Soundbars are becoming increasingly popular and for good reason: they’re better than built-in speakers. But there’s a catch: they usually need some kind of connection to your TV or audio source.
Most of the time it’s HDMI, as you need an HDMI cable to connect the two. But what if you don’t know how to connect a soundbar with your TV you can’t enjoy the good sound.
Connecting a soundbar to a TV is not that hard, and it doesn’t need to be a convoluted process. It’s one of those things that you can do on your own and without any help.
However, you might need some help along the way, if you want to know how to connect soundbar to TV with HDMI, you’ve come to the right place. This blog will give you a step-by-step process to connect your soundbar to your TV with HDMI.
Table of Contents
Steps of How to Connect Soundbar to TV with HDMI?
It’s very exciting to get your Soundbar ready, something that can make your heart pull, and your sentiments of delight and giddiness explode through a beautiful smile.
Now it may seem a little far to some of you, but it’s really a joyful opportunity. You will realize that once you have fully set everything up and start your journey.
Follow these steps to connect a soundbar to a TV with an HDMI cable:
Connect and enable both devices to power and turn them on
Your TV is more likely to be connected to power than not (unless, of course, you are just now unboxing that, too). But one important step people often forget when connecting their Soundbars to their TV is that the Soundbar usually requires its own power source.
Now not all Soundbars are identical, thus your Soundbar offers a distinct way of receiving electricity. The most popular way to obtain power from your Soundbar is, however, to connect it to an AC power adapter or anything similar. You may find that through your TV you may connect to power, but that isn’t always the case.
Before you are annoyed by the fact that the connection between your TV and Soundbar does not work, be sure you recalled the apparently obvious (and therefore forgotten) step of plugging in both devices. Turn the TV and Soundbar on before connecting to your HDMI cord so that you can know if there are notifications.
Locate the HDMI (ARC) input on the TV
You will need to install the HDMI connection ports on each device now that you have plugged in and switched on your TV and Soundbar.
It does not matter which device you connect to the HDMI cable first but obviously, you must make sure the connection is fully established on each device (and plugged in all the way).
You will probably discover this at the same location as all other input and output ports when you locate the HDMI input port (ARC) on the TV.
So, if cables have previously been connected to the RCA ports (usually red and white input and output connections), then you first want to look at this.
The form of the HDMI cable is immediately distinguishable so that you can distinguish it by viewing the end of the HDMI cable and then the port on your TV to ensure it fits together.
If the HDMI input (ARC) connector is not seen on your TV, check the power and other buttons. If you can still discover it, examine the user manual of your TV or contact the manufacturer. Not every TV uses an HDMI cable, however, it can be remedied with a different connection type. We’ll talk about that afterward.
Locate the HDMI output (ARC) on Soundbar
As you now have the HDMI input port (ARC) on your TV, you will also need to identify the HDMI output port (ARC) on the Soundbar. This shouldn’t be too hard as the number of ports is little compared to what you could find on your TV.
Having discovered this port, and have ensured that the Soundbar is connected to a power source, you are ready to link the Soundbar to your TV using an HDMI connection.
Connect the HDMI wire to each device respectively
Now that you know where the HDMI cable can be connected to both your TV and Soundbar, it is time to proceed and connect the cable to every device.
As already noted, whether you attach the HDMI line into the TV first, then the Soundbar or vice opposite doesn’t really matter. Just be sure you have a complete and secure connection.
To select the Soundbar as the preferred speaker output, adjust the settings on your TV
Now that you have connected the HDMI connection to each device (and both are powered and switched on by the TV and the Soundbar), you have to set the settings on your television to choose the sound bar as the preferred speaker output.
Whereas some soundbars become the preferred output of the speaker when they are connected, this isn’t always the case. If the new HDMI input/output option is not opted for automatically by your TV, you may not notice any differences in sound quality streaming.
This is probably because although the soundbar is connected to the HDMI connection, the internal TV speakers continue to be the preferred source of audio output.
Therefore, you need to set the automated preference manually to start using your Soundbar. You can check the user handbook or the owner’s manual for this. But, generally speaking, it is quite straightforward and follows a basic routine.
All you need to do is go to the Settings option on your TV and find anything similar to the Speaker or Audio Selection options. The Soundbar is then selected as the favorite speaker output.
You may perceive this as creating the default HDMI connection, or you may want to ensure the Soundbar source is set to D.IN.
In any case, the Soundbar is the recommended speaker output on your TV so that the audio signals on your soundbar are routed to the channels and not to the internal TV speakers (or wherever else they would otherwise be connected to).
Obviously, if you’re using a soundbar as a small component of your home theater’s broader collection of sound devices, you need to ensure all of the devices are combined. But if you start building your audio experience here, you should be good at it.
FAQs
Do You Connect a Soundbar to a TV without HDMI?
You might use a Bluetooth audio transmitter/adapter or contemplate the usage of an RCA/HDMI cable converter (or another form of the adapter) to meet your TV’s compatibility requirements in order to connect a Soundbar to a TV without HDMI.
Can I connect a soundbar directly to my TV?
Connect an end of the HDMI cable (available separately) to your TV’s HDMI IN port. Connect the other end of your soundbar to the TV OUT (ARC) connection. Then connect your soundbar to OPTICAL IN with an optical audio wire from your optical digital audio (this is necessary to hear the TV audio).
Conclusion
When you buy a soundbar, you expect a lot from it. You want it to be easy to use and connect a variety of devices to it. Connecting a soundbar to a TV with an HDMI cable is a very simple process. It is a perfect TV accessory to add to your television.
Hooking it up to the television is easy but the process to connect the TV and soundbar varies from brand to brand. In this blog, we have broken down the best and easiest way how to connect soundbar to TV with HDMI.
For more information about the soundbar visit our website.