How to connect a Bluetooth speaker to your TV

Connecting an extra speaker or two to your television is a great way to create your own little home theater experience.

If you’ve been reluctant to introduce new speakers into your home for fear of adding to the terrifying snake pit of tangled cords behind your entertainment center, a Bluetooth speaker can help amplify your sound without adding to the mess.

There are nuances depending on the individual speaker and device you choose to connect, but we’re here to run you through the basics. Here’s a step-by-step guide to connecting a Bluetooth speaker to your TV.

Pairing a Bluetooth speaker with your TV (the easy way)

First things first: Make sure your Bluetooth speaker is on and is in pairing mode. You can consult the device manual to confirm how to power your speaker on and enable pairing mode.

On your television, go to Network Settings and select Bluetooth. Then, look for your speaker in the list of discoverable devices. If you’re lucky, this simple connection method worked. If not, the issue could be that your TV doesn’t offer Bluetooth as a built-in network or it has a low-level Bluetooth signal that doesn’t allow an audio connection. 

What if your TV doesn’t offer a built-in Bluetooth network?

Unfortunately, your TV may not offer a built-in Bluetooth network. Many VIZIO models, for example, only have Bluetooth LE, which is such a low frequency it doesn’t support connecting a speaker. If this is the case, you can add Bluetooth by using a Bluetooth transmitter, which connects via a , , or . 

You’ll press a button on the Bluetooth transmitter to put it in pairing mode, then press a corresponding button on your speaker to pair it with the transmitter. Once the speaker is added and activated, you can make the connection and turn up the sound. (Pro tip: Look carefully when you are shopping for Soundbars, because some of them have Bluetooth technology but are specifically designed to be used via particular third party applications, such as Roku TVs or Alexa.)  

Down to the wires

Another way to connect a Bluetooth speaker to your TV is to connect it directly with a wired connection using a 3.5-millimeter port.

Why would you do this? Isn’t the point of Bluetooth going without wires?

Yes, and no. If your existing wired speaker has Bluetooth capabilities, you can still pair it with other devices in your home via that Bluetooth connection. The wired speaker then becomes a sort of base station that your other devices can connect to wirelessly.