Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Output from Samsung soundbar disappointing from Smart TV

Feb 15, 2016 11:46PM PST

This question is regarding the Samsung TV combined with a Samsung soundbar that I have at my house in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Hence the model numbers may not relate to US versions but I would reckon that the principle will be the same [?]. TV = UA46D5500RRXXT and soundbar is HW-J450. I have tried all the recommended connection options [currently optical ] but the max vol sound level is simply not what I expected. TV switched to external speakers; I did find a small improvement when I set the basic TV vol up to max before switching to external speaker mode. If I use the 'Smart' aspect and load a YouTube music video the max vol is much greater. Most of my viewing is via an android box connected via a 30gig FO link.

Footnote: I have had a good historical link with Samsung products but [related to this question] I have to say that this TV has dulled the appeal. The reason for the soundbar was due to the onboard speakers failing [not the first to report this on a slim 'LED' TV with this [or other brands] for sure and the soundbar appeared to offer the best solution; even though my question relates to maximum sound output it's just a general family TV which is set mid-range most of the time.
The other problem was that [just a few months out of warranty ... I can buy a car with 5 year warranty but the TV just has 1 year!?!?] ... the top five inches of the screen went into 'pixelmania' and we could only watch cinema profile with a light-show across the top. Our supplier [fully accredited by Samsung] said "not our problem, we will talk to Samsung" the response we were given was "Samsung say out of warranty". They [the supplier] did offer "the only possible solution" of "a new screen panel" for something like $550. We simply watched our [other brand] TV for a while and surprisingly the Samsung partially healed itself ... praise be. We do still have a line across the screen where the 'pixelmania' ended but it's watch-able; we have a lot of Samsung products but also had a lot of Sony products before they lost the plot some time back.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Clarification Request
Response
Feb 19, 2016 8:40PM PST

Samsung_HD_Tech not interested in responding to this?

- Collapse -
Lack of interest from Samsung will be reciprocated .........
Feb 26, 2016 10:16PM PST

After Samsung_HD_Tech could not even be bothered to respond it looks like my many years of buying their products has come to an end. The end is nigh and I will certainly spread the word on my blog.