Can you please educate me on if my Bose Life Style V35 system can function properly with a new 4K tv (Sony XBR X950H)? If so, what if any updates or changes will I need to make to my Bose system. If not what options do you suggest for me to consider for a theater system for this tv.
Thank you for any help you can provide.
Regards
Sal
Yes and no.
This Lifestyle won't have 4K pass through. So any 4K devices you have will plug directly into the TV. As long as your TV sound goes through to the Bose (probably an optical cable) you should be fine. You may have to use separate remotes for those devices (Or you may be able to just use the TV remote). This way you get the 4K video, but the sound still goes through to the Bose. There may be a slight loss of sound quality (depends on your TV more than anything) but most people wouldn't notice.
I strongly recommend avoiding using any optical cables since your Bose unit can accept HDMI, which provides superior sound quality. I strongly recommend leveraging ARC or eARC for sound if available. Here is an article that explains what it is:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/hdmi-arc-explained-works-care/
However that Lifestyle doesn't have ARC or eARC, or 4k passthrough. Which is why I recommended optical as the best way for him to get sound.
Then the best way, if the component has dual HDMI out, is to connect one HDMI directly to the 4K television and the other directly to the Bose receiver. That would avoid compressing the multichannel audio like when you use an optical cable.
Use HDMI out of Bose to HDMI in on TV. Use another HDMI from TV HDMI out to Bose HDMI in. Only use optical if you can't use HDMI for some reason.
The simplest solution is to connect everything to the TV. Sadly this Lifestyle system does not support eARC so you would have to use the optical out of your TV to your Lifestyle system.
The problem with that is optical cables only send PCM 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1, or DTS 5.1. They cannot send uncompressed audio formats to the Lifestyle system.
Not only that but a lot of TV's do not output 5.1 for HDMI sources connected to them only PCM 2.0 (be aware that sometimes internal TV sources like apps do output 5.1). So, before you do anything test and see if your TV outputs 5.1 or 2.0 using optic and a source you know outputs 5.1 via HDMI.
I would like to point out what cables can support what formats:
If you don't care about uncompressed audio & your TV outputs 5.1 you might just want to keep it as it is, but there might be better solutions.
Before I continue, I would probably purchase a harmony remote or something similar that can control the system and everything else connected (just wait for a sale as I did on Black Friday). Though you can use it with the included switch remote to change sources.
1. Get a device with two HDMI Audio outs:
Some devices support two HDMI outs like this 4K BluRay player.
Most cable & satellite boxes do not support uncompressed audio for their TV channels. Though some apps built into the system might. So this might be a great way to connect everything to your TV and use your Blu-Ray for the apps.
If you are like me and your TV does not output 5.1 but only 2.0 then connect your 4k video to the TV and send the SPDIF/Optical cable to your Lifestyle system.
This is why a universal remote like what I mentioned earlier would make using your system with this type of setup a lot easier.
2. Get an HDMI switch with 2 HDMI outs :
I found an HDMI switch with 2 HDMI outs that supports 4k @ 60hz... but as I said earlier it might help... I do not know if you can connect in a 4k source and have it send 4k video to the TV and if the audio will still go to the Lifestyle system or if the 4k source will make the system not recognise the signal. There is a chance that it might not and you'll get no sound at all... This switch might send HDMI audio-only as it includes a few options, but seeing as I do not have a 4k TV I cannot test this out for myself.
This HDMI 4x2 switch features 4 HDMI in's and 2 HDMI outs
This specific switch is currently sold out on Amazon but I found it on Ali Express. If you want a different HDMI switch just avoid Matrix switches. They allow you to send out different audio/video sources and could make using it a pain.
If you can find an HDMI switch with 2 HDMI outs and one only sends out HDMI Audio and no video then you know for sure it'll work. I did find another switch that said it has an HDMI audio out port, but you have to bulk buy it. So, it does exist, I just haven't looked that hard for one.
Now if it works as I hope it will with 4K sources :
Using this setup will still give you the full 5.1 surround experience you are used to as this is what your Lifestyle system is capable of supporting:
I did find some Audio only HDMI splitters/switches out there.
Here are some HDMI splitters that feature an HDMI audio out:
It looks like the 4x2 HDMI switches with "HDMI Audio Only", as I mentioned in my previous post, are listed as an HDMI 4x1 switch. It appears this is because the HDMI audio-only port isn't counted as a full HDMI out.
Hope those finding might be able to help you. Let me know what you end up doing, especially if you find another #x2 HDMI Audio out switch 🙂
