We have a big Panasonic TV that has a pair of small phone jacks on the back. One is 2.5 mm and one is 3.5.
I think one is audio and one is video. I want to add some simple amplified speakers. Does anyone know which is the audio connector?
On a sunny day (Sat, 20 Mar 2021 09:26:40 -0700) it happened snipped-for-privacy@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote in snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
It says 'audio IN' seems inputs to me.
Google says it has only optical audio out?
But why would that TV have audio in? The speakers are horrible.
I'm guessing the 3.5 mm could be a headphone jack, which I could pipe to some amplified bookshelf speakers.
The last thing I want is some digital thing with one more remote.
I'll order a toslink to RCA converter, just in case that TV doesn't have analog output. I wonder why it doesn't just have a pair of RCA outputs.
On a sunny day (Sat, 20 Mar 2021 09:55:21 -0700) it happened snipped-for-privacy@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote in snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
One reason could be ground loops. There seems to be a tendency to make things more complicated. My Samsung TV does have a 3.5 mm phone jack out, I can feed it into a bluetooth transmitter and use bluetooth headphones.. But prefer just the stereo audio cable. The speakers of that very expensive Samsung 3D one are not sounding very good either. Maybe the Panasonic can do bluetooth out?
Yes. Someone donated a fancy HDMI sound bar to that TV, which adds yet another remote, which nobody can get to work.
I want a pair of speakers that just always work.
A toslink-RCA box and analog speakers should always work if a simple cable doesn't. This is in the cabin where we have a lot of guests who fidddle with things and leave them in states. I replaced the smart thermostat with a classic, with a round knob to set the temp and a fan on/off switch. People were always getting the digital one into weird states.
Closed-circuit uses, like audio/video doorbell, or intercom, or an audio player (iPod)...
There's also some use of those connectors for home theater use, to bypass IR remotes and go to wired serial I/O. The cables get so messy... there's even optical (TOSlink) cables that fit a dual electric/optic 3.5mm socket.
Or:
(sorry 'bout the long link but it seems to work)
$4.99:
Strip the audio from the HDMI source before it gets to the TV perhaps, then the audio is always going to be from that source:
The red-white-yellow inputs are for plugging in "legacy hardware" like an old VCR or DVD player or OTA tuner that only has composite video outs plus stereo audio on RCAs.
Nah it's for connecting legacy hardware like a VCR or old DVD player that didn't have HDMI outputs, just composite out plus audio and maybe RF-modulated on coax, and some "newer" ones from like the mid 2000s that had component video outputs.
These days audio out on TVs is usually optical fibre so you need an optical DAC to turn it into something your old hifi will accept. Some smart devices have optical inputs.
It's the right cable for jack, but like OP didn't notice (and I didn't notice at first either until I read the thread more carefully) those are all for inputs, not outputs, they fan out to female RCA connectors.
Looks like the only way to get an audio out is via the TOSlink optical or grab the audio from the HDMI signal on the way in, or use the analog audio outs of whatever device is feeding the TV.
I have a Vizio LCD TV from about 8 years ago that only has 2 HDMI inputs but also has analog audio out in addition to optical, this one looks to have 4 HDMI inputs and probably cost around the same so they ditch the audio outs and put the analog inputs on a breakout cable instead of on proper jacks mounted to the back panel to save a few bucks, they figure analog out is a little-used feature in year-of-our-Lord 2021 most users would prefer more HDMI inputs and most people who're using external speakers is will be in the context of a home theater receiver/surround system that you'll connect up via the optical out
I guess if they were analog outputs they'd fan out to female RCA leads too as a male-to-female RCA cable is a bit unusual.
Remember S-video? People under 30 don't know what those RF coaxial, mini-DIN S-vidoe, Pb, Pr connectors are, anyway.
LCD TVs from a decade ago often had analog inputs mounted to the rear panel along with analog stereo outputs and sometimes a headphone jack but in 2021 that stuff is headed into "legacy application"-territory on TVs at this price point; most people are just using them to plug an HDMI signal from a Blu-ray player or media-streaming dongle or box into anyway.
The breakout input cable is the bare minimum they need to do to support users with one legacy device like a VCR, OTA tuner or older video game console.
That's interesting, but there are multiple sources to this TV. Cable box, Blu-Ray, and peoples' PCs.
I ordered a toslink-RCA converter box, which might work.
This TV also has an HDMI out, which might work into the HDMI-audio converter. I'll try that if all else fails.
The good news is that all this stuff is amazingly cheap.
How do sweet little grammies get their TVs and thermostats and PCs and phones to work? Sometimes it's a chore to just set a clock.
We need an international standard for device/human interfaces. It's a nightmare now.
I ordered one of those but, as someone warned, it may be an audio
*input* to the TV.
Possibly audio l/r and video RGB *inputs* to the TV.
Which would explain why it gets both good and bad reviews.
Probably the simplest way if you need a stereo out from whatever the currently selected source via the on-screen menu is.
All media devices seem to have their own UIs and their own control schemes and they seem to be mostly over-complicated junk that likes to hang and lock up randomly or decide it must do a firmware update over WiFi right now but I can't connect to the server so I'll just hang.
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