I have an 82” LG smart TV (it’s 6 feet wide). It has great pictures but not so great sound with the internal speakers. I wanted the sound bar to operate seamlessly with just the TV remote because my wife is not good with complicated set ups. I use the HDMI ARC Jack to connect to the sound bar and set the TV sound to HDMI ARC and it works seamlessly with the TV remote. The set also has a single optical output and I use a an optical splitter/repeater to connect to the optical “TV” input jack on the sound bar and to my home stereo.When I watch movies I select optical out on the TV set and the sound bar automatically switches to the optical input as the HDMI ARC is dead then (my TV doesn’t allow both HDMI ARC and optical audio output at the same time). I turn on the stereo and select the optical output from the TV. My stereo and the speaker bar are in perfect phase (no out of phase echo on dialog) and the speaker bar effectively acts as the center speaker.I wouldn’t say the speaker bar by itself is a great music speaker system, though it’s probably considerably better than no external speaker and listening to your iPhone or iPad. It has a reasonable low end response, but does not have a true thumping bass response. It’s a matter of physics - It’s very hard to get good base out of a speaker so thin. But it does a good job for ordinary use. And in conjunction with an external good quality stereo is an excellent center speaker.I urge you to look up the Yamaha App for your smart phone or tablet. It gives you feedback of the settings and a way to adjust the things. Using the remote works but interpreting the over-simplified built in status lights is a pain. But the Yamaha App solves that. Be aware that there is more than one in App Store but only this one works with this sound bar. (See the screenshot).The good:(1) Works well as a speaker bar seamlessly controlled by the TV remote when connected to the HDMI ARC of the TV. Better sound than the original TV speakers.(2) Works very well as a center channel audio speaker when using an external stereo with both the sound bar and the stereo fed from the TV’s optical output.(3) The App let’s you see and control the should bar settings.(4) Automatically selects the correct input HDMI ARC or TV optical based on which is active from the TV.Room for improvement:(1) An optical pass-through output would be appreciated for use by an external stereo when using the sound bar as a center speaker.Note: If you observe audio sync problems (lips out of sync with audio) go to the TV’s audio set up. My TV has an option for adjusting the video to audio sync. It’s not the fault of the sound bar and it’s correctable.Update:I originally mentioned that the sound bar automatically selects between the HDMI ARC input and Optical TV input depending on which has a signal. It does not always and consistently do that. I changed the hook up so that I use the separate dedicated optical input for the optical input from the TV and manually select the “Optical Input” when I am running on the optical sound output from the TV. (Only necessary because my TV does not have a mode that allows using both the optical output and the HDMI ARC outputs simultaneously.) This did not affect my rating of the sound bar.By the way the primary reason for using the optical input is that it allows me to use my existing high end stereo for movie sound (via optical input) and the sound bar as the center speaker. Also using optical for both the sound bar and the stereo makes the sound bar perfectly in phase with the stereo - No echos or distortions.