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Doug183
Contributor I
December 13, 2016
Question

Soundbar is turning on the TV by itself.

  • December 13, 2016
  • 10 replies
  • 6213 views
Ok, I have waited awhile to post this to isolate the problem and I am pretty sure that its the Soundbar causing the issue.

Problem:
TV turns on by itself. Seems to be more prevalent when the Soundbar is grouped with other speakers - might be only when its grouped.

Things I have done to isolate the problem:
- in the TV, turned off HDMI control to the TV
- unplug all HDMI cables to the TV
- removed remote controls from the living room.
- covered the IR port on the TV with cardboard
- unplugged the Soundbar but left the TV, Roku, Blu-ray plugged in and the HDMI cables connected.

Other facts:
- TV is an older Toshiba LCD - 40RV52U
- Roku 3.0 is hooked up
- A Toshiba Blu-ray player is attached
- Over the air Antennae.
- Sound bar is on its back *with its Rubber feet/mounting holes" facing down and the power/optical facing towards the TV and directly in front of the IR Port on the TV. - see pics
- TV is remote is a Universal URC-R50 remote I trained to operate the TV. I used this same remote to operate the audio controls on the Soundbar.
- I have a Play5, Amp, Soundbar. - see pic.

Any suggestions?

Doug
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    10 replies

    Stuart_W
    Stuart_W
    World-Class Superstar
    December 13, 2016
    Firstly I would submit a diagnostic next time the TV switches on by itself just on the off chance some useful data is recorded and post the number here.

    However it is worth noting that the Playbar is passive - So it doesn't output anything via the optical cable. So it would seem extremely unlikely the Playbar is responsible for your TV switching on by itself.

    It is far more likely one of the other boxes is sending some signal to the TV via HDMI which is waking the TV up.
    Arc + Sub (Gen 1) + 2 x Play 1/ Stereo Play 3s/ Era 100 Stereo in Kitchen, One Stereo in Bedroom, Play 1 stereo pair in Study, Play 1in Bathroom, Sonos Move 2
      ratty
      ratty
      December 13, 2016
      It's not that the PLAYBAR is passive. S/PDIF is uni-directional. There's no way that a receiving device can have any influence on the sending device (the TV).
      Doug183Author
      Contributor I
      December 13, 2016
      Well

      1) ratty -->, you are right and I believe the S/PDIF (Optical audio) has nothing to do with this. Its just audio passing one way.

      2) Stuart_W --> I had ALL the HDMI cables unplugged and the TV turned on by itself - for sure. Are you sure the IR on the Playbar is passive? There is a sonos setting about IR passthrough that happened during setup. This is my only hard lead.
      Doug183Author
      Contributor I
      December 13, 2016
      Stuart_W, how do I obtain a diagnostic?
      MikeV
      MikeV
      December 13, 2016
      Submit System Diagnostics ... make sure to post the confirmation number here so a Sonos employee can easily find it!
      The S in IOT stands for Security.
      Doug183Author
      Contributor I
      December 13, 2016
      Ok just happened again. Speakers were not grouped. However, there was HDMI plugged in. Here is diagnostic 6863011 submitted.

      So what I have done now.
      1) No HDMI connections.
      2) Only SPDIF and power to TV and Sonos.
      3) Unplugged theTV and Sonos from power. Waited 30 seconds, plugged all back into power.
      4) Turned on the TV and heard the audio through Sonos. Then turned it off.
      5) All IR remotes removed from Living Room (I hear on low-battery they can throw funny codes.)

      Lets see what happens next.
      Doug183Author
      Contributor I
      December 13, 2016
      Ok, just did it again. Diagnostics, 6863178.

      I am going to leave power on the TV and Playbar and just pull the SPDIF to see if that makes a difference.

      Doug
      Airgetlam
      Airgetlam
      December 13, 2016
      I'd agree that it's no chance it is the Playbar. There just isn't any method for the Playbar to send a signal of any type to the TV (other than passing an IR signal that it receives from something else).

      Is it possible that one of the devices connected via HDMI is passing a "turn on" signal to the TV? See information here:

      http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/hdmi-arc-explained-works-care/

      That'd be my bet.
      Bruce
      Ryan S
      Ryan S
      Retired Sonos Staff
      December 13, 2016
      I took a dig through the diagnostics for you as well and I'm not seeing anything there could be causing the TV to turn on. ARC is something I'd definitely look into.

      You mentioned that you tested things with the PLAYBAR unplugged. How long did you test that?

      Is that TV connected to the network? If so, does it have an automatic update set up? I've seen plenty of TVs turn on to check for updates and then turn off.

      One more thing I'd suggest is to make sure the PLAYBAR and the TV are getting 2 different IP addresses on the network. The TV could turn on when it loses it's IP or if the IP get's crossed somehow.

      Let us know how it's going, this is an interesting one.
      Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
      MikeV
      MikeV
      December 14, 2016
      Is that TV connected to the network? If so, does it have an automatic update set up? I've seen plenty of TVs turn on to check for updates and then turn off.

      I have a Sony TV that does this... you'll hear it click on, though it doesn't turn on the screen or sound, then a bit later it'll click back off. I had to disconnect it from the network because the TV is in my bedroom and it drove me crazy hearing the clicks at night when the TV would update its guide data.
      The S in IOT stands for Security.
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