Remotes Only Change Volume While TV is Playing

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I have a TCL Roku TV and a cable box, each or which has their own remote. While I’m watching TV both remotes control the volume on the Beam. But if I’m listening to music, when I change the volume on the remotes, the volume doesn’t change. The volume level appears on the TV when I try to change it, but the volume doesn’t change. I had a Polk Audio sound bar before and the remotes changed the volume when I was listening to music. I assume there is something wrong and that this is not supposed to be the way it works?

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sfJeffAnswer

Contributor I

Solved. Setting up the cable remote with the TV off fixed it. Thank you. The TCL Roku remote seems to use WIFI, not RF. Either way, I guess it will never work with the Beam. Too bad. Thank you all for your help.

Airgetlam

My guess is the TCL remote is not IR, and is instead sending an RF signal to the TV, which then passes it back along the ARC channel to the Beam.

Swap the TCL remote to IR, and it will likely work on the Beam while the TV is off.

Bruce

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sfJeffAuthor

Contributor I

The TCL remote is bluetooth or RF, not sure. My cable remote, though, uses IR and doesn’t adjust the volume either. One scenario is when the TV is on but I’m listening to music instead of TV. When I press the volume on either remote, the volume level shows up on the TV but it won’t go up or down. I’ve tried doing the IR remote setup in the SONOS app but it doesn’t change anything.

Ken_Griffiths

The TCL remote is bluetooth or RF, not sure. My cable remote, though, uses IR and doesn’t adjust the volume either. One scenario is when the TV is on but I’m listening to music instead of TV. When I press the volume on either remote, the volume level shows up on the TV but it won’t go up or down. I’ve tried doing the IR remote setup in the SONOS app but it doesn’t change anything.

Did the remotes ‘volume up’ button press work/get acknowledged when you went through the ‘remote setup’ in the Sonos App?

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sfJeffAuthor

Contributor I

Yes. It concludes with “You can now adjust the volume with your TV remote.”

Ken_Griffiths

Yes. It concludes with “You can now adjust the volume with your TV remote.”

Did you do that ‘remote’ setup with the TV switched off? If not, I’d go through the setup again (with TV off) to make sure that the IR sensor on the speaker is picking up the signal direct from the remote.

Ken_Griffiths

Note the RF remote signal won’t work with TV off, unless there’s a way to switch it over to use infrared, but your cable remote (if it’s infrared) should work okay.

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sfJeffAuthorAnswer

Contributor I

Solved. Setting up the cable remote with the TV off fixed it. Thank you. The TCL Roku remote seems to use WIFI, not RF. Either way, I guess it will never work with the Beam. Too bad. Thank you all for your help.

Airgetlam

You may want to check with TCL on switching that remote over to IR. It’s possible it does have that capability.

Bruce

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