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Trying to help my friend who has bought a used Philips Soundbar Speaker model TAB5105/12. The soundbar has an optical input, as shown in this video found on Youtube. The tv on the other hand has a SPDIF output.

tv connection

To solve this I have bought an optical 3,5 mm Toslink-cabel

optical cable

But...still no sound. And I have not been able to find any reference in the user manual that I need to change any settings on the tv for the soundbar to recieve the sound.

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    I've never seen a TOSlink cable with that long a "poker" on the right. All the ones I've seen have had a connector like the one on the left—on both ends.
    – Huesmann
    Mar 19 at 12:17
  • @Huesmann they are special-purpose but not uncommon. However, you can just slip a bit of ballpoint pen tubing clear of any ink onto a standard connector instead of buying the special one, if you have the sort of the device the special one is made for. Which the OP does not.
    – Ecnerwal
    Mar 19 at 13:26
  • FYI. On my recent-year Samsung TV, you have to change a setting on the TV to direct the audio to optical output instead of ithe internal speakers.
    – DoxyLover
    Mar 19 at 17:49

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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The cable you bought is for a combined headphone and TOSLink output to regular TOSLink [headphone jack with LED at the back of it - seen on (at least) Mac laptops and some MiniDisc players.]

The device you have appears to output S/PDIF as an electrical signal (only) on an RCA jack via coaxial cable. S/PDIF can use either transport mechanism, there's no expectation that a given device will do both. The fact that you can fit the special purpose TOSLink cable into the electrical-signal-only jack will not make an LED magically appear at the back of it. Notably, the manual only illustrates RCA-type cables.

You would need an electrical to optical converter to go from S/PDIF with an RCA Jack to TOSLink. Or you need to use an S/PDIF input on an RCA jack with an RCA cable - which that device does not have.

Example, not endorsement, I've never heard of this company nor used the device, just the least costly one that went the right direction I could find in a quick search. Optical to electrical appeared to be available for half the price, at least on sale. This one claims to go either direction. There's a wide range of products/prices, so you can pay 10-20X as much to suit any AudioPhool tendencies your friend might have.

Image from Amazon - no endorsement implied

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    +1 yup. The chipset for this conversion was nailed about 25 years ago, so these days unless, as you say, you want to feel cozy in your 'audiophoolery', you can get the cheapest one off eBay & not be able to tell the difference. Personally for anything like this I go as far as 'metal box' & stop there. Presumably on that one, the USB is a power supply only - so watch out for how it's powered & if you can get that to it easily, USB or external wall-wart. There should be no other difference.
    – Tetsujin
    Mar 19 at 13:47

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