I switched to Roku recently, and had a challenge with both my TV's in that the Roku remote can be programmed to control the TV volume, but in the case of optical connection (I used on both TVs) it cannot control a soundbar or receiver. Options seem to include (a) live with it and use a second remote for volume (blah), (2) buy a 'sideclick' add-on that attaches to the Roku remote and can control the volume via infrared, (3) replace the Roku remote with an aftermarket Roku clone remote or other universal remote that relies entirely on IR, (4) replace the soundbar, receiver, and/or TV until you have at least ARC if not eARC connections on both TV and soundbar/receiver.Yep. It depends on the capabilities. My receiver predates HDMI (which resulted in paying about 10% of the original price). My HDMI devices are plugged into the TV, including the Roku, and then I use the optical out to send audio to the receiver. It works pretty well.
No ARC needed in this setup, but I suppose TV manufacturers have probably stopped including optical audio out on most models by now.
I'm wondering which option you are happy with, and just maybe whether I'm missing something (!).
For my upstairs TV, I found there was a fairly inexpensive TCL branded soundbar that connects wirelessly with a TCL Roku TV, so I got that and my problem went away --- it works very nice, and sounds good enough (I'm not an audiophile).
I'm still pondering for my downstairs setup. My TV has HDMI ARC, but my old receiver does not. I think I'll start off with the Sideclick as it's cheap to try, but I'm afraid that it's going to feel kind of awkward, plus for my wife I'd really like the remotes to be just identical upstairs and down. I really don't like the idea of an all-IR remote, I hate having to accurately point the remote for every operation. Replacing the receiver sounds kind of crazy for this stupid small problem (!), but maybe Dolby Atmos would give me enough benefit that I would notice (without replacing any speakers though ...).
This is one area where FireTV is better; their remotes can be programmed to control other devices, the Roku remote is just stupidly limited in that way IMO. But the FireTV interface just became too annoying for me, I had to quit. And hope that Roku financial challenges don't cause them to start making their interface a lot more annoying in future !
Statistics: Posted by xb7 — Fri Jan 26, 2024 8:54 am — Replies 15 — Views 967