Control all grouped Sonos using TV remote control (via Playbar)


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I already own a Playbar and recently purchased a Play 1. One thing I find invaluable is being able to control the Playbar using the TV remote, even if playing music. It is very intuitive and easy to use. 

What I've noticed however is that now when grouped with the play 1 the TV remote volume control only manages the Playbar vs. the whole group volume. 

Is there a way to add an option to have the TV remote control either only the Playbar or the whole group volume once grouped? 

Would help to extend the handy and intuitive control the bring the volume up and down across the rooms. 

137 replies

I came here with this exact problem hoping to find the answer and am leaving disappointed... For everyone upset about not wanting this to be a feature,  a simple checkbox that enables or disables this option for people that want it in the app would be enough to satisfy everyone.

Option: Control The volume of grouped speakers together (On/Off)... you don't want it, don't enable it. You do want it, then enable it. It's not a difficult ask come on Sonos.

Same. I have a playbar and sub connected to the TV remote. We use a Sonos amp to control our surround sound speakers. Plus we have two One SLs. If all of these are grouped together and playing what is on the TV, the only speakers that can be controlled by the remote are the playbar/sub. I have to go to my phone app to turn down the others. Would be great to have grouped speakers controlled by the remote.

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This feature makes all the sense in the world. “Group?” Yes. “Group?” No. Easy. But, I have noticed that even changing my router’s password will take me a few hours to get the whole system working again. It is ridiculous. I will NEVER purchase another Sonos product again. Simple.

A workaround is that you use the APIs. Eg. Use a hue remote for volume up and down. And then. Use nodered to interact with the Sonos api. Then issue is solved...

This feature makes all the sense in the world. “Group?” Yes. “Group?” No. Easy. But, I have noticed that even changing my router’s password will take me a few hours to get the whole system working again. It is ridiculous. I will NEVER purchase another Sonos product again. Simple.

This is a bit unfair. Sure there are bugs. And changing the WiFi password should work. But for the rest the stability is pretty amazing

+1 on this feature.

After purchasing the BEAM and connecting our TV, I’ve grouped the existing two ONE’s to the same room, but also lack the option for controlling the volume on the two stereo speakers with the TV remote. It only controls the volume on the BEAM, leaving the stereo speakers in limbo.

I understand that the use case is somewhat limited, but from this thread it’s obvious that there is a need and a wish for a lot of customers to pair the BEAM with a couple of front stereo speakers, as an alternative to the intended use case of bonding the speakers as rear surround speakers.

 

I forgot: +1

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I’m afraid to say after five years and counting (for this thread) it’s not going to happen.

A few comments on this. First, it seems like the most common case for this request is people using as stereo pair for TV audio in conjunction with their soundbar.  In the case, the real problem is that you can’t use surround speakers in ‘full’ stereo mode with TV audio.  If that feature were implemented, it would remove the need IR remote group control.  It would also mean you could use the speaker pair for stereo or surround duty in the room without having to fully reconfigure in trueplay tune each time.  I configuration setup allowing the options of “always play surround’,’ play stereo when source is 2.0’, or ‘always play stereo’ would cover a lot more ground.

For those that don’t fit the above case, I have a feeling this sounds great in theory, but not so much in reality.  There are absolutely times where I have a couple rooms grouped, and it would be nice to be able to pick up a remote and change the volume of the whole group, rather than go to the Sonos app.  However, there are also times where I only want to reduce the volume in the room the TV is in, and I’m glad the remote only controls the one room.

 

I have a connect to a kef subwoofer, so I want that one combined with the arc group. 

I have a connect to a kef subwoofer, so I want that one combined with the arc group. 

 

You don’t have any delay issues?

 

*And technically, your surrounds are not grouped to the Arc, they are bonded to form a single room.  Semantics, yes, but conversations get confusing when the terms are mixed.  If ‘arc group’ was actually referring to a group of Sonos rooms, than I don’t understand what you’re getting at.

You are right: combine my arc system with the connect.

 

There must be the 75ms delay, but I guess I don’t notice it with movies : it’s a subwoofer...


the arc with ones grouped in another room gives the strange church sound: unusable… (because of the 75ms)

 

Hello, I’m wondering  if that feature will be there or not one day. I guess Sonos could give the option to customer being “yes/no” group volume audio control via the soundbar.

I understand is not a priority but will help few or many of us.   

The sonos app provide a way to control the group audio volume, why not from a remote control connected to the soundbar ? 

happy friday to all 

 

The sonos app provide a way to control the group audio volume, why not from a remote control connected to the soundbar ? 

 

Maybe because a TV remote only has one volume button?

was referring to the the group volume , so one remote button is enough :-)

was referring to the the group volume , so one remote button is enough :-)

 

There’s is no IR receiver built into ONE/ONE SL, Five, Play:5 gen. 2, Play:3, Play:1 which is the basic requirement to control a device via IR remote.

set the soundbar as group master => once volume changed via remote => soundbar communicate via wifi new volume level to allgroup devices      

set the soundbar as group master => once volume changed via remote => soundbar communicate via wifi new volume level to allgroup devices      

 

Technically not feasible. A similar engineering challenge is the popular request “Pairing one SUB to two rooms”.

Technically feasible on the -- now apparently discontinued -- iPort xPress keypad. It’s simply configured to adjust the entire group volume.

 

Technically feasible on the -- now apparently discontinued -- iPort xPress keypad. It’s simply configured to adjust the entire group volume.

 

I would bet the iPort was send commands to both rooms, via WiFi, through.  It wasn’t a case of a Sonos room telling another Sonos room to change it’s volume level.  I would guess that’s the issue with an IR remote.  It can communicate with Sonos devices with IR sensors only.

 

Technically feasible on the -- now apparently discontinued -- iPort xPress keypad. It’s simply configured to adjust the entire group volume.

 

I would bet the iPort was send commands to both rooms through.  It wasn’t a case of a Sonos room telling another Sonos room to change it’s volume level.

I dare say, though it’s not necessary to preconfigure the keypad with the group. It must learn the group members on the fly.

The iPort xPress keypad is a WiFi remote. I’m using the IKEA Tradri remote which also works over WiFi - and yes, these remotes are able to control the volume of Sonos groups. Technically, the Sonos app is also a WiFi remote.

 

Technically feasible on the -- now apparently discontinued -- iPort xPress keypad. It’s simply configured to adjust the entire group volume.

 

I would bet the iPort was send commands to both rooms through.  It wasn’t a case of a Sonos room telling another Sonos room to change it’s volume level.

I dare say, though it’s not necessary to preconfigure the keypad with the group. It must learn the group members on the fly.

 

Certainly not something an IR remote can do.

It's the usefulness of controlling the group volume that I question. I don't doubt that some users would see it as worth having. But I would suggest that it is a small gain for a small subset of users.

So it would come as no surprise to me if this were a long way from tbe top of Sonos' priority list.  Even if it were fairly simple,  which I doubt.

If a Beam is playing audio from a connected TV, all the grouped speakers are playing the the same TV audio. There are many situations where you might want to do this, it isn’t an isolated case. I run into this problem daily and my friends with Sonos share the same frustration. Muting all speakers from the TV remote control simply makes sense.

+1 vote for adding this feature. 

Can we get an update on this?

I just bought a new Sonos Arc and Five for my living room. I fully expected to be able to add them to a room and adjust the volume using my TV remote (or if not, that a remote of some kind would be included to do the same).

As it stands whenever I turn down the TV volume, I have to unlock my phone, go to groups, and manually reduce the volume on my Five. It’s infuriating.

It seems like the only thing blocking this from working is considering the Five as a surround speaker -- You can add surrounds to an Arc, but it doesn’t find my Five, so I’m assuming it’s expecting a Pair, even though the Five can play in stereo?

I’m dumping this stuff back at Best Buy if Sonos can’t sort this out.

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