pyatv VS homebridge-apple-tv-remote

It's definitely not impossible at least.

Someone is doing it in python here:

https://pyatv.dev/

GPT-4 actually sent me here:

"Here is an example of a C# library that implements the HAP: CSharp.HomeKit (https://github.com/brutella/hkhomekit). You can use this library as a reference or directly use it in your project."

Which, to no surprise based on my experiences with LLMs for programming does not exist and doesn't seem to have ever existed.

I get that they aren't magic, but I guess I am just bad at trying to use LLMs to help in my programming. Apparently all I do are obscure things or something. Or I am just not good enough at prompting. But I feel like that's also a reflection of the weakness of an LLM in that it needs such perfect and specific prompting to get good answers.

-> https://github.com/postlund/pyatv/issues/1931

I love Python, but I really wish I didn't have to use it here. The reason I do is that tvOS changed the way network remote control works, and the only library that could do that was / is a fantastic Python library called pyatv: https://pyatv.dev/.

1) Install pyatv via command line. The command pip install pyatv is one way to achieve this. The important thing is that path needs to be accessible to homebridge. For me, that was /usr/local/bin Before proceeding, I recommend reading more about the API as this will be helpful if you want to build additional switches that track power status or other attributes. https://pyatv.dev

You can use pyatv to do this and if MQTT is your thing you can use this plugin.

The video above is just a silly experiment, but the library that's driving it (pyatv) is super useful. For example, on my Mac I can press Cmd+Shift+R to toggle an Apple TV remote control. Really useful for pausing a video or jumping back a few seconds. The cool thing is that it also works on Windows, Linux, etc. People are investigating adding regular text input to the library as well.

This is an evolving resource. But the long and short of it is that as of iOS 15, there isn't a way to condition, or trigger based on play/power state of an AppleTV or HomePod. In the past, there was a r/homebridge plugin that did that called homebridge-appletv-remote. But, with TVOS 15, this plugin is unusable without some complex and ultimately worthless trickery as Apple changed the "media remote protocol" (after removing the old DACP implementation too with 14) so basically, unless the dev fixes it, you aren't getting it.

If the AppleTV’ s are on 15, it CURRENTLY doesnt work (I have been battling it since beta started). The dev is aware of the issue, and is currently working on it :) it will take some time to move to that though.

I’ve used this in the past

There is a plugin called Homebridge-appletv-remote. It gives you the ability to control Apple TV play, pause, and power states using HomeKit. This can be helpful to trigger automations based on things like playback state (for automatic theater lights) or to turn on the tv in the morning or turn it off when you leave.