Turning off Sonos Beam

Hi regarding the above query is this feature coming soon? I have a new born and unable to use Bluetooth headphones at night without unplugging the beam.

@andrewcoates I don’t have any updates to share right now, I’m afraid.

I’ve just bought a Sonos Beam soundbar. The audio is great and goes very well with my Samsung TV.

BUT …

There’s no way to switch off the Beam so that the TV can use its default internal speakers or Bluetooth headphones.

It can’t be a difficult update to the app/device software to include a “power off” option that disables the device control of the TV sound.
 

What’s quite concerning is that I can see that a significant number of users have highlighted this problem going back at least a year but, having installed the most recent device software and iPhone app versions today, this is still not implemented. 
 

Come in Sonos - please deliver what your customers are asking for. 

I think you’ll find that it’s the same with Bose range - they are designed to be Always On. If you had an on/off switch there’d be a wait whilst they boot up and acquire the network before playing any sound. 

GarethDE Just put a switch in the connection between the Beam and TV. Switch it to connect the two when you want that and switch it to the empty port when you want them disconnected. Easier and less wear on the ports than pulling cables.

@nik9669a and @Stanley_4 : thanks for the replies. Both are correct. My point though is that Sonos should not impose a choice on the user.

I agree that a true power off would require boot up time and a delay to starting playback but to have a device that >cannot< be powered off seems very odd and not particularly energy-efficient. I can (and will) install a switch on the power line but that’s a bit brute force compared to a proper power switch on the device itself (which can then perform a managed power off/on). 

Similarly, while a switch on the HDMI line would work, why should I have to do this? I don’t always want to use the soundbar with my TV. Like many I have installed the soundbar with my sat receiver and Blu-ray in a cabinet for aesthetic reasons. That makes it less than convenient to have to reach in to control such a switch. 

A simple software switch controlled via the app would give the user the flexibility to decide for themselves whether the device should control the TV sound output. Any delay for sound playback would surely be minimal if implemented this way. 

@Sonos : i would appreciate some feedback from Sonos on these points - preferably indicating they will look to add this to a near-future version of the device s/w and app ...?

Do you leave the sat-receiver on standby too, or is that totally powered off? Although it has a switch that you can use, do you use it? And the TV?
I suspect the vast majority of us leave these devices in standby mode. 

I do. But when all of these are in standby they do not affect the other equipment around them. 

And the Sonos cannot be put in Standby. I cannot watch TV without it intervening. 
 

So, not the same thing. 

No Sonos device has a power switch.

Your line power switch will work but expect aggravation waiting for the boot process to complete.

Power cycles are also hard on electronics so be sure you want to go that route. My Zone Players survived 13 years of only being unplugged during lightning storms and multi-day vacations.

With the Sonos sleep mode your power savings will be minimal.

@Stanley_4 :

Yup, that’s what I figured regarding the boot time. I haven’t measured it but it’s probably on the order of a minute or two to load all the software, join the WiFi network and set up the handshaking between devices. 

And that’s a good point about the number of power cycles the equipment is specified for. I’ve come across that in my work too (satellites rather than home cinema).

All this would be irrelevant if Sonos just included an option to disable the ARC override if TV sound output. 

I’m not familiar enough with HDMI-ARC so excuse me if this is a stupid suggestion: could you use a standard HDMI connector and cable instead?

Not sure if this helps achieve what some in this thread are seeking to do...

I think the easiest way is to switch off HDMI-CEC on the TV, rather than the Sonos product to stop the Beam intervening. This common standard has a variety of different names depending on TV manufacturer, as follows.…

• Samsung - Anynet+
• Sony - BRAVIA Link or BRAVIA Sync
• LG - SimpLink
• Sharp - Aquos Link
• Vizio- CEC
• Hitachi - HDMI-CEC
• AOC - E-link
• Pioneer - Kuro Link
• Toshiba - Regza Link or CE-Link
• Onkyo - RIHD (Remote Interactive over HDMI)
• Panasonic - VIERA Link or HDAVI Control or EZ-Sync
• Philips - EasyLink
• Mitsubishi - NetCommand for HDMI
• Runco International - RuncoLink
• Insignia - InLink
• JVC - CEC
• Magnavox - Fun-Link
• Sylvania - Fun-Link
• Sansui - EasyConnect

Just switch off the feature in the TV Settings and then Bluetooth headphones and other audio sources, including internal TV speakers etc. will then become available. At least that eliminates having to wait for devices to power on and boot up.

@Ken_Griffiths : That seems to work perfectly for my Samsung TV - I switched off AnyNet+ via the TV menu and the TV immediately switched back to using the internal speakers.

Switch it back on and the Sonos takes over again after a few seconds. 

Thanks for that very useful info!

@nik9669a : Its worth trying. It might be that without the ARC the Sonos would not receive the “wake up” from the TV but I don’t know enough about the standard to say either way. The cable itself is probably just a standard HDMI, and not ARC specific?

I think ni9669a will need to connect the Beam to the TV’s HDMI-ARC port. Note however there are such things as CEC-LESS HDMI cables and adapters available via Amazon and other good online websites that will block the HDMI-CEC instructions, but you then presumably lose the option to control volume etc; via the Beam itself. So not sure that’s a good idea at all and I’m fairly sure a normal HDMI port will not work with the Beam otherwise that might have been mentioned as the minimum requirement for the product. The alternative would be to use the optical port with the Sonos HDMI to Optical Adapter that Sonos supply with the Beam, I think.