SOUNDBAR HELP PLEASE

We've recently had a Virgin TV package installed but we're unable to get the soundbar working.

Prior to having the package we had a Humax recorder and the soundbar worked fine with it. But even then, if we plugged in our Firestick in the other HDMI port, the soundbar wouldn't work.

The Humax is still connected and the soundbar works but when we change over to Virgin TV it doesn't.

I've disconnected the Humax box, put the TV aerial into the back of the TV but the soundbar still won't work.

The Virgin engineer, who by the way has a degree in music and technology couldn't get the soundbar to work with the new package !
He said there might be formatting issues with the JVC soundbar, but couldn't find any settings on the TV to sort it out.

I'm stumped ! Any ideas ?

Is the HDMI port on the TV compatible with eARC? If not then you might need a separate optical digital cable.

Disclaimer - I could be talking total bo11ocks.

I have a Samsung TV and use the HDMI (ARC Audio Return Channel) and it works fine with the HDMI cable from the tv in the ARC HDMI socket plugged in to the HDMI input on the soundbar. There is also the option for taking the optical output from the tv if you don't have ARC capability. If it's a relatively new tv I'd be surprised if it doesn't have ARC? If not then you'll have to go the optical route.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moodybluebird

We've recently had a Virgin TV package installed but we're unable to get the soundbar working.

Prior to having the package we had a Humax recorder and the soundbar worked fine with it. But even then, if we plugged in our Firestick in the other HDMI port, the soundbar wouldn't work.

The Humax is still connected and the soundbar works but when we change over to Virgin TV it doesn't.

I've disconnected the Humax box, put the TV aerial into the back of the TV but the soundbar still won't work.

The Virgin engineer, who by the way has a degree in music and technology couldn't get the soundbar to work with the new package !
He said there might be formatting issues with the JVC soundbar, but couldn't find any settings on the TV to sort it out.

I'm stumped ! Any ideas ?

---

Presuming you have a fairly recent TV....have you tried changing the source and audio output so the TV knows what you are doing? Any change to from say satellite to antenna will require the source to be altered which in turn will affect audio output selection. It can also come down to what order you plug stuff in. Chances are that's what the engineer was attempting. Good luck.

Thanks for all your responses so far. The engineer did try moving the cables around but couldn't get it to work. I'm not very tech savvy but I just read about a Toslink cable. Is that something I should think about trying ? It's attached between the Virgin V360 box and either the TV or soundbar.

Is the Virgin box and soundbar connected by bluetooth? If not have you tried hard wiring the soundbar to the Virgin box by HDMI assuming there is a connection? That resolved my issues with a Sky Q box so I'm assuming the Virgin box operates on similar lines.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vindec

Is the Virgin box and soundbar connected by bluetooth? If not have you tried hard wiring the soundbar to the Virgin box by HDMI assuming there is a connection? That resolved my issues with a Sky Q box so I'm assuming the Virgin box operates on similar lines.

---

The soundbar isn't connected to the Virgin box by Bluetooth. Think the engineer tried that too. He did suggest that I try running an auxillary cable (which he didn't have with him) from the Virgin box to the soundbar. Not sure exactly what type of cable or which ports in the Box and soundbar they should be attached to. Like I said I'm not very technical, to say the least !

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moodybluebird

The soundbar isn't connected to the Virgin box by Bluetooth. Think the engineer tried that too. He did suggest that I try running an auxillary cable (which he didn't have with him) from the Virgin box to the soundbar. Not sure exactly what type of cable or which ports in the Box and soundbar they should be attached to. Like I said I'm not very technical, to say the least !

---

Audio Jack(out of the Virgin box) to HDMI (into sound bar) converter might do the trick. Is there an "audio out" on the back of the Virgin box?

Try changing the HDMI cable, i had the same problem with my sonos beam, turned out to be that simple (btw the first hdmi cable was a decent one, just woudnt work)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moodybluebird

The soundbar isn't connected to the Virgin box by Bluetooth. Think the engineer tried that too. He did suggest that I try running an auxillary cable (which he didn't have with him) from the Virgin box to the soundbar. Not sure exactly what type of cable or which ports in the Box and soundbar they should be attached to. Like I said I'm not very technical, to say the least !

---

Use an HDMI cable between the Virgin box and the soundbar assuming you have HDMI sockets on both. There should be only one on each.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vindec

Use an HDMI cable between the Virgin box and the soundbar assuming you have HDMI sockets on both. There should be only one on each.

---

I've got 2 on mine (Sony HT-G700). One is an 'in' which is connected to the dvd player and the 'out' which is connected to the tv HDMI eArc port.

On the Virgin box there are 3 spare Ethernet (?) ports (yellow) and 1 spare Tel input.

On the back of the soundbar there are no HDMI inputs. There is a co-axial input, an optical input and a small audio input.

I've really never seen the point of soundboard, they are the emperor's New clothes.
those and memory foam mattresses.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rjk

I've really never seen the point of soundboard, they are the emperor's New clothes.
those and memory foam mattresses.

---

Let's agree to disagree then mate. TV's are so thin nowadays, there is no depth of sound on them, well certainly not my Smart TV anyway. The difference a soundbar makes is enormous.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moodybluebird

Let's agree to disagree then mate. TV's are so thin nowadays, there is no depth of sound on them, well certainly not my Smart TV anyway. The difference a soundbar makes is enormous.

---

Totally agree. Our sitting room is in a single storey extension . When it rained we could hardly hear the tv. The soundbar fills the room with sound.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moodybluebird

On the Virgin box there are 3 spare Ethernet (?) ports (yellow) and 1 spare Tel input.

On the back of the soundbar there are no HDMI inputs. There is a co-axial input, an optical input and a small audio input.

---

Is it a JVC tv? I'm thinking marry up the tv and the sound bar first without the Virgin box plugged in (use tv aerial input)...select "antenna" from input options. Check sounds bar works. Keep the tv on. Unplug the aerial. On input options select "cable" or might be Virgin box as an option. Plug in the Virgin box, turn on Virgin box. That might trick the tv/soundbar into picking up the sound off the Virgin box. If not....try each audio input option on settings in turn. The option to plug the soundbar into the Virgin box direct.....not sure about that. Doesn't sound like the wiring option is a goer. Good luck.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IanD

Is it a JVC tv? I'm thinking marry up the tv and the sound bar first without the Virgin box plugged in (use tv aerial input)...select "antenna" from input options. Check sounds bar works. Keep the tv on. Unplug the aerial. On input options select "cable" or might be Virgin box as an option. Plug in the Virgin box, turn on Virgin box. That might trick the tv/soundbar into picking up the sound off the Virgin box. If not....try each audio input option on settings in turn. The option to plug the soundbar into the Virgin box direct.....not sure about that. Doesn't sound like the wiring option is a goer. Good luck.

---

Cheers for that Ian. If all else fails I'll try to find a sound engineer on the cheap !

In settings on the virgin box go to sound and then it's something like output. There should be two options with one being PCM. Choose the other output setting that isn't ticked and try again. It can sometimes be the output isn't recognised by the soundbar.

Failing that take a pic of the inputs on the soundbar and the output/input on the tv and put it on here. I'll have a look later on and see if there is something we are missing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moodybluebird

On the Virgin box there are 3 spare Ethernet (?) ports (yellow) and 1 spare Tel input.

On the back of the soundbar there are no HDMI inputs. There is a co-axial input, an optical input and a small audio input.

---

How is the TV connected to the soundbar now? If you unplug the TV end of that cable, can you plug it into the Virgin Box directly? Does that give anything out of the soundbar? If not, try changing the Virgin box sound settings as suggested by Maccy Blue.
If it does work like this, then next step to try and get it working would be Virgin box -> TV -> soundbar.

Maccy Blue and bigjoe

I went to the video/audio settings for the Virgin box but couldn't find anything related to PCM.

There is a cable from the soundbar to the TV. The TV input is marked Digital Audio Output (Optical) and the soundbar input is labelled TV optical. The fittings on this cable will not go into the Virgin box.

As I said earlier the soundbar works when I have the Humax channel on. But if I take the TV aerial out of the Humax box, plug it straight into the TV and put on Virgin, the white light starts flashing on the front of the soundbar, which in effect means it's not working.

Trying to read through the thread I can't see how you have the sound bar joined to the virgin tv box.

Connecting the soundbar to the tv directly will not get sound from virgin tv.

How does the virgin box connect to the tv?

What model of virgin box do you have and what model of soundbar?

Usually (if not using bluetooth) soundbar should connect to virgin box, which then connects to the tv to produce a chain connecting all three devices.

Also on the soundbar there are different inputs, i have a JVC soundbar and you have to change the input depending if you are getting sound via auxillary, or bluetooth, or optical etc.

The flashing white light when you unplug the humax is probably just telling you the connection has been lost on that input.

Also a firestick wont just work with the soundbar, it has to be paired via bluetooth

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Michael Morris

Trying to read through the thread I can't see how you have the sound bar joined to the virgin tv box.

Connecting the soundbar to the tv directly will not get sound from virgin tv.

How does the virgin box connect to the tv?

What model of virgin box do you have and what model of soundbar?

Usually (if not using bluetooth) soundbar should connect to virgin box, which then connects to the tv to produce a chain connecting all three devices.

Also on the soundbar there are different inputs, i have a JVC soundbar and you have to change the input depending if you are getting sound via auxillary, or bluetooth, or optical etc.

The flashing white light when you unplug the humax is probably just telling you the connection has been lost on that input.

Also a firestick wont just work with the soundbar, it has to be paired via bluetooth

---

Mike, I'll check out the points you raised and come back to you later. Many thanks.

Also the virgin box you mention sounds like a router not a TV box. The latest Virgin TV box has hdmi, coax, audio, usb connections. It should only have one yellow connection from where it receives the internet connection from the router.

The back of the TV box should look like this. Where you should be able to connect the optical cable from D.AUDIO to the optical input on the soundbar. Then change the input setting on the soundbar remote control or by changing input by pusjing a button on the soundbar.

https://5starcables.com/wp-content/u...n_tv_v6_05.jpg

What you describe is a router which looks something like the picture below. There should be a cable from one of the yellow ports to the separate virgin TV box going into the yellow connection you see on the first image.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/wp-conte...3492lg-vmb.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Michael Morris

Also the virgin box you mention sounds like a router not a TV box. The latest Virgin TV box has hdmi, coax, audio, usb connections. It should only have one yellow connection from where it receives the internet connection from the router.

The back of the TV box should look like this. Where you should be able to connect the optical cable from D.AUDIO to the optical input on the soundbar. Then change the input setting on the soundbar remote control or by changing input by pusjing a button on the soundbar.

https://5starcables.com/wp-content/u...n_tv_v6_05.jpg

What you describe is a router which looks something like the picture below. There should be a cable from one of the yellow ports to the separate virgin TV box going into the yellow connection you see on the first image.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/wp-conte...3492lg-vmb.jpg

---

Yep spot on Mike, I'm even more technically inept than I first thought, it is a router ! I'll have a good look at the V360 box later and see if I can make the changes to the set-up you suggest. 👍

just as a matter of interest - I tried to post already something with the picture of the back of the virgin box. Do I have the rights to do this?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bigjoe

just as a matter of interest - I tried to post already something with the picture of the back of the virgin box. Do I have the rights to do this?

---

In principle you have the rights to do this.

But the picture upload system doesn’t always work. What I tend to do if the upload is not working, is to tight click on image online and copy the address and then instead of uploading a photo insert it from URL but you need to untick the little box underneath where are you put the address in

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Michael Morris

Also the virgin box you mention sounds like a router not a TV box. The latest Virgin TV box has hdmi, coax, audio, usb connections. It should only have one yellow connection from where it receives the internet connection from the router.

The back of the TV box should look like this. Where you should be able to connect the optical cable from D.AUDIO to the optical input on the soundbar. Then change the input setting on the soundbar remote control or by changing input by pusjing a button on the soundbar.

https://5starcables.com/wp-content/u...n_tv_v6_05.jpg

What you describe is a router which looks something like the picture below. There should be a cable from one of the yellow ports to the separate virgin TV box going into the yellow connection you see on the first image.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/wp-conte...3492lg-vmb.jpg

---

Mike, I've now put the optical cable from the soundbar to the D Audio input on the back of the Virgin box. Can't find anything to press on the JVC TH-227B soundbar other than source (also EQ, Vol etc), same with remote.
So soundbar not working.

The current set up is this:
Cable from Virgin internal wall box to a chrome 3 socket connector.
Cable from that connector to the Coax In at the back of the Virgin box.
Another cable from that connector to an input near the base of the router.

An HDMI cable from the back of the TV to the back of the Virgin box

An HDMI cable from the back of the TV to the Humax.

Hope this helps.

have the virgin tv playing something and and with the soundbar on and volume up (even if you can't hear it) change the source on the sound bar

click it and wait for a moment , and then click it again,

the light usually changes colour, blue is when it's on the bluetooth connection, white on optical, orange on coaxial and green on aux

so you need the white light to be on.

One other thing I've seen before is that if the digital audio cable is not fitted in correctly it won't work. It has a specific shape so it has to be in the right orientation and it will click in slightly. So make sure it's lined up and clicked in with a little bit of pressure

if happy the cable is fitted, the input is showing a white light and the volume on the soundbar is up and it's still not working go back into the audio settings on the virgin tv box and change between dolby and pcm settings.

In the meanwhile are you getting volume from the TV speakers when watching virgin?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Michael Morris

One other thing I've seen before is that if the digital audio cable is not fitted in correctly it won't work. It has a specific shape so it has to be in the right orientation and it will click in slightly. So make sure it's lined up and clicked in with a little bit of pressure

---

Did what you said Mike but the white light is still flashing.

The digital audio cable has been fitted correctly, it clicked into place.

It's a pain in the proverbial. Might have to bite the bullet and get someone in to sort it out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moodybluebird

Did what you said Mike but the white light is still flashing.

The digital audio cable has been fitted correctly, it clicked into place.

It's a pain in the proverbial. Might have to bite the bullet and get someone in to sort it out.

---

found this statement

The unit may not be able to decode all digital audio formats from the input source. In this case, the Optical/Coaxial indicator will flash in white/orange, and the unit will prompt “Unsupported format, please refer to the Instruction Book”. This is NOT a defect. Ensure that the audio setting of the input source (e.g. TV, game console, DVD player, etc.) is set to PCM (Refer to the user manual of the input source device for its audio setting details) with Optical/Coaxial input.

can you get a coaxial cable to try between the two devices? if so then change the input to the orange light on the soundbar.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Michael Morris

if happy the cable is fitted, the input is showing a white light and the volume on the soundbar is up and it's still not working go back into the audio settings on the virgin tv box and change between dolby and pcm settings.

In the meanwhile are you getting volume from the TV speakers when watching virgin?

---

The only options I've got on Dolby Audio is Always Convert, Follow Content or Disabled. It's set on Always Convert at the moment.

Yes, I'm getting volume from the TV speakers when watching Virgin.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moodybluebird

The only options I've got on Dolby Audio is Always Convert, Follow Content or Disabled. It's set on Always Convert at the moment.

Yes, I'm getting volume from the TV speakers when watching Virgin.

---

Setting should be

To personalise your box’s audio settings:

Press Home on the remote
Select Help & Settings
Select Settings
Select Audio
The settings you can change are:

Alternate audio
Some shows are broadcast with more than one audio track, like audio descriptions or language tracks. When alternate tracks are available, you’ll see the Audio Icon lit white in the Info Banner. The Default Audio Language setting lets you choose which audio language track is played out by default. The default setting is English.

Dolby Digital for HDMI output
Got a surround sound system? Use this setting to choose how your box will output sound. When your box is connected to your surround sound system, choose Dolby Digital. If your box is connected directly to your TV, choose Dolby Digital to PCM. This setting applies to both HDMI and optical out.

Sound effects
If you’d like to change the volume of your box’s sound effects (the sounds on your TV when you use the remote), or turn them off completely, you can do that here. The default setting is Medium.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Michael Morris

Setting should be

To personalise your box’s audio settings:

Press Home on the remote
Select Help & Settings
Select Settings
Select Audio
The settings you can change are:

Alternate audio
Some shows are broadcast with more than one audio track, like audio descriptions or language tracks. When alternate tracks are available, you’ll see the Audio Icon lit white in the Info Banner. The Default Audio Language setting lets you choose which audio language track is played out by default. The default setting is English.

Dolby Digital for HDMI output
Got a surround sound system? Use this setting to choose how your box will output sound. When your box is connected to your surround sound system, choose Dolby Digital. If your box is connected directly to your TV, choose Dolby Digital to PCM. This setting applies to both HDMI and optical out.

Sound effects
If you’d like to change the volume of your box’s sound effects (the sounds on your TV when you use the remote), or turn them off completely, you can do that here. The default setting is Medium.

---

Mike, think I'll give up on this for the time being ! I've found online where you got the above info from, but on my Virgin box settings these options do not appear. On my settings there is a Video/Audio option which when followed does not lead to a Dolby Digital/PCM alternative.