TCL C8K (qm8K) simultaneous TV speakers + soundbar setup guide. Tutti Choral setup guide.

Today, I saw a post on another popular forum about how to set up simultaneous audio output through both TV speakers and a soundbar on recent TCL TVs, i.e. Tutti Choral feature. I tried this setup guide on my C8K, and it works. Many people on the subreddit have been asking if this is possible and how to set it up, so here's the guide I followed, courtesy of user "Dimsonspb" and his sources.

1. Enable the Developer Options on your TV by clicking mulltiple times on Android TV OS build version in the System - About settings.

2. Enable the USB Debugging option in the System - Developer Options

3. Setup ADB on your PC (follow the guide https://www.xda-developers.com/install-adb-windows-macos-linux/)

4. Connect ADB to your TV by running "adb connect [IP of your TV]". The IP of your TV can be seen in Network & Internet settings.

5. Install an app which forces simultaneous sound on the TV and the soundbar either via USB or with "adb install [apk file]". The apk was provided on that forum by the mentioned user, I just reuploaded it on my personal google drive. The app is completely on Chinese and is used to force some commands from within the app instead of manually running the commands from ADB each time. I didn't check the file on the malware, so be mindful of that: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nz0vZwU4pWrme-mtL7vb9BVIS-Ty576X/view?usp=drive_link

6. Run the following command to give the app necessary permission"adb shell pm grant com.tutti.choral android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS"

7. Open the newly installed Tutti Choral app, you'll see three buttons with names and desription on Chinese. you need to click the most top button, you'll get a small notification on Chinese with a "(1)" inside the text. To disable the feature press the same button again, you'll see a notification with "(0)] inside the text.

8. That's it, from here on you'll have the sound coming both from the TV and the soundbar. The volume buttons now control both volumes at the same time. to disable the feature see step 7.

Personally, I didn't like the overall result. The TV speakers and the soundbar do indeed play simultaneously but they are slightly out of sync, and all the sound channels are played by the TV. It means that the sound moves spatially closer to the TV and the surround channel positioning and separation is kinda ruined IMO. But you're free to try it yourself.