Contributor I

LG Remote doesnt control volume with Arc

44 replies
18671 views

I have a 2020 LG CX TV with an Arc, 2 Ones and a sub that has been working fine for a year. Earlier today, the sound stopped coming through the Sonos speakers. I was able to get the sound to work through the speakers but the LG remote no longer controls the volume. I have tried the manual setup controls from other threads but it doesn’t work. Also, if I try to set up the TV in the Sonos app, I get an error that the Arc Mode is not connected but it is.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Show previous replies

Jeffrey_35

Headliner III

So I just ran into this issue with my 65 lg cx. My Apple tv is not able to control it nor my magic remote. Also have ps5 and gaming switch with multiple gaming systems attached. My question is. Can i just disconnect the devices from hdmi themselves or do i have to disconnect them from the back of the tv. Reason i ask is my tv is on a wall without a swing out and it’s tight and a pain. Do i have to unplug the power of all of them or just the tv?

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

buzz

Grand Maestro

In this case disconnecting one end will suffice.

Each situation is a little different. Sometimes one or both devices must be rebooted while the cable is detached. Some TV’s must be powered down for two minutes before they will reboot.

I recommend starting from power down with nothing connected to the TV. Power up the TV and the soundbar, then attach the cable.

As the connection is made, the TV and soundbar will negotiate which audio and video formats are common. If you have a bunch of games and players attached at that time, the negotiation might become confused by too much chatter.

Jeffrey_35

Headliner III

In this case disconnecting one end will suffice.

Each situation is a little different. Sometimes one or both devices must be rebooted while the cable is detached. Some TV’s must be powered down for two minutes before they will reboot.

I recommend starting from power down with nothing connected to the TV. Power up the TV and the soundbar, then attach the cable.

As the connection is made, the TV and soundbar will negotiate which audio and video formats are common. If you have a bunch of games and players attached at that time, the negotiation might become confused by too much chatter.

Sorry one more clarification, when you say power down and up do you mean unplug power or from an off position. Also, do I need to set up everything on the sonos app again, that is delete the rears and sub and re add them?

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

buzz

Grand Maestro

“Reboot” is simply removing power. This will not destroy any fundamental SONOS settings.

I’m annoyed that this is sometimes required. Unfortunately, there are some details about the negotiation process that are not explicitly specified in the standard and each manufacturer might have a slightly different interpretation of the standard. When there is an issue the common answer is “we have never seen this before” or “it’s not our fault”. After a while one or the other manufacturer might receive so many complaints about a specific issue that they will release an update to work around the issue. Meanwhile, the other manufacturer might also release a change and the two changes might interact poorly, generating another round of “not our problem”.

That HDMI switch complicates things because the switch will present itself to the TV as a single device, but the device identity and supported audio/video/control features might be different for each input device attached to the switch. There are somewhat expensive solutions to this. The switching device will include enough extra electronics to present the best possible interface options to each input and output device. The switch will mediate any differences. A side benefit might be almost instant switching between input devices. The dark period that you observe while switching inputs is due to the negotiation between devices. At minimum, each device must prove that it honors intellectual property rights protection. With the extra electronics on board the input and output devices never need to renegotiate anything.

Jeffrey_35

Headliner III

Update. That did the trick. Thank you so much for your help!!!

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

Jeffrey_35

Headliner III

Nope I was wrong, did it again. Damn.

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

N

Nyxteridas

Contributor I

Hi everyone,

Given the HUGE amount of posts on here, and LG support pages, and REDDIT, and AVForums, etc... on the issues of interworking between ARC and LG TV’s I thought I’d post my own experience, which I hadn’t seen a similar answer for anywhere else…

To clarify, I am talking about LG TV (in my case OLED 55GX6) using ARC port (and eARC enabled) straight in to the HDMI port of the ARC, and specifically about the issue with loss of volume control from the Magic remote, and occasionally leading to loss of sound.

(NOT referring to the much promoted SONOS guide on working with the TV Optical out and ARC Optical to HDMI adapter and programming the Magic remote to use IR)

Having initially plugged this in and everything working a dream, and enjoying the Mandalorian in Dolby Atmos… Suddenly one day I started having issues. These started with volume controls failing, instead coming up with a “no entry” sign where the volume + or - were on the screen. And I noticed that the TV setup and Remote setup in the Sonos app failed mid-way through when I tried to remedy.

This was frustrating as I had my Magic remote for TV, also controlling my AppleTV on HDMI port 1, but had to then pick up my phone/Sonos app to adjust volume…

Following lots of googling and reading, I assumed the issue had been triggered by an auto software update or a power cut. I reset the TV, reset the ARC. Changed my very good own purchased cable for the Sonos ARC supplied one. Took both back to manufacturer settings. Checked for software updates. Tried turning Simplink off. Tried turning it on and going through the Universal Device Control menu to setup Sonos. Tried the same but using Phillips instead of Sonos (as recommended by Sonos). Tried all the above in various different orders. Nothing worked.

I unplugged the AppleTV, and tried all again, and actually managed to break the sound out from the ARC all together. When I chose “internal speaker” on LG, everything fine, when I went to ARC, nothing.

I was pulling my hair out.

Got Sonos support on the line. Following a full power cycle (about the 12th over two days….) and with their support, I finally got sound back. But hey ho, no volume control still.

I started to play with de-registering and re-registering the Magic remote, and at one point got the + and - volume controls back on screen… but they didn’t actually do anything. Pretty soon I was back to square one, ARC sound, but no volume control from Magic remote and failing TV setup and Remote setup in Sonos app.

But it was becoming clear the TV and the remote were talking. The TV was receiving instruction to adjust volume. But the TV wasn’t executing. So trying my best to ignore every single bit of Sonos advice out there re ARC and LG, which basically takes you down the Optical out and IR route, I started to focus on the fact that the TV needed to send the signal to the ARC over CEC. Remote to TV. TV to ARC. So the problem must be CEC TV to ARC.

I recalled that when on the chat to Sonos support, the engineer asked me to unplug the Apple TV that was in the LG TV HDMI 1, as sometimes some devices can create a CEC “storm” with the LG TV….

I had already unplugged my Apple TV some time ago, so knew that couldn’t be the issue. And I had no devices connected to the TV…. Or did I….

On the end of my HDMI 3 cable, I had an Apple Mac HDMI to USB-C adapter. You know the ones… white… take Macbook port to HDMI, power and standard USB. No Macbook was connected. No “device”. Just an adapter...

Unplugged it a hey presto….

Everything works wonderfully. Pretty much out the box. Unless you have a “device” (or adapter...) on another HDMI port causing a CEC storm…

Oh, and the TV setup in the app now works fine. But the Remote setup in Sonos app still won’t work. And shouldnt. Don’t bother with it, again, it seems to be relevant if you’re trying to use IR from Magic Remote.

So… hopefully this helps the huge amount of others out there fix their LG TV to ARC issues. (Not using Optical port!). Ensure you don’t have ANYTHING else plugged in to your LG TV HDMI ports, not even an adapter, and go from there.

Hopefully Sonos will work on updating FAQ’s etc to address the issues specifically to ARC/LG and CEC issues, not just the current Optical adapter focused ones.

Thank you. This helped me in 2023. I have LG C1, Arc and Era 300 surrounds. The light strip behind the TV, which is plugged in the USB port (for power supply) was never an issue until I changed it to a different USB port. Following your suggestion I unplugged it, then plugged it back in and it now works as it used to. There is a chance that CEC issue is caused by the side USB port but not the one on the back.

B

bennyfischer

Lyricist I

Just adding to this thread, for searchablity of other sources of this issue.

My setup is:

LG CX 77 inch Class 4K Smart OLED TV w/ AI ThinQ
SONOS ARC w/ two Play 1 + Sub (connected via e-ARC HDMI 1.4+ cable from SONOS)
PS5 ( Playstation 5 )
And newly added Nintendo Switch (original model)

Problem occurrence:

This problem did NOT appear until I added the Nintendo switch. The Nintendo switch in my setup required the LG to use PASS through audio to reach the full 5.1 setup. Which is so amazing while playing zelda btw. After activating Pass through audio, at a random time in the future the LG remote lost its ability to control sound levels. It was not a loss of sound, but the loss of volume up and down + mute. I was still able to use all of the other modes including power control sync (simplelink). I would try to resetup the TV connection process and it seemed to recognize the e-arc link but when it go to the testing stage it would fail every time. To me this would indicate its no getting CEC from the TV.

Solution: (not 100%)

Unplug all HDMI cables
Disconnect power to LG TV for at least 10 min
Go into Sonos app and prepare for TV connect mode
Connect e-ARC HDMI cable from Sonos and complete TV setup on the app
Connect PS5 and confirm 5.1 working
Connect Nintendo Switch and confirm Pass through 5.1 is working

This has worked most of the time thus far. But not 100% of the time. I do not recommend resetting all settings. My guess is this is an issue with the LG TV CEC connection to the SONOS, somehow the Nintendo switch going into pass through mode has created this issue on the TV. The other thing to note is swapping around to a casting mode (youtube via chromecast connection seemed to trigger it the first time.

Anyway, LG get your * together, I don’t think this is a Sonos issue.

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

-b

A

airMerlin

Lyricist I

Hi everyone,

Given the HUGE amount of posts on here, and LG support pages, and REDDIT, and AVForums, etc... on the issues of interworking between ARC and LG TV’s I thought I’d post my own experience, which I hadn’t seen a similar answer for anywhere else…

To clarify, I am talking about LG TV (in my case OLED 55GX6) using ARC port (and eARC enabled) straight in to the HDMI port of the ARC, and specifically about the issue with loss of volume control from the Magic remote, and occasionally leading to loss of sound.

(NOT referring to the much promoted SONOS guide on working with the TV Optical out and ARC Optical to HDMI adapter and programming the Magic remote to use IR)

Having initially plugged this in and everything working a dream, and enjoying the Mandalorian in Dolby Atmos… Suddenly one day I started having issues. These started with volume controls failing, instead coming up with a “no entry” sign where the volume + or - were on the screen. And I noticed that the TV setup and Remote setup in the Sonos app failed mid-way through when I tried to remedy.

This was frustrating as I had my Magic remote for TV, also controlling my AppleTV on HDMI port 1, but had to then pick up my phone/Sonos app to adjust volume…

Following lots of googling and reading, I assumed the issue had been triggered by an auto software update or a power cut. I reset the TV, reset the ARC. Changed my very good own purchased cable for the Sonos ARC supplied one. Took both back to manufacturer settings. Checked for software updates. Tried turning Simplink off. Tried turning it on and going through the Universal Device Control menu to setup Sonos. Tried the same but using Phillips instead of Sonos (as recommended by Sonos). Tried all the above in various different orders. Nothing worked.

I unplugged the AppleTV, and tried all again, and actually managed to break the sound out from the ARC all together. When I chose “internal speaker” on LG, everything fine, when I went to ARC, nothing.

I was pulling my hair out.

Got Sonos support on the line. Following a full power cycle (about the 12th over two days….) and with their support, I finally got sound back. But hey ho, no volume control still.

I started to play with de-registering and re-registering the Magic remote, and at one point got the + and - volume controls back on screen… but they didn’t actually do anything. Pretty soon I was back to square one, ARC sound, but no volume control from Magic remote and failing TV setup and Remote setup in Sonos app.

But it was becoming clear the TV and the remote were talking. The TV was receiving instruction to adjust volume. But the TV wasn’t executing. So trying my best to ignore every single bit of Sonos advice out there re ARC and LG, which basically takes you down the Optical out and IR route, I started to focus on the fact that the TV needed to send the signal to the ARC over CEC. Remote to TV. TV to ARC. So the problem must be CEC TV to ARC.

I recalled that when on the chat to Sonos support, the engineer asked me to unplug the Apple TV that was in the LG TV HDMI 1, as sometimes some devices can create a CEC “storm” with the LG TV….

I had already unplugged my Apple TV some time ago, so knew that couldn’t be the issue. And I had no devices connected to the TV…. Or did I….

On the end of my HDMI 3 cable, I had an Apple Mac HDMI to USB-C adapter. You know the ones… white… take Macbook port to HDMI, power and standard USB. No Macbook was connected. No “device”. Just an adapter...

Unplugged it a hey presto….

Everything works wonderfully. Pretty much out the box. Unless you have a “device” (or adapter...) on another HDMI port causing a CEC storm…

Oh, and the TV setup in the app now works fine. But the Remote setup in Sonos app still won’t work. And shouldnt. Don’t bother with it, again, it seems to be relevant if you’re trying to use IR from Magic Remote.

So… hopefully this helps the huge amount of others out there fix their LG TV to ARC issues. (Not using Optical port!). Ensure you don’t have ANYTHING else plugged in to your LG TV HDMI ports, not even an adapter, and go from there.

Hopefully Sonos will work on updating FAQ’s etc to address the issues specifically to ARC/LG and CEC issues, not just the current Optical adapter focused ones.

Dude, I create an account just to say that you are the ultimate boss. had a similer problem but not with a Sonos product, but with LG smart TV and Samsung sounbar, and nothing worked, including the shut down and all. Never thought about that the problem comes from a different HDMI cable (in my case DVI to HDMI from a computer that was connected to the screen)

After I remove all HDMI cables and disconnected the TV + Soundbar, when I connected them back and conneted the HDMI (ARC), the control of the soundbar from the LG Smart remote came back just like before. Thank you for your help and time for putting this amazing post out there, you rock.

J

JonRadian

Lyricist I

My 2023 LG 75QNED80URA remote control does not control Sonos Beam 2 volume. Tried all the advice in this thread including power cycles and unhooking every cable to TV, and every combination.

TV sound does come out of Sonos, but LG remote cannot control the volume. For example, when I push volume up on remote, the TV’s internal volume goes up while Sonos volume stays the same. Sonos worked fine with the old Samsung TV.

What a disappointment in year 2023 for a major brand like LG to not work with a major brand like Sonos for something as “universal” as eARC. Extremely frustrated.

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community