How does the ‘remote” connect to the TV set? Since you have a PLAYBAR, and not a Beam or Arc, the signal that Sonos can process must be an IR signal. If this remote uses bluetooth or some other wireless connection, it needs to be switched to IR only for Sonos to be able to “see” the commands. You may need to check the Panasonic manual, or contact Panasonic’s customer service to figure out how to switch to IR. That being said, it really shouldn’t be too hard to do, there are lots of devices out there that still work off of IR, not just Sonos. 

The remote is IR only, TV is providing a perfect optical signal and my old remote works most of the new TV services as well as a working IR signal for volume up/down/mute. The new remote does everything except the IR volume up/down/mute to the bar, it is emitting IR as my old TV also responds to the new remote (the old one only ever used IR). All very odd that only the volume stuff doesn’t work with the new remote when the old one does for both the new and old TVs as well as the bar. I am hoping that it might be a case of requesting some extra learning codes in a future update.

Sonos doesn’t use “learning codes”. It’s entirely possible that the new Panasonic TV recognizes some of the older codes, whereas Sonos doesn’t. 

Just open up your Sonos controller, go to settings, then System, then choose the room that is your PLAYBAR, and scroll down to Remote Control Setup to retrain the Sonos system to recognize the new remote, assuming it is in fact using IR for all commands, not just some of them. 

But this will work only if the remote is always using IR. If there’s any mix of IR and other styles of communication, it will not work. 

Have you tried toggling ‘off’/‘on’ the playbar IR receiver in the playbar room settings?

Also, as it’s a universal IR TV remote, have you perhaps tried setting it to some other type of TV (or Soundbar) make/model (just temporarily) to see if the remote then works (post-training via the App) for you?

Normally any IR remote should work with the playbar once you’ve gone through the ‘TV Remote’ training option in the App.

If you have a mobile phone with a camera, you can also check if the remote is giving out an infrared signal. See this link below and the attached example:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4815

Also see this link for some other suggestions to try:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3404

Done some more testing, it seems the remote does work with IR volume commands if Sonos is playing radio or something other than the optical input. At that point it stops responding for my new remote … but NOT my old one ???

As per the support article I can see IR is being emitted (using my phone) so do t insert stand why it works with my old TV or any other audio source with both remotes but stops working only for the new TV with the new remote. It must be something in the firmware of the Playbar , anyone know if there is a way to capture things to feed back to Sonos for support as their support people have so far just kept telling me to consult Panasonic when it all points at Sonos having some form of compatibility issue.

I would first just check with Panasonic Support Staff to be ‘certain’ that their ‘TV remote’ is not using a wireless/bluetooth connection and is sending an IR signal. When that’s been made clear, perhaps capture the issue in a video recording on your mobile, coupled with a diagnostic report and show that to Sonos Support Staff and see what they then say about the matter.

The fact your playbar works with your old TV remote, seems to infer that it’s an issue with the new Panasonic remote, but the Staff at Panasonic should be able to take you through a check-process to ensure it’s sending an IR signal and that it is not faulty.

Solved it, despite sending IR the codes change when the TV is on as is connected via Bluetooth in the background. This is an automated process when you set the TV up and it does not tell you it has paired the remote with the television. This pairing is only necessary for Alexa or Google voice control so having unpaired the Bluetooth handset function then all of a sudden everything works as normal again. It would be nice if either Sonos or Panasonic were to publish this information because neither seem to admit it happens however being a geek with an infrared decoder receiver I was able to further decode the signals as I was getting more and more intrigued brackets and frustrated) by the problem.

hi! 
 

I have the exact same problem ! But I do not fully get how you salved this :)

On the TV go into the menu and look for Bluetooth settings and unpair the handset. It does not stop the handset from controlling things but does mean you can’t use the voice control button on the handset for Alexa or Google voice services.

what model of TV and handset do you have?

hi!

I have the jz1500 with rp3a265 remote, where is the “enter” button ?

On the handset press the menu button and get into the full menu

From there choose “Setup - System Menu - Remote Control Settings - Unpair”

This asks you to hold down a couple of buttons on the remote for about 3 seconds, do it for 10 to be sure it has happened.

After this the voice button on the handset ought to bring up a message on screen complaining that something needs to be configured, that is normal as the handset is not paired to use the button.

From that point your handset ought then to be able to send a viable volume control signal to the Sonos device and all ought to be working as planned.

If not, factory reset the TV from the “Setup - System Menu - Shipping Condition” and then follow the above steps to unpair.

This has worked every time for me since discovering it, I was a bit uncertain at first but it never fails to get these handsets to work, although I fail to see why being Bluetooth paired should change the volume IR signals sent from the handset.

Amazing! Funny enough the tv didn’t tell me that it had the bt connection removed. But this salved it! 
 

thanks!!!