We want our devices to be connected to each other, and we want it wireless! We don’t want to deal with tens of cables anymore.
Just like our smartphone, tablet and laptop, we want the same for our TVs.
Do smart TVs have Bluetooth?
Not always… but Yes, most smart TVs today are equipped with Bluetooth. Big brands like Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, LG and Hisense… sell Bluetooth-enabled smart TVs. For smart TVs without Bluetooth feature, we can still make it Bluetooth-enabled by using a Bluetooth transmitter or using the manufacturer’s smartphone app.
Contents
As you probably already know, Bluetooth is a wireless communication protocol (radio waves) used for short-range data exchanges (usually less than 50 feet).
Bluetooth is a common technology on connected electronic devices and this is partly why connected televisions are sometimes equipped with it.
But while many smart TVs come standard with Bluetooth, many brands and budget price TVs don’t include this feature.
Bluetooth is still often considered on TVs as an optional feature and the cheapest TVs are generally not equipped with it for cost reasons. It is a choice of manufacturers because many people still do not use this function on their TV.
How do i know my TV has Bluetooth
To know if your TV supports Bluetooth, try to activate “Bluetooth” from the TV settings.
If you don’t find it, then your TV probably doesn’t have TV.
If you bought your TV before 2016 or the TV is not a smart TV, you don’t even need to look at the settings, it has no Bluetooth.
Do New Smart TVs Have Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is now a standard feature on many electronic devices like smartphones, but not for Smart TVs.
Although there are many Smart TVs still without Bluetooth, it is becoming a standard feature for most models.
Which TV brands have built-in Bluetooth?
Before 2017, few TVs were sold with Bluetooth.
Smart TV models equipped with Bluetooth:
- Toshiba – Fire TV Editions
- Samsung – 6, 7, 8 and 9 series
- Samsung – Frame, Serif, Sero and Terrace series
- Samsung – Q60T, Q70T, Q80T, Q90T, Q800T and Q900TS series
- Hisense – A6, A60 and A6G series
- Hisense – H55, H65, H8, H8G, H8G1 and H9 series
- Hisense – Laser TV, U6, U7, U8 and U9 series
- LG – UN7300, UN7370 and UN8500 series
- LG – Nanoclass 81, 85, 90 and 99 series
- LG – BX, CX, GX, WX and ZX series
- Sony – Android and Google models released after 2016
To find Bluetooth-enabled smart TVs, go to Amazon and check the “Bluetooth” filter in the left column.
Bluetooth TV models currently on sale:
Manufacturers generally exclude Bluetooth from entry-level TVs but include it in their good and higher-end models (which generally have a higher price).
From my research, of all known smart TV brands like Samsung, Sony, Hisense and LG are likely to be equipped with Bluetooth.
There are also Chinese brands less known to the general public that are equipped with Bluetooth.
To find out if a television has Bluetooth, the easiest way is to look at the instructions or search the internet for your model to see its characteristics sheet. example: “samsung xxx tv manual”.
If you can’t find TV instructions, turn on the TV and look in the “Audio” settings if you see “Bluetooth” as an “output option”.
Best Smart TV with Built-in Bluetooth
The best smart TV with Bluetooth (at the time of writing) is the Sony X80K Series 4K Ultra HD LED Smart Google TV.
The X80K is a 2022 series model that reproduces more colors than a conventional television, it has an image rendering of natural and exceptional image quality, and closer than ever to reality.
With Google TV, you can access thousands of movies and TV series from your streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, YouTube, Apple TV…)
Good to know, this smart TV is available in several formats (from 43 to 85 inches), to best fit your home.
What can a Bluetooth TV do and connect
Bluetooth offers several features that you cannot get otherwise.
For example, a Bluetooth enabled smart TV allows you to:
- Listen to music from your smartphone on TV
- Connect Bluetooth wireless headphones and speakers to the TV
- Use your smartphone or tablet as a remote control
- Use a wireless keyboard and mouse to write on TV
- See your smartphone screen on TV
- Listen to streaming music on TV
Being able to watch a movie with wireless headphones or Bluetooth headphones late at night means you don’t wake up the kids in the house. For this particular reason, a Bluetooth compatible TV will save you a lot of worries when you will need this function.
But how can you activate Bluetooth on a TV?
How to activate Bluetooth on a TV?
For smart TVs that do not have Bluetooth enabled, i.e. not enabled by default, there are two ways to activate or activate it:
- Activate “Bluetooth” from the TV settings
- Download the manufacturer’s app to your smartphone
1- Activate Bluetooth from Settings
One of the ways to activate Bluetooth on a TV is to activate it in the settings if it is equipped with the Bluetooth chip obviously.
If you do not have the visible Bluetooth option, there is a small chance that the TV is equipped with the chip but that it is deactivated and not accessible from the classic menu because you have purchased a “cheap” model. “.
TVs have secret menus. These menus allow users to access advanced settings and change TV features that you cannot otherwise access.
If your TV is no longer under warranty or you are not afraid, you can search the internet for the combination of numbers to access the secret menu of your TV model. Just like jailbreaking a smartphone, using certain combinations of codes on your remote to access this menu can give access to hidden functions.
Things to know first: A handling error can make a TV unusable.
If it is under warranty, the after-sales service will not cover the costs incurred for the return.
If you are ready to do it, you will find here the manipulations for commun brands like Sony, Samsung, LG and Philips. For other brands, search online.
If you don’t get it the first time, try it several times. It happened to me on an old model to have to do it 3 times.
2- Download the manufacturer’s smartphone application
Downloading the TV manufacturer’s app to your smartphone can in some cases use your phone’s Bluetooth to connect to your TV.
You will find it on Google Play or Apple. Manufacturers provide free smartphone apps that allows you to use the phone’s Bluetooth.
So you can sync your phone’s Bluetooth to your headphones or a Bluetooth speaker via the manufacturer app and watch (listen to) TV that way.
What can I do if my TV doesn’t support Bluetooth?
If your TV doesn’t have a Bluetooth chip, you can buy a TV Bluetooth TV Transmitter Receiver.
If your TV does not have a built-in Bluetooth chip and the brand does not have a dedicated mobile application, you have one last option.
You can purchase a Bluetooth transceiver.
A Bluetooth transmitter is simply a small device that plugs into a TV or computer and adds Bluetooth functionality to it.
Nowadays, the technology is good and there is very low latency. The transmission time is faster than a few years ago.
And the good news is that a Bluetooth receiver doesn’t cost much!
I highly recommend the Avantree Audikast Plus Bluetooth 5.0 Transmitter ( check price on Amazon ). This box gets very good customer reviews for making a TV compatible with Bluetooth.
If your TV does not have a headphone socket, no problem because the Avantree Bluetooth 5 transmitter allows you to connect to a TV in different ways (optical socket, auxiliary socket (headphone socket), RCA or USB).
Airplane tip: Take the Bluetooth transmitter on the plane with you, you can plug it into the headphone jack and use your own Bluetooth earplugs or headphone (more comfortable than the cheap plastic airline earplugs).
Wrapping it up
Unless you have an old TV or a cheap smart TV, yes! most smart TVs have built-in Bluetooth, but not all of them, especially if it’s a pre-2017 model. Apart from the first prices, Samsung, Sony and LG TVs are the TVs most likely to have this built-in Bluetooth function.
For TVs that don’t have Bluetooth activated, there are several ways to make them “Bluetooth enabled”:
- Activate Bluetooth via the settings or mute menu of the TV
- Download the TV manufacturer’s smartphone app
If your TV doesn’t support Bluetooth, you can still buy a Bluetooth TV transmitter and make it work on almost any TV.
Depending on your TV model, you will now know what to do.
