No Sound From a PS3 to a TV

Connections

• Perhaps the most common problem causing your sound to stop working is an issue with the connections. If a cord is loose or disconnected, your audio can easily become distorted or disappear altogether. Check all of the cords between your PS3 and your TV to make sure they're plugged in securely. Don't forget to check the connection on your PS3; if the connector is loose, you could encounter all kinds of audio or visual problems.

TV Audio

• Sometimes the real problem is with the TV and not the PS3. The first thing to check is the volume level; press the "Mute" button to make sure the sound isn't muted and make sure the volume level is at an appropriate setting. Also try viewing something else, like a TV channel, to see if you have audio. Most TVs have an option for you to disable the speakers in case you want to use an external audio system, so you might want to check on that setting; usually you can find those options by pressing the "Menu" button on the remote and looking in the "Sound" or "Audio" section of the menu.

PS3 Settings

• The PS3 itself has a few options for its audio settings, and if it's using the wrong audio output, your TV won't receive any audio or will receive an unusable signal. This is an especially common problem if you've just switched to a new TV. To check this, navigate to the "Settings" section of the XMB menu and select "Sound Settings," then "Audio Output Settings." You have three main choices here: "HDMI," for a cord connection using HDMI; "Digital Out (Optical)," for a digital connection, also called "optical" or "Toslink"; and "Audio Input Connector / SCART / AV MULTI," for the single audio-visual output labeled "AV MULTI OUT" on the PS3. You should select the one that's correct for your setup based on the label by the connector you use on the back of the PS3. For the HDMI and Digital Out options, you also need to select the audio output format. Usually you can use the default options, or for HDMI, you can allow the PS3 to automatically select the format.

Cord Replacement

• If you've ensured the connections, TV options and PS3 setup are all configured correctly but the audio still doesn't work, the problem is almost certainly the cord itself. There is no practical way to repair an audio cord, so you will need to get a replacement. Although some cords can be priced quite high in stores -- some Toslink and HDMI options retail for $50 or more -- you don't need to buy anything that expensive unless you have a top-model, high-fidelity audio system.