This is strange.

My girlfriend got a new TV, and its built-in speakers sound awful. I'm thinking of getting her an HDMI "soundbar" with good sound. The reason for getting that kind of a device specifically is because her TV supports the HDMI CEC ARC (audio return channel) spec, thus (supposedly) allowing her to control the volume of the sound bar via the volume up/down on the television's remote, for the ultimate in simplicity. If everything works as the instruction manuals say they will, it should be the simplest setup ever, without needing to buy and program a universal remote or to worry about changing inputs on a full-blown stereo system.

There are many products in this relatively new product category. I'm thinking of getting her a Sony HT-CT370 because they have them at Best Buy right now and it looks like it has the feature set and the sound that we want.

But she's looking at the manual for the thing ( http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/4488970213.pdf ) and there's a deeply confusing statement in the manual. The statement reads:



It was a particularly nice catch on her part, I wouldn't have expected to look for something like that. It makes me wonder... what the heck is UP with that? Why on earth would they design a product which deliberately nerfs the very content you want to play through it?

Can anyone think of a reason why it would be designed that way?

Or is that a typo, or some kind of translation error, when actually what they mean is "if you try to play pirated content it won't make sound"?

Any ideas there?

It also makes me wonder about every other product on the market in that category. If one company supports HDCP in that way, what do the other soundbar companies do?

Is the connection to the subwoofer analogue? I bet HDCP makes you promise not to emit audio on analogue connectors.

Peter

Weird. My parents just got a different Sony soundbar (HT-XT1) that was an all-in-one affair that the TV sits on top of. The remote control CEC/ARC stuff totally works. THere are downward facing drivers (2x6") that give it some bottom range, although you'll never confuse it for high fidelity.

I don't recall seeing anything about HDCP policies like this in the manual, so Peter's theory about the external connection might be correct. Still, every 5.1 home theater receiver has an analog line level output for a self-powered sub, so this might be an overzealous interpretation of the HDMI HDCP requirements.

If you've got the space to have a home theater receiver, then you might consider an *unpowered* soundbar. I think Polk makes one that I heard once and thought was pretty decent. You just connect left/right/center to the soundbar from your amp and you're good to go.

The connection to the subwoofer is wireless, but you're right, for the purposes of HDCP it's probably treated the same as an analog connection (ie, a connection without any HDCP control on it).

I'm wondering if the whole thing is an oversimplification of a description of how the HDCP "Repeater Bit" works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCP_repeater_bit

We are indeed looking at that exact HT-XT1 model as a potential possibility too. It's good to know I'm talking to someone with hands-on experience. Can you give me a better impression of its bottom range? My expectation is that it would sound pretty much the same as the model I mentioned above with the separate subwoofer. i.e., it has decent bass for watching TV and movies, and normal-volume music listening. Most of the inexpensive separate subwoofer units have very small drivers anyway, not any bigger than what's included in the HT-XT1.

For reference, what's she's using right now is a set of Logitech computer speakers with a very small wired subwoofer. Basically this kind of thing, but an older model in that class. It sounds fantastically good, much better than the speakers built into the TV. And that is plenty for what we need. If the HT-XT1 sounds pretty much like that kind of thing, then we're golden and I'll probably pick up an HT-XT1 at Best Buy today.

One of the big advantages of the HT-XT1 is that it reduces the clutter associated with having a separate sound system for your TV set. In her case, she's setting the TV on a small coffee table in the middle of the living room, and the coffee table is on slidey feet so she can reposition it when she rearranges her living room to have guests over for Game Night. The simpler the setup, the easier that is to do. With the HT-XT1, then the only thing connecting that table to anything will be a single power cord. So that's making the HT-XT1 look very attractive at this point.

It's interesting to note that the HT-XT1 manual does *not* contain the little note in the manual about silencing the subwoofer on HDCP content. The manual is very similar, it just doesn't say that the subwoofer will have that particular problem. So I'm wondering if the theory about a separate connection to the subwoofer is somehow part of the explanation.





The whole point of getting one of those soundbars is to *avoid* a separate home theater receiver. And specifically to take advantage of the CEC/ARC thing so there does not have to be a separate volume control for the audio device.

Right now she's using the computer speakers that are plugged into the TV's headphone jack, and they have a wired volume knob puck. The problem is that the TV's volume control does not affect its headphone jack, so changing the volume on the TV means getting up and walking to the wired volume puck. We're looking to replace those computer speakers with something that is equivalent in sound but is controlled by the CEC/ARC volume control thing.

My impression of the HT-XT1 is that it's *not* a high fidelity device. Unfortunately, the downward-firing drivers push the sound in all sorts of directions, reverberating around in the space behind your TV, etc.

If you want to listen to music or movies and have it sound like a proper multichannel sound system, buy something else. If you want a low-visual solution to make a skinny-bezel TV sound kinda better than the useless built-in speakers, and you want all the HDMI/CEC/ARC goodness and UI simplicity, then the Sony is for you.

That said, with some acoustic foam and a bunch of tinkering, I'll bet you could make the Sony an awful lot better than it sounds in my parents' place.

Thanks!

We ended up getting one yesterday and I agree with your assessment. Some bass exists but it's not really "full". We shall decide if it's a keeper, or if it's going back in exchange for a unit with a separate subwoofer.