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Sonos and Sony XBR55A8H volume control problem

  • 20 November 2020
  • 24 replies
  • 2634 views

Problem: My Sony TV and Sonos system work very well with the Sonos system (Beam, Sub Gen 3, pair Sonos Ones) connected through HDMI Arc. Unfortunately,  the TV/Sonos volume always jumps 2 levels at a time when using the remote. eg 2, 4, 6, 8…

When I unplug the Sonos System and switch to the Sony to TV sound only, the TV volume adjusts properly, eg: 1, 2, 3, 4...

I am using the same remote and have tried several different remotes but get the same incorrect result.

I have also tried adding each piece of my Sonos system, checking volume control as I add each piece, but the result does not change, 2, 4, 6, 8...

Question: Is there a way to stop the volume jumping 2 steps at a time so I have a finer control of the system volume? I love the Sonos system but would like to improve the volume adjustment with the TV remote.

Thanks for any help.

 

 

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Best answer by Corry P 26 February 2021, 12:39

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Userlevel 5
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Hi @Al_6a.

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the community!

I appreciate your detailed post outlining your concern, let me help and try to figure this out.

To better understand and to help us identify the problem, kindly provide us the maker and model number of the remote and TV?

Can you tell us a little more about your Home Theatre system?  Is your TV connected to the Beam directly via HDMI or optical cable?

Have you tried checking for pending updates on the TV and remote? 

 

I'd like to check some data from your system. Please send in a diagnostic report through the Sonos app when it happens and reply with the confirmation number. I'd start by reviewing your system and see if there’s anything causing this issue.

 

Let us know how it goes and if you have any questions feel free to reach out, we’re always here to help.

Hi Annazel. Thank you for your response. Answers to your questions...

The TV is a 2020 Sony XBR55A8H OLED TV.

The TV is connected to the Beam directly via HDMI-ARC connection on the back of the TV

The Sonos system is running all the latest updates as is the Sony TV. Just checked again.

*Not sure as how to get a Sonos report as the problem is with the Sony TV connected to the Sonos Beam via the Sony TV HDMI-ARC going to the Beam (Beam is linked through the Sonos app to the Sub and pair of Ones)

The TV video/sound source is Telus Optic TV (Arris VIP5662W)

The remotes I have tried are:

  1. Original remote that came with the Sony TV, Voice Control Remote Model: RMF-TX500U
  2. One For All Universal Remote model: UEI URC-3110B00
  3. Telus Optic TV Slimline 2 Remote

Annazel:

Diagnostic Report sent.

Confirmation number: 2102251845.

 

 

I resent a second Diagnostic report. I ran the volume up and down a few times using the Telus remote.

Confirmation number: 386892970.

Annazel:

I am sending a third Diagnostic report. I ran the volume up and down a few times using the Sony remote. The volume bar on the Sonos app on my iMac moves up and down with the volume controlled on the Remote. TV sound goes up and down using the Sonos App volume slider.

Volume numbers on the Sony TV range from odd to even numbers with nothing consistent. Give it a few seconds and the volume control again goes from 2, 4, 6, 8 …. two by two.

Confirmation number is: 347808398.

Userlevel 5
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Hi @Al_6a.

Thanks for your responses and effort in submitting the diagnostics, sorry for the delayed response time.

Upon checking on the diagnostic report, there’s no issue detected on your Sonos system, all is green and I don’t see any errors that may have caused the issue.

At this point, you can give us a call and work with a technician live, they'll start with checking your system health and go from there. They have resources available for advanced troubleshooting, and the tools our agents can use would be very useful in this case, there can be an advantage if they need to remote into the controller to see what's going on.

 

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know, we’d be glad to help.

Was this ever solved?  I have the exact same problem with a Sonos Beam and Sony XBR-55X850B connected via HDMI ARC

Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi @Jd1304.

Thanks for reaching out, we’d be glad to help.

You can give us a call and work with a technician live, they'll start with checking your system health and go from there. They have resources available for advanced troubleshooting, and the tools our agents can use would be very useful in this case, there can be an advantage if they need to remote into the controller to see what's going on.

 

If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to reach out.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Al_6a & @Jd1304 

Is this still an issue for you? It is expected behaviour, ie. normal, but you can obtain finer volume control by limiting your maximum volume for that room in the Sonos app. See our page on Setting a volume limit on Sonos players for details. This would not change the numbers you see on the screen, but each step of 2 would be a finer step in actual volume from your Beam. Setting this to 50% would result in a volume step of 1 for each 2 indicated on the TV. It does of course also limit the maximum volume available from your Beam.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for the added information. I will give this a try.

I do enjoy the surround sound of the Sonos system which, expectedly, requires “more” volume to fill the room.

I really do not understand how this can be “expected” behavior. How is a flaw in the system ok?

Userlevel 7
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I really do not understand how this can be “expected” behavior. How is a flaw in the system ok?

With more volume available to it, the Beam has further to go from quiet to loud. Having the volume adjust by 2 steps means there’s less button presses needed, thus the volume can be changed quicker than otherwise. If the steps were one, we’d likely get more complaints about how long it takes to change the volume significantly than we now get about the size of the volume steps.

I will pass your feedback as a feature request for finer volume control on to the relevant team for consideration. 

Thanks Corry. I would think this should be on the user choice menu. If one enjoys “fuller” sound you pay the penalty for large steps in volume. I would really like to see this as a feature request. Thanks Corry. Sonos is a fine product with excellent product support.

Good Morning Guys,

I have the exact same issue with Sonos Arc and Sony XH90/X900H connected via eARC. Besides the issue with double increments the response time seems also very long. When I increase/decrease the volume multiple times in a row most of the time the TV display the first 1 or 2 Steps, then freezes and jumps immediately to the last step resulting in quite a big jump.

Are there any news on this?

Thanks, Jan

Userlevel 4
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Good Morning Guys,

I have the exact same issue with Sonos Arc and Sony XH90/X900H connected via eARC. Besides the issue with double increments the response time seems also very long. When I increase/decrease the volume multiple times in a row most of the time the TV display the first 1 or 2 Steps, then freezes and jumps immediately to the last step resulting in quite a big jump.

Are there any news on this?

Thanks, Jan

Same issue for my Sony A8H. Add me to the list of people wanting finer, smoother incremental volume changes (without limiting the overall volume as suggested further above in this discussion).  Seems like an existing bug rather than a feature to me. I can’t remember ever owning a tv where the incremental volume changes didn't at least start at single digits...and the freezes/slow volume responses are certainly annoying. Maybe that part is a Sony issue. I dunno.

Userlevel 1
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Good Morning Guys,

I have the exact same issue with Sonos Arc and Sony XH90/X900H connected via eARC. Besides the issue with double increments the response time seems also very long. When I increase/decrease the volume multiple times in a row most of the time the TV display the first 1 or 2 Steps, then freezes and jumps immediately to the last step resulting in quite a big jump.

Are there any news on this?

Thanks, Jan

Same issue for my Sony A8H. Add me to the list of people wanting finer, smoother incremental volume changes (without limiting the overall volume as suggested further above in this discussion).  Seems like an existing bug rather than a feature to me. I can’t remember ever owning a tv where the incremental volume changes didn't at least start at single digits...and the freezes/slow volume responses are certainly annoying. Maybe that part is a Sony issue. I dunno.

Yes, it’s probably is a Sony issue because I've recently switched from a Yamaha Soundbar which was having the same exact problem, to Sonos Arc, and ofc the problem is still there

Any updates on this?  I just got the Sonos Beam and I’m having the same issue.

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i have the same problem, just got a Arc today to replace a Playbase, and i immediately noticed that the volume sometimes jumps 2-3 steps from one touch on my apple tv remote. Seems a bit random when it happens. Fix for this?

I just got a new Sonos Beam (gen 2) and paired it with my 4 year old Sony 55” XBR, and this every 2 volume jumping level bug is driving me crazy! Hard to believe this hasn’t been fixed yet. I’m liking the Beam but this can’t be real…

 

Userlevel 7
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What exactly is the issue? Just the irritation about seeing the TV take two steps instaed of one, or are the steps actually to big, so the TV volume is either to high or to low? Did you try getting better control by limiting top volume (as advised above)? 

A year later and still nothing has been done about this? I know it’s only a minor issue and I understand the explanation and have followed the suggestion above to get finer control but still, it’s silly that you can’t find a way of making the volume change in increments of one like everything else in the world.

How about if the volume limit is set to 50% it automatically drops to increments of one and there is a note explaining this on that page in the app? Then, if it matters enough to someone to look into the app or find this work-around, it will resolve the issue. It should even be transparent to those of us who have already changed it. Surely 10 minutes of coding at most?

One possible work around would be to disable Bravia Sync on the TV and setup your remotes to use IR to control the soundbar’s Volume. There is a potential issue with this and I can’t check this because I don’t have a SONY TV. Some TV’s will not support advanced audio, such as Dolby ATMOS without Bravia Sync. If disabling Bravia Sync causes issues, then add an “HDMI CEC blocker” to the HDMI ARC connection between the TV and soundbar. Another workaround would be to use the optical connection between TV and soundbar, however this will not support advanced audio formats.

Overall, CEC is a mess. There is room to interpret the standard and each manufacturer has their own unique interpretation. When there is a spat such as this, one manufacturer pushes the problem onto the other. If manufacturer ‘A’ creates a special workaround to accommodate manufacturer ‘B’ model ‘X’, manufacturer ‘B’ might later decide to workaround the issue with another path and break the ‘A’ approach.

If your TV offers a “Fixed” audio output level, try this. If both SONY and SONOS respond to a Volume command, there may be “double dipping”.

When I first bought my Beam I had a Samsung TV and didn’t know if the problem was with it or the Beam. I have since replaced it with a Sony and have the same issue so it is the Beam at fault (as has been admitted above).

It’s only a small problem but clearly there are enough of us fussy buggers who would like it fixed; the phrase “Spoiling the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar” springs to mind, it’s such a good device otherwise.

At one point I was using an older SAMSUNG TV that was docile. It did not have this issue and the Volume numbers that displayed were appropriate.

I have lots of “issues” with tech companies. For example: at the moment all of my browsers are struggling with this site. This Reply box might require a minute or more to populate to the point that I can start typing my reply. This started a week ago. Most other sites are not having issues. It’s not a sudden resource issue with this machine. I have lots of RAM, processor power, and bandwidth. Who should I blame? Windows? My machine? The browsers? SONOS? My ISP (I changed ISP’s a week ago)?

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