Entries tested:
- Coaxial S / PDIF
- Stereo RCA
- USB
- Jack stereo
- Bluetooth
Untested entries:
- HDMI ARC
- Optics
First you must assemble the two front speakers firmly fitting them in the central part that includes the display and all input jacks screen. Be sure to push the speaker as firmly as possible in order not to leave any space between them and the central part, otherwise you may, in addition to bad contacts, parasitic vibrations. Then attach them securely using the four Phillips screws. Take the opportunity to tighten all the other screws: again, they are a little loose of origin and will cause very unpleasant parasitic vibrations.
Place the bar in front of your TV, plug in one of the audio inputs compatible with your TV.
In order of quality:
- HDMI ARC (my TV has none)
- Coaxial (digital 5.1 over a single RCA careful not to use too long wire.)
- Optics (more fragile than the coax, and on this material unlike his will not agree)
- Stereo RCA: analogue output of the same type as a stereo amplifier.
Place your subwoofer nearby, without obstacles with the soundbar (Bluetooth radio link-sensitive parasites)
So I connected my TV coaxial.
Connect the two units to the area, and press the power button or the remote control, or the bar (touch keys). After a few seconds, the panel displays the default entry. If it's not yours, select it on the remote.
ATTENTION: switch off the internal sound from your TV!
Look at the back of the subwoofer: the white light must be displayed continuously. If it flashes, it is not detected by the bar.
Turn on your TV: the sound should be understood to mean volume. Mount it with the remote control or the buttons on the bar.
On a multichannel source, select "Surround", otherwise "Stereo".
Note that the surround is an emulation that increases a sense of depth. Its advantage is that when the background volume of a film (I tested the nightclub scene of "The Social Network" in VO) is very strong, the dialogues are perfectly audible and distinct.
On some Freeview channels, depending on the language and the selected format and depending on your connection type, sometimes an audio track is offset (delay) from the image. Audio Sync button reduces this offset in steps of 10ms.
I have had no problems pairing my smartphone and my Bluetooth tablet: the bar is then recognized as a stereo headset and the volume is controlled from the device. During a call, the played file is paused and the sound of the call is diverted to the phone. Playback resumes when you hang up.
Note that at the time I write this, Philips has released a firmware update to version 27. It is available on the website philips.fr (enter HTL3140B / 12 in the search field) .
under the "Customer Service" tab. For some reason that escapes me, the French version was not recognized and I installed the English version. Anyway it does not change the display of the bar.
You need for this a USB drive, follow the instructions for use.
For reasons of ease of installation, even if you do not have an HDMI ARC jack, connect the HDMI bar on your TV to complete the update, it is much simpler.
I found three minor defects:
- After extinction, the settings are lost. This is all the more painful as the bar goes to sleep automatically after 20 minutes and before restarting movie or TV you will need to raise the volume.
- Poverty read USB audio formats: MP3 and WMA (DRM), and that's it! No Flac, Wav, mp4 or aac yet very popular today.
Of course it is still possible to read through your smartphone or your iPod or Bluetooth stereo jack, but it's still light. If the codecs are not "hard" in the system, it is hoped that future versions of the firmware will incorporate some of them.
- The equalizer ("Sound" button) offers a function "Personal" which I know because at the utility standby settings are reset to default. Again hopefully a future version of the firmware.
In conclusion: a good device that dramatically improves the sound of a TV game and does not clutter the room with son and speakers in every corner. Once the screws tightened, the bar does not produce unwanted vibration itself (you can always place it on a polystyrene plate or studio if the support rods, he is subject to vibration).
The sound delivered is clear, well-separated dialogues of ambient noise (including source Blu-ray DTS HD) and without equaling stereo hifi dedicated, is doing pretty well with music CDs.
With the volume turned up, the sense of immersion is enjoyable and you will not make you hate your neighbors if you live in an apartment. Especially that there is a Night function (key "night") to reduce loud volumes.
The software part is still a bit young, but because Philips has published an update can reasonably count on monitoring that will improve comfort and performance, especially for backup settings and audio codecs supported by USB.