TV and HDMI Connections

More home audio problems start at the back of the television than anywhere else, and almost all of them are free to fix once you know which socket matters. This section covers the physical chain and the settings that ride on it. It explains why optical cannot carry Atmos or DTS:X at all, what eARC adds over plain ARC, and which single HDMI port on your TV is the one the soundbar has to use. There are walkthroughs for HDMI-CEC so one remote controls everything, for Bitstream against PCM and what each setting throws away, and for connecting consoles, turntables, and older televisions that predate ARC entirely. Troubleshooting covers handshake failures, lip sync drift, and cable length limits. Each guide tells you how to verify what format is actually arriving rather than what the box claims to support.