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vra24

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 24, 2010
34
2
I recently got a vizio sound bar for my vizio tv and no longer have the little sound effects and clicks that the ATV has when navigating. If you click several tv repeatedly it will make the noises but that it. Also if i turn the tv speakers back on the clicks are there. Any ideas?
 

westrock2000

macrumors 6502a
Oct 18, 2013
524
22
I recently got a vizio sound bar for my vizio tv and no longer have the little sound effects and clicks that the ATV has when navigating. If you click several tv repeatedly it will make the noises but that it. Also if i turn the tv speakers back on the clicks are there. Any ideas?

I would guess that what is happening is that the sound bar has an "auto-mute" feature at some point in the circuitry that is turning off the sound and the click is so short that it's being lost in the transition of turning on the sound.

I have seen this in a couple amps and powered speakers that get over ambitious on saving power.

The device will go into mute if there is no sound for 30 seconds or whatever its set to and when a short sound gets played the sound activates the audio, but the sound is already done by the time the audio comes online. I have an old JBL amplifier on the my server that has this type of circuitry and when you click on the volume slider in Windows it makes a "ding" sound. The first ding is the cut off, but any subsequent dings sound fine until the amp goes into sleep mode again.

Now that being said, there may be a power saving option in the soundbar that you can change (might be called Auto On/Off or something), but most likely it's hard coded into either the pre-amplifier or the amplifier section of the sound bar.

It helps reduce power, but it also helps mask the background "static" that device is making if it auto-mutes quickly so you don't walk by and hear the static.
 

vra24

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 24, 2010
34
2
I would guess that what is happening is that the sound bar has an "auto-mute" feature at some point in the circuitry that is turning off the sound and the click is so short that it's being lost in the transition of turning on the sound.

I have seen this in a couple amps and powered speakers that get over ambitious on saving power.

The device will go into mute if there is no sound for 30 seconds or whatever its set to and when a short sound gets played the sound activates the audio, but the sound is already done by the time the audio comes online. I have an old JBL amplifier on the my server that has this type of circuitry and when you click on the volume slider in Windows it makes a "ding" sound. The first ding is the cut off, but any subsequent dings sound fine until the amp goes into sleep mode again.

Now that being said, there may be a power saving option in the soundbar that you can change (might be called Auto On/Off or something), but most likely it's hard coded into either the pre-amplifier or the amplifier section of the sound bar.

It helps reduce power, but it also helps mask the background "static" that device is making if it auto-mutes quickly so you don't walk by and hear the static.

Makes sense i think it has a power save option in the menu ill look into it. If not i can live with it. I just kinda bugs.
 

creativet

macrumors member
Nov 1, 2012
40
2
Toronto, ON
I have a vizio sound bar model VSB200-NA http://store.vizio.com/vsb200-na.html. Make sure the following options are set in AppleTV.

Sound Effects = ON, Dolby Digital = Auto/Off, Audio Output = Auto

Not sure if you have the same model, but if you do, be aware that it can only send PCM digital audio over S/PDIF Fiber Optic TOSLINK Input. It will not play AC3 audio. If I set the AppleTV option "Dolby Digital = ON", all i hear is an inital crackle then silence, and the sound bars' LEDs just keep flashing. I only get 2 channel AAC from my m4v encodes. Seeing as it's in my bedroom, it really isn't a big deal. It has great sounding SRS HD processing.

This is a good quick and dirty check of things concerning Vizio sound bars'
http://www.ehow.com/info_10060566_vizio-soundbar-problems.html and this review at http://soundbar.com/vizio-vsb200/
 
Last edited:

vra24

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 24, 2010
34
2
I have a vizio sound bar model VSB200-NA http://store.vizio.com/vsb200-na.html. Make sure the following options are set in AppleTV.

Sound Effects = ON, Dolby Digital = Auto/Off, Audio Output = Auto

Not sure if you have the same model, but if you do, be aware that it can only send PCM digital audio over S/PDIF Fiber Optic TOSLINK Input. It will not play AC3 audio. If I set the AppleTV option "Dolby Digital = ON", all i hear is an inital crackle then silence, and the sound bars' LEDs just keep flashing. I only get 2 channel AAC from my m4v encodes. Seeing as it's in my bedroom, it really isn't a big deal. It has great sounding SRS HD processing.

This is a good quick and dirty check of things concerning Vizio sound bars'
http://www.ehow.com/info_10060566_vizio-soundbar-problems.html and this review at http://soundbar.com/vizio-vsb200/

Thanks for the reply. This is the soundbar I'm using. http://store.vizio.com/home-theater/s4221wc4.html I've messed with all the settings, turning thing off and on again, and nothing seems to bring back the clicks. It must have something to do with the power saving idea because I can faintly hear them when I have music playing and click around.
 

vtstarck

macrumors regular
Jun 16, 2009
216
7
I recently got a vizio sound bar for my vizio tv and no longer have the little sound effects and clicks that the ATV has when navigating. If you click several tv repeatedly it will make the noises but that it. Also if i turn the tv speakers back on the clicks are there. Any ideas?

Mine does the same thing. If I pause and then start watching any audio source there's a 1 second or so delay before sound kicks in. I think it is some kind of auto-off power save feature. It doesn't register any sounds between clicks, so if powers down. Many clicks in a row can be enough to bring it back.
 

tlaw81

macrumors member
Oct 31, 2010
96
36
North Carolina
I know this is an old thread, but I have the same issue. However, I have a Samsung TV and Samsung sound bar. Not sure if anyone will get this, but did you find anything that fixed the problem?
 

westrock2000

macrumors 6502a
Oct 18, 2013
524
22
I know this is an old thread, but I have the same issue. However, I have a Samsung TV and Samsung sound bar. Not sure if anyone will get this, but did you find anything that fixed the problem?

It's usually an auto-off feature that is the cause. The initial "click" comes and goes faster then the audio amplifier can turn on.

Some devices allow you to turn this off, some do not...gotta be "green" you know :D
 
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