Can't get LG Magic Remote volume control to work with Playbase

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L
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I spoke to LG support just now, and they said they will look into it and call me back within 48 hours.

@Ken_Griffiths, is there a specific way to restart the TV and view the webOS logo? I only see it after a firmware update.

Ken_Griffiths

I spoke to LG support just now, and they said they will look into it and call me back within 48 hours.

@Ken_Griffiths, is there a specific way to restart the TV and view the webOS logo? I only see it after a firmware update.

I understand you can change the LG user agreements in your LG account ‘Settings/General/Account Management’ and that will cause the TV to fully reboot, or leave the TV powered off completely for (I think) 10 minutes. 

H

Sadly it didn’t last and the remote is now not controlling the SONOS again 🙄

Ken_Griffiths

Sadly it didn’t last and the remote is now not controlling the SONOS again 🙄

It sounds like you may perhaps have an intermittent fault somewhere. I would submit a Sonos diagnostic report, both when the remote works and when it doesn’t, and note the two reference numbers. Then contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK  and see what the Staff can suggest to resolve the issue. I guess there’s no saying at this stage that the fault may lie with Sonos, it might of course be an issue with the remote infrared, but see if the Staff can perhaps see anything untoward in your diagnostics or see if any other paired IR TV remote has the same intermittent issue.

P

Resurrecting an old thread as I simply couldn’t get my new LG G3 TV to control my PlayBar. Tried all the methods on all the old threads to no avail. Lots seems to have changed over the years, for example I don’t even have “SIMPLINK” as far as I can tell.

 

Anyway, maybe not a solution for all… but I happen to run Home Assistant at my place, and using that it’s been straightforward to query the volume-level and mute-status of the TV, and apply it to the soundbar. I’d have never thought to try this but came across a random post ironically while searching for something else!

L
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Update: I still haven’t been able to fix this. A few weeks back I reset the TV to factory settings and tried again, but no change.

At this point I believe it is an issue with the specific TV firmware, since the menus have changed.

I’ll try again with a new TV at some point.

Perhaps see this thread and note the case sensitive search needed to find Sonos as the Soundbar manufacturer in the ‘device connector’ (universal remote) or whatever LG call it these days:

 

Thanks again for your help, but the menus on my C7 are completely different.

buzz

Some pad/phone cameras are sensitive to Infrared. If this is the case for your device, confirm that the LG remote is issuing IR commands when you attempt to control the SONOS system.

I’m not familiar with your TV, but I can imagine a couple odd issues. First, the LG remote might not be configured properly and is sending a different set of IR codes when the TV is ON and another set when the TV is OFF. One way of confirming this is attempt to train the SONOS system while the TV is ON. If this is successful, but the SONOS system will not respond when the TV is OFF, then attempt to train the SONOS system while the TV is OFF. If you can train the SONOS to operate in one mode or the other, but not both simultaneously, then the LG remote is sending different codes.

As a generality, one must configure the a TV remote to control an A/V system and the model number is arbitrary. If you can, disable SimpleLink on the LG.

A second possibility is that the light output from the TV is confusing the PLAYBASE. You can confirm this by using a piece of cardboard to cast a shadow and prevent TV light from reaching the PLAYBASE IR sensor.

N
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My Logitech Harmony remote keeps track of whether devices are On or Off. When the TV is Off, the volume control will not affect my Playbase even if I have music streaming to it. Now and again when my wife uses the TV remote to turn the TV on, rather than the Harmony remote, the Harmony will not affect volume as it still thinks the TV is Off.

I say all this to get to the point: is it possible your tv and the remote operate in a similar way and have got out of sync? 

N
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Thanks @buzz - my words were poorly chosen. As you say, it’s just toggling rather than keeping track. But for @LGRemoteNotWorking I'm wondering if (s)he’s in the same situation, and hence my post. 

L
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Some pad/phone cameras are sensitive to Infrared. If this is the case for your device, confirm that the LG remote is issuing IR commands when you attempt to control the SONOS system.

I’m not familiar with your TV, but I can imagine a couple odd issues. First, the LG remote might not be configured properly and is sending a different set of IR codes when the TV is ON and another set when the TV is OFF. One way of confirming this is attempt to train the SONOS system while the TV is ON. If this is successful, but the SONOS system will not respond when the TV is OFF, then attempt to train the SONOS system while the TV is OFF. If you can train the SONOS to operate in one mode or the other, but not both simultaneously, then the LG remote is sending different codes.

As a generality, one must configure the a TV remote to control an A/V system and the model number is arbitrary. If you can, disable SimpleLink on the LG.

A second possibility is that the light output from the TV is confusing the PLAYBASE. You can confirm this by using a piece of cardboard to cast a shadow and prevent TV light from reaching the PLAYBASE IR sensor.

 

Hey @buzz , thanks very much for your reply. I am a bit of a noob when it comes to these things, so can you confirm if by ‘training the SONOS system’ you mean I should repeat the process even if it presumably changes nothing?

From my reading over the last few months about this, the LG Magic Remote is capable of both IR and RF signals, and sends IR when the TV is off, and RF when it is on. That’s why the Playbase picks up the remote’s signal immediately when the TV is off, but gives a ‘nope’ signal when I try to change the volume when the TV is on.

I was wondering if there’s an IR only LG remote out there, or if Sonos have a sound remote available too. So far I’ve not been able to find any of the two options.

I also wanted to say that the smart buttons on the Playbase also work. The system works fine and I am very happy with it, but the fact that I cannot use a remote that was working before, is souring my experience. And the TV is also amazing, I cannot justify buying a brand new one because the firmware changed and the remote isn’t working with Sonos.

Ken_Griffiths

Just to also add, that after setting up the device connector with Sonos as the Soundbar manufacturer in the TV settings, I have seen some users report in the community here, that they first also had to put their TV into standby mode to get the ‘magic remote’ to work with the Sonos TV Remote setup process - so maybe keep that in mind too.

L
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Thanks for the reply @Ken_Griffiths. I recorded a short video of what my TV’s menu currently looks like, to make it simple. As you can see there’s no ‘sentence case’ anymore (but I remember there used to be 3 years ago, when I purchased the Soundbase).

You may be able to see something that I am missing, in the settings. If you need to see anything else, please let me know. Any further help or advice will be much appreciated.

https://youtu.be/lAmQYe49n8U

Ken_Griffiths

Thanks for the reply @Ken_Griffiths. I recorded a short video of what my TV’s menu currently looks like, to make it simple. As you can see there’s no ‘sentence case’ anymore (but I remember there used to be 3 years ago, when I purchased the Soundbase).

You may be able to see something that I am missing, in the settings. If you need to see anything else, please let me know. Any further help or advice will be much appreciated.

https://youtu.be/lAmQYe49n8U

Yes I see. That’s different to what I see on my older LG C9 TV - did you try the suggestion of setting up the remote whilst the TV is in standby mode?

P

I have HDMI CEC enabled as I have a Firestick and PS5 which I’m successfully controlling with the Magic Remote, and I’m not using the ARC HDMI 2 port in case I want to buy a new soundbar in future. I’ve done the Universal Control thing, successfully found Sonos, and it even talks about being successfully enabled, but it then just didn’t actually work for me, volume didn’t change (and indeed connected via optical, I don’t know any other way you’d attach it).

 

This TV replaced a Sony XE9005 TV, and Logitech Harmony could successfully control that (and Sonos). Sadly despite trying all manner of older LG models it doesn’t seem to work on my G3 (yes it’s connected to the internet).

 

Anyway currently the end result is totally fine for me, I’m comfy programming HomeAssistant and it was straightforward to enable the TV volume/mute status to be dynamically copied over to the Sonos. 

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