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TV and soundbar with local integration (piefed.zip)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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I'm thinking about getting a larger television, as what I have is a bit too small for the living room. I have an inexpensive soundbar that mostly works, but doesn't always turn on with CEC, and occasionally stops passing the video signal through and needs to be power-cycled.

Are there any TVs and soundbars out there that can integrate with Home Assistant, and don't need a cloud connection at all? (Not even for initial setup.) I was about to buy a Sonos soundbar when they were on sale last month, but discovered that you don't actually own Sonos devices, since setup is locked behind a cloud account and the company could change the terms of access at its whim.

I've read encouraging things about the Sony Bravia devices, and the manuals seem to say that you can set them up entirely locally (although some features are cloud-only). Is this still the case?

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[–] 2 points 9 months ago (3 children)

If OP wants surround, Atmos, etc., this isn't gonna work. Analog outputs can't handle ambisonics, and TVs don't have discrete 6 channel outputs. If you want 2.1, 5.1, Atmos, MPEG-H or whatever, you'll need a digital output to your sink device (AVR/soundbar, etc.). Digital doesn't mean internet connected. And there's no real benefit to forcing an analog output from your TV. It's DAC probably isn't better than the DAC in an AVR or soundbar.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    Surround sound receiver that works via optical or HDMI. That's what I would recommend over a soundbar that will ultimately end up unusable after a few years. No need to overcomplicate it with HA.

    Or... An older Bose soundbar. Bose recently open-sourced some of their older stuff that is no longer supported.

    As someone who grew up with older surround sound equipment in the house, I'm just having a hard time imagining a scenario where any network connection at all would need to be involved.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    Surround sound receiver that works via optical or HDMI. That’s what I would recommend

    Those are both digital outputs, not analog. Maybe you're confusing digital with internet connected?

    I'm not advocating internet-connected audio gear, but plenty of people like the utility of networked audio for automation, in-home streaming, and multi-room setups. But again, those can be isolated from the internet.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    I'm not confusing anything.

    This is what OP was asking:

    Are there any TVs and soundbars out there that can integrate with Home Assistant, and don’t need a cloud connection at all?

    I answered accordingly. There really isn't a reason for a soundbar or surround sound system to be connected to any sort of network. Streaming music is the only reason I can think of, but that can be handled by bluetooth (which many sound systems have), or even an AUX IN with a dock or bluetooth adapter.

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