How to get sound from my TV/cablebox to my Philips HTS?

To send the audio from a cable box of other source you will need to connect the audio out or digital audio out (coaxial) to your home theater.

Note: You might experience A/V Sync (Lip-sync) issues if you use the above method, in which case you will have to use audio/video lag correction features or speaker distance control in your Home Theatre.

To send the audio from the TV or cable without a box you will need to have audio outputs on the TV to connect to the Home Theater.

Based on your HTS model number, your HTS will have either:

Coaxial Digital Audio (S/PDIF) [Orange or Black RCA Jack]

Or

Coaxial Digital Audio (S/PDIF) [Orange or Black RCA Jack] and L/R (Stereo) Audio [Red & White RCA Jacks]

There are primarily two kinds of audio connections you can make to output sound from your TV to external audio devices such as Home Theaters, Soundbars, AV Receivers, etc.

Use a Digital Audio (S/PDIF) Coaxial cable to connect from the Coaxial Digital Audio (S/PDIF) [Orange or Black RCA Jack] to the Coaxial Digital Audio (S/PDIF) Orange or Black RCA Jack] on your Home Theater.

Note: If you are using the Digital Audio connection you must change the source on the Home Theater to “Coax.”

Use a Stereo RCA cable to connect from the L/R (Stereo) Audio Red & White RCA Jacks] to the L/R (Stereo) Audio [Red & White RCA Jacks] on your Home Theater.

Note: If you are using the Analog Audio connection you must change the source on the Home Theater to “Analog.”

The S/PDIF jacks on your TV & external audio devices could be labelled S/PDIF, Digital Audio, Optical Audio, TOSLINK or Digital Coaxial. They are all the same digital audio format which is S/PDIF = Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format.

In general, you would connect from an RCA jack to an RCA jack using a Digital Coaxial Cable or from an Optical port to an Optical port using an Optical/TOSLINK cable.

What should I do if I have a mismatch of S/PDIF ports?

TV has Optical OUT but HTS has Digital Coaxial IN:
Use an Optical to Digital Coaxial converter

TV has Digital Coaxial OUT but HTS has Optical IN:
Use a Digital Coaxial to Optical converter

• S/PDIF = Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format
• Optical & Coaxial both use S/PDIF (= digital audio)
• Both are equally good and identical since they are digital
• Optical connections need clean connectors and cabling which cannot be bent at sharp angles

Use a Digital Audio to Analog Audio Converter