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Beam IR sensor stops working

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I purchased a Beam a few weeks ago. I absolutely love it but twice now I’ve had to power cycle it to get the IR sensor working again. Randomly it will stop responding to Sky Q remote when streaming music. Tried all the usual - batteries in remote, making sure IR sensor isn’t blocked, re-pairing etc. A power cycle is the only thing that works instantly without having to alter any other settings. It’s so frustrating and annoying.
I have read other posts about this but they seem to be a few years old. Anyone else experiencing this still, any fixes etc?? I’ve got the latest software installed. TIA

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buzzAnswer

Grand Maestro

I’m not a SKY user. Most TV’s support using their remote’s Volume buttons to control an A/V receiver. In this mode most devices will send IR Volume commands regardless of how the remote communicates with its device.

In this case, select a model XYZ as your target A/V receiver, then train BEAM to respond to these IR commands.

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Mark HuddlestonAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

If BEAM is using IR for Volume adjustments, BEAM will always respond to IR commands. If BEAM is using CEC, BEAM will respond to the SKY and TV remotes only while watching TV.

So if I disable HDMI control might this help?? I do have a HDMI adapter that disables CEC too.

Ken_Griffiths

So when I’m watching TV and everything is working when I adjust the volume it states on screen “audio system volume +\-“ but the white Sonos light also flashes so it looks like it’s operating the TV volume as well as the IR sensor on the Beam. Today when it’s not working properly the Sky remote will work and adjust the TV volume on the Beam as it IS connected via HDMI ARC but won’t work when TV is off and streaming music.
With regards to IR interference it is in a south facing room and it was very bright today….so my question is…once the IR sensor is overwhelmed/puzzled/stops working could it be due to a change in brightness/excess sun etc??
Maybe some clear tape over the IR sensor to limit any interference??

The real test to do here, is if things work when the TV is off and in standby mode. Play some music to your Beam with the TV off and adjust the music volume with the TV remote - if it doesn’t work then you know the control of volume was ‘highly likely’ via HDMI-CEC and not the Beam’s IR Receiver.

Are you absolutely sure the TV remote is infrared and not a wireless RF remote? - it will almost always work over HDMI-CEC with the TV on, that’s providing that a TV peripheral, connected to another HDMI port, is not stealing the focus away from the Beam. Which I think might be happening in your case and you’re maybe looking at things from the wrong angle. (Perhaps🤔?)

If the TV remote has mic/voice control for any kind of voice assistant (just as an example) then it’s unlikely to be connected over IR to the TV.

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Mark HuddlestonAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

So when I’m watching TV and everything is working when I adjust the volume it states on screen “audio system volume +\-“ but the white Sonos light also flashes so it looks like it’s operating the TV volume as well as the IR sensor on the Beam. Today when it’s not working properly the Sky remote will work and adjust the TV volume on the Beam as it IS connected via HDMI ARC but won’t work when TV is off and streaming music.
With regards to IR interference it is in a south facing room and it was very bright today….so my question is…once the IR sensor is overwhelmed/puzzled/stops working could it be due to a change in brightness/excess sun etc??
Maybe some clear tape over the IR sensor to limit any interference??

The real test to do here, is if things work when the TV is off and in standby mode. Play some music to your Beam with the TV off and adjust the music volume with the TV remote - if it doesn’t work then you know the control of volume was ‘highly likely’ via HDMI-CEC and not the Beam’s IR Receiver.

Are you absolutely sure the TV remote is infrared and not a wireless RF remote? - it will almost always work over HDMI-CEC with the TV on, that’s providing that a TV peripheral, connected to another HDMI port, is not stealing the focus away from the Beam. Which I think might be happening in your case and you’re maybe looking at things from the wrong angle. (Perhaps🤔?)

If the TV remote has mic/voice control for any kind of voice assistant (just as an example) then it’s unlikely to be connected over IR to the TV.

So with TV off the Sky remote (which is Bluetooth and IR enabled) works to control volume on the Beam when streaming music. Now it’s all working I went back into remote control setup on the all and this time it will recognise the remote if I set it up as a new remote control. When is stops working it just doesn’t receive the IR from any remote and it won’t let me set up any kind of remote. It’s simply the IR sensor stops working until I power cycle

buzz

Grand Maestro

Yes, disabling CEC is often very helpful. Another trick is to claim to the TV and SKY remotes that they are controlling the Volume on a fictional A/V receiver, then train BEAM to use those IR commands. This will prevent the TV’s own Volume control from responding to Volume commands. This will downgrade BEAM’s utility slightly, but most users will not notice. Unfortunately, some TV’s will not present advanced audio formats when their CEC is disabled.

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Mark HuddlestonAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Yes, disabling CEC is often very helpful. Another trick is to claim to the TV and SKY remotes that they are controlling the Volume on a fictional A/V receiver, then train BEAM to use those IR commands. This will prevent the TV’s own Volume control from responding to Volume commands. This will downgrade BEAM’s utility slightly, but most users will not notice. Unfortunately, some TV’s will not present advanced audio formats when their CEC is disabled.

You might have lost me a bit there. I have a CEC-less HDMI adapter so I might try that tomorrow.

buzzAnswer

Grand Maestro

I’m not a SKY user. Most TV’s support using their remote’s Volume buttons to control an A/V receiver. In this mode most devices will send IR Volume commands regardless of how the remote communicates with its device.

In this case, select a model XYZ as your target A/V receiver, then train BEAM to respond to these IR commands.

Ken_Griffiths

@Mark Huddleston

I also have an alternative suggestion you can also perhaps consider trying, but this is only if you wish to leave HDMI-CEC enabled…

Note: Always try to setup the sky remote on Sonos with the TV switched off/in Standby-mode - you could, I think, leave the HDMI-CEC protocol in situ on all devices and setup the sky remote to control a ‘fictitious TV’ not the actual make/model of TV that you have.

The TV volume/mute should still work anyway (hopefully) via the sky-box HDMI-CEC connection to the TV… and then see if that new IR code perhaps works any better for you?

Just give the sky remote an entirely different TV IR code. Oh and of course reprogram the Beam with any newly-assigned IR code too.

If it proves to be no better than before, then just revert the remote back to what you have now.

Then if the IR control still continues to fail, (always check this whilst the TV is off/in standby mode) the next option will likely be to submit two system diagnostics, one with, and one without, the IR working on the Beam and make a note of the Sonos submission reference numbers and then contact/chat to Sonos Customer Support about the issue via this LINK.

M

Mark HuddlestonAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

@Mark Huddleston

I also have an alternative suggestion you can also perhaps consider trying, but this is only if you wish to leave HDMI-CEC enabled…

Note: Always try to setup the sky remote on Sonos with the TV switched off/in Standby-mode - you could, I think, leave the HDMI-CEC protocol in situ on all devices and setup the sky remote to control a ‘fictitious TV’ not the actual make/model of TV that you have.

The TV volume/mute should still work anyway (hopefully) via the sky-box HDMI-CEC connection to the TV… and then see if that new IR code perhaps works any better for you?

Just give the sky remote an entirely different TV IR code. Oh and of course reprogram the Beam with any newly-assigned IR code too.

If it proves to be no better than before, then just revert the remote back to what you have now.

Then if the IR control still continues to fail, (always check this whilst the TV is off/in standby mode) the next option will likely be to submit two system diagnostics, one with, and one without, the IR working on the Beam and make a note of the Sonos submission reference numbers and then contact/chat to Sonos Customer Support about the issue via this LINK.

Thanks for that but I use the Sky remote to power off the Sky mini box and the TV so I need to assign the remote to Sony TV with the correct code. If I assign it to another random branded TV I won’t be able to do this.

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Mark HuddlestonAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

So I connected the CEC less adapter this morning. Now when I turn TV on it doesn’t send any signal to the beam and will not override any music streaming so that’s no good.
So I went into Sky remote control menu and looked at the option to control a sound system. Set this up and now it seems when I adjust the volume watching TV with Sky remote it is using Beams IR sensor and not HDMI as I do not get any volume slider on the TV screen. Not sure how this is going to perform as it is relying more on IR but I’ll give it a try.

UPDATE ** The Beam is clearly unhappy with me messing around and has now stopped responding again. Toggling IR on and off and setting up remote in Sonos app does nothing.

106rallye

Why are you mixing ir and CEC control (which to me seems to be the cause of your problems)? Why not rely on CEC?

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