Not getting BOSE sound with any LG TV inputs except DISH satellite box (AV3-2-1 II)

[lemery66]

I have an older BOSE system AV3-2-1 II that works great. My issue is that I am only getting the BOSE sound through the main Cable/Sat input. I have a Fire stick and an Apple TV hooked up but only get the TV speaker sound for those inputs. I followed advice from other community members and hooked up an optical cable to the TV output and it is glowing red at the BOSE optical input, so it's not the cable. I tried to change the Settings on the TV to external speakers but I only have an On/Off option for the TV speakers. It's not offering me an external speaker option. Does that mean the TV is too old? (LG 47LW5300)  It has the optical digital output port, so it seems like it should give me more options. Any ideas? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[Jessie_O]

Hi Lemery66, 

Thank you for your post and welcome to the Community! 

I'm sorry to hear about the issues you are experiencing with your 321 system, I'll be happy to help you! 

If you select the TV speakers as being off, this should be enough to have the audio come through the Bose system.

How do you have your 3rd party devices connected? Directly into the console or through the TV? 

I look forward to hearing from you! 

[lemery66]

Hi Jessie,

Thank you for responding to my post. The Apple TV and Fire Stick are both plugged directly into the TV's HDMI ports. I thought it would be as simple as just turning the TV speakers off, but that didn't seem to work. And as I mentioned, it isn't giving me an External Speaker option to select.... Could I have something plugged in incorrectly maybe? I am pretty sure the Optical cable is working. I had to buy a 90º adapter for it because the stand bolted to the TV was in the way. I finally got it plugged in and the end that goes into the BOSE glows red, which I think means it is working. Any other ideas?

Thank you so much for your time!

[Andy_B]

Hey Lemery666,

To reaffirm, the cable box will play audio, but not the Apple TV/Fire Stick? How/where is the cable box connected to - is this directly to the Bose console, or also into the TV? Additionally, have you recently just connected these two new devices, or have you always had difficulties? I had a brief look through your television's manual, and it states "If you use an optional external audio device instead of the built-in speaker, set the TV speaker feature to off", so theoretically, that is all we should need to do.

You may need to look at the LG and Apple TV/Fire Stick's settings a little deeper. The 321 II system can support PCM, Dolby Digital, and DTS audio formats. Both your TV and the connected devices may output audio in different formats, meaning that audio will not play successfully on the connected system. Use the built-in settings to each individual third-party device to investigate this further. For instance, Apple's site HERE details how to investigate what format is being used.

Above all, have you tried any additional troubleshooting? It may sound silly, but a great and important step is to make sure that we've run through a reset on the system. Simply disconnect all devices from power for 60 seconds, and reconnect back to test. As the optical cable has a visible light, it likely is connected successfully to your TV, but I'd be unable to confirm when we're using additional hardware like an adapter to reach additional distances.