Does it bother you that you have to turn on your TV and your sound bar separately? I mean, it can be a bit annoying at times. If you have a Vizio sound bar, you can probably turn it on with your TV. But sometimes you face issues like the Vizio sound bar not turning on with TV, which can be troublesome.
Don't you worry there, because this is a problem that you can easily solve? I will give you a step-by-step guide on how to fix this issue. Without wasting any time, let’s get into it.
Related: How to Connect Vizio TV to Wifi without Remote
Contents
Why does your Vizio sound bar not turn on with the TV?
Typically, it's not very difficult to set up your sound bar and TV to turn on together. But sometimes, you will see that the sound bar isn't turning on together. Most of the time, the reason for that is the wrong connection.
When the connection of your TV and sound bar is wrong or on the wrong port, you can’t get the functionality of turning your TV and sound bar on simultaneously. Remember, not every port on your TV is capable of this feature. Only an HDMI port with an ARC connection and the optical connection can give you this option.
Aside from the port connection, you may not have done the proper settings on your TV to enable this feature. Below I will show you the proper settings for turning on your sound bar with your TV. Let’s get going then.
Related: how to connect vizio soundbar to tv
What to do if Vizio sound bar not turning on with TV
There are two fundamental ways to make sure your sound bar turns on with your TV. You can either connect the sound bar with an HDMI Arc connection. Or you can connect it through an optical cable connection.
First, let's check out the steps for connecting with HDMI ARC connection-
- To do this, you will need an HDMI cable with your sound bar, or you can get one from anywhere. Then, you will have to look for the HDMI ARC port on your TV. Make sure you are connecting to the ARC-supported port, not the regular HDMI.
- If your TV comes with a feature that you have to enable for such connection, then make sure to turn it on. For example, in a Samsung TV, you get anynet+ which allows you to have this feature of turning your sound bar on along with your TV. Do these necessary settings on your TV.
- Next up, make sure to turn on the digital input mode to a sound bar. Otherwise, it will not even recognize your sound bar, let alone play it. You will probably find this option in the audio settings of your TV.
- This is the most crucial setting you have to do. Go to your audio settings, and make sure to change the TV speaker's input. Please turn off the TV speakers, so they aren’t the default ones anymore. This would make the sound bar the default speaker if you followed along with the steps above.
Now, let’s go through the steps of connecting your TV with an optical cable and the settings you will need to do.
- Well, it's pretty obvious to take an optical cable and connect your TV with the sound bar. The connection should be pretty straightforward as there aren't many optical cable ports.
- Once you connect it, make sure to follow along with any settings like auto power link. It’s pretty similar to anynet+ except you should do it for an optical cable connection. This setting ensures the connection to the optical cable with your sound bar.
- Next up, you have to turn on the digital input mode on your TV. You will find the option on your audio settings screen on your TV.
- Lastly, you have to make sure that your sound bar is the default speaker for your TV audio. To do that, you open up the settings on your TV and go to audio settings. There you will see an option that says, TV speakers. Turn off the internal speakers so that your sound bar becomes the default speaker for your TV audio.
As you can see, both the methods are pretty similar; it’s about choosing the connection. Also, you may have only one option for some TV. Not every TV comes with an HDMI ARC port or Optical cable port. So, choose the one that is suitable for you.
Related: How to connect soundbar to TV
Wrap up
In short, the Vizio sound bar not turning on with TV isn’t that big of a problem once you figure out the reason. If you follow the proper settings and make sure the connection is right, it is bound to work. So, right after you connect the sound bar, you should focus on getting the settings right.
Graduated with a Bachelor of Audio Engineering and Sound Production. He has worked with a number of studios as a Recording Engineer, with over 10 years of servicing experience in both re-recording mixing and sound editing.
