Sony Bravia and Apple TV

sasaki fujika,

Can you use the Apple TV remote to control your Sony TV? A workaround may be to use the Apple TV remote to control your TV. This can be set up with these steps:

1. "Open Settings  on Apple TV.
2. Go to Remotes and Devices and turn on Turn On Your TV with Your Remote. 

Use the Siri Remote to control the volume of your TV or receiver

1. Open Settings  on Apple TV.
2. Go to Remotes and Devices > Volume Control and choose Auto.
3. Note: These settings may not work with all devices. For more information, see the Apple Support article Control your TV or receiver with your Siri Remote or Apple TV Remote."

Control your TV and volume with the Siri Remote - Apple Support

To continue with troubleshooting the issue between the Sony remote and Apple TV, try adjusting the connections. This process can help fix controlling the Apple TV with the Sony remote. Here's how:

"If your TV or receiver supports HDMI-CEC, Apple TV uses the HDMI connection to allow it to be controlled by your TV or receiver remote.

If some features don't work:

1. Make sure that your TV or receiver offers HDMI-CEC support. For help, ask the TV manufacturer or check the manual.
2. Check that your Apple TV is connected to an HDMI port that supports HDMI-CEC. Check the TV manual to confirm which ports support HDMI-CEC.
3. Check that HDMI-CEC is turned on in the menu of your TV or receiver. Use the remote that came with your equipment. Because manufacturers often have different names for HDMI-CEC, look for a setting that ends in "Link" or "Sync." Here are some examples:

• LG: SimpLink
• Philips: EasyLink
• Samsung: Anynet+
• Sharp: Aquos Link
• Sony: BRAVIA Sync

* While volume control normally works using the IR sensor on the front of your TV or receiver, some receivers use HDMI-CEC instead. With volume through HDMI-CEC, you don’t need a clear path between your remote and the front of your receiver."

If you can't control your Apple TV with your home theater or universal remote - Apple Support

Have a great day.

Hello sasaki fujika,

Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities.

It sounds like the connection between your Sony Bravia remote and Apple TV have been forgotten, right?

If we understood you correctly, let's give the steps below a try to see if this clears up what's happening. This will help to further isolate what could be occurring in addition to the steps you've tried. You can view these steps and more details in the following resource, if you'd like: Use other remotes to control Apple TV - Apple Support

Teach an infrared remote to control Apple TV

1. Open Settings  on Apple TV.

2. Go to Remotes and Devices > Learn Remote, then follow the onscreen instructions.

Let us know if this continues after giving those steps a try, and check if replacing the batteries of the remote may provide better results. We'll use this information, and any additional information that may be helpful to move forward.

Take care!

I actually figured out what my issue was and it had to do with Sony’s CEC (Bravia Sync as they call it), rather than Apple.

As per Sony’s support page (https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00030813):

“Make sure your connected devices do not exceed the HDMI-CEC standard that supports a combination of the following devices:

• 1 - TV
• 1 - Audio system
• Up to 3 - Playback devices
• Up to 3 - Recording devices
• Up to 4 - Tuner devices

Note: If the devices connected exceed the maximum supported in a device category (if you have four playback devices for example), then errors in operation will occur.”

So my issue was totally unrelated with me updating to tvOS, as at the same time I installed an HDMI Switch to be able to connect all 6 of my devices to the 4 HDMI ports that my TV has. 4 of those devices were playback devices which exceeded the limit of 3, hence why the feature (Volume Control over CEC) was not able to function anymore. Removing 1 of the playback devices from the chain fixed my issue.

Thank you everyone for your time once more and have a Happy New Year!

Hey sasaki fujika,

Thanks for that additional information! At this point, we would recommend reaching out to Apple Support. They will have the necessary tools to investigate into this matter more with you: Get Support.

Have a great day.

Hi Sasaki! I have a similar issue with my Sony TV (A80J), however my issue started when I updated my ATV to 16.2.

The issue is that I was able to control the HomePods Volume via eARC using the Sony TV Remote, but now I can’t. Are you able/ Were you always able to do that?

Please let me know if you have any further insights on how this may be fixed if you acquire more information. Thanks!

CEC issues can come at any time. It still remains that Sony has their own implementation of CEC and is responsible to investigate and fix and issues that come up. A similar thing happened with LG in the past, which they did fix via firmware update.

I understand that but CEC functionality here still relies on Sony's implementation. Sometimes it can impact specific devices, which makes it easier to assume the device is at fault, but only the manufacturer can issue the fix because they control their implementation of the protocol.

Of course issues can happen with Apple, but that isn't the case here because each TV manufacturer is responsible for the functionality of CEC. There is also precedent from LG, a very similar scenario where they admitted fault and patched their firmware. If you still want to believe that it's Apple that is your choice, I will leave it at that. Have a nice day.