How to Setup a Soundbar in 2024 + Troubleshooting. Samsung, LG, Sonos, Bose etc

hey team I'm Josh I get asked all the time what's the best way to connect and set up my soundbar so in this video I'll walk you through selecting the type of cable and getting your Soundbar up and running as well as some troubleshooting tips for those who still can't get it to work let's get to it in the Box alongside your Soundbar you'll likely get a remote and some audio cables depending on the model you purchased there may also be a subwoofer and Surround speakers let's first take all the ways to connect your TV and Soundbar together using an HDMI cable is the best option for most people as it can give you the highest end audio formats such as Dolby Atmos and dtsx but also lets your Soundbar be controlled from the TV remote for a seamless installation when you turn on the TV it'll send a signal through the HDMI cable to wake up the sound bar and volume level changing will happen seamlessly from the TV remote it makes for an easy setup and is one of the major benefits of purchasing a new sound bar with an arc or ER connection to find out if your system can do this have a look at your Soundbar and TV for the label HDMI Arc or HDMI e Arc of both your TV and Soundbar have these ports then connect an HDMI cable between them e-arc is the newest version of Arc and allows for more information for Dolby Atmos to be set from your TV to the sound bar for the best listening experience they're backwards compatible so if your Soundbar has e-arc but your TV only has Arc then it will still work but the TV will be the limiting factor and you most likely won't get Dolby Atmos if this is the case for you and you still want Atmos then check out this video next if your TV and Soundbar both have ERC and your Soundbar states that it can do Dolby Atmos then that is the best outcome and you'll get the best sound from the latest movies once you've plugged in the HDMI cable and turned on both the Soundbar and TV try changing the volume from the TV remote and see if it's changing the soundbar's volume at this point you should hear sound coming out of the sound bar not the TV if neither of these things are working then firstly make sure the HDMI cable is plugged into the HDMI out port on the soundbar not HDMI in and and then head over to the TV settings choose sound settings and manually select your soundbar's output which will be labeled under these names if it's still not working then make sure HDMI CEC is turned on which will also be under these names depending on the brand of TV once that's done another setting to check is that HDMI audio output is set to bitstream or Auto not PCM but stream instructs the TV to send through all the sound information without processing it which is much better as a sound bar can do all the processing and that gives you better audio formats and higher quality sound whereas with PCM the TV processes the audio before sending it through which won't give you Dolby Atmos or other high-end audio formats if you don't get the option of choosing bitstream then select auto if your TV or Soundbar doesn't have an HDMI ARC Port then your next best option is digital optical this is a more basic connection that still gives you surround sound but lacks the control of the sound bar from the TV remote and won't give you the best audio formats like Dolby Atmos pretty much every TV at this point will have Optical as an option simply connect the toslink cable from the TV to the sound bar and it should give you audio straight away if it doesn't unplug the soundbar's end of the optical cable and check that there's a red light coming through if there is then change the audio input on the Soundbar to Optical or digital n if there's no red light then go into your TV settings and manually select the Optical Connection under the sound output while you're in there set the audio format to PCM as Optical doesn't work with bitstream and will give you a loud buzzing noise which is easily fixed by changing the setting with many Samsung and LG TVs you can set up a universal remote which lets your TV remote control the Soundbars volume by sending out the correct signal for your particular Soundbar it's fairly easy to do and the TV will walk you through the steps unfortunately it won't turn the Soundbar on or off like Arc does but having volume control from the TV remote is a nice feature for everyday use some sound bars like the ones from Sonos will turn on when it receives an audio signal through Optical so check out your owner's manual to see if your Soundbar has this feature Bluetooth is another option but not one I'd recommend your TV needs to be able to send a Bluetooth signal not just receive it but if it does it's a pretty easy setup first put your Soundbar into pairing mode which is often done by changing your Soundbar input to Bluetooth and then go into the TV's audio settings and choose Bluetooth and then the device you're trying to connect there's many downsides to using Bluetooth but there is one upside and that's the fact that there's no cables the downsides are that the Soundbar won't turn on with the TV you'll probably have to pair the devices each time you turn them on you can get bad audio delay and poor audio quality I would never suggest you use Bluetooth if your TV and sound bar from different brands as that will most likely give you more headaches than what it's worth probably using AirPlay is a bid option if your system supports it your Soundbar might have multiple HDMI ports which gives you extra ways of plugging in devices if you've run out of ports on your TV then connect any extra once the sound bar is HDMI in and then change the soundbar's input to that Port also change your TV's input over to the one your Soundbar is connected to and it will display the extra device on your TV screen there's a bunch of different ways to connect a subwoofer most Soundbars that have a subwoofer included in the box from Brands such as Samsung LG JBL and many others will automatically connect to the sound bar when plugged into Power other brands mostly the ones that sell subwoofers separately will require setup within their respective apps such as Sonos Bose and Sennheiser start by turning on the sound bar and giving power to the subwoofer and if they don't connect up straight away then check the owner's manual for the correct procedure use the same process for connecting rare speakers as well most Flagship Soundbars nowadays include app support to give you more control over the Soundbar they'll all have an ad speaker area which you'll go through to connect your Soundbar and additional speakers in the amp every app is different so I'm not going to do a walkthrough in this video but if you like a specific app Walkthrough then let me know in the comments the main things you can change within your Soundbars app are volume input selected subwoofer and rear speaker levels as well as base and treble output we whenever I'm setting up a sound bar for the first time I'll play a few of my favorite movie scenes and tweak my soundbar to get the sound that I'm happy with I like a lot of bass out of my sound bars whereas my wife not so much so it takes a bit of tweaking to find a happy medium I'll increase the subwoofer level before I touch the base output but it's very Soundbar dependent as to how much I tweak it with that if you're still having issues with your Soundbar and you need further help then check out this video next otherwise if you want to learn how to get Dobby Atmos out of your Soundbar check out this video anyway that's all from me see you guys soon foreign [Music]

Channel: Archway Tech

Views: 70,318

Keywords: Soundbar Setup, Dolby Atmos Setup, How to setup a Soundbar, Soundbar Setup 2023, Samsung Soundbar Setup

Id: 45dpsqilRo4

Length: 6min 37sec (397 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 19 2023