We show you How To Connect Soundbar To TV with HDMI with the help of some easy steps with pictures.
Connecting a soundbar with an HDMI cable is pretty simple, as long as your soundbar has an HDMI port back of it. It is because the old soundbars most likely do not come up with such a feature, therefore ensure that first, you have the supported one. Else, you will not be able to demonstrate this process.
Here is a quick overview of the process;
To connect a soundbar to a TV with HDMI. you need to plug HDMI cable (Input and Output) into the ports of your soundbar and TV. On TVs, it will be labeled as ARC(HDMI) Port. Once you do that, go through the TV settings>Input and enable the CEC option. Enjoy! You’ve done that.
You must be looking for a step by step guide, scroll a bit down, I’ve put my best into this how-to guide, let’s see how this will help you.
How to Connect Soundbar to TV with HDMI Cable
Keep following the mentioned steps, the process will not take longer than 5 minutes to set it up.
Step.1 Get an HDMI Cable
First thing first, you should have an HDMI cable, make sure you’ve purchased a qualitative one, preferably 1.4; otherwise, it will not support the output given by your TV.
Step.2 Plug HDMI to the soundbar and the TV
Once the HDMI cable is on your hands, now find out the relative ports to plug it onto them. Keep this noted, we’ll be using HDMI (ARC) ports.
On the back of the TV, you can see some different ports. If you have ever used Xbox, you probably have a better understanding of the types of ports. Anyways, in our case, we use one that has labeled ARC (Audio Return Channel).
In the latest versions of a soundbar, the ARC port has been underpinned. A number of variations in soundbars also create a difference in the number of ports. It is possible, your soundbar may not have labeled such that (ARC). Well, it does not state that the soundbar is not supported for ARC input, yet you should confirm by reading the guide-book, or ask the manufacturer about this, they will lead you better.
Step.3 Enable CEC, from your TV settings.
After you have done up plugging the HDMI cable into ports. Turn on the soundbar and TV, open up the TV settings> system, go to the CEC options, and enable it. It will let you control soundbar volume settings using the TV remote, this is one of the most demanded features among the people. Thus, you better marked it as Enabled.
Keep in mind, it happens quite often with soundbars; they might not have full access to support CEC features. Simply mean, If you see your remote control is still not working for your soundbar; you may need to download some kind of application depending upon the soundbar in order to adjust your soundbar CEC settings. If you’re fortunate enough, perhaps you don’t have to take that up. Additional Steps If required On conditions, if you are still facing errors, such as the soundbar is not picking up the sound.
Don’t worry, you might have not set up your TV audio settings with Soundbar audio settings.
Here is what to do, open up your TV settings>audio and you will see there “Digital Audio Output†below with some audio options. It could be PCM or Bitstream. The step you need to do is to match the audio inputs with your soundbar, such that they both have similar options whether PCM or Bitstream.
Now check that out, it should be working fine. To do that, open the TV settings
Why Should I Use HDMI to Connect a Soundbar to a TV?
You may be familiar with that too, a soundbar can be connected to a TV in several ways. Like Digital Optical or using RCA audio cables.
However, HDMI takes a step ahead of comparing those, clearly, this statement lets us walk through some advantages and disadvantages of using HDMI.
Advantages
HDMI cuts off the stress of wirings, that otherwise when you use RCA cables you will have to deal with more wires than HDMI. We take it as a plus point of using HDMI instead of other methods.
You will get a slightly better sound quality, mainly when watching a broadcast or any live event; It will make it clear to hear a sound as it lowers down the surrounding noise for you.
You’ll be able to use your Smart TV remote for controlling your soundbar volume settings, concluding; you will no longer have to carry the weight of keeping two remotes near you.
Disadvantages
The main drawback you get with HDMI cables is, your soundbar will not be able to support audio Dolby atmos or DTS;x environments. This speaks to that, if you have an above 7.1+ sound system, it might put a limit on the audio, thus it will compress the voice into 5.1 sound quality before delivering.
In case you want to stick to get the highest sound quality possible, there is no way around then except plugging all the required wires into the soundbar.
Conclusion
In the above article we discussed the easiest way of the connectivity of soundbar to TV with HDMI. As all the experts believe that HDMI is the most recommended way for all kinds of audio and video connections. Because HDMI supports all that advance features like 4K, Dolby atmos and many other more advanced features.