Discussions

[Limey]

I have the TCL Roku tv connected to the Vizio sound bar via optical and I cannot control the volume of the sound bar with the Roku remote.

I have a Hisense Roku TV in another room with same setup that can control the Vizio sound bar that is connected via optical lead to that  Roku tv . 

Any ideas ? thanks. 

[Tivoburkee]

Go into settings of the roku tv and refresh the cec devices.

Settings> system> control other devices> 

[Limey]

It says no CEC devices found. I thought and was under the impression that only sound bars connected via HDMI could be seen via CEC. But the Hisense and Vizio combo in the other room is by optical only also, and the Roku remote can control its volume, So a little confusing to be honest.

[Tivoburkee]

Yes, you need a hdmi connection for cec. If your only connection is optical, you will need a universal remote that controls roku tv's and soundbars. 

The reason your Hisense roku tv remote controls the vizio soundbar is that the vizio responds to vizio tv commands, and it just happens that Hisense uses the same IR code set as vizio tv's do. So the roku remote has vizio tv commands in its database, which for your luck happens to control both hisense roku tv, and vizio soundbar. Its done be IR only, no passing of commands over wires like cec does. 

As for universal remote I suggest the One-For-All urc-7935 streamer remote, wiorks great on Roku tv's and controls soundbars. Its a one device remote that can control three different devices, certain area of the remote are dedicated to certain device. Its a learning remote too. You can find them cheap on ebay.

[Limey]

Thanks for the explanation. 

[ISayThis]

I don't understand that advice.  I have run "Search for CEC devices" multiple times, but suddenly the TCL Roku TV cannot find any:  "No CEC devices found (press OK to refresh)."  I just see that message over and over again.

I never made any settings changes to my TCL Alto 8+ soundbar, nor my Xbox, nor my Portal TV.  But all of a sudden yesterday, I can't get sound out of the soundbar and my other CEC devices disappeared so that power cycling any of these attached devices no longer flips the TV on or off.

What happened?  And what's the fix?  Or did my TV just die and it can't do HDMI anymore?

[renojim]

@ISayThis, have you tried unplugging the power from the TV for several minutes (and not simply just turning it off an on)?

[ISayThis]

No. What I did to fix it—and it worked—was to unplug the TV and hold down the physical power switch on the bottom of the screen for 20 seconds. Then I plugged back in and everything went back to normal. 

Remaining long-standing issue now is the Alto 8+ which is connected to Alexa but cannot be set up as a speaker in the everywhere group. In the Alexa app, when you try to add it to that group, it t always shows up as “not connected” even though it is. Reconnecting it doesn’t help. And it’ll play Alexa music on its own, just not along with the other speakers in the home. Weird.