Sound bar blocks remote signal

[caney97]

I have just purchased a Sony 49” HDR tv with a Sony 5.1 surround system. If I place the tv on the tv cabinet and then stand the sound bar in front of the foot, the line of sight for the remote control is blocked. I have had to build a double shelf unit that the sound bar fits inside and then the tv on top. This fixes the problem but what a daft design. Anyone else suffered the same problem?

[royabrown]

Yes, I had this issue. The low, central, placing of the IR detector on these sets has been an issue since day 1 for soundbar users.

Having calculated how high I would have to elevate my 43in set to clear my Orbitsound soundbar, and having heard how badly the sound was affected if I moved the soundbar lower down the rack, I was very pleased when John Lewis kindly agreed to take the Orbitsound back and I got a Yamaha YSP2500 instead.

While this still physically blocks the sensor on the TV, it has IR passthrough, so it picks up the signals from the Sony remote on its IR sensor, and plays them on through an IR repeater in the back of the soundbar, which the Sony TV then picks up.

Another solution is to use a soundbase, which the TV sits on, instead of a soundbar; or get a full-blown surround system, though even here the centre speaker can be problematic.

But there are very many soundbars incompatible with these sets