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Playbar + Play 5 grouped, but ungroup when using tv

  • 29 January 2020
  • 11 replies
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R

Playbar + Play 5 grouped for Spotify music, but ungroup when I use the tv & have to be regrouped all the time, which is annoying.

Also, can only change volume on Playbar while watching tv on Sonos app, not tv remote.

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks  :)

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Best answer by Ryan S 29 January 2020, 01:58

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11 replies

Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26

Hi Robona, is that a Play:5 gen2 or gen1? If it’s the gen2, do you just have the one of them or is it a pair of them?

The reason I ask is if you have a pair of Play:5 gen2 speakers, you can have them bonded as the surround speakers for your Playbar, then they wouldn’t be two separate “rooms”

As to preventing the group from separating when you play TV audio, under Settings > System > (Playbar room name) you can toggle the TV Autoplay so that it doesn’t ungroup on Autoplay. This would stop it from dropping groups when the TV is on.

The remote will only adjust the volume of the Playbar’s room, so if you have a pair that you set up as surrounds, the remote will adjust the volume there too, but if not, than the remote can’t change your Play:5’s volume.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
R

The rooms now work as a set when I turn the TV on & off, so thank you so much for that, Ryan 👍!

 

Another question I’d love help with, please ..

I have to keep the volume on the tv remote at “0” as the echoing is driving my husband nuts!

The only way to control the Playbar volume is through the Sonos app (either the one on my MacBook or iPhone). How can I get either the Panasonic TV or Panasonic Blue-Ray HDD recorder remotes to control the Playbar volume while connected to the tv?

Thanks  :-)

N
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

There should be a setting somewhere in the tv menus, which turns OFF the tv’s built-in speakers, for these situations when you have a home theatre or external speakers in use. Try that and let us know. 

R

Thanks for the advice.

I’ve tried to find where to turn the speakers off using the onscreen menu & also looking through the instruction booklet. I couldn’t find the information, so now I’ve emailed the manufacturer to see if they can tell me where to find it. 

I’ll let you know once it’s done 👍 

Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26

A very low tech hack that might do the trick would be if your TV has a headphone port. Often times, plugging anything into that port will turn off the TVs external speakers, even if it’s just the cut off end of a 3.5mm cable.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
R

I liked the idea of plugging into the headphone port until I realised I don’t have one!!

Also, I searched high & low for the option to turn off the TV’s in-built speakers, but couldn’t find one either  :( 

Airgetlam

What is the TV make and model number? Do you have a link to it’s manual online?

Bruce
R

Hi Bruce

The TV is a Panasonic TH-L55DT60.

TV manual : http://panasonic.ae/en/manuals/TH-L55DT60.pdf

 

The Blu-Ray/Recorder box the TV is connected to is Panasonic DMR-PWT530.

Recorder manual : https://www.appliancesonline.com.au/manuals/DMR-PWT635GL/07042014115154DMR-PWT635GL_01.pdf

 

We’ve tried adjusting the Audio Delay to see if the speakers would sync better, but they’re still slightly out, so prefer to leave the TV volume at “0”, but can’t see how to set the TV or Recorder remote to adjust sound on the Playbar, hence we’re still having to adjust the volume through the Sonos apps..🤷🏼‍♀️

Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated 😀

Airgetlam

So you have two questions:

  1. how do I turn off the TV’s speakers
  2. how do I use multiple remotes

1) Unfortunately, that manual only tells me that the real information is in an “e-help file accessible by the TV, and not linked on this website. It’s unfortunate that this is a Panasonic, they are commonly known to have issues with being able to turn off the speakers. If you can search on the e-help from within the TV’s interface, I’d look for something mentioning Hotel Mode, which many Panasonic users have been forced to use to turn off the speakers. Or, you may want to contact Panasonic support directly, this may be an issue that they can easily resolve for you.

2) is easier. Use the instructions for each remote so that they all are programmed to control your TV. This forces them all to use the same set of IR (InfraRed) codes, which you can then use to control the Sonos. The Sonos will only be able to recognize one set of IR codes, so if you set them to all work on the TV, and then the Sonos, they’ll all work.

I note that you say you have a PLAY:5 and a PLAYBAR grouped. In that configuration, the PLAY:5 will always be slightly delayed when playing the TV sound, but will be in sync when you’re streaming music to both rooms when grouped. This is a normal thing, due to the way the Sonos works for playing music across multiple rooms at the same time. There isn’t any way to get those two speakers in sync while playing the input from the TV, only while streaming music through the Sonos app.

However, you’ve also linked a blu-ray player, which concerns me slightly  As long as you have set the  audio settings for recordings to Dolby Digital only, which is discussed on page 73 and 74 of the manual. It’s not completely clear to me how it works, I’d need to sit in front of one of these, but you want to select only Dolby D (Dolby Digital) , and not any of the other options, like Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, DTS, or DTS-HD. 
 

You should be aware that if this device does down convert, as it suggests, you *may* be OK with any discs you play after making that change. However, it’s not as clear as I’d like as to whether that setting applies only to recordings, or also to discs. Discs tend to be in DTS, and if the device just passes through the DTS signal, your Sonos will be silent, as it doesn’t have the capability to interpret DTS.

 

 

Bruce
R

Thanks for looking into this for me. I’ve answered your comments below, but think I will leave it there.  

The eHelp wasn’t much help finding a way to mute the TV volume but still allow the sound to come out of the Playbar.

I contacted Panasonic but all they could offer was to turn the TV volume to “0”, which we had already done.

I have connected the Playbar to the TV remote, but sound is still coming from the TV as you now have to use the remote volume to adjust the Playbar, & they are out-of-sync.

BTW: I only use the Blu-Ray to record TV programmes on it’s HD, not to watch DVDs, so there’s no problem there. 

Thank you again for all your help :slight_smile:

Airgetlam

Note, if you’re using a programmable remote, you could set it to use a different set of IR commands than the one the TV uses for volume, and then retrain the Sonos to see the new ones. That way the TV wouldn’t react to the unknown commands, and the Sonos would. 

Bruce
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