Firestick and Blu-ray Player
Firestick and Blu-ray Player: a reader asks…
I have a Sony Blu-ray player model BDV-E3200 and a Dell Monitor model S2216H. I recently bought an Amazon Firestick and am having trouble figuring out how to hook everything up so it all works with 5.1 audio. Any advice?
First, I’m going to assume that your Blu-ray player is connected via an HDMI cable to the Dell monitor. That model of monitor only has a single HDMI IN port, so there’s no place to plug in the Firestick. Your Blu-ray player doesn’t have any HDMI inputs either, it’s a simple player with surround sound speakers attached. Your Blu-ray player does have a digital optical IN port, so all’s not lost. Here’s what you need to do:
First, you’re going to need to buy a few things. This is because your Blu-ray player is not a complete home theater system. A true home theater system would have a standard receiver/amplifier with multiple HDMI IN ports so you connect lots of different components. You’re going to need a combination box that extracts the digital 5.1 audio, and also passes the HD video from multiple inputs out to a single HDMI OUT port (which you connect to your monitor). Here’s what you need to buy:
HDMI switcher/extractor box such as this one for $30US: https://www.amazon.com/Extractor-Sourcingbay-Digital-Splitter-Optical/dp/B0797T494C- Digital Optical cable such as this one for $5-7 (depending on the length you need: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Digital-Optical-Audio-Toslink/dp/B00NH11H38
- An HDMI cable (if you don’t already have one) such as this one for $7-13 (depending on the length you need): https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-High-Speed-HDMI-Cable-1-Pack/dp/B014I8TC4E
HDMI switcher/extractor box such as this one for $30US: With that in hand (and your Firestick and its’ remote), you’re ready to hook things up. You should do things in this exact order for the most trouble-free results:
- First, unplug the HDMI cable from the monitor (the cable coming from the Blu-ray player) and plug that into one of the switcher/extractor (#1) box’s HDMI IN ports.
- Next, connect the HDMI cable (#3) from #1’s HDMI OUT port to the Dell Monitor IN port.
- Next, plug the Firestick into another one of the switcher/extractor box’s HDMI IN ports. Next, plug in the #2 cable from the switcher/extractor box’s Toslink port, and the other end into the matching port on the back of the Blu-ray player (labeled Digital In Optical with “TV” underneath).
- Next, plug in the power adapter that came with the switcher/extractor box into a wall outlet and the box itself, and turn on both the TV and the Blu-ray player.
- Finally plug the power adapter that came with the Firestick into a wall outlet and the MicroUSB port on the side of the Firestick.
You’ve got three remote controls now (that’s not as many as other home theater owners!). These are one that came with your Sony Blu-ray player, the Firestick remote, and a small remote that came with the switcher/extractor box. This last one is for switching between the Firestick and the Blu-ray player, but you might not need it (the unit may very well auto-switch for you depending on which device you turn on and use). You first want to make sure everything’s working with the Firestick:
- Using the Sony remote, press the Function button till the TV setting is activated. That takes the audio from the optical cable and sends it out through the surround sound speakers
- Using the Firestick remote, press the menu button. This wakes up the Firestick and you can then navigate to various areas to adjust things if needed, or just start playing movies or whatever content you want. You should hear sound from the Firestick coming through your surround sound speakers.
When you want to switch to watching the Blu-ray player, you can press the Sony’s Function button to switch to Blu-ray, pop in a disc and start watching. If the switcher/extractor box doesn’t switch from the Firestick, press the appropriate button on the switcher/extractor box’s remote. You should hear and see the Blu-ray disc you’re playing. To switch back to Firestick, you may need to press the switcher/extractor box’s remote to switch back and then use the Firestick remote to navigate.
In all cases, the Sony remote’s volume control handles turning the sound up and down.
Your new switcher/extractor box has three HDMI IN ports so you can add another component (cable TV?) later on.
I should mention that if by chance you have (or get) a big-screen TV, you can use the same setup, running the HDMI cable from the switcher/extractor box’s HDMI OUT port to an HDMI IN port on the TV instead of the 23″ Dell monitor.
For other folks struggling with using a modern Firestick and an older or less capable surround sound system, you may need a slightly different switcher/extractor box (such as for coaxial versus digital connections), or a simpler extractor box (no switcher). Check out my other articles on this subject by searching this site (use the search bar at the top-right) for “Firestick”. Some of the many articles I’ve written have lots of follow-on questions for slightly different situations.
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Author: Chris Gardner
Your Tech Coach at PosiTek.net
There are currently 1284 reader comments on published articles, care to join in? Use the Leave a Comment form below/at the bottom of any existing comments. This is a good place to ask follow-on questions on this subject.
Thanks for the article its really helpful.
Hi Chris! I have read a lot of your articles and I am very unsure about my situation. I have a Sony Bravia TV KDL-40S504 and a Sony Blu-ray BDV-E370. I have 2 HDMI inputs on the TV and only 1 HDMI out on the Blu-ray. We inserted the firestick into the TV and use it fine but we can only use the TV speakers b/c (I’m assuming) the firestick needs to be connected to the Blu-ray theatre system in order to go through the surround speakers??? If I purchase a combination box, do I need one that can plug into the Blu-ray system, then the TV plugs into the combination box as well as the firestick? My TV has a digital optical out and the Blu-ray has a digital optical in. Do I use that cord instead of the HDMI cord to connect the TV and Blu-ray? Where do I insert the firestick?
Hi Sara, you don’t need a ‘combination’ box. You will plug the Firestick into one of the TV’s HDMI ports (and plug the HDMI cable from the Blu-ray player to the other HDMI port on the TV). But first, you need a way to get digital audio from the TV to the Blu-ray player. You’ll need to connect a digital audio optical cable from the TV’s Digital Audio OUT port to the Blu-ray player’s TV Digital IN (Optical) port.
You need a cable such as this one for about $5: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Digital-Optical-Audio-Toslink/dp/B07QHK9PDK/
The TV’s online manual is at https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/4164/41642491M.pdf and shows where the optical port is – see the graphic on page 8 (item #6).
The Blu-ray player’s manual is at https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/4178/41782431M.pdf and shows where the port is – see the graphic on page 12 (item #10).
Once you have that cable connected, turn on the TV and Blu-ray player. Then, plug the Firestick into the HDMI port on the TV (and connect its power cable).
The reason you have to first connect the optical cable before you connect the Firestick to the TV is because of legalities, e.g., digital rights management. To comply with the law, device manufacturers build HD copyright protection (HDCP) circuitry in their devices, and that circuitry needs to connect to each piece of equipment when it’s powered up, in order to validate HDCP and allow each device to pass digital protected content (audio/video).
Hi Chris, I have a situation similar to Sara’s. I have a sony bravia tv with 3 hdmi IN ports and 1 hdmi arc port. I am trying to connect my fire stick to one of the HDMI port and output the sound thourgh audio system connected to Blue Ray player. I tried connecting hdmi port on the player to TV’s HDMI arc port and fire stick to one of the 3 HDMI IN ports on TV but the connection did not work. You think there is something wrong with the setup ?
HI Hemachandra, the HDMI ports are only for bringing video and audio into the TV. You need a way to get audio from the TV OUT port – usually either an optical/SPDIF or coaxial cable going from the OUT port on the TV to an IN port on the audio system. Without the model numbers of your TV and audio system/Blu-ray player, I can’t give you more detailed instructions.
While your TV has an HDMI ARC port, that is only used in specific circumstances to return audio from the TV back to the audio system, and won’t work with the Firestick.
Hi, I’m trying to hookup my firestick to my Samsung bluray player for surround sound and my Mitsubishi dlp tv 65″ model #WD-65737. Could you give my some advice on to hook it up please?
Hi Todd, what is the model number of your Samsung bluray player so I can lookup the manual online?
Your TV’s manual is online at https://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/asset/file/owners_guide/C9-737-837_OG.pdf.
I’m going to assume that your Samsung bluray player has surround sound speakers connected directly to it, and that it is not a general-purpose home theater receiver, but a special-purpose surround sound system just for the bluray player and probably for an external digital audio device (connected by optical or coaxial cable).
So I’m guessing:
1. You’ve plugged the Samsung bluray player’s HDMI cable into one of the HDMI IN ports on the Mitsubishi.
2. You’ve plugged the Firestick into another HDMI port on the Mitsubishi
That gives you video from either Firestick or bluray player, but there’s no path for the Firestick digital audio to get to the Samsung’s speakers.
Your Mitsubishi TV has a coaxial OUT port (page 15 of the manual). If your Samsung has a coaxial IN port, you could connect a coaxial cable from the Mitzubishi to the Samsung. That “might” provide a path for the Firestick audio to go from the TV to the Samsung speakers (likely choosing the AUX source on the Samsung). I say might because not all TVs are good about sending digital audio cleanly from the HDMI IN ports to an external device, and because the HD copyright protection circuitry may make it harder to get everything working correctly.
A simple coaxial cable is the first thing to try, as long as your bluray player has a coaxial digital audio IN port. This can be basically any 2-conductor cable with RCA connectors on each end, although a dedicated/shielded coaxial cable would be best.
Just be aware that HD copyright protection ‘handshaking’ between digital video/audio components happens when devices are first connected. So you’ll need to connect the coaxial cable between Mitsubishi and Samsung before you connect the Firestick to the Mitsubishi. Also, make sure you first have the Mitsubishi turned on and set to use the HDMI port where you’ll be plugging in the Firestick, and the Samsung turned on and set to the AUX source (or whatever source relates to the coaxial connection). Then connect the Firestick’s microUSB power supply (plugged into a wall outlet) and plug the Firestick’s HDMI into the Mitsubishi. If all goes well, HD copyright protection will work and the Firestick will ‘see’ and authorize the Samsung to play the digital content and you’ll be able to hear audio from the speakers. You may have to adjust the Firestick’s audio output (switching between the options) till you get audio, some systems require a specific digital audio format.
If this doesn’t work, or if your Samsung only has an optical digital audio IN port, you may need an external HDMI audio extractor box to connect between the Firestick and the Mitsubishi, and run an optical cable from the extractor box to the Samsung.
For $34, this HDMI audio extractor box has both coaxial and optical OUT ports: https://www.amazon.com/LinSeek-Extractor-Supports-Coaxial-Optical/dp/B08V1QGNMJ but there are others (search on “HDMI audio extractor”).
If you have more source components you’ll be using, then you’ll instead want to get a combination switcher/extractor box so that the digital audio from all your source components (except for the bluray player itself) is sent to the Samsung.
Hi, bluray player model # is HT-H5500W. I bought the converter that you recommended. My firestick is in tv, I have a coaxial cable from tv to converter and optical cable from converter to bluray. I changed the sound on firestick, but now I’m not getting any sound to bluray.
I got a wrong converter the first time, but I did hook it up to aux and it worked, but only with the 2 front speakers, because it didn’t support the 5.1.
What do you think?
Hi Todd, I think you misunderstood me. The converter has an HDMI IN port and both coaxial and optical OUT ports. You can’t use an OUT port as an IN port. You must go from one source’s OUT port to another component’s IN port. For the Firestick the signal path is:
For video: Firestick HDMI OUT>Converter Box HDMI IN>Converter Box HDMI OUT>TV HDMI IN
For audio: Firestick HDMI OUT>Converter Box HDMI IN>Converter Box optical/SPDIF OUT>Samsung Optical IN
You have a TV which has HDMI IN ports – one of those is being used by the HDMI cable coming from the Samsung Bluray player. That cable sends video from the Bluray player to the TV. The audio from the Bluray plays out the speakers attached to the Samsung Bluray player (when the source is set to BD/DVD). Let’s assume that the TV HDMI IN port you are using for this cable is HDMI 1 (see page 15 of the TV manual at https://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/asset/file/owners_guide/C9-737-837_OG.pdf).
Connect an HDMI cable between the converter box’s OUTPUT (HDMI) port and another of the TV’s HDMI IN ports. Let’s assume that the TV HDMI IN port you are using for this cable is HDMI 2. You’ll plug the Firestick into the converter box’s HDMI IN port, but not yet (for a good reason, see below about HDCP).
You should already have an optical cable going from the converter box’s OUTPUT (optical/SPDIF) port to the Bluray player’s External Digital Audio IN (Optical) port (see page 7 of the Samsung manual at https://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/201406/20140603151143890/%5BHT-H5500W-ZA%5DAH68-02673A-01ENG-0430-Bookmark.pdf).
You don’t need the coaxial cable. I only mentioned that because you hadn’t told me the brand/model of your Bluray player, so I didn’t know if it had a coaxial or optical IN port. Now that you’ve told me, the Samsung manual shows it only has an optical port.
At this point, you want to turn on the Samsung Bluray player and set the source to use D.IN (see page 12 of the manual). Also turn on the TV and set it to use HDMI 2.
Now, plug in electrical power to the converter box. Finally, attach the microUSB cable to the Firestick, plug that cable into a wall outlet, and plug the Firestick into the converter box’s HDMI IN port. You should be able to see the Firestick on the TV screen. if you play something on the Firestick you should hear the audio from the Samsung surround sound speakers.
If you don’t, you’ll need to go into the Firestick Settings > Audio Settings and change the output format (the selections are usually Dolby Digital Automatic, Dolby Digital +, and PCM, sometimes there are more/different options). Try each setting and then play a movie to see if it works. One of those settings should result in 5.1 audio coming out of the Samsung speakers.
With each audio setting change, you may have to unplug the Firestick from the converter box (and unplug the microUSB cable), wait a few seconds and then plug it back in. The reason is because of finicky HD Copyright Protection (HDCP) which only happens when you first power on and/or connect a device. The Firestick will need to “see” both the TV and the speaker amplifier (the Samsung Bluray player) in order to satisfy HDCP and let them play the video and audio. That’s why you have to set things up first and establish the signal path so the Firestick can “see” the components.
Once you have things up and running, you’ll switch between using the Bluray player and the Firestick this way:
To use Firestick, set the TV to use HDMI 2 and the Samsung Bluray player to use D.IN.
To play a Bluray disc or DVD, set the TV to use HDMI 1 and the Samsung Bluray player to BD/DVD.
I wish I could make this simpler for you, but the complicated connection/setup stuff above is based on the equipment you have.
I did everything you said and it still wasn’t working. I couldn’t figure it out. Finally I remembered there also is a change of sound on bluray player. I changed the sound to cinema and now it works. I want to thank you very much for your help. Just in time for the Snider Cut Justice League movie! Thank you again!
Hi Chris, have just found your site and I must say how impressed I am with your clear answers – Amazing.
I have a similar issue which I would love to resolve.
I currently have simply but old set up of a projector Optoma HD700X DPL and a Samsung Blu Ray player HT-C5500. I would like to add a firestick so that I can stream but also maintain the surround sound. From your comments above I think in need an extractor box and I am unsure of the correct way to connect to ensure that everything talks to each other correctly.
HI Angela, thanks for your question. I’ll assume you have an HDMI cable running from the Samsung’s HDMI OUT port to the Optoma projector’s HDMI IN port, and you can watch Blu-ray disks without issue.
You shouldn’t need an extractor box. Page 23 shows that you have two HDMI IN ports on the back of the Samsung player for connecting external components. You can plug the Firestick into either of those ports. Once that connection is made, you can repeatedly press the Function/TV Source button on your Samsung remote or repeatedly press the Function button on the front of the Samsung player to switch to the HDMI IN port that you’ll be using for the Firestick. Pressing the button repeatedly switches from
BD/DVD to D. IN to AUX to HDMI 1 to HDMI 2 to FM, and then back to BD/DVD.
Connecting things in the right order and making the correct settings on the Firestick is critical to getting things to work right. Firesticks are very finicky when it comes to HD Copyright Protection, and they only run that HDCP validation process when they’re first connected to a system. If the Firestick can’t “see” all the other components, it won’t validate. So…
Before you plug in the Firestick, you need to first (in this order):
1. Turn on the Optoma projector and the Samsung player. Make sure the projector is displaying video from the player.
2. Press the Mode button (remote) or Function button (player) to switch to either HDMI 1 or HDMI 2 (whichever you’ll be using for the Firestick).
3. Plug the microUSB cable from the wall charger that came with the Firestick into the port on the side of the Firestick. Don’t plug the other end into a USB port on the player, use the included power adapter.
4. Finally, plug the Firestick into the HDMI IN port on the back of the Samsung player. The Firestick came with a short HDMI extension you can use to make this easier. Make sure you use the same HDMI IN port that you chose in step 2 above.
Once the Firestick boots up and completes the HDCP validation (automatically), you should see the Firestick menu on-screen. Now you can navigate to the Audio Settings on the Firestick and make sure that Dolby audio is being output, so your Samsung player can play surround sound audio from the Firestick. The Firestick has a Dolby (auto) setting you should use.
Next, play anything from the Firestick menu, a Netflix movie or something. You should hear surround-sound coming from the speakers connected to the Samsung player and see the video on the Optoma projector. Viola, you’re done!
If you see the video but don’t hear the audio, go back to the Audio settings menu. Try switching to use other settings, and play something to test out until you find the right setting that works with your Samsung player. Dolby Auto should work, but sometimes audio devices can only take different types of digital audio signals.
If you don’t see the Firestick menu on-screen, likely you didn’t connect things in the right order. Your best bet at this point is to de-power everything (unplugging all components from the wall outlets) and unplugging the Firestick’s HDMI from the back of the Samsung player as well. Plug the player and projector back into electrical power, and repeat the 4-step process above.
There’s nothing in the Samsung manual that suggests it won’t play digital audio from an external component like the Firestick. If you’ve followed all the above instructions and still can’t get audio from the Firestick to the surround-sound speakers, it may be that your particular Samsung player is only capable of passing digital audio through HDMI from the IN ports to the HDMI OUT port (this is called passthrough audio). That’s the only reason why you’d need an extractor box.
Let me know if the above works or not, and if not, I’ll give you recommendations and instructions on using an extractor box.
Hi Chris. Many thanks.
I did get a red then white – looked like an interference screen the first time I plugged the firestick in but no menus. I repeated the steps after unplugging all equipment and the 2nd/3rd time the I didn’t even get the red, followed by white interference screen.
Would the Samsung be blocking the signal?
Further recommendations would be much appreciated.
Angela
Ok, I’m going to assume you followed the instructions perfectly (any missing or out of order step and it wouldn’t work), so it’s possible your Samsung player simply isn’t passing a good video signal from the Firestick to the Optoma projector. To check this, try unplugging the HDMI cable coming from the Samsung (on the projector), and plugging the Firestick’s HDMI directly into the Optoma’s HDMI 1.3 IN port on the projector. If you do get video from the Firestick, then the issue is with the Samsung player.
You could try playing around with the various video settings on the Samsung player or the Optoma projector, but I’m concerned you might mess things up with your currently working player’s video. It may be easier (although cost you some money) to bypass the Samsung player for video by using a combination switcher/extractor box.
Unfortunately it does add complexity in that you’ll have another small remote to use when switching from the Samsung player and the Firestick. Basically, you’ll be treating the Samsung player as a simple source component, since apparently it’s not capable of working as intended (passing digital video from its HDMI IN ports to the projector).
You would need:
1. A switcher/extractor combination box like this one for $30: https://www.amazon.com/avedio-links-Switcher-Extractor-HDMI2-0b/dp/B07T2WSY3D. This has two HDMI IN ports.
2. An optical cable like this one for $7-10: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L3KO5WK/ref=twister_B01N75TWSA
3. another HDMI cable like this one for $7: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-High-Speed-HDMI-Cable-1-Pack/dp/B014I8SSD0
Here’s how you’d connect things:
First, unplug electrical power to the Optoma projector and the Samsung player. Then, make your initial cable connections:
1. HDMI coming from the Samsung player’s HDMI OUT port to the switcher/extractor box’s HDMI IN 1 port.
2. HDMI cable coming from the switcher/extractor box’s HDMI OUT port to the Optoma’s HDMI 1.3 IN port.
3. Optical cable coming from the switcher/extractor box’s SPDIF OUT port to the Samsung player’s Digital Audio IN (Optical) port.
Next, plug in electrical power to the extractor box, then the Optoma projector, and then the Samsung player. Test this out by playing a DVD or Blu-ray disk on the Samsung player and make sure it all plays ok.
Once you know the switcher/extractor box is working for the Samsung player, you can switch the switcher/extractor box from HDMI 1 to HDMI 2. Then, switch the Samsung player to the D. IN source. Finally, connect the Firestick’s microUSB power source and plug the Firestick into the switcher/extractor box’s HDMI IN 2 port. You should now see Firestick on the screen. Try playing a movie and you should hear surround-sound. If you don’t, you may have to change the Firestick’s audio output setting (see my earlier note).
Hi Chris,
I have both my fire stick 4K max and my old lg blue ray player connected up to my Samsung tv. What I would like to do is control the DVD player—or at least play and eject—from within kodi on the firestick (which I can do with the dvd drive on my windows pc using the kodi app installed on the computer). The player and tv have hdmi and optical ports, and they both connect to Ethernet & my network, as does my firestick. And if that works I’d like to do the same thing with my wife’s LG tv and blu ray player. I already have so many remotes I can’t keep track of them and she’s getting there. Any advice—including just forget it and don’t even try—would be appreciated, particulately since I want to set another firestick with as simple an interface as possible for her as a Christmas present. Thanks!
Hi Scott, you’re in the same boat as the rest of us, too many remotes! I’ve previously written about using a Logitech Harmony Elite universal programmable remote, see https://positek.net/messed-up-remotes/, https://positek.net/many-remotes/, and https://positek.net/ir-rf-home-theater/ for example. Have you considered such a device? I know that companies like Best Buy are pushing their Universal Devices home theater remotes, but those require professional programming. The Logitech models can be programmed by yourself. For your more complicated home theater setup you may want to consider the Harmony Elite, while your wife may be able to use one of the cheaper models. I will say that even though I’ve got the Elite model, I still sometimes have to use a device-specific remote for those times when a dedicated remote button is needed.
Hi Chris,
Indeed this is a priceless article which are not able to find in any other tech website.
I have fire stick, 2 hdmi cable, Sony Blu-ray player with one hdmi port, One lg tv with hdmi port, one optical cable whic is already connected to tv and Blu-ray and one hdmi switch without optical port. So if I hookup as per instructions except optical cable setup, will it work ?.
Hi Santhosh, thank you! Unfortunately, you didn’t give me very much information to go on. In particular, I don’t know what model of LG TV you have, so I can’t look up the manual online and know if it passes all digital audio through the optical OUT port or not. Some TVs pass digital audio from all the HDMI IN ports to the optical OUT port, but not all.
Assuming that your LG tv does pass all digital audio, here’s how I’d imagine you’re going to connect things:
1. Connect the Blu-ray player’s HDMI OUT port to an available HDMI IN port on the HDMI switch
2. Connect the HDMI switch HDMI OUT port to an available HDMI IN port on the LG tv
Make sure you’ve powered on the HDMI switch, then power on the TV and the Blu-ray player
3. Connect the optical cable from the optical OUT port on the TV to the optical IN port on the Blu-ray player
Leave the Firestick unplugged for now.
Make sure that you can view content from your Blu-ray player on the TV. There should be no problem with the audio.
Next, change the Blu-ray player to use the optical IN port as its source, then change the HDMI switch to another IN port and plug in the Firestick – both the wall power outlet and microUSB on the side of the Firestick, and the HDMI on the Firestick into the port on the switch that you’ll be using.
You should see the Firestick menu on the TV screen. At this point you can try to play something from the Firestick and see if you get audio. If you do, great! If not, there are two possible issues:
1. The Firestick’s audio settings aren’t compatible with the LG TV. You can switch from the various audio output settings on the Firestick, playing content after each change to see if the audio works
2. The LG tv’s audio settings aren’t set to output the digital audio. Some tv’s have a control to use either the internal speakers or external speakers (using that optical port) which you may have to change.
If #1 didn’t yield success and you had to change LG audio output settings, you may have to unplug the Firestick (both HDMI and power), wait 30 seconds and then reconnect it. Then, go through each audio setting on the Firestick again, testing each setting till you find the one that yields audio.
The reason you have to unplug the Firestick in-between is due to the process by which the Firestick verifies that connected equipment is ok to play the content. This verification process (“handshaking”) only occurs when the Firestick is first powered on and/or physically connected to the other pieces of equipment. Since your audio has to pass through the HDMI switch, through the TV and onto the Blu-ray player, that signal path must be active when the verification occurs. That’s why you have to first set everything (HDMI switch, TV, and Blu-ray player) to use the signal source chained from the Firestick.
Hi, I am having much the same issues as everyone else; I want to connect my Amazon Firestick to my TV so I can hear the sound come out of my blueray system. I am not sure if I can do it as I do have older equipment. My Tv is a 50 inch RCA, the model number is RLDED5078A-B and the blue ray system I have is an LG 3D model number BH6430P.
I can tell you that there is an optical in to the blue ray (and 1 hdmi) but no optical port on my tv, just 3 hdmi ports. I assume I shall need some form of converter box.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer 🙂
Hi Brad, like the OP, you need an audio extraction box to extract the digital audio from your Firestick and send it to your Bluray system.
I found a TV manual at https://static.rca.com/var/fichiers/RCA_RLDED5078A-C_EN.PDF that is most likely the same as yours, showing three HDMI IN ports. There is also a coaxial digital audio OUT port (see page15), but your Bluray player only takes optical, not coaxial digital audio input. Otherwise you wouldn’t need an extractor box.
I found the Bluray player’s manual at https://static.rca.com/var/fichiers/RCA_RLDED5078A-C_EN.PDF which shows on page 11 where the digital optical IN port is.
The Bluray Player’s HDMI OUT port should be connnected to one of the TV’s HDMI IN ports. That’s just to get video from the bluray disks to the TV. You should already have this in place.
You don’t say that you have any other video/audio sources than the Firestick and the Bluray player, so you may only need a single HDMI port on the extraction box. Such as this one for $23: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Audio-Stereo-Extractor-Converter/dp/B07KRWYN4R. If you have other sources, then you’ll want the box listed in the OP. You may also need an optical cable and any additional HDMI cables if you don’t have enough. They need to be long enough to reach all your equipment. Links for those are also in the OP.
Connect everything in this order:
1. Connect the optical cable from the extractor box to the Optical IN port on the Bluray player. Turn on the Bluray player and set the source to the Optical/TV Sound (see page 18).
2. Connect the HDMI cable from the extractor box’s HDMI OUT to an available HDMI IN port on the TV. Turn on the TV and set the source to that HDMI IN port. Don’t forget to connect the extractor box’s electrical power.
3. Now you can connect the Firestick to the extractor box’s HDMI IN port. Don’t forget to connect the Firesticks’s USB power connection to the wall outlet.
You should now see the Firestick video on your screen and can navigate to play something. You should hear audio from your Bluray player’s connected speakers. If not, you may need to adjust the Firestick’s Audio output settings. Try each output setting till you get audio.
The reason to do things in the order I laid out is because the Firestick is finicky about HD copyright protection. Your extractor box must be powered on, your TV must be set to use the HDMI IN port used by the extractor box, and your Bluray player must be set to use the Optical IN port coming from the extractor box. All that so the Firestick can “see” the connected equipment and verify HDCP – which it only does when being connected and powered on. If you make any changes to the system, you’ll need to reset everything to use the correct ports, then unplug the Firestick, wait a few seconds and plug it back in so that it can verify HDCP with the other connected equipment.
Hi, thank you for the quick response!! There is nothing else connected to the tv. I will purchase an extractor box and update when it arrives. Thanks, I very much appreciate it!
Hi, I received the extraction box and have not had any luck. It seems the issue I am having is that when I plug the coaxial cord into the box, the option for optical sounds briefly flickers as an option but then goes away. I plugged in my tv receiver to see if there was an issue with the cord and the optical option on my blue ray stays on allowing me to use the speakers.
I’m not sure what the issue is or what I have done wrong.
Hmm, you said “coaxial cable” but your Blu-ray player requires an optical cable. Maybe you’re just conflating those two different connection types? See the picture of the two types at https://www.lifewire.com/coaxial-vs-optical-digital-cable-3134605.
Also, from how you described what you’re doing, you may not be following the order that I gave you for doing things. You have to make the physical connections first, before you turn on the devices and lastly plug in the Firestick. The Firestick only validates HDCP when it’s initially connected and powered on, not any other time.
So here’s an expanded order of doing things:
1. With all devices turned off/unpowered, connect the HDMI cable from the extractor box’s HDMI OUT port to the TV’s available HDMI IN port. Connect the Optical cable from the extractor box’s Optical OUT port to the Blu-ray player’s Optical IN port. Connect electrical power to the extractor box.
Both the HDMI and Optical cables only go in one way. The optical cable pushes in the shutter that protects the port when you insert it and usually clicks into place.
2. Turn on the TV and set it to use the HDMI IN port connected to the extractor box. Turn on the Blu-ray player and set it to use the Optical IN port connected to the extractor box.
3. Plug in the microUSB power cable to the Firestick and plug the Firestick’s HDMI into the extractor box’s HDMI IN port. If you purchased an extractor box with multiple HDMI IN ports, be sure to select the port you’ll use on the extractor box before you plug in the Firestick.
This order is important. Not to belabor the point, but the Firestick only validates HDCP when it’s initially connected to something, and it must “see” all the components when initially connected in order to validate them. If you mess up the order, unplug the Firestick (both power and HDMI) until you have the physical connections and source selections correct, then plug the Firestick back in.
Hi, thanks so much it worked! There is a button on the extractor box that I had pushed which is what caused it not to work. Thank you for your help!
I have a Samsung UN401H503AFXZA flat screen smart TV with the DVD player made for it. It’s from around 2012.There is 1 HTML port on the back of the dvd player.In back of the TV, There is an HTML port, an ethernet port, a cable port, and a set of RCA jacks for an old VCR. It worked with an earlier version of firestick , but I dont remember how to set it up.Do I plug the firestick into the HTML,or do I have to use a combination box?
The Samsung TV model number you reference doesn’t exist on the Samsung support site, did you type the model number correctly? So I can’t look it up to see anything other than what you’ve told me.
Generally, TVs have one or more HDMI IN ports, while DVD players usually only have a single HDMI OUT port.
Assuming you don’t have a home theater receiver or HDMI switchbox which allows you to connect multiple input devices (DVD player, Firestick, cablebox etc.) to the HDMI IN ports, and assuming your TV only has a single HDMI IN port:
If you want to use both the DVD player and the Firestick, you’re forced to unplug the DVD player HDMI cable from the back of the TV and plug in the Firestick in that same port on the back of the TV. To go back to the DVD player, reverse that (unplug the Firestick from the back of the TV and plug the DVD HDMI cable in that same HDMI IN port).
If you don’t want a home theater setup (with a receiver and surround-sound speakers) but don’t want to have to plug and unplug things, you could just buy a cheap HDMI switchbox that allows you to keep them both plugged into the switchbox and change the setting on the HDMI switchbox to go from DVD player to Firestick and back. If you have other input devices you can get a switchbox that has 3, 4 or 5 HDMI IN ports. If all you have is the DVD player and the Firestick, you could get a 2-port switchbox for about $10, such as https://www.amazon.com/Splitter-Aluminum-Switcher-Bi-Directional-Support/dp/B09D7MRPJF?th=1.
If you want one with a remote control so you don’t have to get up and switch from one input source to the other for $20, get one such as: https://www.amazon.com/Switch-iVANKY-Bi-Directional-Remote-Display/dp/B0D8Z8CG5B.
With a switchbox like that, plug the Firestick and the HDMI cable from the DVD player into the two HDMI IN ports on the switchbox, then plug the HDMI cable coming from the TV into the switchbox’s HDMI OUT port. Also plug the electrical power supply that came with the switchbox into the wall outlet for power. Be sure you also have the power supply from the Firestick plugged into a wall outlet as well. Turn on your TV, select the HDMI switchbox to the port that has the Firestick and you’ll see the Firestick screen appear on the TV. You can then go about setting up the Firestick if you haven’t already. When you want to watch a DVD, turn on the DVD player and choose the other HDMI IN port on the switchbox. You’ll then see the DVD screen on your TV.