Samsung TV remote volume no longer controls Ray

Does the remote have IR and RF capability? You need it set to IR. 

Most likely an update to the TV’s firmware ‘adjusted’ the remote, you likely need to follow the instructions here again:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/unable-to-adjust-the-volume-using-the-lg-magic-remote

Not sure. However I have just fixed it however by running the Universal remote setup on the TV as found in instructions here:

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/use-a-samsung-one-remote-with-sonos-home-theater-speakers

The funny thing is I do not remember doing that before. I think maybe the remote doesn’t have IR, and the TV is now outputting IR to the Ray.

I have the exact same problem. I just received a Sonos Ray as a Christmas present, that I setup this morning, connected to my Samsung AU9085 smart TV and switched the TV to use the optical cable to SONOS for audio output. Everything worked fine.  

Then I went out all afternoon and when I came back in the evening, The Samsung remote no longer changed the volume of the audio output. The only possible way to change the volume is using the SONOS iPhone app, or the buttons on the device.

I have not connected the Samsung remote to the SONOS RAY device because it is not compatible. The SONOS RAY appears to only takes IR remotes. And anyway, I don’t see why the volume control stopped working while I was away. I imagine that either the TV or the SONOS device could have applied some update and caused the change of behaviour, but neither the Samsung TV nor the SONOS device exposes the journal of updates performed. 

I will try the suggested solution running the Universal remote setup, although I understand that this will switch the remote to use IR, which to me is a loss of functionality. 

Albert

Hi Albert

I can’t explain why it was working and now it’s not, but it could be that some kind of update to either TV or Ray has changed the configuration, which someone suggested above.

The first thing to check, and I know this sounds like common sense, but make sure you don’t have any objects in front of your Ray. After I solved the issue mentioned above, I put my watch down in front of the Ray, and was no longer able to change the volume! As it turns out, the IR sensor on the ray is at the front, in the middle on the bottom underneath the SONOS logo, which I had placed my watch directly in front of! It took me ages to figure this out, but as soon as I moved the watch it resumed operation as normal!

Anyway, the newer Samsung remotes operate with RF and not IR - you'll notice it doesn’t need to be pointed at the TV to work; it will work shoved down the side of a cushion or even in another room. So to get IR signal to the Ray, you have to configure the TV using the above method. This tells the TV that when it receives an RF command, it needs to send an IR signal from its emitter, which zaps the IR receiver on the front of the Ray - so there needs to be a clear line of sight between the two!

Let me know how you get on!

I’m a bit lost now. Yesterday, I was about to go through the switch to IR on my remote. But before that, I tested the volume control on the remote … and guess what ? It was working fine, and it still works today. 

Coming to think of it, I think there is a confusion here, and the SONOS documentation and help does not clear the confusion. There are really two ways to use the sound bar:

1. To play the audio coming out of the TV (via the optical cable)
2. To play any audio coming from the sound bar itself (radios, music providers etc). 

For case (2) I can see that having a remote to control the volume may be useful. This requires a remote with IR capabilities. The note https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/use-a-samsung-one-remote-with-sonos-home-theater-speakers explains how to do do that with a Samsung TV remote. It essentially means switching this remote from RF to IR, so it can control both the TV and the sound bar.

But what bothers me is case (1). Here the whole point is to make the TV control the volume of the audio output on the optical cable. When I use the remote to control the volume on the TV, I see an “optical audio volume change” widget appearing on the screen. Sometimes it works fine: clicking [+] or [-] makes the volume increase or decrease. But sometimes also the clicks have no effect. In my case, changing the optical volume worked at first, then it stopped working, then it resumed working.

Let’s see for how long it will keep working.

Sofar I’m not impressed by the product or its documentation.

--

Albert

Hi Albert

“There is a confusion here.” Is that another way of saying you are confused?

You start by describing with a remote that is working intermittently, then you describe use cases, or something along those lines, then revert back to the intermittent remote. Also, it seems you are slightly unclear on a few technical points. I think you are confused indeed.

You ignored what I said about objects being placed in front of or around the Ray, so I’ll assume your issue was not caused by this. I can’t explain the intermittent remote problem.

Using the remote in the second scenario doesn’t make sense, as the TV would not be switched on, so the remote wouldn’t work. Did you read the above article? It doesn’t switch the remote from RF to IR, it tells the TV to output an IR signal to the Ray. The remote remains RF. This means it would not work if the TV was switched off. You control the volume with the device you are playing music from.

Another thing to understand is that there is no way to adjust the volume of audio running through an optical cable. Optical audio is fixed level, there is no volume data. The whole purpose of the article is to enable a way of adjust the volume of the Ray via the TV remote control.

You need to follow the instructions in the article. It will then show ‘Sonos (Optical)’ instead of ‘Optical’ when you adjust the volume with the remote, and all will work as intended.

Did you read the above article? It doesn’t switch the remote from RF to IR, it tells the TV to output an IR signal to the Ray. The remote remains RF.

I re-read the article. What confused me is this sentence at the end:

Your Samsung One Remote will now output IR and is ready to work with Sonos. 

From your explanation above, that sentence is incorrect: it is the Samsung TV that generates an IR signal to control the audio volume of the RAY, right ? I don’t understand how the IR signal emitted by the TV is captured by the RAY. In my case, the RAY is positioned right under the TV, with the IR sensor on the front (under the SONOS logo), i.e. facing away from the TV … 

Now the oddities:

• Oddity #1: I have not gone through the setup in the article. Yet when I checked my TV, I found it already set (i.e. the Universal Remote setting already has the SONOS source setup). I’m at a loss as to how that happened. All I did was switch the audio output from TV speakers to Optical audio. It looks like it got set automagically after connecting the optical audio ? 

• Oddity #2: I have still no explanation as to why the volume control worked for a day, then stopped working for a day, then started working again and has been working ever since. As you said, there is clearly a need to keep the IR sensor of the RAY soundbar clear at all times. When I block the sensor (placing a book in front of it), then the volume control no longer works - as expected. But the sensor has always been clear. Maybe the suggestion of some software update in the soundbar is right.

1. Yes, that sentence is technically incorrect. 
2. IR beam doesn’t go in a perfect straight line, it is more forgiving than that. If it did, it would be impossibly difficult; only about 1 in 100 casual aims would hit the target.

Yes, maybe there was some degree of automatic set up initially - which i also experienced.

As stated, if it is working, it’s by chance. If you think about it, nothing in life works perfectly, no science is exact; there are an unlimited amount of forces to overcome when trying to achieve anything. Run the Universal Remote setup to give yourself the best chance of it working as intended.

To conclude the story … 

Everything works fine now:

1. I can use the TV remote to control the volume of whatever comes out of the TV, and most importantly I understand how everything works !
2. I have also configured an old Apple TV IR remote to control the volume on the Sonos Ray. This is useful when I play music or radio on it, either via the Sonos app or via Airplay. 
3. And finally, I added the Sonos Ray to Alexa. So I can just tell Alexa to play radio or music on the Sonos.

Albert

You’re welcome.