Hooking up a sound bar on a tv

[richg99]

I've had sound bars hooked up for years. Not my first rodeo.

BUT....recently, my connection has been from the DVR box (Xfinity/Comcast) to the sound bar. Works great.

However, when I want to use the Smart TV portion of my Vizio TV (connecting to Amazon Prime Movies) the sound only comes out of the TV itself. Trying to switch the sound bar on does nothing. That, of course, is because the sound bar is looking for its signal to come from the DVR box, and the Smart TV doesn't go through the DVR box.

Today I pulled the sound bar connection out of the DVR box, and plugged it into the red and White analog RCA plugs marked Sound OUT on the back of the TV. I checked and the sound bar is set up for Analog input. The sound bar is on and just worked last night. I can't figure out why I can't get any output from the TV????

richg99

[GT11]

Does the speaker have an amplifier in it? If not, that output on the TV is a low level output and you will need to run it through an amplifier. If there is a headphone jack, you can get an RCA to head phone plug and try that but you probably won't be happy with the sound level.

If the speaker does have an amplifier, you may have to go to the setup menu and enable that output for the TV.

[richg99]

Problem solved. I called a friend who does a lot of audio video for neighbors, etc. He couldn't put his finger on it right away.

He did suggest I be certain that the TV menu was set up for FIXED when it came to audio output. Mine was set to FIXED, but one other option had to do with Variable Control. I set that to OFF and, when I set it up to check it again.... the soundbar started working.

I have no idea if that was the solution, or, if in messing around with all of the wires, I plugged something in better ....but it works now! thanks, Richg99