Hi @dmars 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thanks for sharing - I presume this is for a soundbar connected via optical, thus needing infrared from the remote?

The sound bar is connected via optical. I don’t know the answer to your other statement/question specifically. The remote is the Amazon Firestick 4K that has a volume control on it. Maybe you could explain what you mean? 

Thanks

Hi @dmars 

Sonos soundbars that connect through HDMI rather than by optical will not need any such steps - I was just seeking to clarify your post for anyone new to Sonos who might read it.

HDMI carries a communication channel known as CEC so that devices can send each other signals about volume and power so they don’t need to learn each other’s remotes. When connecting via optical, this is not available, and any remotes that do not, by default, utilise infrared light must be told to do so, and the Sonos device must be taught the codes the remote uses.

This is great. I just learned a lot actually and this sheds light on other issues I have experienced historically. I don’t know that the average person like me might always be able to understand the HDMI/optical differences and actually get it right the first time. Thanks for the clarification.

I am thinking this can be helpful in instructional materials that you would have available to buyers of your products. Sonos really is the best IMHO. 

Best regards,

david

Hi @dmars 

I’m glad to have helped! We have an extensive range of help pages in the Support section of our main site, such as TV remote requirements for Sonos home theater products, but I guess it helps to know what to search for.

True. It does help to know what to look for and many times, information management is not always what we’d like it to be.

It’s not my intention to overdo this particular thread. It’s true that you do have extensive help pages. The problem can be that it’s overwhelming (read time consuming) and sometimes not complete. I gifted a Beam to a friend to connect to his tv who wanted to also maintain a blue tooth connection to some head phones that he could listen to privately and watch tv (when the Beam was not in use). I had to try several different configurations to get it right and that was by accident; there had been no documentation with the Beam and, as I said, the help pages were overwhelming and not totally informative. And instructions for the Beam seemed to only show how to have volume control on the app. 

With everything needing to be looked up online, setup can tend to be slower. 

Hi @dmars 

The help pages have been built-up over a number of years and are fairly extensive, but as far as I know not indexed - only searchable. However, as the capabilities of Sonos systems can and do change even after their purchase, I think online documentation is the way to go - especially considering the amount of waste that would go into producing huge (especially once other languages are added) physical manuals that few customers are likely to read all of anyway. Sonos is not in any way alone in thinking this way, and I think most would consider that a Good Thing.

As for the issue you had with the headphones, I can only compare it to another situation: would you blame a car manufacturer for not including instructions in their manual on how to ride a motorcycle? They share a road, after all. I completely understand the need to use headphones occasionally, but doing so has more to do with the TV than it has to do with the sound-bar connected to it. We wouldn’t even be able to provide step-by-step instructions as they vary with TV manufacturer.

I am not attempting to counter your points however - your feedback is very important to us, and we do seek to make things easier for our customers as the Sonos ecosystem becomes more complex. The app itself provides some support, our help pages more, and we of course have the Community here ready and willing to assist fellow Sonos owners, not to mention our own technical support team, but there is a constant effort to improve the customer experience. 

So, thank you very much for your feedback!