Controlling Sound Bar with TV renmote

[pinnerite]

I recently bought a Dali Kubik One soundbar. Having installed it and made it play nicely with the TV I have hit a minor irritation.

The TV's setup has been switched from using the internal speakers to external.

The problem is that although (theoretically) one can control the TV volume by "teaching" the soundbar's control to "learn" the TV remote's signals it doesn't work.

It seems that switching to remote speakers disables the volume contro, function. A message pops up telling me that, more or less.

The TV is a Samsung UE55F6800. I wondered it any of the speciliists among yo might have a secrret code or three that ....

Just asking.

If we don't communiucate again until Saturday, have a good Christmas and please take precautions.

Alan

[Andy Burns]

Does it need to lean, or does it need HDMI-CEC (aka Anynet+ Regzalink etc) enabling, to make it work over the cable?

[pinnerite]

I do not know what you mean by "lean". However the soundbar is connected to the TV by an Optical-Audio cable. I hadn't come across those before.

Both remote controls use Infra-Red.

[williamwright]

You need to connect to the 3.5 jack that has an earphone symbol. Then everything with work.

Bill

[Paul]

"Optical (TOSLink) & IR Learning The KUBIK ONE offers two optical inputs, one for TV use and one for other audio sources. Using an optical output from a TV leaves you with a fixed volume problem, rendering the TV remote unusable to control the volume of the external speakers. Via an easy to use IR learning system built into the KUBIK ONE, almost any remote control can be used to navigate every function on the KUBIK ONE. Control the volume, mute, power and source select in three easy steps. This sets the KUBIK ONE apart for all other external TV speakers systems and makes it the perfect audio centre piece in the living room."

If you're using TOSLink, make sure it's plugged into the TV-icon-TOSLink and not the Vanilla-TOSLink one.

When you use the TVIcon one and the speakers see a signal on there, they should start looking for the remote signal (IR-only of course, according to the above paragraph copied from the Dali Whitepaper).

*******

As a Luddite, I always start with 2-ch Analog Audio, as there are less likely to be "learning experiences" involved.

*******

For products like this, other than making the inputs accessible, I would start with the item unmounted on the wall. If you insist on putting the screws into the wall right away, well of course the gadget will immediately sense this and put up a fuss.

Always debug these things, before "the finishing touches".

Paul

[Andy Burns]

typo for learn!

Do you have the option of using HDMI with ARC?

[John Rumm]

Have you actually gone through the "teaching" process?

(I would expect the sound bar to prompt you to push the appropriate button for each function in turn)

It sounds as if the sound bar will learn to recognise buttons on the TV Remote - the TV will see them at the same time, and may show an error due to the setting of external sound, but the sound bar can still react to it directly.

Yup, you have in effect selected a line out feed from the TV (albeit in digital form). That will defeat the internal pre-amp in the

Yup, don't want any pregnant reindeer!

[pinnerite]

No. The choics are micro usb, optical/audio, and RCA phono L&R.

Bill, no 3.5 Jack plug.

I still think the problem is with the TV (runs on Linux you know). Sadly I cannot hack the source as it isn't available, apart from not having the time. :(

[Martin Brown]

It should do. You have to train it to recognise the TV remotes specific IR codes. It may require you to follow a training procedure to the exact letter.

I have something similar for powering everything down when the TV goes off (you have to teach it what TV on IR code looks like to work).

On the TV yes - but the remote handset will still transmit the codes (and the TV may then say "I can't do that" which is fair enough).

Mine is slightly dumber and I just have the TV volume set to zero from its remote (largely because mute shows an on screen icon). Then all audio from whatever source is controlled by the main amplifier.

One minor annoyance that I don't have a fix for is that the audio level from the TV is about 8dB lower than from every other signal source (all the rest are standard component audio mostly over phono connections).

Best wishes to all for a Merry Christmas!

[Dave Plowman (News]

I've seen a few TVs with a toslink output, and non allowed volume control over it. But then phono line outputs were often the same too. For obvious reasons.

What does annoy is why the mute doesn't operate on the line out (of any type) Can't see any reason for that.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I can explain that. EBU standards for digital sound recording in TV came in many years ago. Before digital TV arrived. They set the peak level at

-10dB FS. This allowed for accidental overmods without nasty effects. With noise (hiss) not being the problem it was with earlier analogue tape machines. And since this line up was a standard in TV it was kept when digital TV arrived. As there continued to be a mixture of digital and analogue for many years afterwards. And likely still is.

If you check the levels on some of the FreeView radio stations, you'll find they peak to maximum. PITA.

The toslink to phono adaptor I have allows you to set the output level, and make up the difference to most other phono levels.

[charles]

It means we can mute the loudspeaker on the tv while still allwing SWMBO to use the TOS ouput which feeds into her hearing aid.

[Dave Plowman (News]

True - but you could also do that with the volume control.

[JNugent]

We have a Denon soundbar - both the (Sony) TV remote and the Sky+ remote will control the volume of the soundbar (as will the Denon remote).

[Andrew]

It doesn't have an HDMI connection, which may be why its price has halved. Now £399 at Richer Sounds. Still quite pricy.

[Andrew]

On the Richer Sounds website I see this review -

"Great sound , all the reviews are correct about this soundbar, I struggle to hear dialogue and the kubik is far superior to the Yamaha yas105 it replaced. What all the reviews fail to mention is that you can't use your Panasonic tv remote to control it (the reviews and product descriptions make you think you can) The staff at York Richer sounds were brilliant and rang Dali about the problem and they admitted that all Panasonic remotes are incompatible with the Dali. Dylan at RS managed to reset the sound bar to stop the chaos caused by the tv remote. They found a work around too, to replace the Panasonic remote"

So, if you bought it RS, go back and ask them to help.

[Andy Burns]

"The KUBIK ONE system offers two means of analogue input. A RCA (AUX) connector (placed underneath the unit), and a 3.5mm stereo mini-jack connector (placed on the side)."

[Martin Brown]

The question is do they mean a modern badged not really a Panasonic set that also ignores real Panasonic remotes and requires being set to some random Turkish brand to actually work? Or a real Panasonic remote that can control sets made back in the days when they manufactured TVs?

The workaround might be to tell the soundbar that your TV is a Vestel.

[Andrew]

The OP has a Samsung though. He should still go back to the retailer and ask for help there.

[williamwright]

That's very poor.

Bill