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It’s down to the way that different makes of kit implement CEC which is the system that is used to control kit interconnected by HDMI. The Sony CEC implemention Bravia sync has some inconsistencies in the way CEC is implemented with CEC on the Humax box.

I doubt you will be able to fix this. You can however do this using a logitech harmony remote.

Briefly you connect the remote to a PC and login to the Harmony site and add all the devices you want to control.

In your case the TV, Soundbar and Humax box.

You then create a activity say Called Watch Freesat. Pressing the watch Freesat button turns on the Humax PVR TV and Soundbar, selects the HDMI port on the TV the Humax uses. When you turn stop using this activity or switch to another activity the remote turns off any kit the new activity no longer required.

mtec6463 – Perhaps you should try another remote code for the TV.

It should do it.

I am assuming you have the Humax remote with buttons on the top row STB, TV and ON/OFF. I remember early HDR-1000S models were issued with another remote, If you have one then I suggest replacing it with one for a HDR-1100S (will ensure you get the new remote.

In my normal use I have the Humax remote set to STB, to turn both off, I press ON/OFF then TV ON/OFF.

To set up the TV read this FAQ.

mtec6463 – 13 hours ago  » 

Hi thanks for the reply. tried ur suggestion and can now turn on freesat, tv and sound bar ok with the humax remote . still have to use the sony remote to turn everything off but thats not a major problem. When i set the freest box to multi channel in the audio prefs the sound seems better through my sony sound bar but i loose the ability to control the volume using the Humax remote any idea of how i can control the volume with this setting engaged? if i switch to stereo then i can use the Humax remote to control volume no problem but then it seems like I’m loosing quality of audio. My setup is sony bravia smart tv sony sound bar and humax freest box HDR 1000s.

Because the audio on HD channels is Dolby Digital which has the volume level encoded in the digital audio data screen, the only way to vary it is after the audio is decoded (in this case by your sound bar). Switching to the stereo option for the digital audio out causes the box to recode Dolby Digital to Mpeg1 layer 2 (aka mp2). .mp2 can be volume controlled at source which is why the box volume control then works. This option is required for those TV’s with no Dolby Digital de-coding capability.

Using somthing like a Logitech Harmony programmeable remote you can assign volume control to your sound bar while retaining the other box controls like guide recordings etc on the single remote.

You are correct Dolby Digital audio in addition to offering 5.1 audio when transmitted has a wider dynamic range than .mp2 which is pretty obvious if you have speakers capable of the full range transmitted. It’s still not as good as the audio you can get from the so called lossless formats on a blu-ray disk. eg Dolby True HD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_TrueHD

mtec6463 – 1 hour ago  » 

Thanks for the prompt reply. Im sure a 2019 sony Bravia smart tv will have the Dolby digital decoding capability. Also I’m sure i did have it set to multi channel and it worked although when going thru stuff i must have pressed something and that stopped working. I have the sound bar connected via HDMI going into the Arc socket on the tv and also optical from the tv to the sound bar. do you think this could be a problem? seems weird when i unplug the optical connection i loose all sound even though its still connected via HDMI. This as i stated in my original post if for my inlaw’s who are both in there 80’s and a bit hard of hearing. I chose the bravia and the sony sound bar to give them a better sound but i wanted to just use the freest remote to turn on all the gear and give better sound. seems like I’ve opened a can of worms.

Some TV’s cannot pass Dolby Digital input to a HDMI socket and output it from the single HDMI socket that is ARC capable which I imagine your sound bar requires. Some soundbars can use bluetooth for the audio. Seems that your TV may be one.

If you are set up correctly, you should have no need for the optical cable.

It should be something like this:-

TV (hdmi ARC) to soundbar.

Humax into TV via any other hdmi port.

You may need to go into the TV settings to activate the ARC port?

When using the soundbar, select “TV” (or it may be called ARC, or hdmi 1/2/3?).

One thing to consider is that using super cheap hdmi cables, poundshop hobbies etc, will possibly not work correctly with ARC, you don’t need mega expensive but just reasonable.

With regard to the sound, set it to stereo and then go into the TV audio settings and tweak a few things, there are probably options for voice clarity, film, general etc etc. I doubt very much that your Mum needs anything such as surround sound etc, she just wants to be able to hear what she is watching. Then go into the settings on the soundbar and see if any other tweaks improve things.