Which cable do you need to connect a soundbar to your TV? - Coolblue (2024)

FAQs

Which cable do you need to connect a soundbar to your TV? - Coolblue? ›

For the best sound quality and performance, connect your soundbar with a Digital Audio Out (Optical) or an HDMI (ARC) cable.

HDMI cable

Using an HDMI cable is by far the best way to connect your soundbar to your TV.

On the back of your TV, look for the HDMI input slot labelled ARC (Audio Return Channel), or eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel). On the back of your sound bar, find the TV OUT (ARC) slot. Connect both slots with the HDMI cable.

Whether your TV and soundbar support eARC HDMI, ARC HDMI, or just HDMI, largely depends on how old the devices are. For ARC and eARC connections, you can connect the soundbar to a TV with a single HDMI cable; otherwise, you'll just need to connect an optical audio cable in addition to an HDMI cable.

You're in luck — all you need is a single HDMI cable to connect your TV and soundbar enabled with Dolby Atmos (HDMI 2.0 for ARC should do the trick while HDMI 2.1 is necessary for eARC setups). This is the simplest option and will send audio directly from your TV to your soundbar.

Most soundbars connect to the TV, so that, no matter which input source you are using, all the sound is directed to the sound bar. That being said, there are a few models that are designed to sit in between the TV and the external source components (such as your cable box or DVD/BluRay player).

The biggest difference is that HDMI can pass higher-resolution audio, including the formats found on Blu-ray: Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. These formats can't get transmitted across optical. In terms of simplicity, HDMI also passes video signals.

Make sure the home theater or stereo system is set to the appropriate input and mode for the optical connection. Make sure the optical cable is firmly connected to both the TV and the home theater or stereo system. Try changing the channel on the TV to another digital broadcast.

There are sometimes advantages to say, pairing a Samsung soundbar with a Samsung TV, but outside of more complicated audio pass-thru situations and/or wireless connection, pretty much any soundbar will work over HDMI ARC/eARC or optical connection with any modern TV.

A coaxial digital cable will provide a distortion-free connection between your digital audio source component and an A/V receiver or DAC.

Can you connect a soundbar with just an optical cable? ›

Plug one end of the optical digital cable into the OPTICAL DIGITAL OUT port of your TV. Plug the other end of the optical digital cable into the OPTICAL DIGITAL IN port of your soundbar.

If you use an optical connection, you need to use two cables to connect your devices: an HDMI cable for the video signal and an optical digital audio cable for the audio signal. Listeners who want fewer cables in their setup will find an HDMI ARC connection is ideal.

Sound devices and projectors all use this standard. For a better sound experience, you can use an HDMI cable to direct the sound from your Smart TV to sound device. ARC (Audio Return Channel) is a special function of HDMI high-speed certified cables via which the sound can also be sent back to the transmitter.

HDMI-ARC (Audio Return Channel) can send and receive audio through a single HDMI cable. This means, you can have your Blu-ray players, set-top box, gaming consoles connected to your TV which will then channel all the audio outputs to the HDMI-ARC connected sound bar or home theatre system.