Been shopping today for flat screen to replace the old girl (1996 vintage Sony CRT TV). In my MH the theater sound system was original equipment and the Sony TV, I'm told, used a variable audio out jack which allowed the TV volume to raise/lower the theater sound system with the TV remote. When the theater sound was turned off (via a dash switch) the TV's own speakers were used. So, if you look at the back of the Sony CRT TV there are three connections, Coax for cable in, 110 VAC power, and a audio out jack which resembles a RCA connector but has a two conductor cable.My question is this; you folks that have made this change from Sony CRT to flat screen, have you sacrificed the surround sound (theater sound) system capability and are using only the TV speakers or is there an adapter available to get the variable audio out feature neccessary to use the theater sound system? Also does the flat screen need HDMI, Optical output or something else to feed an adapter?Hope this is clear and if seeing the audio out jack would help in some way, I suppose I could figure out how to post a picture.Thanks for any help.

If you plan on watching digital and HD programming then HDMI is the way to go. It carries audio and video. Sadly other than using 2ch stereo analog outputs your legacy HT system will not be supported.

Flat panels should have a variable audio out, perhaps with RCA connections. There's also likely an optical audio out. That's the best one. I'd be sure to look for that. Cheaper sets maybe not.I'm using the headphone jack and a set of computer speakers. The speakers in newer TVs are pretty bad.

I was able to adapt mine to the Sony home theatre system.

My CRT never offered the Surround less I ran it via the VCR.. And today with Flat Screen I only use the Home Theater system for special programming like a PBS concdert special. and I run those through the DVR.Many of the better flat screens have both analog audio out (L/R) and optical.. Surround depends on the broadcaster with optical (TO/S Link) out.What does TOSlink stand for? Tosahiba/Sony link.. yup that's who came up with it. And a common data format on TO/s Link is SPdif (Sony Phillips Digital Interchange Format) Been doing this stuff a long, long time (1990s at least)

Converting Sony CRT to flat screen TV | Good Sam Community

jtfcons
Explorer
Jul 21, 2016
tatest wrote:
I went through this, wanting to hook a new TV to a stereo system that was working well for me, rather than moving on to surround sound.

I've found lately that most new TVs have only digital audio out (usually optical but sometimes also a wire) to feed a surround sound system. As long ago as eight years it was getting hard to find TVs with line level analog stereo outputs, so shop carefully. The extra outputs are more often on higher priced sets.

You can come off a headphone jack, if the TV has one, but it is not the same thing as a connection for an amplifier. Levels and exoected impedences are different, level might be controlled by TV volume control, and output is likely equalized for headphones (or whatever sound mode is selected for TV speakers) rather than being level across the frequency spectrum.

You can always add a sound bar to the TV, if it doesn't match to your stereo system.

Yeah,so I purchased the TV, in this case a ROKU/Haier brand that has a headphone output that did in fact provide volume control output. This was the only unit in the store that controlled volume to the headphone via the TV volume control. I hooked this up to the pictured system via a red/white RCA to headphone cable. I had to cut the pictured cable end off and splice a red/white cable to the wire pair. This did provide a feed to the existing "theater sound" system but the top volume was maybe only about 15-20 percent of the range. Clearly, this hookup wasn't what I had hoped for so for now anyway I will live with the TV speakers.
tatest
Explorer II
Jul 20, 2016
I went through this, wanting to hook a new TV to a stereo system that was working well for me, rather than moving on to surround sound.

I've found lately that most new TVs have only digital audio out (usually optical but sometimes also a wire) to feed a surround sound system. As long ago as eight years it was getting hard to find TVs with line level analog stereo outputs, so shop carefully. The extra outputs are more often on higher priced sets.

You can come off a headphone jack, if the TV has one, but it is not the same thing as a connection for an amplifier. Levels and exoected impedences are different, level might be controlled by TV volume control, and output is likely equalized for headphones (or whatever sound mode is selected for TV speakers) rather than being level across the frequency spectrum.

You can always add a sound bar to the TV, if it doesn't match to your stereo system.
jtfcons
Explorer
Jul 19, 2016
I think we are on the same track except I'm thinking this 2 channel wire connetion feeds into an amplifier somewhere down in the bowels of the front area of the MH. We have speakers 2 in front, 2 in back, and a sub-woofer. Don't know a lot more except the sound is rich with more sound power than just a receiver. If it is fake, I'll take it over the standard flatscreen speaker system.

Thank's all for the input.
Almot
Explorer III
Jul 19, 2016
If this 2-conductor gray RCA is all you have for TV output, then it's a 2-channel stereo and you never had a true 5.1 surround sound from TV. Your receiver was upconverting 2-channel stereo into a fake 5.1 surround (if even that).

I think this type of 2-channel "RCA-looking" male connector is rare. You can replace it with separate red/white male RCA, won't make any difference, it's still 2-channel analog. On 99% of receivers and amplifiers the 2-channel analog input is red/white RCA and/or stereo 3.5mm.

You won't end up with only only TV speakers. The on-screen menu of flat TV will let you disable TV speakers if you like.
Mandalay_Parr
Explorer
Jul 19, 2016
jtfcons wrote:
Mandalay Parr wrote:
I was able to adapt mine to the Sony home theatre system.

Care to share how?

Both my old and new tv had RCA jacks for external audio. Just unplugged the old and plugged in the new one.

Jerry Parr
jtfcons
Explorer
Jul 19, 2016
OK. Update, I found the original owner's manual and this is a Quasar TV and not Sony, which is a crossbreed of Panasonic and Matsushita.

I took the back of the TV off and saw that the leads of the pictured connector on the TV lead directly to the speaker in the TV. The center pole is a red wire and the shell is a white wire. My plan is to salvage the TV's connector/wiring and wire RCA red and white connectors to them. This should give me the output side for a digital to analog converter from the flatscreen. It's worth a try anyway, worse case I end up with only TV speakers for the flatscreen. Best case, I've got surround sound for flatscreen.

On second thought, I could simply cut this male connector off on the two conductor wire and wire in a red and white RCA connectors to replace it.

Any better ideas?
jtfcons
Explorer
Jul 19, 2016
So, here is a photo of the connector that plugged into the Sony TV. This is a two conductor RCA type connector.What Toslink adaptor would work, if any with this? I have used the optical adaptors before to connect my home's Panasonic flat screen to an older Panasonic surround sound system, but the output of that adaptor was red and white RCA female plugs and the input was an optical. Is there a cable that has red and white RCA male one end and the a female connector that would plug into the pictured male connector on other end?
Almot
Explorer III
Jul 19, 2016
jtfcons wrote:
if you look at the back of the Sony CRT TV there are three connections, Coax for cable in, 110 VAC power, and a audio out jack which resembles a RCA connector but has a two conductor cable.

Must be something like a stereo headphone jack or 3.5mm jack. (Unless it's a Coaxial Digital Out, but I doubt this).

Most flat TVs have Audio Out configured in red/white RCA, - in addition to HDMI or whatever hightech connectors are there. Sometimes they also have a headphone jack or 3.5mm jack. Amazon wold have adapters or pigtails to connect red/white RCA of flat TV to your "two connector" input on home theater receiver.

Where you "might" run into a problem is making your old remote to control the volume of new TV - when you want to use TV speakers, which are usually cr-appy anyway. New flat TV have speakers worse than those in your old CRT. They are "down firing" - sound goes from the bezel down and TAD to the back, not towards you as it should've.

I understand that you need the sound of actual "TV" only for OTA or cable. Sound from video sources like DVD or HT-PC you could probably route straight to your HT receiver.
D_E_Bishop
Explorer
Jul 19, 2016
Flat panel TVs all seem to have at least one F type connection for the antenna or cable input or if you have a video control center or B.O.M.B.(box of many buttons). I would assume that your HR has GR59 or GR 6 running from the external antenna and cable connections and/or to the B.O.M.B., that is all you need for cable and antenna signals.

The HDMI cables are for Blu Ray and satellite connections to carry the HD signals. So if you have a satellite or BluRay player or a Digital Adapter on your campground cable line you do need HMDI cables for true HD.
KD4UPL
Explorer
Jul 19, 2016
Most TVs at least have a headphone jack. This should be easy enough to hook to your surround system with an adapter. Some TV's also have RCA line outputs that are variable. Again, these should connect right up.
I'd forget about adapting digital optical or HDMI to your old equipment.