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Only way to turn on beam sound on phone or voice?

  • 26 September 2018
  • 8 replies
  • 2001 views
S
I just got a beam and find it very annoying that anytime someone wants to watch the tv, I have to get my phone to turn on the sound. I’ve read that I can also do this with the
Voice command, but understand that Alexa learns your voice and therefore if someone else besides me wants to turn on the tv (my four year old, a friend, etc) it needs my voice to work? Also not everyone who used my tv speaks English, we switch back and forth and would prefer not to only have voice commands. Are these the only two ways to turn on sound? It can’t be done on my tv or just stay on?
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Best answer by melvimbe 26 September 2018, 01:41

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8 replies

melvimbe
The beam volume can be controlled by the app, voice, or your existing tv or cable remote (for most remotes). You can also configure the beam to automatically switch to TV audio whenever the tv is turned on.

Also, the Beam will respond to anyone's voice, not just your own. I honestly haven't played around much with the voice training features myself, but I believe that is to better understand nuances of your particular voice, and when calendars, lists and such apply to one member of the family, but not others.

The app will walk you through all the setups with the Beam, but if you need additional help, this page is a good place to start in a few different topics.

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/support/home-theater
Danny
S
Thank you! I will do that! I was about to box it up and return it, I am not a fan of always needing my phone on me.
jgatie
Set Settings->Rooms Settings->(Beam room name)->Autoplay TV to 'On'.
B
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I can turn my TV on and off by saying "Alexa: Turn TV on/off". I can also do that with any of my remotes. However, if the Beam is playing some other source like one of my music services, it's a bit trickier. If the TV was off and then I turn it on, the source switches back to TV (because I have Autoplay TV turned on). However if the TV was already on (while the Beam is playing some other source), then I either have to turn the TV off and then back on with the remote OR I can do it with Alexa by saying "Alexa: Switch to TV on Living Room." Note the use of the word "on" as opposed to "in". I learned this trick from some other thread in this forum. From what I can gather, fully controlling your TV from your Beam with Alexa is still a work in progress. For example, you can't use Alexa to change channels on your TV. At least for the moment...
melvimbe
From what I can gather, fully controlling your TV from your Beam with Alexa is still a work in progress. For example, you can't use Alexa to change channels on your TV. At least for the moment...

The Beam is controlling the TV using the CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) protocol. Therefore, the functionality is limited by what's specified in the protocol. I could be off on this, but I think the Beam uses all the currently available features. On the other side of the equation, not all TVs are fully implementing CEC, so not all functions will work. On my TV for example, I cannot switch inputs or turn off the TV by voice in most situations. So for functionality to increase, either the CEC protocol needs to be expanded, or TVs need to improve how they respond to CEC commands...or both.

For your specific example though, changing channels, I doubt that will ever be a part of CEC. First, because you're TV can't control your cable/satellite box, and it seems that getting over the air channels to the TV (without a box in between) is pretty rare. Remotes and devices that deal with channel control today do that either by IR/RF/Bluetooth commands that mimic the remote for your cable/statellite box, or through a wifi connection. One device that can change channels by voice is the Amazon Fire TV Cube. It definitely uses IR, as it still able to change the channels by voice when you disconnect the HDMI cable from the TV.
Danny
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Userlevel 2
Badge +2
The CEC spec does include commands for Tuner Increment/Decrement. This doesn't necessarily mean that all TVs support those commands. If they do, then I would assume that they could then pass that through to the set top box via IR.
W
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I can turn my TV on and off by saying "Alexa: Turn TV on/off". I can also do that with any of my remotes. However, if the Beam is playing some other source like one of my music services, it's a bit trickier. If the TV was off and then I turn it on, the source switches back to TV (because I have Autoplay TV turned on). However if the TV was already on (while the Beam is playing some other source), then I either have to turn the TV off and then back on with the remote OR I can do it with Alexa by saying "Alexa: Switch to TV on Living Room." Note the use of the word "on" as opposed to "in". I learned this trick from some other thread in this forum. From what I can gather, fully controlling your TV from your Beam with Alexa is still a work in progress. For example, you can't use Alexa to change channels on your TV. At least for the moment...

Exactly this - thank you!! Got my Beam and new Panasonic TV on Wednesday but hadn't been able to get Alexa to switch the sound from music/radio to TV until I saw this i.e. 'Alexa switch to TV on living room'. Weird.
jgatie
As stated above, if you wish the beam to automatically switch to TV when the TV is turned on, you need to go to Settings->Room Settings->(Beam room name) and switch 'Autoplay TV' to 'On'.
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