Bose INvisible

[thammoud]

Hello,

When we bought our house about 10 years ago, it came with a surround sound speaker system in the family room. The receiver/amp is installed in the basement with no secondary devices in the family room other that 2 pairs of RCA jacks that we plug in the audio to. There is also a coax cable that I must connect to some input on the TV or no audio is heard. Maybe some ground of some sort. We have no clue who installed this thing and the Bose website does not even mention it. This is a home-builder installed device.

With our really old TV, we would connect an audio out to the wall (Where a pair of RCA jacks are available) and we can control the volume level using the TV remote. The is also a manual switch to control the volume in the family room. Everything was working fine.

A few years ago, we bought the Samsung DLP TV and tried to the same connection but for whatever reason, we can no longer control the volume using the remote. I thought that was some Samsung TV issue and did not bother ever since.

We bought an Apple TV and decided to connect the audio out to the wall RCA receivers (We are using component cables). We can hear the audio fine but again, no remote control volume control using the Apple TV remote.

Can someone please explain why doesn't the remote volume control work? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

What you need to check (and I'll take a look at the AppleTV manual) is if the audio outputs on the Samsung or Apple TV are variable (so, controlled by the remote) or constant. Some audio outputs are not variable, so the remote won't affect them at all. Others are variable.

I can't think of any other reason for why it would be acting differently. The receiver doesn't know what is sending the audio signal, just that it's getting one. It has to be the source (Samsung or AppleTV) that is causing the difference.

Adam

 

[Adam]

Okay, from the AppleTV set-up guide (page 23):

"Note: The + and - on the Apple Remote don’t control the volume on your TV or receiver. Use the remote that came with your TV or receiver to change the volume."​

So, that explains it for the AppleTV. Which Samsung TV do you have?

 

[thammoud]

Thanks Adam. Assuming that the audio output is constant, can I connect the audio from these devices to some form of a receiver that can be variable? I am completly out of my league here. Again, thank you for your quick reply.

 

[Adam]

Thanks Adam. Assuming that the audio output is constant, can I connect the audio from these devices to some form of a receiver that can be variable? I am completly out of my league here. Again, thank you for your quick reply.

No problem!

We can certainly help you find a component that could go between the TV (or AppleTV) and the wall jacks that would allow you to change the volume. Before that, though, I'd like to look into your Samsung's manual and see if I can help you set it up so that you can change the volume using the audio outputs on it.

 

[thammoud]

HLN4365 is the Samsung model. Just out of curiosity, what will the + and - do then on the Apple TV?

 

[Adam]

HLN4365 is the Samsung model. Just out of curiosity, what will the + and - do then on the Apple TV?

Cool. I'll try to look up the manual for that TV.

According to the diagram on page 22 of the AppleTV manual, the + and - buttons are used to navigate (scroll up and down in) the menus.

 

[Adam]

For the life of me, I can't find anything in the Samsung manual that mentions changing the audio outputs to variable. The only mention of them is in regards to connecting a VCR, so that has me confident that they are not variable. Bummer.

I'm looking into inexpensive remote-controlled volume boxes now.

 

[Adam]

Okay, I'm clearly not thinking the right way at the moment, because I'm not finding what I'm looking for. The best bet so far is something like this, but it's just a kit.

Does the Bose receiver have a remote control? If so, and it's an IR remote, you can buy remote control "extenders" (like this) that would allow you to use the remote control where your TV is and have the signal broadcast to the Bose receiver. If the Bose reciever has an RF remote, then you might be able to use it without hooking anything else up.

 

[thammoud]

The Bose receiver does not have a remote. It is a large piece of hardware in my basement. I am geting the feeling that I bought a really crappy TV. Oh well, may be it is time to by a new one. It is a shame given that this one has a really nice picture but not much flexibility. For the life of me, I can not figure out the "Audio out" on this TV. Again, I can not thank you enough for your help and prompt responses.

 

[Adam]

You're very welcome!

I had read before (I believe) that Samsung TVs, at least some of them, don't have variable audio outputs - so it's not just your TV. The audio can definitely be handled, so don't feel like you should get a new TV just to control the volume! If you like the picture, that's the important part.

As you mentioned, a receiver would definitely be able to control the volume using a remote control (as long as the receiver has pre-amp outputs). The reason that I was looking for something else is that I wouldn't want for you to spend more than necessary, and get a box that is larger than necessary. All you need is a way to control the level of the signal that is coming from the TV (or AppleTV) and going to the jacks in the wall. Volume controls use a variable resistor (potentiometer) to do that, and you just need one that can be controlled by a remote control. That can definitely be found - I just wasn't finding anything, but I was probably using the wrong key words in my search.

Hopefully some others will chime in on this, because I know it's got to be a simple fix.

 

[Adam]

Does anyone else have some ideas?

Thanks.

 

[thammoud]

Output volume

Ignoring the variable output for a second, for the life of me, I can not get the audio out of the TV to the speakers. Wouldn't this be the first problem to tackle? Thanks Adam.

 

[Adam]

Ignoring the variable output for a second, for the life of me, I can not get the audio out of the TV to the speakers. Wouldn't this be the first problem to tackle? Thanks Adam.

Definitely sounds like the first problem to tackle. Sorry for the delay, but I took a day off from this place.

Do you have the "Monitor Out" left and right audio jacks on the TV connected to the audio jacks on your wall? If so, do you have the Bose receiver turned on and the volume knob on the wall turned up above zero?