I am using it with the ONN. (Walmart) 4k with Google TV. The Chromecast remote only worked with the power and volume buttons - but when I switched the remote to the Apple TV remote (with all other settings remaining as they were) everything worked perfectly. Thanks again.
I’ve been using this as our main remote on a dedicated 8” tablet for a month or so now and it really is great. However, it’s not passing the wife test due to the lag on commands going to the fire tv. Randomly, but regularly it’ll stop responding (sometimes, but not every time) an error pops up at the bottom of the screen mentioning adb and a device not responding) for about ten seconds. During this time commands going through my BroadLink rm work instantly so it’s only the adb stuff that’s affected. Am I right in thinking this is a fire tv/adb problem? If so, any recommendations for a fire tv replacement? I need 4k and Plex, YouTube apps as a minimum. Amazon prime app would be a bonus. Cheers, Steve
The ONN device will be included in the Vote for what gets added next! poll over in discussion #41 after the upcoming release of Roku support. I might just choose it myself because they are relatively inexpensive and there is a Wal-Mart just up the road from me.
I’d love to have you as a beta tester when the ONN gets to that point!
I have 2 ONN. devices and a genuine Chromecast HD and prefer the ONN. One of the ONN. devices is connected to an HDMI capture device so I can watch “TV in a window” using MPC-BE (a Windows media player). Having the luxury of a wide-screen display and being able to watch and control the TV from the PC instead of the physical remote was the icing on the cake.
I wanted just the remote to show, so I created a dashboard containing only the remote. I then used CMDOW, a Windows program, to resize the whole page, when it was called up, to a convenient size and move the dashboard containing the remote to a convenient location next to the TV window. I use Windows batch files to do it all every time I click the “TV On” button (courtesy of X-Widget). When I click “TV Off”, the TV window spins around a couple of times and collapses vertically to just a horizontal bar (X-Widget again) and the remote goes away. It all works - somehow. (Sorry for all the detail - I just wanted to show how your card was integrated and how versatile something as simple as a single card can be.)
I’d be glad to beta test ONN. device support any time.
Thanks again for contributing this superb addition to my Home Assistant installation!
TE
I’ve noticed a similar issue with my ADB connected devices in the recent weeks. I don’t know exactly why it is happening, but I agree… it’s not great.
You are correct with your assessment that it is likely an ADB / Device connection issue. Firemote relies fully on underlying Home Assistant integrations to function. If those integrations are flaky, Firemote will reflect that. (more info about that here)
Since the Home Assistant project added the Android TV Remote integration, many Firemote commands that could only be sent through ADB now have an alternate path to choose. In most cases, the Android TV Remote integration shows faster response time. The downside here is that in all Android based devices, Firemote still requires the ADB integration. Additionally, Amazon Fire devices are NOT capable of using the Android TV Remote integration, so with your device, there is no work-around.
When looking for a replacement device, there are many to choose from! If you want to continue using a Firemote card to drive your media player, take a look at the prerequisites section in the Firemote documentation to see a list of devices that currently have support. Upcoming device support is mainly driven by community input in a discussion called Poll: Vote for what gets added next! I just released Roku support last night, so in a few days this poll will be reset and the community will start the voting process again. I suspect that the ONN device might get a lot of votes once it’s added to the poll.
You mentioned that application availability is important for you, and I happen to have a chart of the existing Firemote App Launchers in the Firemote Wiki that you might find useful. If you find your required app(s) on the list and they have a check mark in the box, then you can be assured that you’re good to go! If an app isn’t on the list it doesn’t always mean that Firemote cannot launch it, it could just mean that nobody has opened a App Shortcut Request for it yet.
As far as my opinion goes, this is my personal recommendation list:
NVIDIA Shield
Fast! Uses ADB and Android TV Remote integration
Supports Firemote popup keyboard
Supports “Find My Remote”
Supports Sideloaded Apps
Great image quality
Chromecast
Fast! Uses ADB and Android TV Remote integration
Supports Firemote popup keyboard
Supports Sideloaded Apps
Relatively inexpensive
If you have questions about any of the others, I can probably help you out. I only release support for device families that I own or can personally test, so that means I have a pile of them that I frequently interact with. (it gets expensive!)
Do you still see the ADB lag when using the Nvidia Shield? They’re expensive but I don’t mind shelling out for one if it’s going to minimise the lag problems.
I’m not asking for a guarantee of no problems btw, my initial reason for posing the question was to get some real world feedback on the various devices so I can pick the best option.
There is a significant lag when using ADB with the Shield, but also using the Android TV Remote integration at the same time completely eliminates the lag. It’s nearly instantaneous.
Configuration is simple after adding both integrations, you just choose them from the dropdowns in the Firemote UI
Hi! I’m looooving this card but I’m facing a BIG (for me) issue. Whenever I try to use the background color on a custom launch, it just doesn’t work, it just sets to black (or gray?) as showed below:
Thanks for letting me know about this! I found a bug that was causing this issue, and it will be fixed in the next Firemote release.
If you’d like to remove the keyboard button, you can add this bit of YAML to the config:
button_overrides:
keyboard-button:
hidden: true
If you didn’t want to remove the button but you just wanted to change the icon, that feature is not available yet. Issue #295 was opened by another user asking the same thing, so you can follow the progress there.
@crdougn Just to circle back on this. Got a Shield Pro today. Lag is completely gone. Thanks for your help, Doug.
Steve
Edit: next request. What do I need to change in the “long press” code for the shield? I’ve changed the target entity id but it’s not working so I’m guessing the command is different.
@crdougn Sorry Doug, my fault. I was referencing something I thought you’d helped with earlier in this thread but it was actually over on github. Closed issue #270. Simulating a long press of the ok button.
Can that be done on the Shield?
Hello, I have the card configured, several keys work. My TV has integrated Android, it works as an “Amazon Fire” family and a “JVC 4K …” model. It is a Td System K50DLJ10US, the “Android TV Remote” app does not work.
Some launcher like VLC works but I can’t run Netflix, I see that the application that is launched from the card is com.netflix.ninja but the application on my TV is com.netflix.mediaclient
I have tried starting from the shell, via home assistant adb command, through the mobile application, … it gives me several errors, it seems to have to do with the specific path.
I have reviewed several links linked in the documentation, read forums, but I am dizzy and lost, can you guide me on what I can do or help me? what I see in the dumps doesn’t work for me
From what you’ve described, It sounds like TV’s manufacturer decided to use the version of Netflix designed for mobile devices com.netflix.mediaclient instead of the version designed for Android TV devices com.netflix.ninja. That is why the Firemote card isn’t working as expected for you.
You described trying some ADB commands which resulted in errors. I see these sorts of things all of the time, so I’m confident that we can get it working for you! Unfortunately, it might take some back and fourth between us before we find something that works. Let’s try these steps. If one of them works for you, there is no need to go onto the next one:
Is it possible to download the Android TV version of the Netflix app for your TV? I’m guessing that it isn’t, but if it is, it would fix this immediately.
What is the result or error that you see when running the following ADB command? adb shell am start -n com.netflix.mediaclient/.ui.launch.UIWebViewActivity
What is the result or error that you see when running the following ADB command? adb shell am start -n com.netflix.mediaclient/.ui.launch.UIWebViewTabletActivity
What is the result or error that you see when running the following ADB command? adb shell am start -a com.netflix.action.NETFLIX_KEY_START com.netflix.mediaclient
If you run the command adb shell pm dump com.netflix.mediaclient, what do you see under Activity Resolver Table → Non-Data Actions? As an example, the com.netflix.ninja app produces this: