Macworld:
One of the cool things about the new fourth-generation Apple TV is that it supports HDMI-CEC, so that you can control your TV or your speaker system using the remote control that came in the box along with it, automatically switching everything to the right input, controlling volume, and turning everything off at once when you’re done.
But like the fourth-gen Apple TV, the second- and third-gen models (so, basically, every “black puck” Apple TV) have another, often overlooked trick up their utterly non-existent sleeves: they can be controlled from any other remote control. (Caveat: it needs to be a remote that issues its commands over infrared, not RF, but since that accounts for the overwhelming majority of remotes, we’re pretty confident saying “any.”)
Doing this won’t mean your TV automatically switches to the correct input, say, and of course it wouldn’t allow you to use Siri on the new Apple TV, since the third-party remote you’ll be using wouldn’t have a mic or Siri support. But what it does mean is that you can either deliberately or accidentally loose the little white or silver remote that you had been using with your Apple TV and just use the big remote that came with your TV.
Really useful tip for those of us who want to use a single universal remote to control all of our TV-connected bits and bobs.
I’ll definitely have to investigate this, since I find I misplace the little aluminium remote a lot. Thanks!
I’ve put my ATV 4 back in its box for the time being and use the ATV 3 again.
Without the Remote app on the iPhone and Watch this thing makes no sense for me, text entry is an abomination, and running around the house with that remote is out of the question. Access to local content is not really great either.
I will keep it for a little while, in case Apple decides to do something about it. If not, there’s eBay.
I’ve been using a universal remote with my ATV 2 for a few years now.
I got a Harmony years ago and never looked back.
(The big touch-screen one, because why would I want two dozen hard buttons on a remote?)
Another oft-overlooked feature is that you can use your regular TV remote to control the Apple TV via HDMI-CEC. For example, my 2009 Panasonic TV’s remote sends the arrow keys/OK button/Back button to the Apple TV. That’s what my family uses.
It was weird because we’d programmed our ATV3 with those keys previously, and when I plugged in the new ATV4 the remote continued to work. I thought at first that the remote key memory had somehow transferred over, but of course that was impossible.
So, zero programming required, the TV remote “just works”!
(Note that I may have had to turn on the feature on my TV… something to do with Viera Link… or maybe I didn’t, I’m not sure now…)
I’d be happiest if they’d just fix the Remote App.