@@deutschmarked are you serious? Just goes to show the extent of which people are willing to go to seek some attention from complete strangers! Just pathetic.
I am a 75 year old lady who lives in a separate suite in my daughters house. I accidently knocked over the sound bar. Long story short, with some research on the cable I found your video. I cannot thank you enough for great instructions! I was able to connect it within minutes. It took an hour to find you, but you sure made it easy once I did. lol It is always nice to be able to fix something or do anything for myself without bothering a family member!! Big cyber hug to you for taking the time to make this video! You are my hero and made my day!!!
This video was well done. It had no "fat" on it whatsoever. Clear, intelligible and to the point. This is how ALL TH-cam videos should be done. THANK you!
lol, I won't tell you how long these cables have been being used for in entry level HT setups then (although if the sales clerk didn't mention the nubs at the time, I would have thrown everything out the window trying to hook it all up haha)
The plastic caps might seem obvious to the manufacturers BUT this simple instruction should appear at the FRONT of the instruction manual and in BOLD CAPITALS for all of us who have never used optical cables before 😡.
"It's important to remember that there are tiny little covers on each end of the cable that need to be removed before you make the connection." That's all I needed. The instructions didn't mention it. Thank you!
You are a lifesaver! No where on the instructions does it tell you there are little plastic things on the cable that need to be removed! I spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out how to install the cable before watching your video. So grateful I did! Such a stupid little thing but so important and frustrating!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Thank you!! God Bless You! We just purchased a sound bar from Amazon and connected it with RCA cables and it didn't work. I followed your video connecting it with the optical cables, which were included with the sound bar we purchased. I changed the TV settings to external speakers and put sound bar in optical mode like you instructed and it works great. I'm so thankful that you have a video for Seniors like me who are not tech savvy. Thanks Again!!
THANK YOU for this video!! I bought this onn soundbar at a yard sale a few days ago and I had NO idea how to connect this cord to my TV!! I had it connected to my cell phone for TH-cam, it worked SO AWESOME, but I really NEED this speaker connected to my TV - so I don't blow the tv speakers! lol I play TH-cam on my Xbox360, mostly strong/deep bass and Dubstep, on my TV and I blew the speakers on the other TV, I had for like 7 years :( So I recently bought a TV at Walmart, Roku, ugh....And I'm still learning the thing... :) But then, I got this onn soundbar, and I was lost...It didn't come with instructions, just the soundbar and remote...So, I had to come to TH-cam, to learn and I found your video!!! My cord never came with the plastic thing on the end of the cord cuz I didn't get it new, so no worries there! :) Does the soundbar actually shut the TV speakers off? Cuz it's not, it just adds the boost, but when I turn the onn soundbar down, my TV speakers are still on! Am I doing something wrong? I've never had a soundbar before! I'm new to this...I need HELP!!! NEVERMIND...I figured it out on my Roku TV! >>> Answer to my own questions, if anyone also wants to know:
Thank you!!! Your video is the only one that fixed my problem. My optical cable wasn’t working. I had no clue you had to take the plastic covers off of the ends. One would think the instructions would tell you that. I’m subscribing.
I was having trouble getting sound through the sound bar until I watched this video and came to realize that I needed to change the sound bar to optical! Thank you for posting your informational videos. They are very helpful!
Thank you! The cable definitely fits better when you remove the covers that are on the ends. We had given up on using this cable and went back to the red/white audio ones..... hahaha something so silly..
You are awesome! I bought a sound bar and couldn’t figure out how to hook up. I went to Walmart and they were like here you need an optical cable. I must of shoved that cable in to both units with that little rubber cap 100 times before it popped off and I was like oh okay it’s a cap or I broke this. The. I still couldn’t figure out how to set up. I watch like 5 videos before yours and you clearly showed the way. Thank you 🙏
Thanks, just plugged my optical cable instead of hdmi. I know hdmi provides a bit better quality, especially with Atmos content, but it's a pain to configure correctly. I couldn't fix lip sync issues using hdmi.
Many thanks. I'll try that soon. My problem is that my Panasonic sound bar doesn't work when a HD programme is on . When I bought my 43" Sony Bravia, I put the soundbar directly to the Virigin TV box. I'll now try to put the cable directly at the back of the TV and see if that solves the problem.
Thank you, you have saved me a fortune in wires. On soundbar is the Optical slot, problem is these slots are covered over, due to your video I finally found the correct hole. This problem has arisen in other areas of my life too :)
Well thank you very much. Picked up a new TV and hooked up the soundbar using the optical cable. No sound? It worked fine on our other TV and the settings were correct. Except for on the soundbar setting. It was on AUX. As soon as you said to have the soundbar to OC a light went on! Thank you.
I switched to optical when I was having many problems with HDMI EARC dropping audio for 15 seconds or so every half hour regardless of changing the HDMI cable. Optical just straight up works better I’ve found, and shields any digital interference from a modem, router etc.
@@superniger4822 Samsung B650 soundbar, with an additional subwoofer. Could potentially be a bad port issue with the soundbar itself, or the TV itself but since changing to Optical, I haven’t had any issues the last few days.
Thank you so much! After spending two hours attempting to setup my Polk soundbar with an optical cable to no avail, I realized, thanks to you, that I had not inserted the optical cable properly. Once inserted properly, it sounds AMAZING! Thumbs up and a sub from me for an AWESOME upload... Stay safe... Rico
I pretty much knew what to do but thought I'd check out your video just to be sure. No surprises, but you should be complimented om a clear, concise, easy to follow video! Well done!
I just purchased the soundbar to get sound since my older plasma is just a monitor. Is it true that I cannot connect the optical output on the sound bar to my AVR receiver? Or is the optical connection just input!! I read this on Roku's web site: Connecting to an AVR or soundbar using optical for audio Use this option if your Roku player has an optical connector, and your AVR or soundbar does not support HDMI. In this configuration, you will switch video sources on your TV and audio sources on your AVR or soundbar. Roku player or streaming stick connecting via optical or S/PDIF to audio video receiver or AVR Connect the end of the HDMI cable that is not attached to your Roku player to an available HDMI input on your TV. Connect an optical cable to the optical output on your Roku player. Connect the opposite end to an optical (or S/PDIF) input on your AVR or soundbar. If not an optical output, can I at least listen through Bluetooth to my Echo Show? Thanks!
If I may ask two questions. We just purchased a Sony 4k ultra HD back lit 55" thin TV and a Bose Solo 5 sound bar. 1. Are we better off to connect the Bose optical audio cable to the Charter cable box or to the TV? We ran both Boston Acoustic and TV speakers at the same time with our old set up and could adjust the sound really well, and turn down the Boston volume when not necessary. 2. Salesman said to connect the Bose to the TV and turn off the TV speakers. He said the sound, if using both TV speakers and sound bar, would sound funny. Any Idea what that would sound like? Thank you for the help and btw, great instructional video.
Hi Tom. I would say you're best off using just the soundbar for sound. It's going to provide much better sound than the TV speakers and is good at any volume, so I'm not sure there's any benefit in using the TV speakers for anything you'd be watching. Also, my recommendation would be to hook the cable box up to the TV first and then run the optical cable from the TV to the soundbar. Thanks for watching! -Carl
We have both hooked up and working. We use TV speakers for most viewing. We can turn on the Bose for movies or to enhance any talk TV. It turned out better than expected. We balance the volume of both to what we like best. No distortion or phase shift (fuzzy sound) Thank you for your reply
Thank you after working on our sound bar for two hours your video made us aware that we never removed the covers for the optical output cable so thank you so much I feel very foolish merry Christmas!!
If you wouldn't of mentioned the little plastic covers on the ends of the optical cable I don't think I would have figured it out. 🤣 thanks so much you were a huge help just the littlest thing can help. P.S i subscribed
Thank you for providing such an easy-to-follow video that is clear with not a lot of mumbo-jumbo in between. Direct, to the point; I love it ....now time to shop for a speaker...
Is there a way to have the TV speakers and the soundbar running at the same time? Like a use both option. Or do you lose the TV speaker sound once you put on the optical soundbar option on? Reason I ask is im getting a soundbar next week.
Hi drohoe1. My parents have an LG that allowed both to play at the same time, but I wouldn't recommend it. It doesn't improve the sound at all since the sound coming out of the soundbar is going to be a lot better than what will come out of the TV speakers. I turned their TV speakers off as soon as I heard sound coming out of both. Not only that, but the timing can be a little off as well which doesn't sound good either. Thanks for watching and enjoy your new soundbar! -Carl
Thank You so muuuch, I've had my sound bar for weeks and couldn't find a video that helped me or gave specific instructions so this was highly appreciated 🤓🙌🏾
You saved me! I swear I thought I could never get this stupid cable to work when after watching the video and saw you removed the plastic cover! I feel like such a moron!
Hey, great video I have a Bose AV18 media Center, a Sony Bravia TV (KDL-48R55xC) manufactured in 2015. I also have a sky Q box . How can I connect the Bose to the TV so all sound transmits from Bose speakers?? Thanks
I have a Yamaha HTR receiver not soundbar and I would guess the procedure would be the same. I have two digital optical inputs on the receiver. Does the other end go to the media source directly or to the TV Digital Optical input? My set is 4K DVD, and normal Direct TV receiver. I am thinking source to HTR but want to confirm. Without using the TV speakers I can see not needing the Digital Optical connection on the TV itself.
Thank you so much. This really helped i couldn't get mine to work. I'm an idiot, i had no idea to take off the white bubbly ends b4 connecting lol, it works great! Thank you!
I was able to attach the optical cable to both the soundbar and TV and I switched the audio output on the Sharp TV to variable but I still don't get sound under any setting on the SB. What am I missing?
How many different shapes can there be when connecting this cable to a tv? My tv digital audio output is round, not like the connection shape in your video.
Hi Charlie. I haven't seen an optical port that's any other shape than the one in the video. If your connection is round it may be a digital coaxial connection. Those are typically colored orange and take a different cable. I hope that helps and thanks for watching! -Carl
Can you explain why my soundbar is lately experiencing sound cutting off at times.. thought it was the av cables, so I bought the optical cable.. it starting to do the same, plus I can hear like some static ..
One thing about fibre optics: always hook up the source second, for safety. Sound bar first, TV second. Then you won't accidentally look at the live end while you're plugging in the sound bar.
Hi Johnny Chandler! With an optical cable, both sides will have a male end and will be the same. If you have any further questions please feel free to reach us at 800-860-3736 and one of our experts is happy to help! Thanks for watching!
Thanks man that was the first time I connect optical audio cable.. and I'll admit it lol I didn't know I should have removed the plastic cover I thought it was part of it and when it didn't work I checked TH-cam and saw you video hahhaha thanks again man lol
Hello I have a toshiba 22 inch tv and I have hooked the digital optical cable from my tv to the soundbar already however I’m not getting any sound no matter what audio setting I try to change. I don’t see an option on my tv to turn off the tv speakers so I’m not sure if I can get my soundbar to work on it. Any advice or suggestions would be great.
Thanks. I have to switch to optical cable for my computer system and was not sure how to do it. now i feel confident even if it might just be such a small thing :) Thanks!
Thank you, Carl, very helpful. One question; my subwoofer will not stay connected. Each time I have to do the procedure again. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance, Happy Holidays!
Sorry I have some question here. Recently, i’am using Samsung TV Series 4 and i’ve plan to buy Xiaomi Soundbar, but the Xiaomi only give SPDIF Cable on the package. Can you tell me if the SPDIF Cable can actually work with my TV?The tv provides digital audio out (optical) on it.
On the first few seconds of this video, it all cleared out why my Optical was not producing sound... the clear covers were still on. Dummy.... Thank you so much...
Thanks, but I was hoping to see how to insert the optical cable into the tiny holes and you did it so fast bypassing the details to the first time user. I would suggest you tell details like, are the two ends the same connector, and, to show a huge diagram on the mating connector so we know what to look for inserting it. Without the needed info, at least I am skeptical to plug it in as I might break the tiny light source at the cable ends.
my Sony Bravia 40" is "old" so i have have 2 HDMI ports. one is for the cable box and the other for the blu ray player. seems like i'll have to use the optical cable for a soundbar. am i right? or are there now wireless soundbars on the market?
I wasn't sure what wires to use. The RCA, HDMI or OPTICAL. Instructions didn't say. I tried ALL them at th same time and n sound.. So from your video here, all I need to use is the Optical. Then in my TV setting there were all sorts of options to use. That was more confusing, so I boxed it up and was going to return. now I don't have to. Thank you so much for this say explanation
Hi duby149. It depends on the TV. Some will let you output sound from both the TV speakers and the soundbar at the same time which will allow you to turn one of them down if you choose. My recommendation would be to only use the soundbar though as the speakers in that are going to be much better than your TV speakers typically. Thanks for watching! -Carl
I have an older LG plasma tv that does not support ADC, so I connected the tv and my YAS - 170 sound bar with the optical output of my LG 50PJ350C. I get sound from the sound bar but I can't control the volume with my tv/cable remote. Any suggestions? If I even talk about getting a new tv my wife goes ballistic.
The signal coming into my Marantz SR7011 receiver shows sound as multi in + neural x and the signal as pcm, when I hit the info button on my remote. My source content is coming from amazon prime and youtube using an nvidia shield tv. I'm try to playback the content in Dolby Atmos. My tv is an Lg c8 oled connected to the Marantz via an hdmi cable.
@jeffcoyle5742 An optical cable will work great for most audio formats, but if you're trying to play back Atmos or DTS:X you'll need to use an HDMI cable. You likely won't hear a difference otherwise.
Hi sir been struggling to hook up the tv with sound bar my tv is a sansui & my sound bar is a Samsung 2.1channel when trying to connect the tv with sound bar using optical cable am not winning since my tv doesn't have settings for optical please assist me further
Hi Furious Styles. It'll depend on the TV. I've seen some that will do both and others that cut off the sound from the TV's speakers when the optical cable is used. If you're using a soundbar though, it's best just to use the sound from that as it will be far better than the speakers built into the TV. Thanks for watching! -Carl
My optical out on tv has a needle type thing that then screws on like a cable wire? It’s says optical digital audio out. What kind of sound bar do I need?
Hi, i have an LED TV which has only Audio out port and i want to connect it with Soundbar which has HDMI & Optical. Do i have to get a connector seperatley ?
I was able to get sound bar hooked up and working immediately. I did not do anything with the TV remote. However, after a while I lost the picture on the TV but still had the sound. What did I do wrong? I unhooked the sound bar after that happened.
@Sharon. The connection is a specific shape, so make sure you're lining it up properly. If you are and it's still not working, you may need to try pressing a little harder. It should snap into place. Hopefully this works for you. Thanks for watching!
I have a Panasonic TV with optical digital output. I need to use an optical "splitter" to split the originating cable and have one optical cable go to a Harman Kardon SB16 soundbar, and another optical cable to go to a Bluetooth hearing aid box. My problem is that the optical cable works OK when connected directly between TV and soundbar, but does not work (no sound) when connected through a splitter box. (Red) light can be seen and the end of the optical cable, but no sound to either the soundbar or the hair aid Bluetooth box. I've tried two different brands of splitter box - one "passive, and the other "powered", but no sound. Am I doing something wrong? Incidentally, I've seen two style of optical cable connector: one with two corners cut off the plastic, and another that is rectangular with no cut-off corners. Are they the same? The Panasonic port has a third format - a mini-TosLink round socket.
It really depends on your setup. As far as sound quality goes they both sound great. HDMI offers a little more flexibility in how you hook up your other components to your system so it's a little more versatile. It'll also depend on your soundbar. Some don't offer both options for hookup. Hope this helps. Thanks for watching! -Carl
I don't think there is a HDMI connection in general for soundbars. But if there is one for your soundbar, I would still prefer the optical cable, there is less of a chance of toasting the soundbar because of faulty TV/PC sound output. Other than that, everything else is the same. EM interference is not a issue for HDMI signals for short distances (unless you wrap the HDMI cable around a electrical transformer or... you are welding nearby: )
@Prince. T.U You'd need an optical to digital coaxial converter to have that work. Then you can plug both types of cables into that. There isn't a cable available that has everything built in.
Thank you so much. My husband usually took care of these things, but since he passed away, TH-cam videos make things a little easier. Again thank you.
Buffy K-9 so sorry for your loss
My condolences😔🌷🌷🌷🌹
@@deutschmarked WTF
@@deutschmarked are you serious? Just goes to show the extent of which people are willing to go to seek some attention from complete strangers! Just pathetic.
Xobeen Brown just reported it and pretty sure the comment got taken down immediately
I am a 75 year old lady who lives in a separate suite in my daughters house. I accidently knocked over the sound bar. Long story short, with some research on the cable I found your video. I cannot thank you enough for great instructions! I was able to connect it within minutes. It took an hour to find you, but you sure made it easy once I did. lol It is always nice to be able to fix something or do anything for myself without bothering a family member!! Big cyber hug to you for taking the time to make this video! You are my hero and made my day!!!
L my
The video helped me also
Ààaà@@rhaescroggins7850
This video was well done. It had no "fat" on it whatsoever. Clear, intelligible and to the point. This is how ALL TH-cam videos should be done. THANK you!
THANK YOU FOR BEING THE ONLY PERSON TO MENTION THE PLASTIC NUBS.
I WAS GOING OUT OF MY TINY MIND.
I feel so dumb I had to watch a video to figure that out xD
It also was driving me crazy that it didnt wanna snap in 😂
I know that feeling bro
lol, I won't tell you how long these cables have been being used for in entry level HT setups then (although if the sales clerk didn't mention the nubs at the time, I would have thrown everything out the window trying to hook it all up haha)
Ditto!!
8 months my speakers sat on the floor in my room, all because of a dumb little plastic cap. You’re a lifesaver
hope you got it all setted up and working
Lol brooo!!!
Hahaha
The plastic caps might seem obvious to the manufacturers BUT this simple instruction should appear at the FRONT of the instruction manual and in BOLD CAPITALS for all of us who have never used optical cables before 😡.
Don't feel bad friend I think we've all been dumbfounded from time to time....
"It's important to remember that there are tiny little covers on each end of the cable that need to be removed before you make the connection." That's all I needed. The instructions didn't mention it. Thank you!
You are a lifesaver! No where on the instructions does it tell you there are little plastic things on the cable that need to be removed! I spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out how to install the cable before watching your video. So grateful I did! Such a stupid little thing but so important and frustrating!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Thank you!! God Bless You! We just purchased a sound bar from Amazon and connected it with RCA cables and it didn't work. I followed your video connecting it with the optical cables, which were included with the sound bar we purchased. I changed the TV settings to external speakers and put sound bar in optical mode like you instructed and it works great. I'm so thankful that you have a video for Seniors like me who are not tech savvy. Thanks Again!!
You saved the day. Didn't know about the little covers on the optical cable. (1st time using one) Thanks!
THANK YOU for this video!! I bought this onn soundbar at a yard sale a few days ago and I had NO idea how to connect this cord to my TV!!
I had it connected to my cell phone for TH-cam, it worked SO AWESOME, but I really NEED this speaker connected to my TV - so I don't blow the tv speakers! lol
I play TH-cam on my Xbox360, mostly strong/deep bass and Dubstep, on my TV and I blew the speakers on the other TV, I had for like 7 years :(
So I recently bought a TV at Walmart, Roku, ugh....And I'm still learning the thing... :) But then, I got this onn soundbar, and I was lost...It didn't come with instructions, just the soundbar and remote...So, I had to come to TH-cam, to learn and I found your video!!!
My cord never came with the plastic thing on the end of the cord cuz I didn't get it new, so no worries there! :)
Does the soundbar actually shut the TV speakers off? Cuz it's not, it just adds the boost, but when I turn the onn soundbar down, my TV speakers are still on! Am I doing something wrong? I've never had a soundbar before! I'm new to this...I need HELP!!!
NEVERMIND...I figured it out on my Roku TV!
>>> Answer to my own questions, if anyone also wants to know:
Finally, I got someone who shows in DETAILS how to hookup soundbar to tv in detail.
Hello K Kang! Glad we could help. Thanks for watching!
OMG! The plastic piece remove 🤣🤣 thank you for saying this!! 🤦🏼♀️🤷♀️ Because of you I set it up. I was like why doesn’t this fit 🙃
It's been so many years that I've been thinking that my optical cable wasn't working (because of this 😭)
Audiophile.. 🎉😂🍾
OMG! this was the best video after an hour of looking at others on TH-cam. So glad I found you. thank you
I agree with a comment below: This is the only video I saw that mentioned the plastic nubs on the optical cable. It solved my problem. Thank you!
Thank you!!! Your video is the only one that fixed my problem. My optical cable wasn’t working. I had no clue you had to take the plastic covers off of the ends. One would think the instructions would tell you that. I’m subscribing.
But I still can’t get the cable all the way in. Ughhh
I was having trouble getting sound through the sound bar until I watched this video and came to realize that I needed to change the sound bar to optical! Thank you for posting your informational videos. They are very helpful!
Thank you! The cable definitely fits better when you remove the covers that are on the ends. We had given up on using this cable and went back to the red/white audio ones..... hahaha something so silly..
Hi jennifer c! Happy to help. Thanks for watching!
You are awesome! I bought a sound bar and couldn’t figure out how to hook up. I went to Walmart and they were like here you need an optical cable. I must of shoved that cable in to both units with that little rubber cap 100 times before it popped off and I was like oh okay it’s a cap or I broke this. The. I still couldn’t figure out how to set up. I watch like 5 videos before yours and you clearly showed the way. Thank you 🙏
Just had the same issue as previous comment, never used optical before didn't know about the plastic caps on the plug and its now working cheers 👍
Thanks, just plugged my optical cable instead of hdmi. I know hdmi provides a bit better quality, especially with Atmos content, but it's a pain to configure correctly. I couldn't fix lip sync issues using hdmi.
Thank you so much 😊. I was struggling because I didn't know that I had to take off those little tips. I'm all set now thanks to you. ❤
Same happened to me LOL 🙈
Many thanks. I'll try that soon. My problem is that my Panasonic sound bar doesn't work when a HD programme is on . When I bought my 43" Sony Bravia, I put the soundbar directly to the Virigin TV box. I'll now try to put the cable directly at the back of the TV and see if that solves the problem.
Plastic caps.....PLASTIC CAPS!!!!!!.....I thought I was going crazy!. Thank you!
Me too lmao
Same!!! This comment saved me.
Comment saved me
me too 😁
Same I didn’t know about the caps I was already getting mad 😂
Thank you, you have saved me a fortune in wires. On soundbar is the Optical slot, problem is these slots are covered over, due to your video I finally found the correct hole. This problem has arisen in other areas of my life too :)
Ha!!
Well thank you very much. Picked up a new TV and hooked up the soundbar using the optical cable. No sound? It worked fine on our other TV and the settings were correct. Except for on the soundbar setting. It was on AUX. As soon as you said to have the soundbar to OC a light went on! Thank you.
Hi Tom. I'm glad the video helped! Thanks for watching! -Carl
I switched to optical when I was having many problems with HDMI EARC dropping audio for 15 seconds or so every half hour regardless of changing the HDMI cable.
Optical just straight up works better I’ve found, and shields any digital interference from a modem, router etc.
That’s a bizarre problem, I’ve never heard of that happening. What kind of sound setup are you working with?
@@superniger4822 Samsung B650 soundbar, with an additional subwoofer. Could potentially be a bad port issue with the soundbar itself, or the TV itself but since changing to Optical, I haven’t had any issues the last few days.
Well stated. However, could I use any optical cable because mine is being specific (TS8132) but there's no store that carries that particular cable.
Thank you so much! After spending two hours attempting to setup my Polk soundbar with an optical cable to no avail, I realized, thanks to you, that I had not inserted the optical cable properly. Once inserted properly, it sounds AMAZING! Thumbs up and a sub from me for an AWESOME upload... Stay safe... Rico
I have an optical cable coming from my soundbar but I only have an spdif input in my projector. What are my options?
Thank you!!! My JBL bar 1000 manual barely had any words, just pictures and you helped me get it going
I pretty much knew what to do but thought I'd check out your video just to be sure. No surprises, but you should be complimented om a clear, concise, easy to follow video! Well done!
"clear, concise, easy to follow"---the magic words for youtube 'how-to' videos. Thanks!
I just purchased the soundbar to get sound since my older plasma is just a monitor. Is it true that I cannot connect the optical output on the sound bar to my AVR receiver? Or is the optical connection just input!! I read this on Roku's web site:
Connecting to an AVR or soundbar using optical for audio
Use this option if your Roku player has an optical connector, and your AVR or soundbar does not support HDMI. In this configuration, you will switch video sources on your TV and audio sources on your AVR or soundbar.
Roku player or streaming stick connecting via optical or S/PDIF to audio video receiver or AVR
Connect the end of the HDMI cable that is not attached to your Roku player to an available HDMI input on your TV.
Connect an optical cable to the optical output on your Roku player. Connect the opposite end to an optical (or S/PDIF) input on your AVR or soundbar.
If not an optical output, can I at least listen through Bluetooth to my Echo Show? Thanks!
If I may ask two questions. We just purchased a Sony 4k ultra HD back lit 55" thin TV and a Bose Solo 5 sound bar.
1. Are we better off to connect the Bose optical audio cable to the Charter cable box or to the TV? We ran both Boston Acoustic and TV speakers at the same time with our old set up and could adjust the sound really well, and turn down the Boston volume when not necessary.
2. Salesman said to connect the Bose to the TV and turn off the TV speakers. He said the sound, if using both TV speakers and sound bar, would sound funny. Any Idea what that would sound like?
Thank you for the help and btw, great instructional video.
Hi Tom. I would say you're best off using just the soundbar for sound. It's going to provide much better sound than the TV speakers and is good at any volume, so I'm not sure there's any benefit in using the TV speakers for anything you'd be watching. Also, my recommendation would be to hook the cable box up to the TV first and then run the optical cable from the TV to the soundbar. Thanks for watching! -Carl
We have both hooked up and working. We use TV speakers for most viewing. We can turn on the Bose for movies or to enhance any talk TV. It turned out better than expected. We balance the volume of both to what we like best. No distortion or phase shift (fuzzy sound)
Thank you for your reply
Thank you after working on our sound bar for two hours your video made us aware that we never removed the covers for the optical output cable so thank you so much I feel very foolish merry Christmas!!
I had no idea about the plastic covers new cables come with and I feel ridiculously silly. Thank you!
Hey I fumbled with my cords for like 30 minutes. Looked up TH-cam and found out about the dang caps after 46 seconds haha 😂
If you wouldn't of mentioned the little plastic covers on the ends of the optical cable I don't think I would have figured it out. 🤣 thanks so much you were a huge help just the littlest thing can help.
P.S i subscribed
Plastic nibs, oh what a drama, trying to fit them so complicated, caused man to give up, irritated!
Thank you for providing such an easy-to-follow video that is clear with not a lot of mumbo-jumbo in between. Direct, to the point; I love it ....now time to shop for a speaker...
Many thanks.
You solved my problem just 1:06 into your video.
Brilliant stuff.
Well, that helped. The instructions didn’t mention taking the little caps off the ends of the cable. Works way better now. Thanks
Is there a way to have the TV speakers and the soundbar running at the same time? Like a use both option. Or do you lose the TV speaker sound once you put on the optical soundbar option on? Reason I ask is im getting a soundbar next week.
Hi drohoe1. My parents have an LG that allowed both to play at the same time, but I wouldn't recommend it. It doesn't improve the sound at all since the sound coming out of the soundbar is going to be a lot better than what will come out of the TV speakers. I turned their TV speakers off as soon as I heard sound coming out of both. Not only that, but the timing can be a little off as well which doesn't sound good either. Thanks for watching and enjoy your new soundbar! -Carl
Makes sense. Thanks the reply
Thank You so muuuch, I've had my sound bar for weeks and couldn't find a video that helped me or gave specific instructions so this was highly appreciated 🤓🙌🏾
@La_Belle89. We're glad it helped! Thanks for watching!
THANK YOU! I didn’t know I had to put a little bit of more pressure to fully plug in the optical cable! Worked immediately
You saved me! I swear I thought I could never get this stupid cable to work when after watching the video and saw you removed the plastic cover! I feel like such a moron!
Me too man. My comment is very similar lol
Can you connect 2 tv’s optically to go thru you music receiver and switch back and forth to listen to both tv’s if there on different shows
Hey, great video
I have a Bose AV18 media Center, a Sony Bravia TV (KDL-48R55xC) manufactured in 2015. I also have a sky Q box . How can I connect the Bose to the TV so all sound transmits from Bose speakers??
Thanks
Omg I love you man. You solved an issue that went on for like 3 years
I have a Yamaha HTR receiver not soundbar and I would guess the procedure would be the same. I have two digital optical inputs on the receiver. Does the other end go to the media source directly or to the TV Digital Optical input?
My set is 4K DVD, and normal Direct TV receiver. I am thinking source to HTR but want to confirm. Without using the TV speakers I can see not needing the Digital Optical connection on the TV itself.
Thank you so much. This really helped i couldn't get mine to work. I'm an idiot, i had no idea to take off the white bubbly ends b4 connecting lol, it works great! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this video, I was getting so frustrated trying to hook this up. You are a life saver, your video taught me how to hook it up!
Thanks you about your explaining to remove optical cap ....finally I did hook up my sound bar speaker , it work pretty good .
Stanley Vo
I swear soon as he said it .. I died laughing .. Thanks for the vid
Yes, the first 45 seconds of the video sorted my issue.
Stanley Vo
My TV is Emerson and it do not have an optical connection. What do I do
I was able to attach the optical cable to both the soundbar and TV and I switched the audio output on the Sharp TV to variable but I still don't get sound under any setting on the SB. What am I missing?
you do a real nice job of exlaining tho i still cant get the tv sound to go thru the sound bar the dv d player sound comes thru
Does the optical wire give the sound bar a better quality of sound then the AV cables?
How many different shapes can there be when connecting this cable to a tv? My tv digital audio output is round, not like the connection shape in your video.
Hi Charlie. I haven't seen an optical port that's any other shape than the one in the video. If your connection is round it may be a digital coaxial connection. Those are typically colored orange and take a different cable. I hope that helps and thanks for watching! -Carl
@@abtelectronics what about TOSLINK on your surround sound equipment? Isn't that a square optical connection?
Can you explain why my soundbar is lately experiencing sound cutting off at times.. thought it was the av cables, so I bought the optical cable.. it starting to do the same, plus I can hear like some static ..
One thing about fibre optics: always hook up the source second, for safety. Sound bar first, TV second. Then you won't accidentally look at the live end while you're plugging in the sound bar.
I wonder, do the different connections matter? Does one sound best?
Is their a male / female end or both the same??
Hi Johnny Chandler! With an optical cable, both sides will have a male end and will be the same. If you have any further questions please feel free to reach us at 800-860-3736 and one of our experts is happy to help! Thanks for watching!
Thanks dude! I was afraid to push on it and a little confused on how to plug it.. mission accomplished 👏
Thanks man that was the first time I connect optical audio cable.. and I'll admit it lol I didn't know I should have removed the plastic cover I thought it was part of it and when it didn't work I checked TH-cam and saw you video hahhaha thanks again man lol
Hello I have a toshiba 22 inch tv and I have hooked the digital optical cable from my tv to the soundbar already however I’m not getting any sound no matter what audio setting I try to change. I don’t see an option on my tv to turn off the tv speakers so I’m not sure if I can get my soundbar to work on it. Any advice or suggestions would be great.
Thanks. I have to switch to optical cable for my computer system and was not sure how to do it. now i feel confident even if it might just be such a small thing :) Thanks!
Thank you! I just purchased a Sonos sound-bar, and didn’t know how to connect it properly.
Thanks Pawl! Glad it helped. Thanks for watching! -Carl
the Samsung smart TVs have a fairly decent speaker system on their own. Is there any way to have both those speakers AND the sound bar play together?
Thank you, Carl, very helpful. One question; my subwoofer will not stay connected. Each time I have to do the procedure again. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance, Happy Holidays!
Sorry I have some question here. Recently, i’am using Samsung TV Series 4 and i’ve plan to buy Xiaomi Soundbar, but the Xiaomi only give SPDIF Cable on the package. Can you tell me if the SPDIF Cable can actually work with my TV?The tv provides digital audio out (optical) on it.
He speaks so well.
On the first few seconds of this video, it all cleared out why my Optical was not producing sound... the clear covers were still on. Dummy.... Thank you so much...
@dmatmor Glad we were able to help! Thanks for watching!
Thanks, but I was hoping to see how to insert the optical cable into the tiny holes and you did it so fast bypassing the details to the first time user. I would suggest you tell details like, are the two ends the same connector, and, to show a huge diagram on the mating connector so we know what to look for inserting it. Without the needed info, at least I am skeptical to plug it in as I might break the tiny light source at the cable ends.
I can plug it in the Visio box system but I don’t have an input to put the cord in the back of a smart JVC 2018 TV do you have any suggestions
Nice video , where can I order that exact cord ?
The ones at Walmart look nothing like that and don’t snap in.
my Sony Bravia 40" is "old" so i have have 2 HDMI ports. one is for the cable box and the other for the blu ray player. seems like i'll have to use the optical cable for a soundbar. am i right? or are there now wireless soundbars on the market?
And which audio format to use on tv settings for netflix and ps4? PCM or Dolby or DTS Neo? Dolby and DTS sounds louder.
Hello there! What brand of optical cable do you recommend?
Thank you! I am trying to help my grandpa set up his soundbar and this should help.
Saved my bacon in 47 seconds. Those are caps on the ends! You'd think the manufacturer would mention that.
Hi I have a Samsung tv what would be 5he best sound bar to get and what digital plug would I need? Thank you
I wasn't sure what wires to use. The RCA, HDMI or OPTICAL. Instructions didn't say. I tried ALL them at th same time and n sound.. So from your video here, all I need to use is the Optical. Then in my TV setting there were all sorts of options to use. That was more confusing, so I boxed it up and was going to return. now I don't have to. Thank you so much for this say explanation
Do I have to turn my tv speakers off, like I would like to only turn the sound bar on only when im watching a movies or playing music.
Hi duby149. It depends on the TV. Some will let you output sound from both the TV speakers and the soundbar at the same time which will allow you to turn one of them down if you choose. My recommendation would be to only use the soundbar though as the speakers in that are going to be much better than your TV speakers typically. Thanks for watching! -Carl
Hi, could you know a reason why the sound on sound bar fades low then back up every few minutes?
Tried to complete this for 3 days. I watched this and realized I just needed to get those end caps off! 2 minutes and I’m in business. Thanks!
Hi does the optic sound better than rca cables....
For days I have been seeking a solution to this issue. Some of it I still had to figure out on my own but this was very informative. thank you!
I have an older LG plasma tv that does not support ADC, so I connected the tv and my YAS - 170 sound bar with the optical output of my LG 50PJ350C. I get sound from the sound bar but I can't control the volume with my tv/cable remote. Any suggestions? If I even talk about getting a new tv my wife goes ballistic.
This helped tremendously. I was so close to sending my sound bar back. Thank you so much
Ah I believe i didnt push the optical cable in hard enough. Thanks for the video! ❤️❤️ My nana is gonna enjoy her soundbar
The signal coming into my Marantz SR7011 receiver shows sound as multi in + neural x and the signal as pcm, when I hit the info button on my remote. My source content is coming from amazon prime and youtube using an nvidia shield tv. I'm try to playback the content in Dolby Atmos. My tv is an Lg c8 oled connected to the Marantz via an hdmi cable.
Is an optical cable better than a high speed HDMI cable with Ethernet? I have a Samsung tv and a Samsung soundbar? Thanks.
@jeffcoyle5742 An optical cable will work great for most audio formats, but if you're trying to play back Atmos or DTS:X you'll need to use an HDMI cable. You likely won't hear a difference otherwise.
Hi sir been struggling to hook up the tv with sound bar my tv is a sansui & my sound bar is a Samsung 2.1channel when trying to connect the tv with sound bar using optical cable am not winning since my tv doesn't have settings for optical please assist me further
If you connect the optical cable can you still use the sound from the tv
Hi Furious Styles. It'll depend on the TV. I've seen some that will do both and others that cut off the sound from the TV's speakers when the optical cable is used. If you're using a soundbar though, it's best just to use the sound from that as it will be far better than the speakers built into the TV. Thanks for watching! -Carl
then how you stop echo?
My optical out on tv has a needle type thing that then screws on like a cable wire? It’s says optical digital audio out. What kind of sound bar do I need?
Take a close up photo of that tv connector - then run a google image search. That would give you a clear idea.
Hi, i have an LED TV which has only Audio out port and i want to connect it with Soundbar which has HDMI & Optical.
Do i have to get a connector seperatley ?
I was able to get sound bar hooked up and working immediately. I did not do anything with the TV remote. However, after a while I lost the picture on the TV but still had the sound. What did I do wrong? I unhooked the sound bar after that happened.
Does your tv speakers play at the same time as the sound bar?
Thank you for “remove caps” on optical cable. I removed the little door also but cable still won’t snap in. What am I doing wrong?
@Sharon. The connection is a specific shape, so make sure you're lining it up properly. If you are and it's still not working, you may need to try pressing a little harder. It should snap into place. Hopefully this works for you. Thanks for watching!
I have a Panasonic TV with optical digital output. I need to use an optical "splitter" to split the originating cable and have one optical cable go to a Harman Kardon SB16 soundbar, and another optical cable to go to a Bluetooth hearing aid box. My problem is that the optical cable works OK when connected directly between TV and soundbar, but does not work (no sound) when connected through a splitter box. (Red) light can be seen and the end of the optical cable, but no sound to either the soundbar or the hair aid Bluetooth box. I've tried two different brands of splitter box - one "passive, and the other "powered", but no sound. Am I doing something wrong?
Incidentally, I've seen two style of optical cable connector: one with two corners cut off the plastic, and another that is rectangular with no cut-off corners. Are they the same? The Panasonic port has a third format - a mini-TosLink round socket.
I had no idea you remove the piece of plastic lol Thanks for the video!
Thank you. What I thought was simple. Wasn’t !!!!!! She’s working now. Much appreciated
Hi David Gonzalez! Glad we could help. Thanks for watching!
which is better HDMI or optical cable?
It really depends on your setup. As far as sound quality goes they both sound great. HDMI offers a little more flexibility in how you hook up your other components to your system so it's a little more versatile. It'll also depend on your soundbar. Some don't offer both options for hookup. Hope this helps. Thanks for watching! -Carl
HDMI xbox one lags with optical!
ive never had that issue on my xbox
They both sound great, it’s really hard to tell the difference.
I don't think there is a HDMI connection in general for soundbars. But if there is one for your soundbar, I would still prefer the optical cable, there is less of a chance of toasting the soundbar because of faulty TV/PC sound output. Other than that, everything else is the same. EM interference is not a issue for HDMI signals for short distances (unless you wrap the HDMI cable around a electrical transformer or... you are welding nearby: )
Is there any cable which has digital audio out on one end and optical input on the other?????
@Prince. T.U You'd need an optical to digital coaxial converter to have that work. Then you can plug both types of cables into that. There isn't a cable available that has everything built in.
Samsung QLED Q80 has a latency sound problem for the Q80R sound bar, going to give the optical cable a try for better sound control.
Excellent video. I've been trying to get my TV to synch with my sound bar for a long time. This got me there with no frustration. Awesome!!!!