The New Apple TV (2015) - remote control

[Ichinisan]

If you have one, did you have to tell it what kind of TV you had so the remote could control TV power/volume?

When it was announced at the Apple keynote, I was pleased to see it had volume controls and another button that had to be "power" or "source."

I just got the new Apple TV. I tested it last night with an old Sony KDL52-XBR2. This TV came out before TVs started coming with HDMI-CEC for signaling / control features. I touched my iPhone to the Apple TV to transfer my iCloud account info during setup.

As I understand it, HDMI-CEC implementations have limited-to-no functionality between different brands and most brands have their own trademarked name for the feature. Also, my TV has no HDMI-CEC capability as far as I know.

Now this is what gets me: Somehow, my Apple TV remote is controlling my Sony TV. There was never any kind of remote control setup process and I have no idea how it selected a compatible brand automatically. Doesn't Samsung have greater market share these days? If it was going to have a code selected automatically, I would expect it to be Samsung. It makes me wonder if the older Apple TV had been capturing IR signals, learning that the only power / volume signals it ever sensed were for a Sony TV, and storing that info online in my Apple ID account. I didn't get to play with it very long, but I looked through some menus and didn't see any way to configure the remote for a particular TV brand.

Volume control just works. I see the TV's on-screen volume indicator. The remote is definitely transmitting IR signals.

The button with the monitor symbol is strange to figure out. Pressing twice seems to activate something like iOS multi-tasking, It shows recent apps you can swipe through, or swipe-up to kill the app. I tried single-press, triple-press, and quadruple-press, but it won't turn the TV off. If I press-and-hold, I have the option to put the Apple TV to sleep. If I keep the remote pointed at the TV as the Apple TV goes to sleep, the TV will also turn-off. Pressing that same monitor button to wake the Apple TV also powers-on my TV if I keep the remote pointed toward it.

The remote definitely sends discrete "power-on" and "power-off" commands (instead of "toggle power").

 

[Aikouka]

As I understand it, HDMI-CEC implementations have limited-to-no functionality between different brands and most brands have their own trademarked name for the feature. Also, my TV has no HDMI-CEC capability as far as I know.

HDMI-CEC doesn't have issues between brands. The problem with HDMI-CEC is that while the messages and their purpose are part of the specification, there's really no rules on what has to be implemented. For example, I have a LG TV and a Vizio TV at home. The Vizio TV will turn my receiver on when the TV turns on, but my LG will not. The receiver definitely supports this as it worked fine when connected to the Vizio TV and the Mitsubishi DLP before it. However, when I turn off either TV, they turn off their connected receiver.

Ultimately, in my case, LG just didn't implement the ability for the TV to turn on the receiver, so it doesn't. However, Sony's consoles have always been capable of turning on the entire "video chain". In other words, when I turn on my PS3, PS4 or PSTV, it will turn on my receiver (or just change the input to the correct one) and turn on the TV.

That's pretty much my complaint whenever someone brings up HDMI-CEC. It was a great idea that was hampered by horrible and/or inconsistent implementations.

 

[Ichinisan]

HDMI-CEC doesn't have issues between brands. The problem with HDMI-CEC is that while the messages and their purpose are part of the specification, there's really no rules on what has to be implemented. For example, I have a LG TV and a Vizio TV at home. The Vizio TV will turn my receiver on when the TV turns on, but my LG will not. The receiver definitely supports this as it worked fine when connected to the Vizio TV and the Mitsubishi DLP before it. However, when I turn off either TV, they turn off their connected receiver.

Ultimately, in my case, LG just didn't implement the ability for the TV to turn on the receiver, so it doesn't. However, Sony's consoles have always been capable of turning on the entire "video chain". In other words, when I turn on my PS3, PS4 or PSTV, it will turn on my receiver (or just change the input to the correct one) and turn on the TV.

That's pretty much my complaint whenever someone brings up HDMI-CEC. It was a great idea that was hampered by horrible and/or inconsistent implementations.

Does the original 60GB PS3 (full backward compatibility, 4 USB ports) work with CEC?

 

[Aikouka]

Does the original 60GB PS3 (full backward compatibility, 4 USB ports) work with CEC?

From what I've found on the net, no. Only the Slim PS3 models have HDMI-CEC support.

 

[CZroe]

I wonder if it checked a Plug and Play monitor device ID or just watched to see if the HDMI port was still active after sending different codes to the TV to power it down. The Apple ID thing would get totally confused if you had two TVs in the room or you used two units at two places or you moved it around a bit.

 

[Childs]

It is interesting. My ATV4 remote controls the volume via the receiver, and I didn't do anything to set it up.

EDIT: I just tried to see if it would turn on my TV and it doesn't. Looked in the settings and that feature is disabled. I guess that makes sense since the ATV is connected to the receiver.