
- Optoma HD143X home theater projector, with HDMI 1, HDMI2, USBPower, 12V out, audio out (headphone jack)
- PC, with HDMI, USB, headphone jack, etc. [pic here]
- an HDMI switcher [pic here]

So... what should I do to get the audio into the soundbar, and the video into the projector?

I think what's throwing me is that the soundbar doesn't seem to have an IN and OUT passthrough.

Is this possible? If so, what do I need to buy?

Thank you in advance!
posted by knownassociate to Technology (3 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: It looks like your PC has a digital (S/PDIF) optical output, and it looks like the sound bar has an equivalent digital optical input. For audio, you would connect a Toslink optical cable (easily available off of Amazon and many other retailers) between the digital optical output on the PC and the digital optical input on the soundbar.

Then, connect the video via an HDMI cable from the PC to the projector. Two separate cables from the PC, HDMI to carry video to the projector, Toslink optical to carry audio to the soundbar. You'll need to set the soundbar to the optical input and the projector to the appropriate HDMI input, but I suspect you knew that. (There may also need to be a settings change on the PC, but that's more difficult to say.)
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 11:34 AM on April 3, 2024 [3 favorites]


Best answer: There may also need to be a settings change on the PC, but that's more difficult to say.

Yeah, I don't know how the whole optical audio thing will affect this, but I know that when I tried a similar thing using the aux (headphone) jack on the computer for audio, I had to make some changes to the audio settings of the computer to force it to use the correct audio output. I had to make the changes any time I plugged stuff in, there was not a way to make it the default that I ever figured out. This was on Windows 10 if I recall, so I don't know if 11 handles it any better.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:57 PM on April 3, 2024


Best answer: Our main TV is just a desktop PC hooked up to a stereo and projector, I EAT TAPAS has it: for video the HDMI cord goes from the computer to the projector. For audio (some projectors have shitty speakers, so disable that just to make sure), one cord goes from the soundcard to the stereo/soundbar/whatever.

Treat these as external speakers, and a monitor, and you'll be fine.
posted by furnace.heart at 12:59 PM on April 3, 2024


« Older Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift: Is there a name for...   |   Childhood skill development, games, and... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments