Help please? Replacing Blu-ray player, HDMI/Optical connectivity.

[Martin G]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can advise please?
Currently my set up is -
Samsung UE55KU6020 smart UHD TV (had for nearly 1 year)
Samsung HT-DB7200 (Blu-Ray 2.1 Home Theatre System about 9 yrs old)

The TV ports are
HDMI1 In (STB/DVI)
HDMI2 In
HDMI3 In (ARC)
Optical audio out

The HT-DB7200 ports are
1 x HDMI out
Optical audio in
Red/White/Blue A/V

The Blu-ray part of the HTS has gone faulty (again) and won't accept discs. (It's integrated into the HTS main unit) It wont suck them in properly either. It's been repaired before but it's too expensive to repair again.
I have now bought (waiting for it to arrive) a new Samsung UBD-K8500 UHD Blu-ray player which I hope to replace the old blu-ray player with BUT this will be additional to the HTS so I just want to use this new player to watch UHD/Blu-ray etc discs with.
So in essence I'll still have the HT-BD7200 HTS but just using it for TV & new UHD player surround sound and the blu-ray part of it will be defunct.
The only ports on the new UHD player are 2 HDMI's one marked Main and one marked Audio I believe.

Can anyone advise the best way to connect up so I can still watch TV (inbuilt freeview) and have the sound through the HTS but still be able to watch dvd's/bluray/uhd on the new player and it also uses the HTS for sound.
I temporarily fitted an old panasonic dvd player (to prove it would work) by just connecting it to the TV by hdmi and got surround sound ok but not sure of the 'best' way to connect up using ARC etc? Also as they will still all be Samsung units so hoping the 'Anynet' feature still works so I just use the TV remote to control the HTS volume.
p.s. Can't afford to buy new home theatre or sound bar at the moment.
Hope this makes sense, any help much appreciated, Thanks.

 

[lovinthehd]

You're limited to what your HT-DB7200 can handle, which will essentially be the optical audio in, so connect the optical audio out on your tv to the HT-DB7200. Use the hdmi out to your tv, it won't matter which HDMI port. If it's 2.1 you're not getting surround sound in any case.

 

[BMXTRIX]

That model of Blu-ray Disc player has an optical audio output right on it as well if you wanted to connect it directly to your HTS you could do so.

At some point, you may want to ditch the HTS in favor of a proper A/V receiver and speaker setup. Avoid speaker bars if you can in favor of an A/V receiver and speakers.

In the future, please ask before you buy on anything A/V as these forums exist to help point people in the right direction prior to purchases. Lots of enthusiasts who are more than happy to help steer people towards the best purchasing decisions.