Android TV media playback controls and dedicated remote buttons

by NashGuy73

So I recently picked up a Mi Box. It's my first Android TV device. I do like some things about it but I have to say that media playback controls on Android TV are pretty bad compared to Apple TV and Roku -- there's just little consistency among major apps in terms of UI/UX when it comes to controlling playback.

The best-designed app I've seen yet in this regard on Android TV is Google Play Movies & TV, in which one press of the center D-pad button will pause playback and bring up the playback UI; a second press will resume play. Meanwhile a single left or right press on the D-pad during playback will skip back or forward several seconds while keeping those buttons depressed will bring up a thumbnail search on the UI for rewind and fast forward.

On the other hand, you have an app like VUDU in which the first press brings up the playback UI and then the D-pad must be used to navigate around among the on-screen controls for play/pause, rewind, FF, etc. The D-pad itself isn't directly tied to any specific playback action. Not good.

Other apps, like Hulu and Plex, fall in between.

Can anyone tell me if Android TV supports dedicated play, pause, rewind, and FF remote control buttons, even though such buttons don't appear on standard Android TV remotes that come with Nexus Player, Shield TV and Mi Box? I'm wondering if I were to use, for instance, an Amazon Fire TV remote with the Mi Box or my Harmony 650 universal remote with a Shield TV if the dedicated media control buttons (play, pause, rew, FF, skip back, skip forward) on those remotes would work with all Android TV apps or if they would be useless. Hope to hear from folks who have experience with those or similar remotes.

proxicent

Personally I find Hulu's approach by far the most convenient: left/right goes straight into scrubbing through the timeline with thumbnails, and without buffering like Netflix so it's super-responsive and quick. Over HDMI-CEC, FF and RW buttons work as expected (plays back/forward at given speed) until play is pressed to resume, I assume the same with remotes like Fire TV that have them, but the Hulu UI itself doesn't have FF and RW buttons so you have to scrub if all you have is d-pad.

I agree that lack of consistency and fixed standards from Google on this is puzzling in an OS designed mainly around media consumption.

xKrytikulx

Not a fire TV remote, but my Vizio TV remote will pause, play, fast forward, rewind through HDMI-CEC.

youareme7

I'm in the midst of figuring this out myself. I bought a FLIRC usb IR to use with my harmony touch. I still can't figure out which "profile" to search for in the harmony software but I tried the either the plex or kodi profile and it does seem to have play/pause working via the remote though other things don't work right now. I think the amazon fire play/pause works too, I ordered one but they're backordered for a few weeks

If anyone knows the best FLIRC profile to add to harmony that would be swell.

fleker2

The Android apps respond to standard media key events. If your remote has the right key bindings it should work as expected.

M3Pilot

I bought a Mi Box as soon as the walmart worker could find it and, while I actually like the Mi Box remote better, I've found myself using my TV remote for the first time really ever since its play/pause/directional buttons work via HDMI. yours may also.

Tired8281

Sure. The media buttons on my Mele air remote work just fine on my Shield TV, and the Amazon Fire Stick control media buttons work fine out of the box with my Chromebox.

FoferJ

The remote for my Sony TV running Android TV 6.0.1 has dedicated media control buttons, and they work with all the apps I've installed.

tb21666

I bought an Air Mouse remote for mine & everything on it works just fine.

sleepyguy007

I'm an Android dev and actually just launched my first TV app a few weeks ago.

An app will not just magically respond to the media buttons on the remote. Every button has to be coded into the app. Most devices only have the pause play toggle at best. Sony TV remotes have a few more buttons. So if an app responds to say the ff button on the Sony some developer added something to listen to that button click.