Any blue ray s550 compatible toslink switches?

[gary s]

I bought a three input to one ouput toslink or optical audio switch, from monoprice.com, which in the past I just had my dishnetwork and directv receivers connected to going to my one input surround sound system. Both those optical audio connections have worked fine.

I now have a sony bdp-s550 blue ray player which puts out no sound when I hook it up to the toslink switch with optical audio cable. If I hook up that same optical audio cable directly to my surround sound system it plays fine. So, as it seems to me and is agreed to by both a sony tech and monoprice tech, my toslink switch must not be compatible with the blue ray player. I don't see how this could be the case but it does seem to be the problem.

Does anyone know of a toslink switch with at least three inputs that is guaranteed to work with a blue ray player, hopefully with a sony s550?

Sorry it took me so long to explain just to get to my question!

 

[KAB]

I'm side-stepping your question a bit, but does your A/V receiver have 5.1 analog inputs? The S550 decodes the audio itself, so you would be getting HD Dolgy and MTS, which you would not get using Toslink.

 

[HD MM]

I bought a three input to one ouput toslink or optical audio switch, from monoprice.com, which in the past I just had my dishnetwork and directv receivers connected to going to my one input surround sound system. Both those optical audio connections have worked fine.

I now have a sony bdp-s550 blue ray player which puts out no sound when I hook it up to the toslink switch with optical audio cable. If I hook up that same optical audio cable directly to my surround sound system it plays fine. So, as it seems to me and is agreed to by both a sony tech and monoprice tech, my toslink switch must not be compatible with the blue ray player. I don't see how this could be the case but it does seem to be the problem.

Does anyone know of a toslink switch with at least three inputs that is guaranteed to work with a blue ray player, hopefully with a sony s550?

Sorry it took me so long to explain just to get to my question!

A few things I need to know.......

1) What type of AVR do you have?

2) I assume you are using the switch because you have a lack of Toslink (aka Optical) inputs on your receiver, huh? How many digital audio connections do you need? How many does your AVR have?

3) Did you know that there is another type of digital audio connection through Digital Coaxial? Most AVR's have both Digital Coaxial and Toslink (Optical) inputs.

 

[gary s]

I'm side-stepping your question a bit, but does your A/V receiver have 5.1 analog inputs? The S550 decodes the audio itself, so you would be getting HD Dolgy and MTS, which you would not get using Toslink.

I do not spend much time in the home theater forum nor have I spent any time in the blue ray forum until I got my blue ray player recently so I am not sure exactly what is meant by A/V receiver but I am figuring it refers to my surround sound system which is actually a Samsung HT-WP38 home theater in a box type system with a regular dvd player and 5.1 Dolby by the optical audio input only, as far as I can tell. I do not know what 5.1 analog inputs are but the only other inputs my Samsung has for audio are a couple of sets of the red, white, and yellow ones for RCA cables, I believe. It also has one set of component out cables which I have going to my tv.

 

[gary s]

A few things I need to know.......

1) What type of AVR do you have?

2) I assume you are using the switch because you have a lack of Toslink (aka Optical) inputs on your receiver, huh? How many digital audio connections do you need? How many does your AVR have?

3) Did you know that there is another type of digital audio connection through Digital Coaxial? Most AVR's have both Digital Coaxial and Toslink (Optical) inputs.

1.) Please see previous post.

2.) That is correct. Currently, I need three. One for a DishNet 622, one for a Directv HR-20, and hopefully one for my Sony BDP-S550 Blue Ray player. My Samsung theater in a box surround sound system has only one optical audio input.

3.) As far as I can tell I do not have a Digital Coaxial input. There is one connection that looks like it is for a coaxial cable but it looks like it says it is for an antennae.

I checked today at Best Buy, Walmart and Radio Shack and none of them have any Toslink switches so I guess I will have to get a different one online and hope it works. They all say they will work with blue ray players but I'm pretty sure the one I have now says the same. I was hoping to find one at a store in town, regardless of the price (well, within a little bit of reason) so I could just take it back if it doesn't work with my blue ray . I just happened to think maybe I should try Frys, which is about 40 miles away. Call them first, of course.

 

[KAB]

I did some research on this. It seems that everyone is selling the same item. From what I've read, the problem comes from, this mentioned specifically, a Directv box hooked to it. Something to do with the optical signal not turning off with the receiver. Have you tried various 2-way combos? BD with Dish? BD with Direct? It seems these things will work fine until sat boxes get into the mix with non sat devices.

It might be time to think about a more versatile system.

 

[bhelms]

Agreed - might be a good time to invest in a receiver, one that at least gives you the 5.1(7.1) analog audio inputs so you can take advantage of the lossless audio tracks on most BDs that the s550 will decode internally. For not a lot of money you could get a better A/V receiver that would accept the lossless bitstreams over HDMI and do the decoding as well. You'll have plenty of HDMI inputs for your other equipment and a lot of additional flexibility. Consider an Onkyo 606 (or whatever newer model is replacing it). Many in these forums are reporting the 606 widely available for $400 or less. You could keep the same speakers for now, but you will need a powered sub...

 

[gary s]

I did some research on this. It seems that everyone is selling the same item. From what I've read, the problem comes from, this mentioned specifically, a Directv box hooked to it. Something to do with the optical signal not turning off with the receiver. Have you tried various 2-way combos? BD with Dish? BD with Direct? It seems these things will work fine until sat boxes get into the mix with non sat devices.

It might be time to think about a more versatile system.

Thanks for all the replies and thanks for researching KAB! The combination of receivers does not seem to be the problem as I hooked up the blue ray by itself to the switch, nothing else connected, and still no sound from the surround system.

I can't afford to upgrade to a new A/V receiver at this time since I just got a new tv and I only have the blue ray player because they gave it to me at no extra cost with the tv.

The reason I got the "home theater in a box" system I did was because it has what they refer to as wireless rear speakers. Although it does require a seperate little speaker receiver at the back of the room and the rear speakers have wires going to them from that.

 

[abisdabis]

I bought a three input to one ouput toslink or optical audio switch, from monoprice.com, which in the past I just had my dishnetwork and directv receivers connected to going to my one input surround sound system. Both those optical audio connections have worked fine.

I now have a sony bdp-s550 blue ray player which puts out no sound when I hook it up to the toslink switch with optical audio cable. If I hook up that same optical audio cable directly to my surround sound system it plays fine. So, as it seems to me and is agreed to by both a sony tech and monoprice tech, my toslink switch must not be compatible with the blue ray player. I don't see how this could be the case but it does seem to be the problem.

Does anyone know of a toslink switch with at least three inputs that is guaranteed to work with a blue ray player, hopefully with a sony s550?

Sorry it took me so long to explain just to get to my question!

On the BD-S550 there is an audio out priority. You need to set it to Coax/Optical so the optical or coax will work.

 

[gary s]

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I have ordered a different switch online but I am expecting the same results but hoping for the best. The product info does say it will work with satellite receivers and blue ray/HDDVD but nothing about whether they would work in combination.

If I could get a switch that will only work for the blue ray if it is hooked up by itself that would be acceptable to me although not the optimum solution. It would be much easier to connect or disconnect toslink cables at the switch rather than the back of my surround sound system.

 

[gary s]

On the BD-S550 there is an audio out priority. You need to set it to Coax/Optical so the optical or coax will work.

I do have it set to that. Thanks.

 

[abisdabis]

I do have it set to that. Thanks.

Sorry abiut that. I mis read (read to fast).

 

[jrbdmb]

Any update? I will note that the Monoprice Toslink switch has gotten a lot of bad reviews (rare for a Monoprice product) for being mechanically unreliable, esp. after a period of use. There's a good chance your issue is due to a bad switch (or at least one bad port on the switch).

 

[dlma1]

I would recommend a device from cables to go. They have proven to be very reliable. I am using this one: Cables To Go - Digital Audio Explorer Toslink Selector Switch to conect a Pioneer Elite 94 Blu-Ray, a Toshiba A30 HDDVD player and a JVC DVHS to my receiver (a Yamaha, can't remember model number). As others have stated, since you get sound when you connect directly, it seems like the switch is to blame.

 

[gary s]

I got my new switch from SmartDigital. Found them on a google search. I have not dealt with them before. But I went with them because they had a picture of the switch, I thought, and it was quite different than the one I had.

When the new switch came, you probably all heard my displeasure wherever you are. It looks exactly like the non-working switch I had gotten from monoprice. However, I tried it anyway, and to my great surprise and pleasure, it did work. I hooked up the blue ray by itself first and it worked. Then I hooked up the dishnetwork receiver too and they both worked. And last, I hooked up the directv and I am quite happy to say all three worked.

That was probably about a week ago and I have not tried the blue ray since. Too much dvr stuff to catch up and try to stay up with. Hopefully, it still works when I try it next time.

I meant to post an update right away when I tried the new switch but I forgot. Sorry about that.

I guess the old switch was just not working correctly.