New sound bar, poor sound?

[TheAngryDog]

I've just bought a new sound bar as my previous one was quite quiet.

I've booked this one up and it is the same. I find this surprising. The old sound bar is 40w RMS, the new one is 100w RMS (with a 200w RMS sub).

It is connected via the optical cable from the TV. It sounds the same when connected to my sky box.

When I connect to it via Bluetooth from my phone it is loud.

I have tried it with the sky hdmi cable connected to the hdmi arc port and normal port.

TV is a Sony BRAVIA KD55XE7002
Sound bar is an LG SJ3 300W 2.1Ch Bluetooth Sound Bar with Wireless Sub
Sky box is a 1tb sky+ box.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[Whoozit]

Not an expert, but

- check whether the TV volume is still active - if so turn up
- check the sound output on the TV menu, don't assume it's auto switched to the optical out
- check whether it works with just the HDMI (and check if ARC or equivalent is switched on BOTH on TV and soundbar, if so can you see/select the soundbar as a sound out?)
- Try connecting the TV to soundbar with Bluetooth and see if that corrects the volume?

[N111BJG]

It can be a real bugger getting them to marry up. I tried everything to get Toshiba TV & Samsung soundbar to recognise each other, HDMI, optical, Bluetooth etc. Only would work reliably using RCA cables / Aux in.