# TIVO - Soundbar Recommendation



## ghuido (May 9, 2007)

I am working through updating the AV System I have in the basement.

One the items I am looking at is a soundbar, really don't want a lot of speakers and wires since it is also going to be a child play room.

I searched the community, and found a lot of questions on Soundbars and TIVO Remotes Codes.

Like to ask the question of what is a really good soundbar people recommend in the $500-$750 price range.

I was originally looking at SONOS but wanted to keep an open mind.

This is a link that had some recommendations i saw

http://www.whathifi.com/news/best-soundbars-to-buy-in-2013


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## eric102 (Oct 31, 2012)

I'm using the JBL SB400 sound bar and subwoofer in a large master bedroom with a TiVo mini and it really fills the room up with nice quality sound. I don't know if JBL codes are built into the basic remote but a TiVo slide remote (which I use) learns them easily.


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## ghuido (May 9, 2007)

Thanks I looked at the JBL this morning looks pretty good. 

I saw it can learn the TV Volume and Mute so that answer one question I had.

The other is, what about Power ON.

Can turning the TV On send the MDMI EC command to turn the soundbar? 

My current set up upstairs if the TV Is turned on the Receiver comes out of standby.

Hate to give the S.O. the issue of having to turn on both of them.


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## eric102 (Oct 31, 2012)

The TiVo learning remotes can turn on/off multiple devices at the same time.

I'm using optical out from my TV so have no idea if the TV's HDMI control could turn on the JBL soundbar. I think the specs say it should but in my experience with other the devices in the past that's no guarantee it will work.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I use a Sony Soundbar. I like the Sonys because for years they were one of the few that accepted 7.1 pcm and HDMI inputs. My current Sony speaker bar does that and also accepts the advanced audio codecs like DD+, Dolby True HD, DTS-HD MA, etc.. I got a great deal on it last year at Best Buy for only around $250 with a 4 year extended warranty.


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## MacBrian (Feb 24, 2002)

I've got the Vizio s4251wb4:

http://hometheaterreview.com/vizio-s4251w-b4-soundbar-and-wireless-sub-reviewed/

Very happy with it. Sam's Club had them for $218 last week. There might still be some!


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

Bleh. Get real surround sound. Put the wires under a rug if there's no other way to run them. Nothing will ever be as good as real surround sound.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

@ghuido,

I didn't catch which model TiVo you have, or the TV.

I think that would be good to know for the folks trying to advise you.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Bigg said:


> Bleh. Get real surround sound. Put the wires under a rug if there's no other way to run them. Nothing will ever be as good as real surround sound.


Not much point in having a full surround system at every location you watch TV. A sound bar works very good in certain situations. Although I personally wouldn't want to use it in my main viewing area. But many people do. There is certainly nothing wrong with it. And it can be miles better than the audio you will get from the TV speakers.


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

MacBrian said:


> I've got the Vizio s4251wb4:
> 
> http://hometheaterreview.com/vizio-s4251w-b4-soundbar-and-wireless-sub-reviewed/
> 
> Very happy with it. Sam's Club had them for $218 last week. There might still be some!


I have this and have quite enjoyed it. Real surround with minimal clutter as there's no receiver and the rear speakers are attached to the sub, which wirelessly communicates with the bar. However, if you have more than once source at the TV and your TV doesn't pass 5.1, you get sorta fake surround. The lack of inputs has been a pain point for me. I bought an optical switch that sucks and manually flip the cable for some things. Really annoying. The new, larger 2014 model has dual HDMI inputs but the price is also double...


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## aridon (Aug 31, 2006)

Polk makes a great sound bar and wireless sub. 4k series I think is the one I have and you can get one for around $350.

Blowing $700+ on a sound bar is a waste of money. You can get a really nice 5.1 for that from Defininitive Technology for that price.

You hit severe diminishing returns on sound quality vs price around $400.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> Not much point in having a full surround system at every location you watch TV. A sound bar works very good in certain situations. Although I personally wouldn't want to use it in my main viewing area. But many people do. There is certainly nothing wrong with it. And it can be miles better than the audio you will get from the TV speakers.


If you sit down and watch TV there, you should have full surround sound. If it's a TV you have for folding laundry or in the kitchen, then the TV's sound or a very small pair of speakers would be fine...

And a GOOD surround system for the main viewing location is a must. I cringe every time I see someone using TV sound or a soundbar, as they clearly don't understand how critical good surround sound is.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Bigg said:


> If you sit down and watch TV there, you should have full surround sound. If it's a TV you have for folding laundry or in the kitchen, then the TV's sound or a very small pair of speakers would be fine...
> 
> And a GOOD surround system for the main viewing location is a must. I cringe every time I see someone using TV sound or a soundbar, as they clearly don't understand how critical good surround sound is.


The majority of people just don't care. Just like they don't care about video quality. I know I will take a decent sound bar over the TV speakers any day. Given how bad the TV speakers are but that is what the vast majority of people use for audio from their TV.

But with my main display I went to surround sound with five speakers in 1991 and then to a 5.1 system in 1996 and a 7.1 system in 2001. Which is what I've been at since.

I was skeptical when I first got a sound bar around six years ago for a secondary viewing location. But it did a great job in a small rectangular room producing sound on the sides of the room. Plus it handled 7.1 pcm audio and had HDMI inputs. A full fledged 7.1 system was not going to happen in that room. Well at least not with the TV. I used to have a 7.1 system on my PC in that room 12 years ago but got rid of it a while ago. But the PC monitors are on a different wall.


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## MacBrian (Feb 24, 2002)

davezatz said:


> I have this and have quite enjoyed it. Real surround with minimal clutter as there's no receiver and the rear speakers are attached to the sub, which wirelessly communicates with the bar. However, if you have more than once source at the TV and your TV doesn't pass 5.1, you get sorta fake surround. The lack of inputs has been a pain point for me. I bought an optical switch that sucks and manually flip the cable for some things. Really annoying. The new, larger 2014 model has dual HDMI inputs but the price is also double...


@davezatz: Your website was very instrumental in my decision to buy the Vizio! Thanks, I'm very pleased with it after having gone through and returned other alternatives. I have my Tivo Premiere connected to the Vizio via the Optical port. I have an Apple TV connected via the digital coax port using a Monoprice optical-to-digital coax adapter. Finally I have a Mac Mini attached using the analog audio in (earphone plug), so unfortunately I'm only getting stereo (not digital) from the Mac. I'm got an old Harmony 649 I use to handle all the input switching. I rarely watch movies on the Mac Mini so it's OK to have just stereo sound coming from it. The Vizio sound bar has been a hugely successful solution to the awful TV speakers and the Spousal Approval Factor is 99% since the Harmony is only needed when switching to something other than the Tivo! (We use the Tivo Glo remote for everyday Tivo use because it controls the power and volume on the sound bar and because the Tivo remote is the BEST REMOTE EVER.) heehee...


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> The majority of people just don't care. Just like they don't care about video quality.


That's the problem. That's why the MSOs get away with sending over-compressed signals that look like crap, and why there's so much junk on the audio side out there...


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

I don't do any surround sound. I used to be big on it, but got tired of it because....

I spent too much time fidgeting with the sound levels, and other settings when I had 5 speakers and a sub woofer. It really annoyed me as much as excited me. 

That was probably 6 years ago or so. I haven't gone back to or thought about surround since.

I do have a good HK AVR3600 receiver and some bookshelf RTI Polk Audio speakers. Even then I just started looking recently at a simple soundbar that takes up less space and is less hassle.

I just want is something that plugs into my tv and outputs enough nice clean sound to fill a living room and uses the tv remote. I tried a cheap Vizio many years ago and returned it.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

trip1eX said:


> I don't do any surround sound. I used to be big on it, but got tired of it because....
> 
> I spent too much time fidgeting with the sound levels, and other settings when I had 5 speakers and a sub woofer. It really annoyed me as much as excited me.
> 
> ...


Sounds like something was wrong with that setup, or you didn't have an AVR with automatic calibration... Mine can do all the balancing automatically. It's super easy to do.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Bigg said:


> Sounds like something was wrong with that setup, or you didn't have an AVR with automatic calibration... Mine can do all the balancing automatically. It's super easy to do.


Sound level calibration is a factor of where you sit and nothing can automatically calibrate as you switch sitting positions.

Then programming is always different in how it treats the surround levels and cable always messes with the sound processing. And then some programming was annoying with surround. Some just repeated what the front speakers had in the back. Then there was often noticeable static in the back speakers in some programming because the back speakers were much closer to my ears than the front speakers.

And then I always remember switching modes to accommodate various programming. And the more you get into making sure the sound is "perfect" the more you tend to be annoyed by little differences and the more time you spend time fiddling or wondering why xyz is different than before.

then messing with different remotes or making sure receiver turned on when you turned on the tv and turned off when you turned off the tv. And then surround limits your ability to say move the couch to a different wall or something.

AT the end of the day I did without and haven't looked back or missed it. I guess for me finding great programming is 99% of the battle. And once I achieve that then it is hard for me to be dissatisfied.

All I really want and I think a large part of the market wants is a simple dumb set of clean sounding speakers that seamlessly plug into the simple tv experience of on/off and volume adjustment. The user, other than seeing it, shouldn't even know it is there otherwise.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

SOmething was wrong with your setup. I've been running a 7.1 system in my main display area since 2001. I've never had any issues like that. And I've used five, 7.1, receivers during that time period. And what's available today is miles better than what was available back then. For the last 6.5 years I've been using a Denon 3808 and have been very pleased with it. If I had issues like that then I would probably sour on a surround system. But I started using my first surround system in 1991, in a 5.0 setup, and since then I couldn't go backwards in my main setup.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

aaronwt said:


> SOmething was wrong with your setup. I've been running a 7.1 system in my main display area since 2001. I've never had any issues like that. And I've used five, 7.1, receivers during that time period. And what's available today is miles better than what was available back then. For the last 6.5 years I've been using a Denon 3808 and have been very pleased with it. If I had issues like that then I would probably sour on a surround system. But I started using my first surround system in 1991, in a 5.0 setup, and since then I couldn't go backwards in my main setup.


nothing was wrong with my setup.

one person can be pleased with the same thing that turns another person off.


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## SatManager (Feb 2, 2012)

ghuido said:


> I am working through updating the AV System I have in the basement.
> 
> One the items I am looking at is a soundbar, really don't want a lot of speakers and wires since it is also going to be a child play room.
> 
> ...


I wasn't qualified to comment until today when my TiVo was delivered but my Sonos system works with no problem with the TiVo remote and my Samsung TV.


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

MacBrian said:


> @davezatz: Your website was very instrumental in my decision to buy the Vizio! Thanks, I'm very pleased with it after having gone through and returned other alternatives. I have my Tivo Premiere connected to the Vizio via the Optical port. I have an Apple TV connected via the digital coax port using a Monoprice optical-to-digital coax adapter.


Nice! Does the optical-to-digital thingy require power? My TV stand is this low profile, modern job where just about everything is exposed. So I'm extra sensitive to clutter. :/ I tried a non-powered optical switch from Monoproce that was larger than I had expected and pretty junky. Since giving up on that, I run Apple/Fire TV and TiVo Mini to TV and out to soundbar for faked surround EXCEPT when watching movies or binge watching series from either device and then I manually move optical from STB to bar.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

trip1eX said:


> nothing was wrong with my setup.
> 
> one person can be pleased with the same thing that turns another person off.


If you had to constantly fiddle with your levels, then something was wrong. You should not need to be messing with your speaker levels once everything is setup properly. Even when I had to use a sound level meter to calibrate the systems manually(before auto calibration was around) there was no needed to mess with the individual levels once things were setup properly.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

aaronwt said:


> If you had to constantly fiddle with your levels, then something was wrong. You should not need to be messing with your speaker levels once everything is setup properly. Even when I had to use a sound level meter to calibrate the systems manually(before auto calibration was around) there was no needed to mess with the individual levels once things were setup properly.


You bought 5 receivers in 5 or 10 years and used sound level meters to check your sound and you're telling me there is no need to mess with levels or fiddle with stuff????

It sounds like you did a ton of fiddling and think nothing of it. 

Anyway that was just one annoyance among a handful that I tried to articulate in a few sentences.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

trip1eX said:


> You bought 5 receivers in 5 or 10 years and used sound level meters to check your sound and you're telling me there is no need to mess with levels or fiddle with stuff????
> 
> It sounds like you did a ton of fiddling and think nothing of it.
> 
> Anyway that was just one annoyance among a handful that I tried to articulate in a few sentences.


The SPL meter was used before they had auto calibration. I used the sound level meters between 1991 and around 2005. After that the receivers I had all had auto-calibration. I had all denons with auto-calibration(Prior to that I had Sony receivers). A 3805, a 28xx series for a few weeks, a 3806, and a 3808 for the last 6.5 years. And I now have a Denon 4520 on the way.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

aaronwt said:


> The SPL meter was used before they had auto calibration. I used the sound level meters between 1991 and around 2005. After that the receivers I had all had auto-calibration. I had all denons with auto-calibration(Prior to that I had Sony receivers). A 3805, a 28xx series for a few weeks, a 3806, and a 3808 for the last 6.5 years. And I now have a Denon 4520 on the way.


Exactly. You're into all that. I just want good clean even sound.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

trip1eX said:


> Sound level calibration is a factor of where you sit and nothing can automatically calibrate as you switch sitting positions.


My AVR calibrates to a main position, and two secondary positions. No matter how you calibrate, you have to calibrate to _something_.



> Then programming is always different in how it treats the surround levels and cable always messes with the sound processing. And then some programming was annoying with surround. Some just repeated what the front speakers had in the back. Then there was often noticeable static in the back speakers in some programming because the back speakers were much closer to my ears than the front speakers.


After a while, you learn what modes on your AVR work for what content. Surround sound on ESPN is amazing, many other channels suck or barely have surround sound at all.... If there was static, there was something majorly messed up with that setup!



> All I really want and I think a large part of the market wants is a simple dumb set of clean sounding speakers that seamlessly plug into the simple tv experience of on/off and volume adjustment. The user, other than seeing it, shouldn't even know it is there otherwise.


A large part of the market just doesn't know what they're missing with a good 7.1 setup. Or soon, a good 7.1.4 setup!



aaronwt said:


> SOmething was wrong with your setup. I've been running a 7.1 system in my main display area since 2001. I've never had any issues like that. And I've used five, 7.1, receivers during that time period. And what's available today is miles better than what was available back then. For the last 6.5 years I've been using a Denon 3808 and have been very pleased with it. If I had issues like that then I would probably sour on a surround system. But I started using my first surround system in 1991, in a 5.0 setup, and since then I couldn't go backwards in my main setup.


Agreed.


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## glanderkin (Nov 17, 2014)

will tivo roamio pro work with a bose solo 15


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

glanderkin said:


> will tivo roamio pro work with a bose solo 15


That appears to connect directly to the TV, so the relevant question would be, does it work with your TV? The answer is most likely yes, since it can accept RCA or optical inputs. That actually looks like a good idea for a small secondary TV to get better sound without a lot of clutter. Definitely not a replacement for a real surround sound system on a primary TV though.


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