Sonos volume level on TVs

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
August 22, 2017
7 replies
3857 views

How do you see the volume level of the sonos playbar on you tv

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Best answer by Airgetlam

Since the optical cable is a one way connection from the TV to the Sonos speaker, there's no way to send back to the TV any information, so you won't be able to see anything on the screen about what level it is set at. You can, however, see it on the Controller App.

AirgetlamAnswer

Since the optical cable is a one way connection from the TV to the Sonos speaker, there's no way to send back to the TV any information, so you won't be able to see anything on the screen about what level it is set at. You can, however, see it on the Controller App.

Bruce

J

jk913

Lyricist II

Is there no other solution or workaround for this? I'm disappointed that I can't see what volume level I'm at while watching TV.

S

Skelton

Prodigy I

I'm not aware of one. Is there a specific challenge you're experiencing with different sources having significantly different volume levels that it's a serious issue? It might be there's something possible if you can explain the challenge a bit more.

J

jk913

Lyricist II

Thanks for asking. I can change the volume level as needed but there is no longer a progress bar that visually displays what level I'm currently at. Before I hooked up my Sonos I had a volume indicator on my Samsung TV that gave me a numerical volume level which is very helpful.

Ryan S

Retired Sonos Staff

Thanks for asking. I can change the volume level as needed but there is no longer a progress bar that visually displays what level I'm currently at. Before I hooked up my Sonos I had a volume indicator on my Samsung TV that gave me a numerical volume level which is very helpful.

That volume bar is for the TV's volume, which is likely disabled since the TV has it's internal speakers disabled. There's no way for the TV to know what volume your PLAYBAR is set at. It's the same as plugging in any other speaker to a coax, or optical port as those are all one directional. Most HDMI devices won't be able to share their volume to the TV either.

As a potential workaround. You can try leaving the TV speakers enabled, and plug something/anything into the headphone port, assuming the TV has one. Then, when you use your remote you probably will see the volume bar on the TV show up. That volume bar won't technically be linked to the PLAYBAR's volume though. So what you'd need to do from time to time is "zero them both out". Using the TV remote, run the volume down to 0 on both the TV and PLAYBAR, once they're both at 0, the levels listed on the TV will be around what the PLAYBAR is at for a while, depending on how much you adjust the PLAYBAR from the app.

Please note, this workaround isn't great, and does require your TV to behave in certain ways, which it might not. But it's worth a try.

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

J

jk913

Lyricist II

Thanks for the tip Ryan. I tried out your suggestion and plugged a pair of earbuds into the headphone port. Although the volume level did appear again, the volume from the TV speakers could still be heard and was not in sync with the Playbar. So I had to disable the external speaker again and lost the volume level display. I was expecting the the earbuds to disable the external speakers but that didn't happen. Am I missing something?

J

jec6613

Collaborator II

Am I missing something?

Nope, this is a limitation of the Play:Bar, and the headphone and bar being out of sync is pretty much to be expected.

An Elan G1 remote control will give you volume feedback information on the remote's screen, if you'd like, via IP control, but otherwise the sound bar/AVR needs to be connected to the TV via HDMI to send two way data.

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