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


Userlevel 2
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

Userlevel 2
i'm watching tv...

playbar is grouped with my 3 play 1's...

the phone rings and i answer it (i need to mute my tv to take the call)...

i reach for the remote to mute the tv, which the playbar volume does go to ZERO...

BUT my 3 play 1's which are supporting speakers for my TV is STILL PLAYING THE SOUND FROM THE TV.

what is the point of the TV remote if it only mutes the playbar?

if the speakers are GROUPED with the playbar, it means those speakers are playing the sound from the TV.

If i want the TV sound to be muted...

NATURALLY, the rest of the speakers that are playing the sound of the TV SHOULD BE MUTED TOO.

Is that not logical?
Userlevel 1
+2 for this (my wife and I). I want to hear the tv in the kitchen without cranking up my playbar, so I added play ones. I would have Set them up as surrounds, but that removes most dialog and other audio that normally comes from the front. My only option was to create them as a second room and group them. I really really really want my tv remote to treat them as one system.
Userlevel 1
Airgetlam,

I completely respect that. I'll modify my request a bit by adding that this would be a feature that keeps my wife happy. When she picks up the remote and lowers the volume, having the playbar volume lowered but not the other grouped speakers is frustrating. When you drop cash on a playbar, sub, and two play 5's only for the grouped speakers not to work with the volume remote, its not fun to explain to someone who knows how much money was spent but can't understand why the function isn't available. Seems to be a rather basic function for the cost versus another add-on feature that confuses users with more options.
Userlevel 1
It would be great to control the volume for the total group with the TV remote. I have installed a Sonos Beam and I group this with two PLAY:5's + Subwoofer. Indeed only the volume of the Beam can be controlled which is not what I expected to happen. Normally there is always one group volume which you can control by the app or Sonos CR200. You have to do additional steps to control a singe speaker. I do not see why the interface is different when using the TV-remote. Also in this case I would expect that it controls the group volume. So, SONOS, please provide a solution.
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
Yes - please implenent this feature!
Userlevel 1
Allot of replies here assume this isn't a feature worth Sonos implementing. It is a feature that I would like and it sounds like enough people agree it would be useful. It can be made an option to choose for those who want it and deselected for those who don't.
Just added a Beam to my system. Disapointed that remote does not control group - only beam. Not useful at all. I was so certain that it would work like that so i didn't ask. very unfortunate.
Sonos needs to fix this. So im watching tv, my iphone rings (where my sonos app is), so now i need to answer it then tell the person on the phone to hang on, open the app, turn off group volume. For an all-in 1k$+ sound option, thats a silly outcome. And seems like a BASIC function that you wouldn’t need to ask. Just have it control all speakers that are in the current Groupiing. Others arent affected .This is a simple software update.
My wife find this very frustrating also! I notice that no one has replied in the last 5 months. Has Sonos worked on correcting this problem?
Userlevel 7
Badge +16
I would find this feature very useful as well (remote to set Group volume when Playbar is in use).
Appreciate that the feature set needs to be limited for ease of use and to reflect those that are most popular with the Sonos userbase, but... It’s completely misleading to sell a system that claims to be 5:1 surround sound when the TV volume control only works on three of the five speakers. A simple on-off toggle for a ‘control group volume’ option would keep all happy, would not confuse even low-tech users and would make Sonos a viable 5:1 system. Poor form from a company that otherwise seems to be focused on delivering great products.

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.

Userlevel 1
100% this should be added as a feature.
The ability to control a group with the tv remote is a must for those users that cannot instead use a surround setup. In my case, my cable provider doesn’t offer channels with surround, so I have to use my Sonos speakers in stereo setup.

Been waiting for this feature for 2 Years+. I’m afraid to say that if it doesn’t make its way into a future update, I’ll be switching to another sound system. And I know I won’t be the only one....
I have raised this as an ADA issue for years (at least 3) and still no movement. For persons hard of hearing I typically install play1 by the sitting area and group the Playbar and play1. But they can only control the volume from their phone not the TV remote. It is very frustrating after spending a good chunk of money on a system. Very disappointed in Sonos slow movement on this issue.

What's worse is that it does seem as if it could be resolved through software. It seems almost everytime I login to the app there is an update but not for this.
I want to have this feature as well! Using a Play 5 Stereo Pair grouped with my Playbar. Remote does only change volume of Playbar, but not of the whole group. That sucks. Sonos needs to accept that there are users who wish to have this setting, even though it might not be intented by them!
Sonos, please implement!!! It's so simple! Come on!
I concur.

This is a big issue for us and shouldn’t take 4 years to fix. SONOS get moving on this!!!

+1, either allow TV to control group volume or allow full stereo on surrounds as an option. Stereo on the “surrounds” is preferred for most of our tv watching/gaming. Same deal as other people, have to control volume using tablet or phone.

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.

I have the same issue and this is very frustrating! If speakers are grouped they should all adjust volume using the TV remote. Please provide a solution!!
If I may, I'd like to add an opposing view. I do not want my system to reduce the volume on grouped rooms. That would drive me crazy!

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.

 

For a smart bunch of people the replies on here (clearly from Sonos employees) are really quite incredible. You trully are a shockingly bad company at listening.

Listen up one last time, I have my TV Play Bar grouped with 2 Ones in Stereo mode. After you forced me to replace my old perfectly functioning Sonos One because it wouldnt pair with a Gen 2 (some BS about sound matching, laughable) so the chump I am I bought 2 new ones, massively overpriced ofcourse.

And like everyone else on here I realised the 5.1 sound is horrible so I want them paired in a stereo mode group. Again because the product sucks and they are onto the next rippof, what is it a Beam? If I buy a Beam will it all be fixed, yea?

So here it is. Me, and everyone who has had the misfortune of using this setup wants the TV remote volume to behave EXACTLY like the volume on my phone in the Sonos app, to control Playbar + any grouped speakers. How is that so hard to understand Sonos employees/fan boy trolls? Why does the phone control the entire group and not the remote? You come up with some super rare other PlayBar multi room grouping scenarios to excuse your inaction, ok clever cloggs, so add a single checkbox REMOTE CONTROLS GROUP ON/OFF. Literally a half day job.

Please stop justifying your companies horrible customer support with this nonsense.

After 4 years of struggling with this horrible overpriced system that pisses everybody off Im gonna take a massive hit and buy a proper soundbar, surround setup and receiver. Hopefully some sucker on eBay buys this.

I also tell everyone that asks or sometimes when they dont, NEVER BUY SONOS, they will force you to buy new hardware, it wont work consistently, its overpriced, its a nightmare if you ever want to change house/wifi and the cherry on top is their customer support is non existent and if you do get a response totally arrogant. (see this thread)

Big disappointment. I got two new One speakers and am also dissatisfied with the surround sound and rather made a group comprised of the playbar and a studio L-R pair. TV Remote only controls the playbar volume and I’m desperately trying to find a solution before I decide on returning them. Anyone find a work-around??

 

This is absolutely ridiculous, either allow TV to control group volume or allow full stereo on surrounds as an option. Also for you Soni’s kings, stop being so patronising, people WANT rear speakers to be used when watching TV normally, also they want group control to be used IF THEY WANT IT when using a remote control. To sit there TELLING them they are wrong and they need to use it differently is ridiculous and unfair. Is it really really an issue to give an army of users a tick box option???? 
 

think I’ll sell my beam and 1’s simply because of this. Sounds quite extreme doesn’t it? No more extreme than this ignorance 

 

 

 

 

Thanks everyone for this great thread and thanks Sonos for making such great speakers!

I wanted to contribute back and let everyone know that I was using Logitech Harmony for two years to control Sonos group volume but Logitech Harmony had downsides.  

Instead I found a way to just use my AppleTV remote and HDMI CEC to control the group volume.  

I’ve posted the code to GitHub in case it helps anyone else:
https://github.com/arcsoundguy/sonos-group-volume-with-tv-remote

No! It's emulation of stereo with echo and no bass. I wouldn't call it stereo

 

Huh?  Are you calling it an emulation because the 2 channels of audio are coming from the rear as well as the front?  If you don’t like that, why are you claiming that it would resolve all issues?  And the fact that you’re claiming there’s an echo makes me thing you haven’t setup rear speakers as surround, but as a 2nd Sonos room.   

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