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Samsung Smart TV Remote


We bought the Samsung 55" UHD curved LED Smart TV on Amazon Prime Day July 12, 2016 but its smart remote won't control my Playbar's sound. I'm using the Optical jack on the TV and can hear good sound from the Playbar, but can't control the volume. I used the Sonos Settings --> Remote Control Setup to no avail... The remote seems to use IR.

Any ideas would be appreciated since both are 2016 models.
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Best answer by Ryan S 22 December 2016, 18:43

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59 replies

I managed to get this to work much simpler than this but it isn't obvious.

1) Go to the universal remote setup on the Samsung tv.
2) Type Sonos in the brand manufacturer selection box and select it.
3) When it asks if it powered off just select yes.
4) Now this is the key part...go back to the universal remote setup and select one of the other input devices, there should be an option that says use with home theatre select this option.
5) Do this for all of your active inputs.

Having to do those last two steps is not obvious.

This worked for me let me know if it worked for you.
Sorry I forgot to mention one part, select the input as Optical as you would expect, as this is how the Sonos is connected.
Userlevel 4
As others have noticed, the smart remote only functions when the TV is powered.

Are you able to control PLAYBAR volume/mute from the Smart Remote when the TV is turned off - i.e. you are listening to music on Sonos?


No. See final comment above. This is to be expected; the smart remote isn't actually smart. It depends on the TV to tell it how to behave, depending on which source is currently playing. So it's actually the TV that is smart, and when the TV is off the smart control is reduced to being a dumb on switch.

I know what you're thinking, it should fallback to some kind of "default volume control mode", and I agree, so maybe our next campaign with Samsung technical support can be this.
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Hi Boomieliscious and Siggen, I just wanted to check in and see if you were able to get that remote working?

It looks like the remote may be Bluetooth for volume commands, but the TV might have an IR output you can hook up a blaster to. Let us know as we'd love to have the details here for the community to see.
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
Ok, so lets be very clear here.

I have a similar TV with the same remote (UA55KS7500)

This remote will use RF/Bluetooth? to control the TV and IR to power the TV AND it can control other devices like cable box via IR from the remote. There is definitely a IR blaster in the remote. I dont know if there is also a blaster in the TV. It will also control a Amazon FireTV (I did not need to do any pairing)

So it looks like Sonos is not recognizing the IR blast and need to add the codes for the Samsung TM1680A remote.

Please
Please!! My wife wants me to return the playbar asap because she's not willing to deal with this problem.
Userlevel 7
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Hey guys, we've done some testing and found something that should work for those TVs. The PLAYBAR, as you know can receive any IR commands and learn those to control volume up and down. The real trick here is that those smart remotes are rarely sending IR commands. They only activate when the remote is set to control something without control via HDMI or BlueTooth

In the TVs setup window, go to Universal Remote and add a new Home Theater System. Choose JVC. Finally, select Optical for the connection type. This will turn on the IR blaster for that remote.

Then go to your Sonos app and under Settings > Room Settings > (Name of your PLAYBAR) > TV setup you can add a remote and configure that smart remote to work with Sonos.

Let us know how it goes.
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Just to also confirm, this didn't work for me either. I checked the remote and there is definitely a IR light flashing away when pressing the volume up button.

If you get the IR when sliding the volume button up, down, and pressing it for mute, than you should be able to have the PLAYBAR learn it. Try turning the TV off and see if the PLAYBAR can learn the commands like that. I just checked again and for the model of the smart remote we have in the lab it worked just fine on the PLAYBAR.

One more step to take if you've set the JVC as the home theater type and still aren't getting IR from the remote on volume is to select that JVC configured device in the universal remote setup and then select to add a Bluray player to it. Choose JVC again and you should get IR now.

Again, the way to check is by looking at the remote through your phone's camera.
Like many people in this string, i periodically tried again and again to set up volume control on a Samsung Smart TV controller for the Playbar, following instructions on sonos.com and in tech forums. I finally just started playing around with settings and made this discovery. When I changed the source for the Samsung and the Sonos components to HDMI, instead of Optical, the volume control worked immediately. (I did not try changing the settings independently, so if may have been only one that needed to be changed.)
I have the Samsung UN75KS9000FXZA and can confirm this thread helped get me working.

Process went something like this:

Press Home Button on the remote.
Apps will be displayed across bottom of the screen.
Press the left arrow until you get to Sources.
Select Universal Remote (you'll have to push up once then left a couple of times).
Add a Home Theatre - JVC.
It'll do a power test, say yes.
In Sonos go to Room Settings | Select Room | TV Setup and Control | Remote Control Setup | Follow the wizard.

If that doesn't work you may need to adjust the settings inside the Samsung Universal Remote app. I had an Apple TV source, which now says Apple TV-JVC like they 2 devices are joined together.

Hope the helps!
Yes @daveharc, thank you. This works for my Series 8. I had an Apple TV connected and switched it's output to Home Theatre. Now both remotes work (the Curvy one and the old fashioned IR one). I am not sure how you would do it if you did not have an additional device connected to the TV but I am up and running.
Userlevel 4
...it should fallback to some kind of "default volume control mode", and I agree, so maybe our next campaign with Samsung technical support can be this.
I've lodged this via Samsung's CEO contact form (google it, this varies by country) and got an acknowledgement of the feature gap and a thank-you-for-the-feedback note written by an actual human, which is a better response than I expected. So here's hoping it makes its way to a relevant product manager.
Please see following:

https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2424/~/configure-sonos-playbar-with-samsung-smart-remotes
My 2016 Samsung remote is IR. I have the same problem. I can get all the buttons on the remote to work with Playbar except the volume button...
Hang on a moment. Are we talking about a standard button-press IR remote for a Samsung Smart TV, or the Samsung "Smart Remote", which is RF?

@Siggen - what exactly have you got to work on the Playbar from your remote besides the volume? What else is there?
This not a touch remote. It is the new Samsung TM1680A remote with press buttons. Works fine with Apple TV. I can control the volume on the Playbar with the channel button and the other buttons on the remote. The only button that will not work is the volume button.
OK thanks for clarification. We are used to queries about why Samsung RF remotes don't work with Playbar, so maybe jump to that. So you are saying the Playbar will recognise and learn signals from the remote for any buttons... except the volume buttons themselves?
@John B: That's correct. Playbar will not recognize signals from the volume buttons. I borrowed another similar remote, same issue.
That's weird - does begin to look like an outright incompatibility issue. I have no suggestions to get round that (other than the unsatisfactory one of using a couple of the other buttons). Maybe this is one for a Sonos staff member to pick up.....
Although.... could the instructions in the Playbar setup guide for programming an unused device key and locking in the new volume controls help here?
Thanks for all the input. Could it be that the Amazon Samsung UN55KU6600 be too new for Sonos to provide codes for?

When I called Samsung support, the woman said she did NOT recognize that model #!!!!

Perhaps because it's sold exclusively by Amazon, I am out of luck - and add in the fact that the Samsung remote uses RF instead of IR...

BTW - is there a device that converts RF to IR available?
Found this info by Samsung and now I'm really confused.

"All the buttons on the remote send Bluetooth commands except the POWER button. The power button sends an IR command. If your remote does not have line-of-sight with your TV the power command will not be received. This also means that the POWER button will power on the TV even if the remote is not paired with the TV.

I still can control Playbar volume with the other buttons on the remote. I tried to set up the playbar with the "configure remote"- on the TV. Could this have something to do with it? How can some buttons control the Playbar if the remote is sending Bluetooth commands?

http://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00048822/
This is the remote I use.
The only answer I can think of is that it is doing it through the TV. Perhaps this is an alternative to the IR blaster and explains why the newer Samsung TVs don't have one of those. I am speculating, but seems to be backed up by this article.

http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-touts-smart-tv-remote-that-can-control-all-your-devices/
Userlevel 2
I'm an AV installer who has gone around and around on this. I can get the Samsung remote (no IR blaster on the KU or KS series) to control a set top box (Time Warner and Comcast), but not a Sonos Playbar. Would love to come up with a solution. It's tough telling my customers that they have to use the cable remote for volume and TV remote for streaming services.