Managing soundbar volume with Siri remote.

so should we buy new sound bars? Is this an apple v Samsung thing? Or will something change soon?

I Am in the same boat, Samsung sound bar. I am wondering if it is the cec issue as well, it eliminates the iR. I hope this gets fixed. If someone hears something please share it here. I will do the same. Thank you!

If you connect the TV to the Sound bar via digital optical, the new apple tv's remote will control volume of sound bar via the TV? thanks 🙂

I have the same problem with a newly purchased Samsung sound bar connected via optical digital.

The Samsungs are notoriously bad. I have a FW-H355 that exhibits the same behavior.

I was unable to get my TiVo Premiere's remote to send IR commands to the sound bar either. I tried a Samsung firmware upgrade on the sound bar, but that did nothing. I think the thing we need is any evidence anywhere of someone controlling the Samsung sound bars with a remote other than the included one.

My sound bar is connected to the TV via the optical cable; the TV is set to only use the sound bar. The Samsung TV is capable of turning the Samsung sound bar on when the TV turns on, which is great.

I'm also unable to get my TiVo remote to control the sound bar. BUT, the Harmony universal remotes ARE capable of it; both my older "550" model and the current "Harmony Home Hub" I'm using.

As others have stated above, the AppleTV claims it's learned the signals (I've used both the Harmony and the original remotes to train it), but while the remote claims it's working, and the light on the AppleTV blinks when I press vol-up or down, nothing happens to the sound bar.

I'm hoping that Apple can (and does!) fix this in a software update. It's really pretty frustrating...

After reading the posts, it sounds like its more of a Samsung problem

Yes. With Bose sound bar is working perfectly. Easy to set up also.

Yes and no.

The fact other sound bars work with the AppleTV remote indicates that there's a Samsung issue, but the fact that other remotes can control the Samsung sound bar indicates that Apple has a problem. The fact the AppleTV sees the IR signal from the Samsung remote and completes the learning process is the "bug" here. The TV seems to see the IR signal, but isn't capable of repeating it.

I have the same Samsung Sound bar, and like you I can't use the Siri remote to change the volume despite training the thing to use my Samsung remote. So I'm fairly sure it's just a matter of Apple updating the IR codes for the remote.

Same issue here.

How can we bring this issue to Apple?

I'm going to contact  support in the morning, and I'll post the results of that call here. I'm hoping they can fix this, as it makes no sense to have volume controls on the Siri remote if I can't use them to control the volume.

I got it to work! (sort of)

TV: Panasonic

Soundbar: ****tsung

I had this problem as well, my Apple TV was connected to my TV via HDMI with an optical cable from my TV to my soundbar. I thought I would try CEC (Consumer Electronic Control) as others have suggested. CEC for Panasonic is called VIERALink, I pressed the VIERAlink button on my TV remote, there was an option for "Speaker output" but it was grayed out (****). But they I thought, technically it's HDMI-CEC! Not just CEC, so I changed my setup.

Apple TV to Soundbar input (via HDMI) then Soundbar output (via HDMI) to TV

Sure enough the VIERA Link "Speaker output" option on my TV is no longer grayed out, I changed the setting from "TV" to home theater.

Now I can do the following...

-Panasonic TV Remote: Adjust Audio, Mute, Navigate and Select (yes, I can actually use the remote arrows to do this), the remote return button works as well.

-Siri Remote:Adjust Audio, Obviously Navigate and Select and all it's other fun features.

-Soundbar Remote: Just Adjust Audio of course.

Oh and when I hold the home button on my Apple TV and the screen pops asking me if I want to put my Apple TV and devices to sleep, all three devices turn off! Glorious! When repeating this action to turn them back on, only the soundbar and the Apple TV come back on. But I guess that's alright! One step closer.

Hope this helps some of you!

Note: My Volume Control setting is "TV via IR" under Remotes and Devices (Under the settings on my Apple TV).

<Edited by Host>

That's great for Samsung sounders that take HDMI in. Many models don't have HDMI/ARC, they only allow for digital out over an optical connection, and thus need IR remote support.

That's a good point! Darn, well, hopefully it helps some. As for the others, hopefully Apple takes notice!