We're total noobs when it comes to home entertainment setup. At the moment we have a Samsung smart TV and are looking for an external speakers system, a low budget one. At a glance our options seem to be a 2.1 sound bar or a 5.1 external speakers set. Obviously the latter will require more setup in terms of wiring.

When it comes to the former I was looking at this and use the optical audio output on the TV. Looking at the manual it seems to come with a remote control of its own. It seems to be a common thing amongst most, if not all, sound bars. My question is... can the TV volume through the external speakers be controlled using the TV remote? Or do we need to use yet another remote control?

One of the things we enjoy the most with our smart TV now is being able to do everything we need through the one remote control. That includes Netflix and built-in media player served by a local server. It'd be a pity if we have to go back to multiple remote control again.

Cheers,
D.