Sonos Beam and Bose QC headphones in Samsung TV


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I have the Beam working via HDMI on my TV and when I switch in my headphones to connect to the TV via Bluetooth, it works initially and TV says disconnecting Anynet+ device (the Beam) but then it seems to immediately reconnect the Beam and so not allowing me to switch to the Bluetooth headphones. Any ideas on how to get this working without having to switch Anynet off and on in the menu all the time? My Samsung is a 2015 UHD model.

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154 replies

Userlevel 1
Set up a profile just to reply to this thread. Not being able to use Bluetooth headphones without changing a bunch of settings or unplugging a cable is a major buzzkill, and probably will lead me to return my Beam to Amazon if it’s not sorted before my 30 day return window closes.

It’s really sad that this made it out the door Sonos, y’all need to look into your user testing strategy; I don’t know how the situation of ‘I use headphones at night so I don’t keep the rest of the house up’ never entered into the picture.
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This is so frustrating... got the top of the line Samsung TV and was thinking to pimp the sound with a Sonos Beam as I‘ve been really happy with all my other Sonos products.
Hope this will be fixed very soon „unplug the cable“ might be an even more annoying answer than the problem itself. That is not an acceptable solution for a company with your ambition.
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Sonos sent me a DM on this. They said the Beam was designed to work this way and the solution is to turn off HDMI-ARC on the tv when using headphones or unplug the cable from the Beam. Clearly not ideal - I think this should be able to be ‘fixed’ with a software update.
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Thanks for the reports, everyone. We've been looking into this issue. It's caused by the way the TV handles a command the Beam sends as part of the process to issue CEC commands to the TV like "off" and "on".

I'll make sure to let the team know you're running into this and that it's causing you trouble. For now, the best solutions are to turn off CEC when you're using the headphones, or if you use them frequently, it may be to use the optical output instead of the HDMI. You'd lose the CEC controls from the Beam, but if you use the headphones a lot this may be worth it.

I would be ok with it, if Beam had ability to connect bluetooth headphones, but otherwise ???
I'll pass along this as a request too for the future.
Hi – I'm also creating an account to express my frustration and disappointment with this functionality. I do not want the Sonos Beam to continuously grab back priority from other audio sources unless I explicitly switch back to it. I hope that Sonos can provide an update on this issue soon.
Definitely Sonos needs an update to resolve the issue on this. Its ridiculous to buy myself a $500 pair of wireless headphones to watch movies late at night only to find out that the Beam constantly kicks my Bluetooth connection off. This NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED.
I'm another one who made an account for the purpose of telling you there definitely should be a solution to this problem. We used to have a Samsung play bar with our Samsung tv with no such problems, but switched to Sonos to let it be part of the Sonos eco system. This headphones issue was one of the issues I encountered early on, and since it worked earlier with my headphones and the same TV, I figured it was the beam's fault.

Wouldn't it be easy to add a feature in the Sonos app to turn on/off the use of Anynet? Or some code to ask the TV if headphones are connected, and if so, back off from the TV?

I sleep with just a wall separating me from the boom of the beam, and if a flatmate wants to watch TV while I sleep, now I need to use my wax ear plugs. Before he could use his Bluetooth earplugs.

Please fix this, Sonos. Yesterday would be ideal. I speak on behalf of the four users in my household.

Paul
This issue is driving me nuts and I thought I did something wrong. So I am glad, I found this thread. Please fix this bug. I am really happy with my Sonos Beam, but this is really a big issue for me (and obviously for lots of other people as Well). Thanks
Any updates yet Sonos? I cannot believe that having spent almost £1000 on a tv, £250 on Bose headphones and £350 on a beam (as well as 3 other sonos speakers), I cannot just select headphones and they work. I understand the ARC principle, but I’m not happy that I have to either unplug the beam or turnoff the arc function every time. ?
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Are we there yet?
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For all the angst being expressed, I do wish people would read the earlier posts in this thread.

As per this post, the simplest solution as it stands is to use an external Bluetooth transmitter, wired to the TV's optical output. Completely independent of the Beam, and moreover capable of delivering better quality/latency than the TV's internal Bluetooth.


The response from the user below your post states that this did not work for him. Also, I do not regard the purchase of an external blutooth transmitter to be a reasonable solution to what seems to be a fundamental design flaw in the Beam.

What makes you think that there isn't an issue with the Samsung TV? That's also a common factor here.

As for the user below my original post, he chose to try one of the cheaper Bluetooth transmitters. In my experience you get what you pay for, and a more dependable solution from a brand such as Avantree in fact costs only a few dollars more.

But if you'd rather stick to your principles than consider a solution which is not only inexpensive but also actually offers better audio performance and user flexibility, that's entirely your choice.


As I mentioned in my post further up, I'm using a Sony A1E TV and Sony headphones and having this problem. Also, there is another user who reported the same problem with an LG tv. So yes this seems to be a problem with the Beam.

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask Sonos to provide a fix for what is something that has been overlooked in the design. At the very least an update on whether they are still working on this issue would be appreciated.

The Sonos Beam is not a cheap soundbar and we should not have to purchase an external transmitter (that may or may not work) in order to restore functionality of the blutooth headphones that were working perfectly fine with the TV previously.
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I will add myself to this. Samsung Smart TV, 2 years old with one ARC port and a new Beam. The Anynet+ will not honour changing audio output when connected to the Beam via ARC. Bluetooth headphones? Connected for 3 seconds before the ARC connection resumes as the sound output and disconnects the headphones. Tested with all other audio connections, TV speaker, optical out, etc. with the same result. Turn off the Anynet+ CEC from Expert settings, all works as it should, but the Beam is no longer available as an audio output.
This is not an acceptable state of affairs, CEC is a very simple protocol that allows multiple input recognition, and support for BT headphones is as basic as changing channels. This needs a patch ASAP. The only workaround so far is to connect via optical and avoid the entire ARC ego tripping. Again headphone support is such a basic function, I am a little stunned that this was not addressed during testing! Otherwise, an excellent product, but Sonos really seems to have a thing hating on headphones!:P
Userlevel 2
I have a LG OLED TV and have same issue - I use headphones quite a lot, and it is disturbing that someone thinks you that it is ok and designed well, that Beam completely disables possibility to listens TV with bluetooth headphones and recommends you to to disconnect HDMI every time you want to use headphones instead of Beam. I would be ok with it, if Beam had ability to connect bluetooth headphones, but otherwise ???
Userlevel 4
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Still no fix??!??
I would be surprised if the ability to switch elegantly between the Beam and bluetooth headphones did not come up in market and product testing. It will not have been perceived to be a major issue to the typical Sonos buyer. So I am also adding my +1. Sonos please fix this.
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Same problem here too.
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Not just me who’s annoyed by this then! The whole point of wireless headphones is so that you don’t have to faff about with plugging and unplugging stuff. I didn’t have this issue with my previous old Yamaha soundbar and ARC so really surprised that Sonos think this is acceptable workaround.
Same problem here. Cannot use BT headphones when watching tv if the Beam is connected using HDMI. Basic stuff not working. Can we get a fix?

Samsung QLED + Beam + QC35 (also use Avantree headset)

😠

Been having an eye on the Beam (since I purchased my Samsung Q70R TV last November) because of its small footprint, sound quality and doubles-up a smart speaker in the family room.

Having my son’s bedroom close by, we use Bluetooth headphones quite often in the evening and this issue prompted me to hold off on buying the Bean.

After seeing stoonk’s post, I decided to make the jump since an update was fixing the issue.

Unfortunately, even with the latest update installed on my TV, the audio source switches back to the Beam seconds after selecting my XM3s.

Right now, I’ve opted to go with the optical setup for the Beam as a workaround.

So, if you consider purchasing the Beam and use Bluetooth headphones, take note that the issue might be stillpresent with your Samsung TV.

Same problem LG B7 + Beam + Sony Wh-1000xm3.
Wish we could just activate/deactivate the ARC connection in the app.
Thanks for the thread and the many voices for this concern.
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A small external Bluetooth transmitter fed from the TV's optical output offers more flexibility, better codec quality, and improved lip-sync. Clunky workaround? It's in fact an upgrade.

Why should we have to do this? Stop pushing this as the answer - it is a hack to make an expensive system work and shouldn’t be required. Not to mention that other users have said this doesn’t work for them.

Just get onboard the ‘Sonos Fix It’ bus.
All Sonos has to do is simply add a toggle to turn on or off the TV, HDMI port. If you turn off the port from the App, the TV will disconnect the ARC / HDMI Connection and then you can toggle it back on again in the app.

You essentially, most likely can do this my making the Sonos Beam play from a different source, which turns off the TV's sound, and frees up the TV. When its time to play another source, the Sonos sure can avoid the TV, now cant it?

Anywho, make a source that plays nothing at least.... so it jacks it from the TV...

If i were Sonos, i would fix it, its easy, stop annoying your client base with such a silly thing. Customer is always right, period, end of story, fix it or create a work around using code you already have written.
Also onboard the fix it bus, just wondering tho as anyone identified a TV where this works ok with Sonos?
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No I do not think Sonos would have fixed it just because they can. They have a million different things they are working on no doubt, and so the point of this thread is to continue to raise the issue and show it is a problem for a lot of people, in the hope it will have its priority raised. Thanks for asking though

Likewise for a Samsung TU8000 and an Arc.  With Anynet+ enabled, the Bluetooth headphones will connect and be disconnected instantaneosuly.  As frustrating as it is, it is part of the CEC/HDMI.  My solution was simply to disable Anynet+ unfortunately.