Apple TV remote can/can’t control volume on TV?

And that information helps me how? My phone controls the volume of my Sharp Aquos TV with an Apple TV 4, but won’t control the volume of my Sony Bravia TV with an Apple TV 4K. I need to know how to fix it. Any helpful answers out there?

Wondering the same thing. I can control the volume on my big screen with the Apple TV connected and the physical remote, but the remote app on my iPhone 11 shows only mute button which only turns it on and off. I can use everything else… touch screen controls, advancing program material, change apps on the Home Screen… Seems relatively useless to me. Who are these half finished apps built for? Like a car that only turns right. Not worthless, but strangely incomplete.

This is interesting - I had previously assumed that a TV’s internal speaker volume could be controlled via HDMI CEC, but that’s clearly not the typical use case. The original/typical HDMI CEC use case is to adjust the volume on a specific external device (an AV receiver or soundbar) using the TV’s remote.

It would complicate matters when configuring a home theater system if one needed to specify multiple devices that control volume, and most folks simply want the TV’s speakers to be muted when they have a proper AV receiver or a soundbar attached to it (hence a single ARC/eARC-enabled HDMI port on TVs that have several HDMI ports). It would be annoying if all connected devices with speakers including TVs responded to HDMI CEC volume control signals, so most TVs don’t (including my 2020 model LG). Perhaps with more ATV/Roku/Fire devices and their remotes out there, we’ll see TV manufacturers make this a configuration option (although I’m sure they would much rather sell us a soundbar instead). Anyone familiar with a modern TV with this option?

My own setup includes an ATV4K device connected to a (Sony HT-Z9F) soundbar which in turn is connected to the LG TV’s eARC HDMI port. With the ATV’s “Control TVs and Receivers” option set to On and the TV’s audio output set to “HDMI ARC”, the ATV4K automatically chooses “Auto via HDMI (Receiver)”. When I experimentally changed the TV’s audio output to “Internal TV speaker”, the ATV4K immediately and automatically switched Volume Control to “Auto via IR (TV)”. Well done, Apple.

Now that ATV4K devices can have their own (virtually) internal speakers in form of HomePods set as the default audio device, Apple added eARC support to the latest version of the device. Also well done!

@Urquhart1244, I seem to recall that I once contradicted you on your assertion that TV volume is only controlled via IR… Sorry about that!

TVs generally do not allow the volume to be changed through other HDMI devices. The physical remote sends an IR signal for volume control, directly to the TV (not through the Apple TV box).

I figured it out - the TV it works on has a sound bar, and the iPhone is controlling that, not the TV.