Using TiVo 4K Stream Remote w/ Apple TV

[ert]

Q: Why would you want to do this?

A: You probably don’t unless you already have a Tivo 4K remote you aren’t using, want a number key pad, channel up/down & guide button…and can tolerate the lack of a home button.

I have love/hate relationship with this remote (as for the Tivo4K itself: that’s mostly hate ). Having now replaced both of my TiVo 4K’s with ATV’s, decided try to pair my TiVo remote with an Apple TV. Unsurprisingly there’s a lot of buttons that don’t work at all but I am liking it as a spare remote for Channels since both the Guide and the channel numbers work - giving me something the Siri Remote doesn’t. And the volume/mute buttons work for Airplay & BT (which is what I use). Presumably those two along with the power & input buttons will work via CEC for a compatible TV.

I don’t watch much live tv but the number buttons are handy to have when I do and the remote might be a good fit for my wife since she’d only use it for Channels. The lack of a HOME button might be an advantage there.

Biggest annoyance aside from no Home button is that you have to use the circle (Android home) button for Back. Also no way to bring up control center though weirdly a double press of the circle button works for task switcher which is the easiest way to get to the Home screen.

Since there are Tivo remote is both Bt and IR you might wondering if you can learn the unused buttons. I’ve not had any luck with that since the remote behaves differently once it’s paired it seems. With factory reset & not bt paired, some buttons do send an IR signal and could be learned - (including the Netflix button!). But once BT paired, it doesn’t seem to send IR signals for most buttons. Still want to experiment with this a bit but it’s not promising.

Green: Works for everything in ATV
Purple: Works with Channels
Red X: Does not work at all

[florlynch]

Just checking to see if any further progress? Just put Channels on 3 Apple TVs after moving from TiVo so this would be very popular in my house.

[Fofer]

I'm not sure about that particular "TiVo 4K Stream Remote" but I can say, that any old TiVo peanut remote can be used with an AppleTV because the AppleTV can learn remote control commands from any infrared remote. It's a very cool feature, check it out:

Use other remotes to control Apple TV

I sometimes use this old TiVo (infrared) remote in the bedroom to control AppleTV, the ergonomics are ideal, especially when channel surfing. Lots of keys (like the number keys) don't work though, no big loss in my case. It can do everything the AppleTV remote can do, except for Siri voice requests of course, and touchpad stuff (like scrubbing in the timeline.) But it works fine for the basics, and everything else I've needed.

This is the one I set up, very easily by teaching the commands individually, at Settings > Remotes and Devices > Learn Remote. And I trained the power and volume button to control my TV / sound system the same way I set it up back in the day for TiVo.

TiVo remote pauses live TV using TV volume with Apple TV

Thank you for asking this question, it inspired me to pull my paired TiVo peanut remote out of the drawer and try it again with Channels, just for fun. It's just so ergonomically ideal, why didn’t more remotes go in this direction? Anyway, looks like there have been some quiet tvOS updates in the last year with regards to Infrared commands because previously, IIRC a double-click of the "home" (TiVo) button did not bring me to the App Switcher. And I'm pretty certain that holdin…

@ert, I note that there have been some changes in tvOS recently and now I CAN get to App Switcher and Control Center with a double-click or holding down of the TiVo ("home") button. Much better now!

Can you try again with the "TiVo 4K Stream Remote" and see if anything's changed for that remote, too? I'm running the latest, tvOS 16.3.

[fashioncents]

It’s funny, TiVo is going all in on stupid products that no one is asking for. Meanwhile, they’ve got an excellent remote design that could easily be leveraged as remote replacements for Apple TVs and Android TVs. People would pay good money for a peanut remote that just works with their devices.

[ert]

I use both a larger IR only Tivo remote and the smaller IR/BT Stream remote on different ATV’s

Big IR remote:

Was able to program it to do everything that the Apple Remote does (except of course the touch controls & Siri) using the “Use other remotes to control Apple TV” method linked above. I have the TiVo button programmed as the Home button and it has always worked for control center and task switcher. Though I do remember having to go through programming it a couple times to get it to function that way.

However, Guide and number buttons don’t work since there’s no way to program those.

Small Stream IR/BT Remote:

It’s paired via BT to the ATV which seems to disable most of the IR output so it can’t be programmed like above.

Mine still functions as labeled in the first post. I do like using it at night since it’s easier to use by touch and the Guide and Number buttons DO work. There’s no button that works for Home - not the TiVo button or any others. However double-clicking the button that works for Previous pulls up app switcher but does NOT work when held down to get to control center nor does any other button which means this can’t function as the only remote for most people. I can get around not having a Home button by using Task Switching but have to reach for the Apple Remote for control center so I keep it handy for that and for scrubbing.

Oh and like the big IR remote: no Siri/Voice control but that’s a positive for me and one of the reasons I don’t use the Apple Remote as my primary remote (always accidentally pressing that button).