Question

weird volume issue with Arc > Samsung > Apple TV


2020 Samsung q series with eArc

arc

gen 3 sub

gen 2 ONE x2

4K Apple TV 


Super stoked. Everything including Atmos works and sounds amazing except when I walk away for 30+ minutes with something paused and the aerial screen saver kicks in.  After canceling the screen saver and unpausing whatever I was watching the volume is at minimum and I have to manually

raise it back up.   The amount of time it takes to raise it back up makes it feel like it was somehow in the negative.  Tv auto play on or off changes nothing.  
 

Thanks for reading.  


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11 replies

Userlevel 4
Badge +12

Hi @Oblivious, thank you for reaching out and welcome to the community.

That is odd, the Arc should retain the last volume setting it had unless the TV sends out the command.

The Arc does communicate with the TV through CEC to be able to use the TV’s remote control for volume control.

I would like to check the issue with a diagnostic. Take a diagnostic while playing and when the volume has gone down on its own.

In the Sonos App, Setting > Help & Tips > Submit Diagnostic and post the confirmation.

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

Ok I’m on it.  Happened again today.  Walked away for an hour and when I came back Apple TV 4K aerial screen saver had kicked in and volume was zero’d when I tried to get back to what was paused.  
 

I’ll submit the diagnostic next time it happens.   


Just happened.   Immediately repaused and submitted diagnostic within 20 seconds of returning to volume muted.  Was away for about 20 minutes.  

Hi @Oblivious, thank you for reaching out and welcome to the community.

That is odd, the Arc should retain the last volume setting it had unless the TV sends out the command.

The Arc does communicate with the TV through CEC to be able to use the TV’s remote control for volume control.

I would like to check the issue with a diagnostic. Take a diagnostic while playing and when the volume has gone down on its own.

In the Sonos App, Setting > Help & Tips > Submit Diagnostic and post the confirmation.

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

Thanks curious to hear if you find anything.  

Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi @Oblivious. Thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community.

My apologies for the late reply. Upon checking the diagnostic, your Sonos Arc is not muted and the volume is set to 50. Normally, when a Sonos device is muted, the status light is a solid green light.

Also, I see that your Sonos Arc is getting a silence codec and none audio format from the TV. This could be the reason why you're losing audio with your Sonos Arc. 

I would like to suggest the following steps to check if this would help out.

  • HDMI cable is fully plugged in
    • Unplug the HDMI cable from the Sonos Arc and your Samsung TV. Please wait for 30 seconds before you plug them back in. 
    • Reconnect the HDMI cable to your Sonos Arc and your Samsung TV. This is to ensure that all the connections are fully seated.
  • Repeat the TV setup
    • On the Sonos app, go to Settings > System > Tap on o.O room (Sonos Arc) > TV setup. 
    • Please follow the steps on the app to complete the setup. Once completed, test your Sonos Arc if you will experience the same.

If after going through the steps above and you're still having issues, kindly provide us the make and model of your Samsung TV.

Also, I’d appreciate it if you will send us another diagnostic for us to check.

If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

The Sonos Community is always here to help.

Hi @Oblivious. Thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community.

My apologies for the late reply. Upon checking the diagnostic, your Sonos Arc is not muted and the volume is set to 50. Normally, when a Sonos device is muted, the status light is a solid green light.

Also, I see that your Sonos Arc is getting a silence codec and none audio format from the TV. This could be the reason why you're losing audio with your Sonos Arc. 

I would like to suggest the following steps to check if this would help out.

  • HDMI cable is fully plugged in
    • Unplug the HDMI cable from the Sonos Arc and your Samsung TV. Please wait for 30 seconds before you plug them back in. 
    • Reconnect the HDMI cable to your Sonos Arc and your Samsung TV. This is to ensure that all the connections are fully seated.
  • Repeat the TV setup
    • On the Sonos app, go to Settings > System > Tap on o.O room (Sonos Arc) > TV setup. 
    • Please follow the steps on the app to complete the setup. Once completed, test your Sonos Arc if you will experience the same.

If after going through the steps above and you're still having issues, kindly provide us the make and model of your Samsung TV.

Also, I’d appreciate it if you will send us another diagnostic for us to check.

If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

The Sonos Community is always here to help.

The HDMI is a new high quality, high bandwidth cable which I’ve reinstalled as directed.  
 

I’ve also redone the setup as indicated but the problem still persists.  
 

It seems to be gated by a specific time, around 30 minute, but I have not had the patience to try and calculate.  One thing I’ve noticed is when I hit the first volume input to get the volume back after it has cut off, the light on the arc flashes green once, then white each time I input to get it back to normal.  It never comes back to where it was and always starts from zero.  
 

Honestly it’s next level annoying as I find myself walking away from TV quite often and at least 6 times a day have to waste my life jamming a button to raise the volume back to an audible level.   

Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi @Oblivious, thank you for getting back to us on this. What you're feeling is completely understandable.

I really appreciate the time and effort you've spent doing all the troubleshooting steps, and it would be best for you to continue working with us over the phone to expedite the process. 

To further assist you with this, I recommend contacting our Sonos Customer Care support with the complete Samsung TV model number, and the make and model of each device connected to your TV to check what's going on and to provide the best option for you.

We're here to answer any further questions you have.

Userlevel 4
Badge +6

Honestly it’s next level annoying as I find myself walking away from TV quite often and at least 6 times a day have to waste my life jamming a button to raise the volume back to an audible level.   

Here’s a workaround: have your Apple TV set to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity. Then, your issue should no longer occur. If you are away from the TV, surely there is no harm in having it turn off rather than show a screensaver. 

Honestly it’s next level annoying as I find myself walking away from TV quite often and at least 6 times a day have to waste my life jamming a button to raise the volume back to an audible level.   

Here’s a workaround: have your Apple TV set to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity. Then, your issue should no longer occur. If you are away from the TV, surely there is no harm in having it turn off rather than show a screensaver. 

The whole issue is that when I return to TV after 15-20 minutes of being away I’d like to be able to unpause and instantly get back to what I was watching rather than spending another 5 seconds manually raising the volume back up from zero.   
 

The issue does seem tied to the screen saver which has no volume output and is seemingly letting the Arc go to sleep.  
 

So there’s no way to control the sleep functionally of the arc?   

Hi @Oblivious, thank you for getting back to us on this. What you're feeling is completely understandable.

I really appreciate the time and effort you've spent doing all the troubleshooting steps, and it would be best for you to continue working with us over the phone to expedite the process. 

To further assist you with this, I recommend contacting our Sonos Customer Care support with the complete Samsung TV model number, and the make and model of each device connected to your TV to check what's going on and to provide the best option for you.

We're here to answer any further questions you have.

It does seem like this issue is tied to the Apple TV screen savers lack of volume output which is letting the arc go to sleep maybe?  
 

I had noticed that first green flash of the light on first input after the volume cuts so it seems logical.   If that’s the case can you explain the parameters of the arcs sleep functionality and is there any way to control it?   Ty.  

Userlevel 5
Badge +16

Hi folks,

@oriboaz, thank you for your assistance and we appreciate your feedback.
@Oblivious, thank you for your response. Let me check this out for you.

You're maybe right that the issue is tied to the Apple TV screen savers. Have you tried turning off or disabling it? Does it make any improvements?

I'd recommend contacting Apple Support for this feature and to check the settings that might be causing the issue.

You can set a sleep timer in the Sonos app, to automatically turn off the music after a specified period.

If you're still having the same issue, please contact our Sonos Customer Care support to continue working with us over the phone to address the issue.

If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

The Sonos Community is always here to help.