VIZIO - M215a-J6

While you’re here, maybe you can help *me* with something. I recently purchased a Bravia 8 and had it installed by the Best Buy guys. With my old TV, I had a Vizio soundbar and sub connected. They came and installed everything, including putting the audio stuff back together. Unfortunately, I wasn’t here for the install, and my girlfriend was… She said they tested the soundbar (so they did the sound test) but didn’t actually test with a program on. I can’t get any sound at all from my eARC connection. I have tried plugging and unplugging, moving things around, power cycling, hard reset, I even bought new HDMI cable. I cannot figure a single thing out. Anyone have any help or guidance? Best Buy has not been helpful since their “install” went sideways.

It works via Bluetooth, just not hardwired.

Also this is the soundbar Vizio M Series M215a-J6

1. Yep - that’s where it is connected. After a week of this battle, I know that much. 2. Haven’t tried optical, I don’t have any optical cable. 3. Yes - the soundbar was connected to my Vizio TV before being setup with the Bravia 8. Any time I try and fix or mess with it more I feel like I’m just going to mess up the whole damn thing. That said, it’s not my first time setting these things up, and I just don’t know what the hell is happening. I’d love to be told “Sorry, dude, it’s cheap and it broke.” I love an excuse to buy something new. But I can’t concede it’s broken.

I’m glad I was able to go back and forth with you on this. I decided to get back there and dive back in again on the problem. The HDMI cable for the Vizio soundbar had Vizio branding on it. That was the cable in the eARC. However, that cable was not the one connected to the sound bar. The installers mixed something up along the way. I was able to dive into a section of audio settings I found on YouTube that shows the display of what audio is connected and into what ports. It demonstrated that the bar was connected into HDMI 2. Took a second after that and was able to swap and BOOM. Now I don’t have to spend a few hundred more dollar, fortunately. (Or unfortunately?)

VIZIO M Series 2.1 Home Theater Sound Bar is around $150 before taxes. I have one and it’s great!

Be careful with soundbars and TV combinations with a PC, I cannot get my x570 PC to pass 5.1 channels through the TV (LGCX ) to the soundbar (Vizio M-series) via eArc.

Found a Vizio M series for 80 bucks, it was a steal. It’s really good

M series is what i would buy. Reviews have looked like it punches above its price point.

[Here’s a list of top soundbars for under $300](https://www.rtings.com/soundbar/reviews/best/by-price/under-300) The Vizio M series is probably your best bet for a budget soundbar and overall sound experience. Note that dialogue usually only comes out of the soundbar itself and not the surround speakers, the surrounds are there to add an immersive experience for action scenes where sounds are coming from behind/around you but generally dialogue is limited to the soundbar itself due to the audio mix, so focus on a soundbar with good dialogue vs thinking that adding surround speakers will make your dialogue sound better.