Android TV brings a number of things that the Chromecast lacked like an on screen interface, gaming, and a remote control. As to the remote control, Google continued the industry trend and made it Bluetooth instead of infrared (IR). The one problem with that is if you use one universal remote, such as a Logitech Harmony, for all your home theater devices, you will now have to leave one additional remote control on your coffee table. A total bummer, but good news!! You can actually use your Harmony or other universal remote to control your Android TV device, and it will only cost you a little over $10.00. Hit the break to find out how.
Before we begin, I should note that the only function you will not have with this setup is voice search, which is obviously important. You can still use the Android TV Remote app on your smartphone for those situations, which also provides you with a keyboard. Despite the lack of voice search, you will still find using your universal remote control useful for simple activities like starting a suggested movie, navigating to a previously played station on your favorite music app, and pausing / skipping tracks.
The secret to adding IR capabilities to your Android TV device is the USB port. The USB port allows you to add peripherals, and an IR receiver happens to be one of them. There are a number of them available, but I recommend this one from Amazon. It’s not only inexpensive ($4.57 at the time of this post), but it comes with a remote control as well, You will obviously not need the remote control, but it can be used in the event you own a non Harmony universal remote control that can also learn commands.
At the time of this post, there are only two Android TV set-top boxes, the Nexus Player and the ADT-1. The ADT-1 happens to have a USB 2.0 port so you will be able to plug in the IR receiver directly with no adapters. However, the Nexus Player has a microUSB port so you will need an OTG male microUSB to female USB 2.0 wire. I recommend this one from Amazon, which will only cost $5.53 (at the time of this post). You can buy whatever one you want, but make sure the mircoUSB side isn’t “L” shaped or you won’t be able to plug it in since the HDMI and power cord will be in the way. For future Android TV devices, you just need to check to see if you have a USB 2.0 port or a microUSB port to figure out if you need to buy the additional adapter.
So your total cost to get this setup is only $10.10 ($4.57 for the ADT-1), which isn’t bad at all.
Once you have your IR receiver plugged in, it’s just a matter of setting up your universal remote control. Assuming you have a Harmony remote, you will need to set up a new Device to serve as your remote. Note: If you have a newer Harmony Ultimate or Smart Control, support for controlling the Nexus Player (probably not the ADT-1) through Bluetooth might come soon, but you can still use the IR function until then.
Go into your Harmony desktop software and add a new Device. The type will be Media Center PC. Select Chinavasion for the manufacturer and type in CVSB-983 for the Model. You will probably be asked if you have the original remote. Just answer “No” so you don’t have to go through the learning process. You can name this device whatever you want, but I like to call it “Android TV Remote.” The last thing you will want to do is map the Home and Back buttons. The Directionals, Enter, Play, and Next Track will already be mapped correctly. Go into the Customize Buttons section. You can map them to any key you like. I am using Menu for Home and Exit for Back. So assuming you want to set up Menu as the Home key. Select the Menu button, and change the command to WWW. Now select the Exit button and change it to ESC.
Now you will probably want to setup an Activity called “Android TV” so you can change your inputs automatically to your Android TV device whenever you want. It’s best to go through the Manual setup. I chose Watch a DVD or Laserdisc, followed by Watch My Videos (Media Center PC). Choose the Android TV remote for the Device that you use to play a DVD, followed by your TV and AVR receiver if you have one. Of course, you will also need to set up the proper inputs, which device controls the volume, and so on. Now change the Activity Name to whatever you want such as “Android TV” or “Nexus Player.” Lastly, you will need to customize the buttons for this activity, which will be very similar to what you did when you set up the new Device. Just map “Android TV Remote” WWW to whatever button you want to be Home and “Android TV Remote” ESC to whatever button you want to be Back. I again went with Menu and Exit respectively. You can also add the same buttons to the display if your remote has one.
That’s it. You’re all done. Just update your Harmony remote with these changes and you are good to go.
You might also own another branded universal remote that has a different software interface. Just follow the same steps above, but adapt it to your software. If the Chinavasion device isn’t in the database, you can always go the “learning” route by using the remote control that came with the IR receiver. When you’re ready to teach your universal remote the commands, just press the WWW key (with a lower case “e” on it) on the included remote to map the Home button, and the ESC key to map the Back button. You will also need to do it for the Directional Keys, Enter, Play, Pause, and Next Track.
If your universal remote has no software for programming, but it offers the option to learn commands, you can use the remote control that came with the IR reciever to teach it the commands. Just follow the paragraph above.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s not a complete solution since you cannot use voice search, but it makes things a lot easier not needing an additional remote on the table. Most times, I am selecting a recently played station on Songza or a recently added or played movie on Plex. Navigating is easy and I can quickly pause whatever I am watching by picking up the remote that my family and I are used to using all the time. I also like the ability to tap the Next Track button as well. If I need to do a voice search, I just whip out my phone.
Note: One issue I have found is the Back key does not work in Plex when already viewing a video. It works on any other screen though. You can press Home to go back to the Android TV main interface, but when you go back into Plex, you will be back at the “playing video” screen with the only option to either play or pause. You have two choices to get out of this. One is to Force Stop Plex or you can go back to the main page of Android TV by hitting Home and selecting another recent video you played via Plex. You will then be able to press the back button to get back to the normal Plex interface. I haven’t found any other issues with any other apps.
I hope this guide helped you. If I missed anything, please let me know in the comments.
Be sure to check out our other Android TV guides for more tips and tricks.
Special thanks to Cozmo85 on Reddit for getting me started on this.
Come comment on this article: How to use your Harmony or other universal IR remote to control your Android TV device
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