Good morning everyone, compliments of the season to you all
I purchased a little blaupunkt 2.1 soundbar for my wife to go on our foxtel box and sanyo tv, the tv is quiet old

Soundbar had aux in, optical in and hdmi arc

I thought my best bet was to by an active hdmi splitter and run 1 cable to tv and other to soundbar
No audio when hdmi input selected, nothing direct from hdmi out on foxtel iq4 to soundbar
Offto jbhifi and purchased toslink optical cable, we get audio but it’s really crappy background crackle

Wheni checked Bluetooth with my iphone the sound from the soundbar is really quite good

So firstly it does show it’s a hdmi arc input, should it work directly from the hdmi out on the foxtel box or is it completely different?

Secondly, the optical out port on the iq4 didn’t have any dummy cover plug, it’s a good few years old, could it be dirty and thus cause the crackling

Or

Is my $16 cable from jb hifi the issue ?

I have nothing else to test the sound bar in optical mode to rule out the cable but it was brand new

Thank you in advance from someone needing help

Mike