[jVinc]

I get why they are shutting it down. I and many like me only use one button on our remote, the power button. Everything else is on my truly universal remote, my smartphone. If my tv was able to turn on and off from my phone, then I'd never touch a remote again.

[drewg123]

I simply cannot stand to use my phone as a remote. I hate it with a passion every time my real remote's batteries die and I have to use the phone app for a while before I get around to getting more AAAs.

There are 2 problems for me: 1) I cannot tell by feel what to press to quickly mute, jump back 10 seconds, pause, etc. I have to look at the phone.

2) When I look at the phone, my phone has locked. So I have to wait a second for face-id (or enter a passcode if its too dark).

[skinnymuch]

I have enough issues with phone usage. I def don’t want to use it as a remote.

[leipert]

Recently upgraded from a slow Fire TV to an Apple TV. The Apple TV can control the TV via HDMI and turn it on. Integration on other Apple Devices is good as well.

[jeroenhd]

My phone has an IR blaster and it's pretty good for controlling just about any device as long as support software is there. The interface on my phone is also a lot clearer than the weird plastic remote that came with the office AC. The device is a Xiaomi and this has the downside of the IR database mostly consisting of Chinese products.

It's a shame to see how the IR blaster has disappeared from phones, just like the FM radio functionality that the SoC probably still has support for. Only weird, cheap, and very Chinese phones still seem to sport these features.

[BugWatch]

Hm, IIRC if you still have an (ideally forward-facing) headphone jack, I believe there were cheap plug-ins (essentially IR LED on a 3.5 mm connector) that would provide the functionality given a proper software.

[jeroenhd]

True, but audio jacks are hard to find in anything above a midrange phone these days.

You're also often limited to the app provided by the manufacturer of the 3.5mm dongle, which isn't always great.

[vmception]

Sometimes this is true for me, other times I still have to turn on the display with one remote, turn on the speakers with another remote, turn on the playstation with another controller. From there all my "castable" apps (youtube, netflix, spotify, others) also recognize my playstation as a device.

The other path is with the chromecast, which turns on with the display.

Did you ever notice that Playstations do audio much better than Chromecast? So I rarely use my Chromecast. The several hundred dollar difference is not an argument to me, I expected the Chromecast to not have a difference in audio.

[gizmodo59]

Apple TV can be turned on from your mobile. (Not just Apple TV but your actual TV along with it too)