The Good Ol' Days

It used to be that you bought a TV, took it home, plugged it the antenna (or cable), turned it on, and watched it and heard the sound through its built-in speakers. What you saw is what you saw and what you heard is what you heard, no enhancements.

However, in today's home entertainment environment, picture quality standards have increased dramatically for TV viewing, but, alas, not a lot has changed in terms of TV sound quality.

The Problem With The Speakers In Your TV

All TVs come with built-in speakers. However, with today's LCD, Plasma, and OLED TVs, the problem is not only how to fit speakers inside that thin cabinet, but make them operate well inside of cabinet with little internal volume that a speaker needs to push enough air to make quality sound - the result, thin sounding TV audio that falls short of properly complementing that great, big, screen picture.

Some manufacturers have made an effort to improve the sound for internal TV speakers. When shopping, check for audio enhancement features, such as DTS Studio Sound, Virtual Surround, and/or Dialog Enhancement and Volume Leveling, all of which can help - my suggestion, get a listen while you are at the dealer - if the TV sounds OK to you in a large dealer room, it may be an adequate solution at home - but there are better options.

Connecting Your TV To An External Audio System

You don't have to settle for those built-in TV speakers. Depending on the brand and model of TV, there are up to four options that allow you to send the audio received by the TV via your antenna, cable, streaming sources (if you have a smart TV), or route external AV sources that may be connected to a TV, to an external sound system such as a sound bar, home theater-in-a-box system, stereo receiver, or home theater receiver, all of which can enhance the listening portion of your TV listening experience.

NOTE: Use of the following options require you to go into your TV settings menu and activate the audio output features of your TV, such as switching the audio output from internal to external, or activating the specific option you plan to use from following list.

OPTION ONE: RCA Connections

The most basic option for improved your TV listening experience is by connecting a TV's analog stereo outputs (also known as RCA outputs), to your available external audio system. You simply connect the cables from the analog audio output of the TV to a set of corresponding audio inputs on a sound bar, home theater-in-a-box system, stereo receiver, home theater receiver, or powered speakers (speakers that have their own built-in amplifiers - such as many computer speakers). With very rare exceptions, you cannot connect a TV directly to standard speakers.

Using the RCA connection output option sends a two-channel stereo (content dependent) from the TV to the external audio system.

If using this connection option with a sound bar, check to see if your sound bar has any audio enhancement capabilities, such as virtual surround sound that can expand the sound stage so that you get more of a "surround sound"-type listening experience.

If connected to a home theater-in-a-box or home theater receiver, check for settings on those options, such as Dolby Prologic II or IIx. If so, then you will still be able to extract a surround sound signal from the stereo input signal.

NOTE: On some TVs, instead of RCA style audio output connections, a mini-jack (3.5mm or 1/8-inch) output may be provided. In this case, you can use a stereo mini-jack to RCA adapter cable. Check out this example available through Amazon.com.

OPTION TWO: Digital Optical Connections

A better option for sending audio from your TV to an external audio system, is the Digital Optical Audio Output Connection.

To use this option, just connect the digital optical output from the TV to a corresponding digital optical input on a sound bar, home theater-in-a-box system, or home theater receiver (just as with the RCA connection option).

Depending on your brand/model TV, this option may not only provide a two-channel stereo signal, but also access a two or 5.1 channel undecoded audio signal that a home theater-in-a-box or home theater receiver can decode properly.

ADDITIONAL TIP: A growing number of TV programs are broadcast in Dolby Digital (either 2 or 5.1 channels), and some signals may also contain a DTS 2.0+ encoded signal.

If you find that you are not hearing any sound coming from the TV using the digital optical connection, go into your TV's audio output settings and check for an option referred to as PCM. This may correct the situation for you. This situation occurs with some sound bars that may have a digital optical audio input option, but no on-board Dolby Digital or DTS 2.0+ decoding capability.

OPTION THREE: The HDMI-ARC Connection

Another way to access audio from your TV that you may be able to take advantage of is Audio Return Channel. To take advantage of this option, you have to have an TV with an HDMI connection input that is labeled HDMI-ARC.

This feature allows transfer of the audio signal originating from the TV back to an HDMI-ARC equipped sound bar (rare), home theater-in-a-box system, or home theater receiver without having to make a separate digital or analog audio connection from the TV to the home theater receiver. However, in order to take advantage of this option, both your TV and Home Theater Receiver/System or Sound Bar have to incorporate this feature (check your user manuals).

For full details on how this connection option works, read my reference article: Audio Return Channel (ARC)

OPTION FOUR: Bluetooth

Another option you may have to send audio from your TV to a external audio system is via Bluetooth technology. The practical advantage of this option, is that is wireless - no cable required to get sound from the TV to the compatible audio system.

However, this feature is available only on a limited number of TVs, mostly select TVs from Samsung (sound share) and LG (Sound Sync). Also, to through another wrench into this option, is that the Samsung and LG Bluetooth options are not interchangeable. In other words, in addition to the TV, for Samsung TVs that are so equipped you also need to have a similarly-equipped Samsung Sound Bar, and for LG, the same conditions apply.

Final Take

So, as you can see, you don't have to suffer through the thin sound that comes out of your TV speakers, using one of the four options above, you can elevate your TV listening experience for TV programs, streaming content, or other audio sources that are routed through your TV.

Also, if you have an external cable/satellite box, Blu-ray/DVD player, or other external source device, and you have an external audio system, such as sound bar, home theater-in-a-box system, or home theater receiver, it is best to connect the audio output of those source devices directly to your external audio system and just connect audio sources that originate from, or must pass through, your TV internally (such as over-the-air TV broadcasts) or, if you have Smart TV, audio from streaming content, using one of the above options that you may have access to.

Of course, if you don't have any of above options available, or, if you are using your TV in a small or secondary room where connection to an external audio system is not desirable or practical - my suggestion is to when shopping for a TV, not only pay attention to the picture, but listen to the sound and check the audio setting options that may be available - as well as the connection options that may be available to you should you decided later to connect the TV to an external audio system. You may be surprised and some of the differences in sound quality you might find between specific brands and models of TVs.