Question

Bypass Sonos Beam when watching TV

  • 22 October 2019
  • 5 replies
  • 898 views
N

Just got my Sonos Beam - love it so far.  I’m using it with a TCL Roku TV (2018 model), and I have it paired with a sub and two Sonos Play 1’s.  The Beam is connected to the TV’s ARC input. My wife watches TV at night and just wants to hear the sound from the TV, no Sonos speakers.  I saw this post ( https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/bypass-sonos-beam-to-hear-tv-sound-6827573 ) which says to go to the TV menu and toggle the audio back to TV speakers.  But in the TCL audio menu, you have the option to have the TV speakers on and off, and it’s totally independent of what’s happening with ARC.  Regardless of whether you set the TV speakers to on or off, the audio is being sent out the ARC port to the Beam.  And there doesn’t seem to be any way to disable the audio from coming out the ARC port.

 

Does anyone have a TCL Roku TV and figured out a way to temporarily bypass the sound going to the Sonos system?

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5 replies

Airgetlam

Unfortunately, you’re dealing with an HDMI-CEC issue, and not a Sonos or TCL issue. If you were connected via optical, you could do that procedure, but as long as you’re using HDMI-ARC as the speaker connection, it won’t work, unless you physically unplug the HDMI cable each time. 

Bruce
N

Thanks for the reply.  I am definitely happy to switch to the optical port on the tv if it will solve my issue.  I only used the ARC port because it’s so highly recommended.  

So then what would be the procedure if I’m using the optical port?

Airgetlam

You (or she) could just switch on the internal speakers. Since optical is a one way communication, the TV doesn’t know that there is a device connected or not, and consequently won’t lock you from using that control. 

Dealing with volume might more challenging, though, since a single remote would be controlling both devices. You may need to use a separate remote for the Beam, and “train” the Sonos to recognize it. As long as it isn’t using the same IR codes, you should be fine.

For what it’s worth, there is zero quality difference between HDMI-ARC and optical, they both carry the same audio signal. You’re only losing the voice control of the TV via the Beam, if you’re even using that. 

Bruce
N

Thanks Bruce, I appreciate it.  We’re fine using a separate remote control for the Sonos volume vs the TV volume - small price to pay for the wife to be happy :)

Thus far we haven’t used voice control, so we won’t be missing anything.  That could change if firmware updates make for more functionality that we want to use in the future, but we’ll deal with that as it comes.

I’ll give a try to switching to the optical port and report back asap.

Airgetlam

You’re most welcome. 

Not married myself, but keeping each other happy is essential in my mind :)

Yell if you run into any further issues as you attempt the deploy. I enjoy the exercise of building the system in my mind, and trying to troubleshoot.

Bruce
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