Home AV Question (I'm an Idiot)
 

The wife and I built a house a couple years ago. We are just now getting around to getting a TV to mount over the fireplace. When we build the house we ran an HDMI cable from the back of the fireplace to the hall closet which will house all of the TV components (blu-ray, sound, TV box). There is power, internet, and TV hookups in the closet.

While we are pre-wired for surround sound in the ceiling. We have decided to not put speakers in the ceiling for aesthetic reasons. We also plan to put a man-cave in the basement next year so feel its not necessary to do up stairs.

Instead we want to have a sound bar with the TV with a wireless subwoofer.

Here is my question.

Is the sound bar wired to the TV and then the TV is linked via the HDMI cable or am I going to have to run a cable from the sound bar to the power unit.

It depends on the sound bar. Mine is wired straight to my tv. They make wireless ones now too.

You should be able to do it in multiple fashions. However, it depends on how you're setup is.

In general, you don't want to run sound to the TV and THEN to the soundbar.

The digital signal from the HDMI has to be decoded by your TV. Your TV decodes it, then turns around and RE-ENCODES it to output it to your soundbar.

All of that takes time, and even though it's just milliseconds, it will often produce a condition where the sound is out-of-sync with the video.

I'd connect an optical cable from your TV receiver to the sound bar.

Done.

Why don't you want to get recessed speakers? They can be put into the ceiling without being overtly noticeable and the sound quality is generally significantly better.

Just a thought.

This. Although it may be a bitch hiding that cable depending on the placement of everything.

Thanks guys. I think my problem was that I was looking at a Sony, which has an attached speaker cable. Different brand solved the problem.

I have recessed speakers in my basement theater and they rule. I have 7.1 with the 4 surround speakers in the celing over the seating area. They have magnetic speaker covers that look great.