Get TV Remote to control Vintage Receiver Volume

[James]

Hey guys, why can't I control the audio from my receiver with my TV's included remote?

• I have a vintage receiver that is connected to my Samsung smart TV only through TOSLINK, (receiver does not have HDMI) 
• when I watch content on the TV, like YouTube, I can hear it come through my stereo speakers and the TV's speakers
• when I adjust the volume with the TV remote, only the TV speaker volume is affected
• to adjust the receiver volume I have to walk over and turn the knobs on the receiver.

HOWEVER! I recently had an Android TV box (the Mi Box S) hooked up, and when I used its remote I could adjust the receivers volume. But why?

 

Looking for solutions! 

• do I just need a new remote?
• Is there a TV setting I can change?
• Do I have to get a new receiver than has HDMI?
• or maybe just anything that plugs into the TV's HDMI (like the Mi Box was)?

[circeseye]

did you program the tv remote for the receiver? usually you have to program them for other devices, if the remote supports controlling other devices. other wise you'll need an all in one remote....and i believe the mi box had a all in one remote thats why you could control the receiver.

[tikker]

On my AVR (Denon X1400H) my TV remote (also Samsung) only controls the volume when outputting over HDMI and not over TOSLINK, so I think it's limited to HDMI (or at least excludes TOSLINK)