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Originally Posted by McClendons
There is a fair bit of dated information in some posts, but also some good info. To answer fairly, people need to know what you are trying to achieve, what the budget is, and if wiring can be involved. Those issues define the possible. That said , money is directly relevant to results.
If you are spending more than $150, and you really need to, I would insist onan eArc connection vive optical or other. The reason, with eArc, the TV will completely contorl the soundbar power, volume etc so you use 1 remote. On optical cables, you have to turn power on and change volume with a soundbar remote or physical button.
You asked for recommendations. Samsung has one of the highest rated systems out there (the upper end Samsungs), but wiring can be involved. They play great with certain new Samsung TVs though. Thier are some upper end bars, well over $1K that are great, but you end up expensive.
I belive the SONOS suggestion is a great one, although they are not perfect. My system is a SONOS Arc soundbar, a Sonos Gen 3 Sub, and two era 100s as surrounds. What I like is the communications between the soundbar and speakers is wireless, so you just need to plud each speaaker in. Sound is very good, but not quite a true stand alone system in my house. The main issue is the "open floor plan", since the Arc soundbar uses reflections for left, right, and upper channels (in Atmos). My room is not symetrical, so in my case the right side is a little weak, rest is great. If you look at Sonos, they are expensive.....but they tend to have 20% off sales fairly regularly. They also offer military/first responder discounts if you but direct from them. I belive a great way to go, but you can quickly get to $2K in a Sonos system.
Getting someone to talk you through is a great approach. Villages AV is great. As a previous poster offered, I could help discuss as well, but am out of town for another 2 weeks on a cruise.
Hopefully some of above helps
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Correcting your second paragraph about optical cables, I control both the TV and the soundbar using one remote, which is the Xfinity remote. One button turns on the TV and the soundbar and the same remote also controls the soundbar volume. No need to use the soundbar or the TV remotes.
Also, regarding HDMI ARC or eARC for audio sound. I tried using an HDMI cable from my TV to my Pioneer receiver to get the best sound. Every time I turned on the system, it made a loud noise, and there was a delay while the audio signal was redirected to the HDMI cable. And, sometimes the connection failed altogether. So, I connected the TV audio output directly to the receiver using an optical cable, and everything worked great. I found that the sound quality with an optical cable is virtually identical to the HDMI ARC sound quality for almost every digital format, including Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, and other formats. There may be a slight difference if you are using one of the latest high end audio digital formats, which are basically unavailable in today's audio content for movies and music. I would not recommend using an HDMI (ARC or eARC) cable to deliver audio to a soundbar or a receiver.