I found a sonos playbar for 20 dollars at a goodwill, merry Christmas to me! I have it connected to my Philips google tv through a digital optical audio cable, and although I have external audio system selected in the audio settings, sound still comes through the tv. Why can I not manage to fully disable the tv sound so the remote doesn’t continue to control it and the soundbar at the same time? Am I missing something obvious?
Not sure in your TV but I have Sony and I have a second option which I think is pretty cool that says "TV speakers act as a central speaker of your audio system", and I think it sounds wonderful. I have no latency problems because the Soundbar is connected through eArc and I think they negotiate the delay through that, with an optical cable the TV sounds first and the Soundbar second and it made like an echo effect.
EDIT: Even with that option enabled I didn't have that remote control problem, again through eArc the TV controls the volume of the Soundbar.