Can’t Hear Anything? What to Do if Your Soundbar Has No Sound

Silent movies might have been a big hit back in the 1900s, but nowadays, it’s not very fun to watch a movie without audible dialogue. A thin flatscreen television may look great, but it often needs a high-quality sound system to get the audio it deserves. This is where soundbars come in to turn your TV’s weak built-in speaker into an immersive audio experience.

However, sometimes things go wrong and you end up with no audio coming out of your television. If you aren’t hearing anything from your soundbar, there are a few troubleshooting steps you can take to get your talkies up and running again.

1. Double-Check Your Inputs and Cables

This may seem obvious, but make sure the volume is turned up and your soundbar is set to the correct input. If your TV is plugged into the soundbar’s HDMI 1 port, make sure your soundbar is set to HDMI 1. Check that you have the right port—if you think it is plugged into HDMI 1 and it is actually in HDMI 2, you are inducing a lot of unnecessary frustration. 

Some soundbars come with a companion app for your phone, so try using it to change the input, as it may be more reliable than the remote. If your TV is plugged in with an optical cable (also known as TOSLINK(Opens in a new window)), look for an Optical or Digital In option. If you are using the app, try the remote instead, just to be sure.

Open your TV’s menu, head to its audio settings, and make sure the TV is set to output audio to the correct place. This may require selecting the corresponding setting to the cable you are using—like HDMI Out, Digital Out, or something to that effect, rather than TV Speakers. 

You should also make sure there isn’t a problem with any other components. Try a different cable or swap out your streaming box, just to eliminate variables. Remember that your game console also requires certain cables. Be sure you removed the plastic covering on the end of your cables—this can be easy to miss on optical cables, since the plastic piece is so tiny.

2. Solve For HDMI ARC Problems

Whether your “source” is a Blu-ray player, cable box, streaming device, or game console, there are multiple ways to connect a soundbar to your TV. If you are connecting your source to the TV, then sending audio to the soundbar over HDMI, this requires gear compatible with HDMI ARC, or Audio Return Channel.

This can be a finicky thing to set up. For example, most TVs only have one ARC-capable port, but it’s not always the one you would expect. You might have your HDMI cable plugged into HDMI 1, but only HDMI 3 has ARC capabilities. Double-check that you are connected to ports labeled ARC or eARC before continuing.

In addition, you will also probably have to enable a feature called HDMI-CEC on your TV and soundbar. This allows your TV remote to control your soundbar and vice-versa, and it’s usually required for ARC to work properly. Annoyingly, this is called something different on every TV—Samsung calls it AnyNet+, while Sony calls it Bravia Sync, and LG calls it SimpLink.

Just make sure you have done everything properly and read the manual carefully for each step and setting. If you are not able to get HDMI ARC to work, try an optical cable instead. I have found this a bit more reliable in the past, though it may not be able to send every audio format, which is its own issue.

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3. Look Up Compatible Audio Formats

The audio for movies and TV are usually encoded in one of a few formats. Most streaming content is encoded in Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus, while Blu-rays can use Dolby formats or DTS. Some devices can decode the audio themselves and send it as raw PCM as well.

But here’s the problem: Not all devices are capable of decoding every sound format. Some TVs, for example, may only be capable of decoding Dolby Digital, but not the DTS audio that comes on some Blu-ray discs. Optical cables, for example, do not have enough bandwidth to carry 5.1-channel PCM, or the ability to send Dolby Atmos signals.

This is all to say that if you are trying to send a format to your TV or soundbar that it is not capable of decoding, you will not get any audio. Your best bet here is to check the manual—or Rtings’ database(Opens in a new window)—for your TV and soundbar to see which audio formats are built in.

You also need to head to your TV’s audio settings and pick the right sound format for it to work properly. Look for an option to change the sound format between bitstream, Dolby Digital, PCM, or other similar options. Play with this setting to see if you can find something that works—you may also have a similar setting on your soundbar and source device. 

For stereo sound, you should not have trouble finding the right setting, but this can get really complex if you are trying to use surround sound, so you will need to experiment with the settings. Depending on what kind of audio you are sending, HDMI ARC may be your only option, since it has more bandwidth for high-fidelity audio formats.

4. Plug Your Source Directly Into the Soundbar

Philips Fidelio FB1 soundbar
(Credit: Philips)

If your soundbar has enough ports, you might find everything more reliable if you plug your source box into the soundbar first, then plug the soundbar into the TV. It eliminates a lot of the hassle that comes with HDMI ARC and bandwidth limitations of optical cables, and helps mitigate audio delays too.

The downside, of course, is that you are limited to the number of ports on your soundbar—many may only have one HDMI input—and it does not work for your TV’s built-in apps or antenna tuner, which will require HDMI ARC or optical. Still, if you are having problems with one game console or Blu-ray player, try plugging it into the soundbar instead of the TV.

5. Turn Off the Sleep Timer

Many TVs and soundbars have built-in features that turn them off after periods of inactivity. Sometimes this is automatic—check your device’s manual—in which case you may have to wake it up with the remote if you have paused your show for an extended period of time. 

In other cases, it’s a feature you can turn on and off. Check your TV and your soundbar’s settings for a Sleep Timer setting you may have accidentally set. You can also turn off any “eco” settings that might mess with the sound output in an effort to save energy.

6. Re-Pair the Subwoofer and Surround Speakers

Maybe you are hearing audio from the main soundbar, but not the other surround speakers or subwoofer that came with it. Since these add-ons usually communicate with the soundbar wirelessly, they can sometimes cut out. Try unplugging the subwoofer and/or rear speakers from the wall, and plugging them back in.

You may also need to press a pair button on the subwoofer or rear speakers to re-connect them to your main soundbar. Check the manual for full instructions on how to do this, as it can vary from model to model.

7. Update Firmware or Perform a Factory Reset

Finally, if none of the above options work, search your TV and soundbar’s settings for an option to update the firmware, just in case a latent bug has been fixed by a recent release. If all else fails, try a factory reset on one or both devices.

If you try to contact the company’s support, they will almost certainly provide this as a troubleshooting step, so you might as well try it before you dial that number.