Does Sonos Beam Work With My TV?

The Sonos Beam isn't exactly loaded with ports. Where other soundbars might have multiple HDMI, optical, analog, or other ports, there are only four points of interest on the back of the Sonos Beam: the power port, the Join button for setup, an ethernet jack, and a single HDMI port. It's through this HDMI port that the Beam connects to your TV.

The Beams favors HDMI-ARC to connect to your TV, and if your TV is more recent, one of its HDMI ports should have the label "ARC." You connect to this through a standard HDMI cable.

If you don't have an ARC port on your TV, chances are still good that you do have an optical audio port on your TV if it's 10 years old or younger. To further ensure the Beam connects to your TV, it comes with an adapter that plugs into your TV's optical audio port, and then also into an HDMI cable that then plugs into the Beam.

In HDMI-ARC, ARC stands for Audio Return Channel. Using this port syncs audio and picture, and automatically pairs your Sonos Beam with the remote from your television.

One of the other things that using the ARC port gives you is voice control over your TV. The Sonos Beam comes with Amazon's Alexa assistant built in, and it has a few TV-specific commands. When using the ARC port, the Beam can be used to turn the TV on or off and applies commands like "turn it up" and "mute" to TV volume. These commands can only be used when the Beam is plugged into an ARC port, as well as when HDMI-CEC is enabled. This allows an external third-party device (like the Beam or a streaming box) to control functions on your television.

Sonos is careful to note that these features won't work if you're connected through your TVs optical audio port.

Chances are that Sonos Beam will work with your TV without a doubt. And even if you have an older set, thanks to the included optical adapter, the Beam should still arrive ready for you to use right out of the box.