Any chance of using m1 and HDMI-CEC remote?

[VEEBH 0]

If I were to try and run Emby Theater, has anyone had success using their TV's remote over HDMI-CEC to control Emby?

I use this method now on Kodi/Pi and it works great.

However, there are a lot of reports and warnings about Mac OS and HDMI-CEC. Usually for controlling other equipment going out - but I'm looking at data coming in.

Thanks!

 

[Luke 37066]

HI, what buttons would you like to see supported?

[VEEBH 0]

Nothing too special.

Up, Down, Left, Right, OK, BACK, Play/Pause

I'm using LG's "magic remote" which again, works great on CEC now so despite it being radio and odd, the TV seems to send it out normally enough.

Edited October 19, 2023 by VEEBH

[Luke 37066]

Hi, Are we talking about running the macOS app on a mac connected via HDMI to a TV and controlling the app with the TV remote?

[VEEBH 0]

Yes, that exactly.

[blgentry 49]

I'm fairly experienced with the Mac ecosystem.  I use it daily for home and work.  I have tried to use a Mac as a home theater type device and found myself frustrated.  Macs aren't really meant for this duty.  You will find that you absolutely need a keyboard and mouse/pointer for some things.  That's a deal killer for me.  Also the way that HDMI is handled on the Mac just isn't designed for TVs, AVRs, soundbars, etc.  

 

For those reasons I use the best set top box I could find:  The Nvidia Shield.  (2017 version in my case).  This device was designed for home theater.  It's designed to be used with a remote.  How do you know this?  Because it comes with a remote!  lol.

 

I use an M1 Mac as a server, but I wouldn't even consider it as the client.  It's just not the right device.  You will be much happier with a set top box.  The only people that are happy with a computer as a home theater component are those that want to use a keyboard and mouse.  Or those that want to run very specific scaling and DSP.  Neither of which can be done by Emby.  So, you either want a Windows box running something that is not Emby, or you want a set top box.

 

As long as we are at it, HDMI ARC and CEC are both to be avoided.  CEC in particular is the source of infinite frustration for thousands of people.  ARC lacks support for some high resolution audio formats.  Both are well intentioned protocols that work when they work and make you crazy when they don't.
 

Obviously all of this is just my opinion.

 

Best of luck,
Brian.

[VEEBH 0]

Brian, none of that is too unexpected I suppose.

 

I wouldn't be using ARC, that's really only when you want your TV to be a hub, or it's producing it's own content internally.

I suppose even if the HDMI CEC was solved, needing a keyboard/mouse for some things isn't ideal. I actually still run into that in Kodi, where you can not do a couple things with the remote alone, but once set up I rarely need to.

 

I'll take it as a data point though. I have a NAS that can be the server fine, I won't typically need transcoding, but if I did I was looking to use the m1 for server, and if I'm doing that might as well make it the client too.

I could still use the m1 as a server... but I'm trying to consolidate devices around here. I don't need yet another system to keep track of, update, fix, deal with it's own little issues, etc.

[Luke 37066]

To answer the original question, based on our experience of supporting CEC input on Windows and Linux, I expect it would be a significant effort to do this on macOS. I don't expect this to happen in the short term but I'm keeping a note of this as something we'd like to support in the app. Thanks.