William Stanton Read more January 2, 2022

TLC’s Roku Smart TVs are award-winning televisions that offer impeccable video and audio quality and all the benefits of a Roku streaming platform. Although they have various upsides, people are unsure whether they can connect their cable box to these modern televisions.

If you’re one of those that still haven’t cut the cord, you shouldn’t worry. Roku TVs don’t differ from regular TVs when it comes to connectivity. If you have a cable subscription and a cable box (or just a coaxial cord) at home, you can easily connect it to your Roku TV. This article will explain how to connect the two.

To connect a Roku TV to your cable box, pay attention to both devices’ audio and video inputs. Your Roku TV has various input ports located on its left or right side (depending on the series), and it includes several HDMI ports (including Arc), USB port(s), a Coaxial In port, and an AV-IN input with an adapter. Of course, each model can differ slightly, but those inputs are what you get primarily.

When connecting the cable box and the Roku TV, it should be effortless to access cable television. Turn on the cable TV, and then use the remote to turn on the Roku TV. Afterward, follow these steps:

When your cable box gets powered on, and the cables get plugged in, everything should work correctly. If you can’t see the image, turn on both devices and check if the connectors are plugged in well. Then, turn them on and try again.

If your cable box requires a coax cable to connect to the Roku TV, the method is slightly different than using an HDMI connection. Follow these steps:

After the scanning is finished, the TV will notify you of how many channels it found, alerting you that the cable box is successfully set up. As long as your cable box is connected to your Roku TV, you’ll be able to access it via the Antenna card/block.

Take note that cable boxes with a coaxial “Out to TV” connection still handle the tuning of channels. No matter what gets selected on the box, the signal gets transmitted to the TV via analog channel 3 or 4 and is NOT high definition. These cable boxes are ancient versions, but some semi-old models still offer the coax out.

You can always upgrade your cable box via your service provider to get rid of the old analog channel 3/4 output to tv and use an HDMI cable instead!

Today, most receivers and cable boxes don’t use RCA AV-IN inputs to transfer media from the device to the TV screen. However, if you own an older cable box, you’ll probably need to use these cables instead of HDMI or coaxial. Luckily, all Roku TVs have at least one set of RCA AV-IN ports on the back of the device.

To connect the devices via AV inputs, you’ll need composite AV cables (RCA A/V cables, NOT component), which are the old-fashioned red, white, and yellow cables. These cables contain three different colored male-end plugs on each end. Each connector is colored differently to represent each specific input:

Follow these steps to connect the devices:

As you can see, anyone can easily connect their Roku TV to a cable box using one of the available cable ports. The process doesn’t differ from connecting any other TV to a cable or a satellite receiver, and at the same time, it provides a clear image and much better audio when using HDMI. Of course, HDMI-CEC delivers the ability to have connected devices communicate with each other or adjust the TV’s volume using the device’s remote to do cool things like turning both devices on simultaneously.

Thanks to the variety of available ports, you can connect multiple devices to your Roku TV. For example, you can connect a cable box with a coaxial cable while connecting a Chromecast or another streaming platform in a USB port—each one providing you with countless high-definition content.

By understanding the various input options on your Roku TV, you can adapt your cable box connection to allow other devices too!

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