NEW: Improved Apple TV support for HDMI-CEC and Bluetooth remotes

[pdaphone]

@Fofer

Yes, thanks, that works on my bedroom Sony TV, but that’s a simpler setup where I typically just use the AppleTV remote.

The issue is with my 75” Samsung TV in the living room, which has a much more complicated array of devices. I use the Harmony 650 remote in that room. And unfortunately the Samsung remote’s CC button doesn’t toggle Closed Captions, instead it pulls up the TV’s accessibility menu :-/

That's too bad. I am starting to really dig the Sony TV's remote for my daily driver with Channels and Apple TV in general. It also handles the only other device I have which is a BluRay player. I have noticed that our bedroom Sony is a year older its buttons aren't layed out quite as perfectly, but pretty close. The only bad thing about the Sony is that it has some other buttons that take you into Google TV so have to just avoid them. But the TV button will bring you back.

[tmm1]

@pdaphone

Any progress on this?

Have you tried the updated testflight builds? It should have been fixed.

[tmm1]

@Fofer

Is there any way for me to program a button to toggle Closed Captions?

There's no way to do this at the moment.

One option now available via the latest testflight: you can enable subtitles on the TV using an iPhone or iPad via the Control Center (or Home screen) remote widget.

[pdaphone]

@tmm1

Have you tried the updated testflight builds? It should have been fixed.

Yes, working there. I need to remember to check there.

[tmm1]

4.0.4 is available on the App Store with the fix

[pdaphone]

I'm sure this was initially working correctly, but now it seems like the channel up/down keys while in the Guide are paging more than one page forward and back, so some of the channels get skipped. Are others seeing this?

[Jason_Trippe]

Is there a command to set on the harmony hub for previous channel? I’ve got everything else working flawlessly but didn’t see a command for previous channel

[Macnbaish]

Pressing play twice will return to previous channel, I believe. So you can create a macro for that and assign it to a button.

[Jason_Trippe]

That worked. Thank you!

[mjcxp]

I setup a Sony remote and everything seems to work perfectly except channel changing. If I press the channel up/down keys it skips two channels instead of one. Is there a way to fix this?

[pdaphone]

The Sony remote also moves more than a page in the Guide when you hit Channel up or down.

[Tom_Leach]

@tmm1

DIY

Finally, it is also possible to build your own bluetooth controller with a raspberry pi or similar. See for example this or this . It should also be possible to combine a FLIRC with a RPI to translate IR remote commands into bluetooth commands

Has anyone tried this or had any success in this area. I've played with the 2 methods suggested here a few times with no luck.

[bostondvr]

Hi Folks:

Question about HDMI-CEC. I've got 3 ATV's where I'm using a variety of Harmony IR remotes.

My older Panasonic plasma works the best. I can bring up the guide by pressing "Guide (Green button), can use number keys to type in a channel to skip to, and use Ch Up/Down in the guide to skip to the next page in the guide. Brilliant!

But my newere LG and Samsung TV's aren't working quite as well. I can get the guide to come up (green button) which was my biggest need. This now works. But when I"m in guide the Channel up/down doesn't work at all. I get a "Unavailable" message on the Samsung and a the LG just does nothing. It's almost as if because both of these TV's are new "SMART" TV's and I'm on an HDMI port then they have disabled the channel up/down functionality. Same thing with typing in channel numbers to change directly to a channel. They don't work.

Any thoughts on a hack to fix this? My TV's are passing the HDMI-CEC to the ATV for the Guide and Red/Green/yellow/Blue buttons. But Ch Up/Down and 0-9 buttons don't work.

Thanks!

[mgantt87]

Same issue here. I haven’t been able to figure it out yet. Hopefully someone has some suggestions.

[patfraley]

I have no idea what I am doing wrong. When I add a windows computer device it then goes to connect with bluetooth and i end up in an endless loop. Also, when i added the hub to the apple tv it shows up as Harmony Keyboard and not Harmony Remote ( if it makes any difference). Any suggestions?

[davemen]

@tmm1 - I didn't see an API interface for calling up the guide. I'm trying to connect this up to an ELAN Home System with an HR2 Remote Control. Any advice on how to get that going is appreciated.

[agentk66]

Are you using this with a TV that supports the Channels app like a Sony with Android TV?

I was not able to get the favorites to work with my AppleTV 4K Channels app and the Harmony Ultimate One remote. The numbers are sent via the LG TV remote and Channels doesn't recognize it.

[racameron]

@agentk66

The numbers are sent via the LG TV remote and Channels doesn't recognize it.

Not all TV models send all keys via CEC. My Vizio TVs do not send the number key presses, either.

[agentk66]

Richard,

Can you post your device versions and settings?

I’m running with the following and the color buttons do not work. I am able to navigate, select & use the back buttons. The color buttons, number keys, and channel up/down do not work.

AppleTV 4K latest TvOS
LG OLED55GXPUA latest LG WebOS
SIMPLINK enabled
AppleTV control devices enabled.

Thank you.