Looking for recommendations for a tv sound bar with hdmi, priced around $150-$200.
What exactly are you looking for? For $150-$200, the quality probably won’t be that good, what sort of TV are you plugging it into? Does the TV support ARC? What features do you need? Just stereo? Dialog boost? Dolby Atmos?
I had a Sony soundbar with Dolby Atmos, but the soundbar was more trouble than it was worth - at least my wife complained constantly about having the soundbar separate to the TV, the biggest problem was the Amazon Prime and YouTube apps, which seem to reset the video signal every time they switch from content to an advert and the sound falls out for 5 seconds. Annoying when an ad starts, but infuriating when the ad ends and the film starts again and you get 5 seconds of silence, if you forget to pause.
The quality was good, but not exceptional, but it “only” cost around $600 discounted.
I’m not sure if it supports arc. I’ll have to check that in the manual. I’m not looking for much. Considering my whole bungalow is 1500 square feet, I don’t need something with sound that’s going to blast me to the moon lol.
My Apple TV audio goes through a HomePod mini. A soundbar would be for my Roku running on a Google home network. From what AI tells me, my Roku’s audio can’t run through my nest audio speakers in the same way as the Apple TV audio runs through my home pod mini
AI also suggested the pricing scheme shown in the screenshots below. Considering the size of the tv room and my seating distance from the tv, I don’t think I can justify paying anymore than $200 CAD. If the AI suggested prices are unrealistic, I’m not going to buy one.
If your TV has ARC, this suggests that you can configure the Apple TV to pull the cable box/Roku audio and play it on the HomePod too.
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Thank you, that’s very interesting. I confirmed it through the Apple KB-Use HDMI ARC or eARC with your Apple TV 4K - Apple Support (CA).
My AppleTV and Roku are on separate wifi networks. Is that going to be an issue?
Don’t think so. HDMI ARC is over the cables, no WiFi needed, so as long as the Apple TV is on the ARC connector and it can see the HomePod to AirPlay to might work.
On the soundbars, that Sony, TCL, Visio etc will do the job fine I reckon. Connect it to the TV rather than the Roku and it will work for everything, HDMI is better if you have it but optical if not.
The cheapest Sonos one is £200, I have the next one up and it’s been very good - but that’s another ecosystem to add to your collection!
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No, because both are connected with HDMI to the TV. The Apple TV has to be connected to the HDMI port marked with ARC (or designated with ARC in the settings/manual). Then audio output will be sent to the Apple TV, when the Apple TV is turned on.
It worked! Thank you everyone!
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Recently I learned that for some items you can shop online at Costco without a membership. They have a $150Cdn soundbar right now (for a limited time.)
https://www.costco.ca/tcl-s55h-s-class-21-channel-sound-bar-with-subwoofer.product.4000379631.html
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