Volume on screen display not shown using Theatre Bar 8 on Sony Bravia TV

[Colster88]

I have a Sony A8 OLED TV connected to the Sony Theatre Bar 8 sound bar. When using the remote for the soundbar to change volume (or indeed perform any function) the on screen display on the television does not appear to show the volume level. The volume itself does go up and down but the on screen display is not shown. Is this expected? As there is no display on the soundbar itself, I would have expected the volume slider to be shown on the tv when changing volume, as my previous Sony sound bar did. Interested if anyone else has this issue.

[LightFoot]

Hi @Colster88   Just checking that you have the sound bar connected o the TV using a HDMI cable to the ARC port on the TV.

[Colster88]

Hi @LightFoot yes I can confirm the soundbar is connected to the eARC port of the TV when I experience the issue described. 

[LightFoot]

Hi @Colster88   I suppose the next question is the software on the TV up to date (full model number of TV?). Also is Bravia Sync turned on on both TV and Sound bar and you can control the sound bar with the TV’s remote.

[Colster88]

Yes, soundbar software fully up to date (confirmed via  the Sony Bravia Connect app that is used to set up and control the soundbar), and TV software up to date too (confirmed via TV Settings > About menu where I checked for system updates). 
TV model is Sony Bravia A80L 55” OLED 4kVH22. Soundbar model is Theatre Bar 8 A8000. Bravia Sync is active and enabled. I am able to control the soundbar via the TV remote and that part is working fine. What isn’t quite right (unless it’s intentional) is that when I use the soundbar remote to change the volume the tv on-screen display does not appear to reflect the volume is being changed so there is no way to know what volume it is set to. Similarly when enabling night mode or voice mode this is not reflected onscreen visually despite the integration between the two devices. 

[LightFoot]

Hi @Colster88 

My suspicion (and that is all it is) is the volume scale is different on the two devices. On my old Sony AV Amp I only ever used the TV remote, but the volume level shown on the TV was always half of what was shown on the AV Amp display. For example, the AV Amp display would show 38 and on the TV screen 19. I never ever used the AV Amp remote so cannot confirm your issue. Today the sound from my XR-55A95K is so good I flogged my sound bars and AV Amp.

Thinking about it, the volume would not have shown on the TV using the AV Amp remote because up one to 39 would mean 19.5 on the TV.

Perhaps someone will be along soon, with other ideas.

[royabrown2]

@Colster88 @LightFoot 

Not Sony, but I have an LG GX TV with an LG GX soundbar, connected by eARC.

The soundbar has a volume indicator on the front.

Change volume with TV remote: a symbol appears right/middle on the TV and indicates if the volume is going up or down, but shows no quantitative value. The volume display on the soundbar, which is a number, increases or decreases.

Change volume with soundbar remote: No indication is given on the TV. The volume display on the soundbar, which is a number, increases or decreases.

I would query whether eARC or the HDMI port providing it has any capability to feed back volume information to the TV, or to get it to display it; but as the soundbar is the same make as the TV, and designed specifically for it, I am sure LG would have done this if they could, even if it had to be proprietary.

Certainly, arguments between myself and my wife as to whether its too quiet (me) or too loud (her) have to be decided by what volume number is being shown, and without it, rolling pins would be involved.

I think the takeaway here is don’t buy a soundbar without any sort of display, if you want to know what’s going on 😢

[SatoruGojo]

@Colster88 did you try to do a power cycle for both devices? Connect them with a high speed HDMI 

[Colster88]

Haha this is sound advice indeed.

[Colster88]

Yes - I have completed a power cycle on both devices and have a certified ultra high speed hdmi cable connecting the tv to the soundbar.