Key takeaways
- A TV with no ARC or eARC port almost always still has an optical digital output, which handles Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 fine, just never Dolby Atmos or DTS:X.
- An analog RCA or headphone connection works as a last resort but only ever carries a plain stereo signal, with no surround channels at all.
- The single setting that causes the most silent soundbars on an older TV is the audio output left on internal speakers instead of switched to external or optical.
- A fixed line out headphone jack behaves differently from a variable one, and mixing the two up is why some setups lose the TV remote's volume control entirely.
- Buying a new TV purely to gain Atmos over an older one is rarely worth it if the household is not also using a 4K Blu-ray player.
Your new soundbar came with an HDMI cable, and the television it is going behind has nothing marked ARC or eARC anywhere on the back panel. That does not make the soundbar useless. It just means the connection will be optical, analog, or wireless instead of the one printed on the box.
I still fit these every month, usually a bar bought for a bedroom or a second living room where the TV is eight or ten years old and was never going to gain a new port through a firmware update. The steps below cover what that TV can actually offer, in the order worth trying them.
What your TV’s back panel is actually offering
Before buying anything, look for three things on the TV itself: a square port with a small flap, usually labelled Optical or Digital Audio Out, a pair of red and white RCA jacks marked Audio Out, or a 3.5mm headphone style jack. Most TVs made from the mid 2000s onward have at least the optical port, even ones with no HDMI ARC at all.
Optical, technically TOSLINK, is the better of the two paths where it exists. It carries compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 without trouble, the same formats a DVD or standard broadcast typically use. What it cannot carry, on any TV regardless of age, is Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, since neither the bandwidth nor the object based metadata those formats need fits down an optical cable.
If the optical port is genuinely missing, the RCA or headphone jack becomes the fallback, and the comparison between all of these paths is covered in more depth in optical versus HDMI for TV audio, which is worth reading before deciding the TV needs replacing at all.
Running an optical cable when there is no ARC port
An optical cable itself is inexpensive, usually 8 to 15 USD for a 2 metre length, and identical at both ends. Plug one end into the TV’s optical out and the other into the soundbar’s optical in, a port most bars still include even on HDMI focused models like a Samsung HW-Q990D or an LG S95TR.
The cable only needs to be fully seated. Optical connectors are keyed one way, and a cable that looks plugged in but sits slightly proud of the port will pass nothing at all rather than a degraded signal, since it is light being carried down a fibre, not an electrical signal with any tolerance for a loose contact.
A 2012 television I fitted a bar to last winter had exactly one RCA pair on the back, printed Audio Out in small text right next to a second, near identical pair printed Audio In for a VCR that had not existed in that house for a decade. The soundbar sat plugged into the wrong pair for two days before anyone noticed, producing no sound at all despite every cable being seated correctly.
Falling back to an analog RCA or headphone connection
Where there is no optical port either, a stereo RCA cable or a 3.5mm to RCA cable into the soundbar’s analog AUX input is the last real option. This path carries a plain two channel stereo signal only, no 5.1 surround channels, since analog audio was never built to carry more than a couple of channels down two wires.
Most bars marketed with music playback in mind include this input. Some built purely for movie and TV sound, including several models with only HDMI and optical connections, do not, which is worth checking on the specification sheet before buying a cable for a bar that has nowhere to plug it in.
A TV headphone jack can be either a fixed line out or a variable one tied to the TV’s own volume control. Treating a fixed output as variable, or the reverse, is why some setups end up with two volume controls fighting each other, or a soundbar stuck at one loud, unchanging level.
Setting the TV to send audio out instead of keeping it internal
Wiring alone rarely finishes the job. Almost every TV needs a menu change telling it to send audio to an external device, usually under a sound or audio settings menu, often called Speaker Output, Audio Out, or External Speakers depending on the brand.
Leaving this on TV Speakers, or the default that many sets ship with, plays sound from the television’s own small drivers while the optical or analog output stays silent, even though the cable is connected correctly. The exact wording and menu depth varies enough by brand that TV audio output settings that break your sound is worth a look if the right toggle is not obvious within a couple of menus.
If the TV does have a variable headphone jack rather than a fixed one, the TV’s own volume needs to be set high, usually near maximum, with the soundbar’s own remote doing the actual volume adjustment from there. A TV volume left low on that path caps how loud the bar can ever get, regardless of the bar’s own settings.
Proof the sound is actually coming from the bar, not the TV
Mute the television’s internal speakers, if the menu allows it separately from the external output, and confirm sound continues from the soundbar alone. Where that option does not exist, physically turning the TV’s own volume up and down should have no effect on the soundbar’s output at all once everything is routed correctly.
A DTS or Dolby Digital indicator light on the soundbar itself, present on most models with any kind of front display, is the clearest confirmation that a real 5.1 signal is arriving over optical rather than a fallback stereo signal. Two channels lit instead of five or six usually means the source material itself is stereo, not a fault in the connection.
When neither optical nor analog gives you any sound
Reseat every connector fully, including the small flap on an optical port, which occasionally sticks half closed on cheaper cables. Confirm the TV’s audio output setting again, since a firmware update can silently reset it back to internal speakers without any warning on screen.
Where the TV genuinely has no optical or analog output of any kind, a small HDMI audio extractor, roughly 15 to 30 USD, splits audio from an HDMI signal already running through the TV and outputs it as optical or analog for the soundbar. It is a workaround rather than an ideal fix, and it adds a small amount of processing delay, but it covers TVs left with nothing else.
Bluetooth is worth considering as well, particularly if wiring the room is impractical or the TV sits somewhere a cable cannot reach easily. The trade-offs of that path, including the delay it adds and its shorter range, are covered in Bluetooth versus Wi-Fi on a soundbar. A soundbar that connects but still produces no sound at all is more often a settings problem than a hardware fault, and no sound from your soundbar covers the wider list of causes beyond the TV connection itself.
- Optical port present: use it first, handles Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1
- No optical, only RCA or headphone jack: stereo only, check fixed versus variable output
- TV audio output setting still on internal speakers: the single most common cause of silence
- Nothing works at all: an HDMI audio extractor or a Bluetooth connection as a last resort
None of this requires a new television. A TV bought purely to gain Atmos, when the household is not also running a 4K Blu-ray player, is money spent on a format that streaming apps deliver differently anyway. Get the optical or analog connection working properly first, and decide about new hardware only once that genuinely falls short of what the room needs.
Questions readers ask about this
No. Optical, or TOSLINK, tops out at Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 regardless of how new the soundbar on the other end is. Atmos needs either an HDMI ARC connection for the compressed streaming version or eARC for the lossless disc version, neither of which an optical cable can physically carry.
Yes, as a stereo only connection. Confirm whether the jack is a fixed line out or a variable one tied to the TV's volume first. On a variable jack, set the TV's own volume near maximum and control loudness from the soundbar's remote instead, since a low TV volume caps how loud the bar can get.
A fixed line out should not respond to the TV's volume buttons at all, so if it does, the connection is more likely running through a variable headphone jack than a true fixed output. Check the TV's specification sheet for which type that particular port actually is.
Only if the TV has no optical or analog output at all. It works by extracting audio from an HDMI signal passing through the TV, typically costs 15 to 30 USD, and adds a small amount of processing delay, so it is a genuine fallback rather than a first choice.
Close, for most content, though optical carries a proper 5.1 signal while Bluetooth compresses everything and adds noticeable delay, often 150 milliseconds or more. Optical remains the better choice where the port exists. Bluetooth is a reasonable option only where running a cable is genuinely impractical.
About the author
Rahul Gupta
Rahul Gupta has spent nearly a decade quietly wiring living rooms, testing soundbars in every awkward apartment layout imaginable, and untangling the kind of HDMI handshake problems that make people give up on Atmos altogether. He writes here about what actually works when you get the boxes home—not what the spec sheet promises. If a piece of gear on this site earns a recommendation, it earned it in a real room with real furniture, not a lab.
