Finally got my Vero V box yesterday to replace my aging (well… not really) Odroid N2. Plugged it into my aging (well… not really) Samsung QN90A TV and I am finally able to play DV5 files. 
The only problem is the volume buttons on the Vero V remote don’t seem to do anything. As in, I press the buttons and nothing happens. Do I need to manually map them to adjust TV/Soundbar volume via CEC?
The remote volume buttons have no effect on Vero if you are using passthrough with, eg, DTS or DD audio. If you enable CEC (Settings-System-Input-Peripherals-CEC adapter) you should find they adjust your AVR/soundbar volume. It seems to be impossible to adjust a TV’s volume by CEC though.
Thanks @graham. I don’t have pass-through and I am pretty sure CEC is enabled (will check when I get home).
My setup is actually Vero → TV → Soundbar (via ARC). But for the sake of simplicity I was trying to get it working with the TV speakers first. Should I be able to at least control soundbar volume that way?
Do you know why it’s impossible to control TV volume that way? Is that limitation of the Samsung TV? I’ve set up a couple of Panasonic TVs with Apple TV at work, and I am able to control TV volume through CEC with the Apple TV remote.
In my experience, TVs don’t identify themselves as a sound device on the CEC network. I gave up trying to change volume on my TV with CEC long ago. YMMV of course.
A TV is always going to be a TV as far as CEC device types go and Kodi has intentionally programmed Kodi such that it will only send CEC volume control if it sees an amplifier type device on the bus. As such unless Kodi changes this behavior it doesn’t really matter if any particular display supports accepting volume control or not as Kodi isn’t going to send volume messaging to it.
If your soundbar is connected to your TV then Kodi should send CEC volume commands to it, but if it is off then this may pose an issue where Kodi doesn’t switch its volume control scheme if the soundbar is actually still reporting itself on the CEC bus. What Kodi does as far as volume and keymapping, is that if there is no CEC amplifier type device (ie soundbar or AVR) Kodi will adjust PCM output volume internally. In this way one could have the TV volume turned up to whatever max volume they wanted and then a remote running through Kodi would then adjust the volume on the preamplifier side. If passthrough is enabled and you play a file that is being passed through (ie AC3, DTS, etc.) then the volume adjustment will not actually adjust anything as it can’t modify bitstream, only PCM. Since some setups can be a bit hard to understand on this topic it may be helpful to review the following guide that goes into some depth on various setups…
So, the OSMC remote does work with the soundbar… sort of. For some reason the soundbar doesn’t show current volume level, when I press Vol+ and Vol-.
I guess I am going to give up for now and stay with my TV remote instead.
I got excited when I saw the OSMC remote, because it has the Info, ☰, Play and Stop buttons (which my TV remote doesn’t). But, unfortunately, without working volume control buttons it’s not very useful. Or, as the saying goes: “All that glitters is not gold”
Is the Vero plugged into the soundbar or the TV? Is the volume level indicator you’re referring to generated by the soundbar? I ask because an overlay from a soundbar/AVR is only displayed on video that runs through it so a device connected to a TV and then the audio passed downstream via ARC isn’t going to show an overlay as your viewing a different video input.
Vero → TV → Soundbar
Well there are 2 indicators.
One is overlaid on the TV when I use the TV remote. Interestingly, I am pretty sure it’s also shown on the TV when I use soundbar remote (will verify that when I get home tonight).
There is also a small LCD screen on the soundbar which shows current volume level, when I press Vol +/- on the TV or soundbar remote.
But, when I use the OSMC remote I see no indicator on the TV and the LCD screen on the soundbar only shows + and -, and not the current level.
I kinda figured that too, so I would be happy to just have the volume on the LCD screen on the soundbar, but alas it’s not there either.
I have two other devices, which is why I decided to plug them all into the TV and use eARC (soundbar only has 2 inputs). Plus this way I only need to use one remote to turn on/off the TV, switch inputs and control volume.
I think if I could somehow make Kodi direct its Vol +/- commands at the TV, that would solve my problem. But, as you said above, it is seemingly not possible…
I am going to try:
Vero → Soundbar → TV
and see if that gives me volume overlay. I don’t use one of the devices that often, so maybe that will work out in the end.
The only other complication is that I sometimes use Bluetooth headphones at night. Right now they are paired to the TV and as soon as I turn them on the volume automatically switches from eARC to the headphones…
Does Vero support audio output through Bluetooth? Will it be able to automatically switch and downmix to stereo when I turn on the headphones?
Based on your further comments it sounds like Kodi isn’t seeing the soundbar on the CEC bus and as such isn’t switching the volume control scheme. Another indicator that this is the case is that when you push the volume control buttons you should see a volume indicator in Kodi (at least with most skins I assume). With Kodi’s default skin Estuary the volume indicator will be a circle that shows up at the top center of the screen and then goes away after a couple seconds. I’d suggest to unplug from the wall your TV, Vero, and soundbar, and then plug it back in after a few seconds. This should reset the CEC device assignments and can sometimes fix this type of situation.
As for the BT headphones the Vero does support them by directly pairing them to the Vero, but this might not be the ideal setup in your case as it sounds like you are digesting media from more than just the Vero and switching which device is paired to your headphones would be a major PITA. I’d think you should still be able to just keep doing the BT through the TV as the Vero in this regard shouldn’t act any different than any other video input device. I’d think that your TV would downmix the audio on its own. Some soundbars and AVR’s also allow you to do this type of thing by setting a input that passes through them when they are turned off. You would have to consult the manual of your hardware to see if it has this feature.
Thanks for all your comments @darwindesign. I’ve spent some time with the system last night and here are my final findings:
I currently have the system set up as Vero → TV → Soundbar.
When I select soundbar as an output device on the TV (via eARC), I do have volume control with OSMC remote. There is just no feedback beyond + and - signs showing on the small soundbar LCD screen. Both the TV and the soundbar remotes give me visual feedback overlaid on the TV. Both devices are Samsung, and I suspect they use some proprietary CEC extensions to do that.
When I switch the TV to TV speakers (which I sometimes do at night) I don’t have volume control with OSMC remote. Only the TV remote works. Thankfully I can also control Vero V with this remote (via CEC), it’s just less convenient as the TV remote is lacking several buttons.
Switching to Vero → Soundbar → TV did not make a difference.
Anyway, none of this is a big deal. I will just use OSMC remote when playing through the soundbar (which I do most of the time). And at night, when playing through the TV, I can use the TV remote.
If it annoys me enough, I will look into CEC at some point… maybe there is a way to direct vol+ and vol- commands at the TV instead of the Soundbar over CEC. For now, I am OK.
At present there is not. Most TV’s do not support CEC volume control, and even if they did, Kodi has never supported this and AFAIK has no workaround for Kodi to alter this behavior.
You might have options for increasing the number of buttons your TV remote will send to the Vero however. You could install the Keymap Editor add-on and see what your TV is actually forwarding over the CEC bus. The following thread has the gist of what I’m referring to…
My remote looks like this:
The button with 4 colored dots shows an overlay on the screen where you can select red, green, yellow or blue button, or any of the 0-9 numbers using the arrow and select keys.
The play/pause button also shows an overlay that remaps the arrow buttons into play/pause/prev/next.
All other buttons map to different TV functions (menu, volume, channel, etc.)
So technically, I do have a lot more functions that are only a few hundred clicks away… 
They must have been inspired by this old video:
I know for sure some Panasonic models support that. About a week ago I set up 86" TV for someone with Apple TV and was able to control TV volume through CEC.
When I get a chance I will try to do the same with my Samsung TV and will at least find out that can be done.
As far Kodi limitation, is that a programming thing? If so, I don’t mind getting my hands dirty if it bothers me enough. 
I’d be inclined to find a new remote for my TV if it looked like that. That doesn’t look friendly at all.
Yes. I haven’t looked into it in years, but I hadn’t caught wind of the old behavior changing. I remember reading on Kodi’s forum (10+ years ago probably) that the person who programed Kodi’s CEC implementation had tested a bunch of displays and found that almost none of them supported taking the volume commands when sent to them. As such they developed the scheme that if an amplifier device was reporting on the bus it would switch from internal volume control to sending CEC volume commands which are directed to the amplifier type device. There is no setting to change this behavior that I’ve seen in guisettings.xml, not any extra volume commands in any of the keymapping or action id Kodi wiki’s, nor any mention of a related control in the advancedsettings.xml wiki which leads me to believe that it is hard coded behavior in Kodi.
