MacMini, Vizio TV, & Sound Bar

I've been running a MacMini through my Vizio TV via an HDMI connection and using it as my home entertainment hub. I recently purchased a Vizio Sound Bar + wireless subwoofer from Costco, hoping to beef up my audio. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to force the TV (or the MacMini) to recognize the sound bar.
I've tried connecting the sound bar to the TV via another HDMI cable as well as using a 3.5mm RCA cable that came with the sound bar, but no matter what configurations I've tried the sound from my computer will only play through the television's internal speakers, not the sound bar.
The mac mini's sound preferences only recognizes the TV as an output source.
Hoping somebody on these forums has figured out how to get all these components to play nicely with each other.

I ended up purchasing a digital optical cable and an adapter that allows me to plug into headphone jack in the back of the MacMini (about $3 total from Amazon). This seems to be the best way to get solid digital audio (much better than running the optical cable from the TV to the Sound bar).
Final setup looks like this:
MACMINI <---HDMI---> TV
MACMINI <----Optical Cable + Adapter----> Soundbar

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