Using CEC Controls
In many cases, your physical remote control sends commands for volume, mute, power, and other commands to your TV, soundbar, or receiver using the IR emitter on the front of the physical remote control. The communication between your physical remote control and the device it is controlling is accomplished using light that is invisible to the human eye (infrared light). Firemote and the base install of Home Assistant do not have the ability to mimic this type of physical light communication, but they do have the ability to send commands over your network, and out to your playback devices. This is where CEC comes in handy.
Enabling CEC controls in some devices (check with your device's manufacturer) will allow your Firemote controlled device to send the volume, mute, power, and other commands that are normally sent via IR to be sent through the HDMI cable instead. This offers a huge advantage by adding the ability to control TVs and accessories that wouldn't normally be able to be controlled through Home Assistant alone.
Learn more about IR remote controls
- https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-an-ir-remote-control-5194485
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAz9YC7reWs
Learn more about CEC
Depending on your Amazon Fire or Android TV device, the process for enabling CEC controls might differ. Here are some real-world examples from equipment that I own:
From the home screen, navigate over to the gear icon
When you do, you'll see another menu pop over the top of it. Select the gear icon here. This will open the settings menu.
In the settings menu, scroll down until you find the option "Remotes & Accessories", and select it
Next, select "Set up remote buttons"
Inside the blue square, you can see the current configuration of your device. In the example pictured above, CEC is selected which enables the Firemote to use your Chromecast to send CEC commands to other devices.
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