Crowd noise from a packed stadium or the rumble of an action film is half the experience, and thin TV speakers do not do it justice. Getting Pillar IPTV sound out through a soundbar or AV receiver is mostly a matter of the right cable and three or four settings.
Before changing anything, make sure the picture side is working; if channels are silent rather than flat-sounding, start with the sound section of channels not loading.
Choose your connection
- HDMI eARC: the best option. The TV passes full surround formats from your stick or app to the soundbar over one HDMI cable.
- HDMI ARC: older and more limited, but carries standard Dolby Digital 5.1, which is what most surround broadcasts use.
- Optical (TOSLINK): works for Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo, with no support for newer formats.
- Stick or box straight into the receiver: if your receiver has HDMI inputs, plugging the stick into it and the receiver into the TV avoids TV audio settings entirely.
Settings on the TV
- Enable HDMI-CEC (Samsung calls it Anynet+, LG calls it SIMPLINK) so the TV and soundbar switch on together.
- Set the sound output to the soundbar, receiver or HDMI ARC/eARC.
- Set the digital audio format to Passthrough or Auto, rather than PCM, to keep surround intact.
- If a menu offers eARC mode, switch it on when your soundbar supports it.
Settings on the stick and in the player
- Fire TV: Settings, Display & Sounds, Audio, then set Surround Sound to Best Available.
- Android TV and Google TV: in sound settings, choose Auto or select the formats your soundbar supports.
- In the player app, look for audio passthrough (sometimes called bitstream or AC3 passthrough) and switch it on.
- If a channel offers several audio tracks, choose the one marked 5.1 or Dolby from the audio menu while it plays.
Not every channel broadcasts in surround. Many carry stereo only, and the soundbar will simply show a stereo or PCM signal for those. That is normal, not a fault. Settings menus differ by device; our Fire TV Stick guide shows where the main ones live on Amazon devices.
Fixing lip-sync
When sound arrives slightly before or after the picture, adjust the delay in one place only, starting with the device closest to the source:
- The player app’s audio delay or audio offset setting, if it has one, applied per channel.
- The stick or box’s audio sync setting.
- The soundbar or receiver’s lip-sync or AV sync control.
If drift builds up the longer you watch, restart the channel. If one device drifts constantly, lowering the picture quality one step often stops it, because the device is struggling to decode.
When there is no sound at all through the soundbar
- Switch the TV’s digital audio format from Passthrough to PCM. If sound returns, the soundbar does not support that channel’s audio format.
- Turn off passthrough in the player app and test again.
- Unplug the HDMI cables, power everything off for a minute, then reconnect. HDMI handshakes sometimes get stuck.
- Check the soundbar’s input is set to TV, ARC or HDMI rather than Bluetooth.
Frequently asked questions
Does IPTV support 5.1 surround sound?
Channels that broadcast in surround, usually Dolby Digital 5.1, can play through a compatible soundbar or receiver. Many channels are stereo only.
Should I use passthrough or PCM?
Passthrough keeps surround sound intact for your soundbar to decode. Use PCM if you get silence, because it converts everything to a format all devices understand.
How do I fix sound out of sync with the picture?
Use the audio delay setting in the player, the stick or the soundbar, adjusting only one of them. Restart the channel if the delay grows over time.
