So…this is very tangentially related to Self Hosting, but hear me out…

We travel frequently, either for work or leisure. As a self-hoster, I always bring an Nvidia shield player on my travel bag, to connect to my Jellyfin host from whichever hotel we might be staying at, to watch at night for example.

But increasingly, this is becoming a pain in the butt. As most TVs aren’t directly hooked anymore to just the antenna or the hotel’s connection. No, they usually will be hooked to an Android box handling all sorts of crap, from the hotel welcoming screens to some info, to their pre-set channels. And the android remote works via HDMI-ARC to control the TV, of which they usually hide the damn OEM remote. So, if you unplug their android box to hook up your own player, you lose the TV controls. In some cases (Sony, mostly) you might be in luck finding the 3 physical buttons they include somewhere on the TV itself to navigate inputs and volume. But in some others, you might as well end up stuck in an Android app menu where you can’t get out (I’m looking at you Phillips). So I think my next addition would be to get an universal remote to sort all these quirks when traveling. Anyone else went through these considerations? Any recommendations?

  • ryokimball@infosec.pubEnglish
    311·
    1 day ago

    Flipper zero.

    At the very least it has built-in universal power, volume, channel, and maybe some other buttons. Now that I think about it though, I bet I could make a companion app so your phone acts like the TV remote and sends the signal over the flipper via Bluetooth.

    Plus you can store your hotel key, garage remote, and who knows what else in it. It’s a really cool little tool to have.

    • JPAKx4@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      1·
      12 hours ago

      Honestly I would go for an esp32 with home assistant, get ir, Bluetooth, wtv you need, built in companion app. Remote integration has learning built in, with support for ir and recently rf

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      12·
      1 day ago

      This is why I want one of these little motherfuckers so god damned badly.

      I’m so glad that none of it’s components have been hit hard by the AI tech market disaster, price point still the same so far. (crossing fingers for it to stay the same)