How to Hook Up a Smart TV to Cable (Setting Up Your Smart TV)

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Trying to watch your favorite cable channels on your smart TV? Whether you have a digital set top cable box or just basic cable, you have several options for watching cable on your smart TV. We'll show you how to hook your TV up to a cable box, and show you what to do if you want to connect a smart TV to regular coaxial cable wall jack.

If your provider has an app, install it from your smart TV's app store to get cable on the TV. Use a coaxial cable for basic cable. If your TV has a coaxial input, you may be able to use a coaxial cable to connect the smart TV right to your cable wall jack.

Using a Cable Box

• If your set top box has an HDMI port, you can use a standard HDMI cable to connect it to your smart TV.
• If you have an older cable box and just upgraded to a smart TV, contact your cable provider to see if they offer HD-compatible boxes.

• If the box has composite RCA (yellow, white, and red) ports, you can connect it to your TV using an RCA-to-HDMI adapter. While you won't get high definition, you can still watch cable this way at a lower quality. [3] X Research source
• If the box has component (red, blue, and green) ports, you can connect it to your smart TV's component ports for HD resolution. If your TV doesn't have component ports, you can use a component-to-HDMI adapter and still get HD (as high as 1080p) resolution.

Power down both the cable box and smart TV before you begin. If either device is on, turn it off for now.

• If you have both cable internet service and cable television, you probably have a coaxial splitter—an adapter that allows you to connect both a cable modem and a cable box to the wall at the same time. [4] X Research source Plug a coaxial cable into the available port on the splitter, and the other end into your cable box.
• Don't turn on the cable box yet.

• If you're using an HDMI adapter for a non-HDMI cable box, connect that adapter to the end of the component cable that's plugged in to your cable box, and then plug the HDMI end into an available HDMI port.

Turn on your cable box and smart TV. Depending on your TV, it may automatically recognize your cable box and immediately switch to a cable TV channel.

• If you're using a component cable instead, choose the Component input.

Start watching cable TV. Depending on your provider, you may need to activate the cable box once connected. [6] X Research source Once you're all set, you may need to program your cable TV remote control to work with your smart TV (or vice-versa). Check the documentation that came with your smart TV and/or cable package for specific instructions.

Options for Connecting Without a Box

• Cox: Contour TV app
• Optimum: Altice One app
• Mediacom: XtreamTV app
• RCN: RCN2Go app
• Sparklight: Sparlight TV app
• Spectrum: Spectrum TV app
• Wave: Wave TV On the Go app
• Wow: Wow! TV+ app
• Xfinity: Xfinity Stream app

• Even if your TV does have a coaxial input, your cable TV provider may not provide channels without a set top cable box. Contact your cable provider to find out if you can access cable without a box.
• To connect a coaxial cable to the TV:
  • Turn off the TV:
  • Run a coaxial cable from the wall jack to the TV's input.
  • Turn on your smart TV.
  • Use the smart TV remote control to switch to the "TV" input.
  • You may have to go into your TV's settings to find the "Tuner mode" section and switch it to "Cable." Then, you'll need to scan for channels to see what's on.

  

  • To ensure the box works with digital cable, get a converter box with a built-in QAM tuner rather than an "over the air" tuner.
  • Most of these converter boxes double as DVRs, which allow you to record your favorite shows.
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