Hello, I have a playbase with 2 play ones hooked up as a home theater system. As my tv doesn’t pass 5.1 Dolby, I’ve connected my xfinity x1 cable box and ps3 to the playbase via an optical switch. Everything is working great and I’m getting 5.1 surround.
However, here is the problem. My xfinity x1 cable box can’t be turned off with a remote so there is no way to disable the source input. So when I turn off the tv, sound continuous to play from the sonos system. I seemingly have two options, either just mute the system or turn off the switch. I’d hate to have to use the tiny switch remote every time and muting would be more convenient, but I’m concerned about just muting the sonos system.
My understanding is that the speakers go into some sort of standby mode when the source input is removed. If I just mute them would they never go to “sleep”? Could it negatively impact the life of the speakers?
What are others doing to address this when using a switch? ( outside of a harmony remote, which I don’t want)
Turning off/muting sonos system without removing source input
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I believe that if you mute the input, the device will go into "sleep" after some period of time.
No, this wouldn't impact the life of the speakers. They're designed to be "on" all of the time. The most obvious way to impact the life time of the speakers would be to unplug them from power and power them back on each time you want to use them.
If it were me, I'd just turn the switch to the PS3 selection, at which point the PLAYBASE would stop getting a signal, unless you're leaving your PS3 on all the time.
No, this wouldn't impact the life of the speakers. They're designed to be "on" all of the time. The most obvious way to impact the life time of the speakers would be to unplug them from power and power them back on each time you want to use them.
If it were me, I'd just turn the switch to the PS3 selection, at which point the PLAYBASE would stop getting a signal, unless you're leaving your PS3 on all the time.
Not in this case. https://support.sonos.com/s/article/256:
Idle is defined as audio muted or paused on all players in the household for at least 3 minutes, no cables are connected to Line-In jacks, and no optical signal is being actively fed to a PLAYBAR (in most cases, this means that the TV is off).
I'd also suggest flipping the optical switch to another source, or powering it off. If the switch's IR remote is fiddly, teach the code to a multi-function remote.
Ah, great point, ratty. The live optical signal would keep the device "on" and not allow it to turn "off".
So the only thing to do is switch that to the PS3, which would be off.
So the only thing to do is switch that to the PS3, which would be off.
Thank you all for the comments! I suppose I’m stuck with the fiddle switch remote. Maybe I can somehow program the xfinity xr11 remote to control the switch.
Also I wonder what people do when the cable box is connected directly to the sonos system/soundbar? Muting seems to be the only option outside of physically powering off the cable box (with the button on the box). Kinda lame!
Most people have TVs that can pass a Dolby Digital signal through to their optical port, or their HDMI-ARC port. Then turning off the TV turns off the pass-through. You're in a very small minority, unfortunately.
Hmm, I guess i was under the impression that the lack of 5.1 pass-through capability (coming from HDMI) was relatively widespread due to some sort of industry standard? My TV is a 2013 Samsung 3D LED Smart TV, with HDMI ARC etc.. still doesn't pass DD 5.1 through. It was certainly annoying when i realized this was the case. Perhaps all new(er) TV models have this capability. Anyways, a "sleep" or power button on the playbase or in the app would be nice.
+20When my TiVo cable box goes into standby (e.g., when powered off using the remote), it shuts off the HDMI and optical outputs. I assume that's normal for cable boxes.
These days, 6 years is old for a TV. The impression that the ARC protocol was adopted at this time, but poorly implemented since there wasn't really any speakers built to use the connection. Optical was still pretty dominant for speakers that take audio from a TV. These days, I imagine most TV speakers will use ARC, and any new TV will make sure to have pass-through functionality.
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