Why do manufacturers insist on having a remote control for the external soundbar or dual speakers?

[G+_Rud Dog]

Why do manufacturers insist on having a remote control for the external soundbar or dual speakers? It would be more convenient for the end user if the sound was controlled by the volume for the Flat screen display eliminating the extra thingyabob.

[G+_Giligain I.]

You mean something like this?

 

Control Your Sound+ Soundbar's Volume with the Samsung TV Remote

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00062378/

[G+_Ben Reese]

The feature is CEC. It's available on many newer TVs and a lot of sound equipment. I have it enabled on our Vizio TV and Denon receiver.

 

TV remote controls receiver volume.

TV input button cycles through receiver input options.

TV pause/play/d-pad controls the Fire TV.

Turning off the TV also turns off the receiver.

Waking up the Fire TV, Chromecast, or Blueray player turns on the receiver and TV...

 

It's not perfect, but works as intended most of the time.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Why the extra hoop? If the output to the built in speakers is controlled by the volume rocker then why couldn't they simply detect when you plugged in external speakers and have the same volume control the external speakers instead?

[G+_Ben Reese]

Some might TVs might. My receiver hooks up over HDMI and all controls go through the data channels on the connection.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Guess the solution would be a DIY. Find the signals both in the RF and IR ranges and create a simple program that mimics all buttons for all remotes and use a tablet as your remote. Wish I had the smarts to carry this out. The key here would be simplicity in finding the signal associated with a function and assign it to a button of choice.

[G+_William L. DeRieux IV]

Rud Dog

 

On our TV we have a audio toslink connection that goes to a Yamaha receiver.

 

The volume coming out of the toslink connection is fixed (non-amplified) and it is up to the receiver to handle the amplification.

 

This really isn't a design decision made by the TV mfg....they are just implementing pre-defined industry standards.

 

(That and having amplified audio over the toslink cable could potentially cause damage and/or undesired behavior and audio artifacts)

[G+_Peter Hanse]

Our Sony sound bar and TCL tv support CEC via HDMI so we can use simple Roku tv remote to control sound bar volume. When Tv turned on it send signal to turn on sound bar and passes volume control signals to sound bar.

 

Eliminates sound bar remote except to Chang audio modes or if we want to use extra HDMI inputs on sound bar for extra components if we run out of TV HDMI inputs. But since it is Roku Tv don’t use many external boxes as Roku can access so many services.

 

I also love the fact that I can pause and rewind live tv by adding USB memory stick to tv.