Audio Will soundbar audio be of different quality depending on input used?

[raksrules]

I am in market for a soundbar as my old TV's speakers aren't sounding well anymore. I mean, they work fine but I have to keep volume very high to hear properly and although since yesterday I have put it in "clear voice" option. I am still playing with settings of TV sound to see if anything helps.
But as a last resort, I will need to buy soundbar.
My TV (although it is more than 15 years old), it does have optical out and headphone out too. HDMI is mostly not eARC (i am not even sure what eARC is) so I guess I cannot use the HDMI port on soundbar.

My main query is, will the sound quality from soundbar be impacted by which input port I use? Which is the best assuming I have Optical In, HDMI, AUX and Bluetooth?

 

[Desktop]

Which is the best assuming I have Optical In, HDMI, AUX and Bluetooth?

Bluetooth has worst sound transmission quality among these.
Optical connection eliminates Noise associated with USB.
Audio quality will depend upon quality of sound processing/ DAC on each output of your Tv (or any equipment)and input of connected speakers, cable quality, actual quality of sound recording source.

 

[kewlboy9]

Best input ranking (from best to least preferred) is usually: HDMI ARC/eARC > Optical > AUX > Bluetooth

ARC (Audio Return Channel) sends audio from the TV to a soundbar over HDMI. eARC is the newer version that supports high-bitrate formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA.

Optical Supports Dolby Digital and DTS but not Dolby Atmos.

Aux will not provide the required dynamic range, and will be confined to a 2.0 channel as opposed to multi channel output like 5.1 from ARC or optical.

Bluetooth audio is compressed, leading to lower fidelity. It also often introduces audio delay (lip sync issues).

 

[raksrules]

Best input ranking (from best to least preferred) is usually: HDMI ARC/eARC > Optical > AUX > Bluetooth

ARC (Audio Return Channel) sends audio from the TV to a soundbar over HDMI. eARC is the newer version that supports high-bitrate formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA.

Optical Supports Dolby Digital and DTS but not Dolby Atmos.

Aux will not provide the required dynamic range, and will be confined to a 2.0 channel as opposed to multi channel output like 5.1 from ARC or optical.

Bluetooth audio is compressed, leading to lower fidelity. It also often introduces audio delay (lip sync issues).

How does ARC even work? Assume I have TV that supports ARC and I have Firestick connected to TV and say I get a soundbar that had HDMI input, how will I go about connecting everything?
Because one HDMI will be consumed for firestick so where does the soundbar HDMI In go into the tv?

 

[kewlboy9]

Your TV should ideally have at least two HDMI ports if it supports ARC. The Fire TV stick will get plugged into your regular HDMI port on the TV, and your soundbar's HDMI out will go into the TV's HDMI ARC port, which is labelled separately.

Alternatively, if your TV does not have multiple HDMI ports, and your soundbar has both HDMI in and ARC out, you plug Fire TV stick into soundbar’s HDMI in. Then, plug soundbar’s HDMI out (ARC) into the TV’s HDMI ARC port. This passes video to the TV, and sound is processed directly by the soundbar.

 

[raksrules]

Your TV should ideally have at least two HDMI ports if it supports ARC. The Fire TV stick will get plugged into your regular HDMI port on the TV, and your soundbar's HDMI out will go into the TV's HDMI ARC port, which is labelled separately.

Alternatively, if your TV does not have multiple HDMI ports, and your soundbar has both HDMI in and ARC out, you plug Fire TV stick into soundbar’s HDMI in. Then, plug soundbar’s HDMI out (ARC) into the TV’s HDMI ARC port. This passes video to the TV, and sound is processed directly by the soundbar.

But i have seen soundbars with only 1 hdmi and it is labelled as ARC so how will it work then?

Since my tv was introduced in 2009 (I bought in 2010), i dont think mine has ARC for sure.

 

[codwapeace]

But i have seen soundbars with only 1 hdmi and it is labelled as ARC so how will it work then?

Since my tv was introduced in 2009 (I bought in 2010), i dont think mine has ARC for sure.

Your TV doesn't have ARC. You connect soundbar to the ARC HDMI input (Let's say HDMI3) of your TV so the only function that that particular HDMI port is doing is providing Audio to the soundbar. So, in a sense that HDMI port is wasted. All inputs audio will then be routed to the soundbar including anything connected to HDMI1 and HDMI2. Also the inbuilt TV apps' audio also gets transmitted to the soundbar using the ARC connection. You don't need more than one HDMI output on a soundbar. Some do come with 2 HDMI ports, one input and one output. So, the HDMI3 on the TV doesn't get wasted. If you change to input HDMI3 on the TV, it shows the picture of the HDMI signal connected to the HDMI input of the soundbar.