TVs & players

[Anduril]

I recently bought a TCL Roku tv. I have a Vizio soundbar and my new remote is not controlling the soundbar. I have the soundbar hooked into the optical port and it sounds great. The remote just won’t control it. Pairing issue? Use a different cable?

[renojim]

The remote won't control sound bars connected via an optical cable.  If you can connect the sound bar to the HDMI-ARC port of the TV, then the remote will send the command to the TV which should control the volume of the connected sound bar.

[Anduril]

On the last tv we had (Vizio) we used a Roku stick and it I was able to control the soundbar. 

My soundbar doesn’t have an hdmi port. It has a usb. Can I run a usb to hdmi connector to hdmi-arc? 

If that doesn’t work, will I have to get a universal remote?

[renojim · Accepted solution]

The other TV and the sound bar were both Vizio?  That probably explains it.

No.  The USB port on the sound bar is probably for playing music off a flash drive.

A multi-device universal remote might be the easiest solution.