AirControl Plugin

Posted on
Wed Feb 05, 2014 2:56 pm
jay (support) offline
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AirControl Plugin

This plugin allows you to create Apple TV devices from Apple TV's that have been jailbroken and have aTVFlash installed. Included with aTVFlash is an extra called AirControl which allows remote client applications to get information about currently playing media and control the Apple TV as if with an actual physical remote.

Get it on our open source repository.

Jailbreaking and installing aTVFlash is solely the responsibility of the owner - see the FireCore.com website for details. It really is not for the faint of heart...

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Fri Feb 07, 2014 8:07 pm
Devildog0331 offline
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Re: AirControl Plugin

One thing to keep in mind... You cannot jailbreak a 3rd generation AppleTV (released 2 years ago I think). Find a 2nd gen one on Amazon or eBay and you'll be golden...

Pair that jailbroken AppleTV with XBMC and the wizard app from http://xbmchub.com and you'll be very glad you went through the trouble. :wink:

Posted on
Fri Oct 02, 2015 1:28 pm
pgershon offline
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Re: AirControl Plugin

For those of us without access to Apple TV V2, is there a way to do this with Apple TV3? Non-jailbroken Air Control or similar?

Posted on
Fri Oct 02, 2015 2:33 pm
FlyingDiver offline
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Re: AirControl Plugin

It should be possible to write a native Indigo plugin to control an AppleTV, since the protocol has been reverse engineered for use by Roomie and iRule, among others. Might be a little tricky since there's still a required pairing process which would have to be done at the time the plugin is configured.

The hard part is going to be finding the specification of the API. I think the people that did the reverse engineering are probably keeping it close to the vest and selling it to the various companies that want to use it. I've done some digging on the net for it, but haven't found anything I can use yet.

joe

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Fri Oct 02, 2015 2:46 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: AirControl Plugin

The pairing process is doable - we already do that with iTunes.

FlyingDiver wrote:
The hard part is going to be finding the specification of the API. I think the people that did the reverse engineering are probably keeping it close to the vest and selling it to the various companies that want to use it. I've done some digging on the net for it, but haven't found anything I can use yet.


Exactly. I've been trying to find it for a long time and nobody is publishing it. I haven't approached Roomie (with whom we have a passing relationship) about it.

Also, I don't think the FireCore guys have been successful in jailbreaking the ATV3 in order to install their stuff (including the AirControl stuff), so it seems like that is probably a dead end.

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Posted on
Fri Oct 02, 2015 3:51 pm
FlyingDiver offline
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Re: AirControl Plugin

This is the most I've found so far, but when I tried some of the commands using a REST client it just didn't work. I think I need to go through a pairing step first and save some keys or some such. Hmm. I wonder if I could grab them from the iTunes plugin preferences if I pair it first?

What I think I will do is start up WireShark on my iMac (running Wifi only) and see if I can capture the traffic between Roomie running on my phone and one of my AppleTVs. That'll give me a clue about what's going on. Because, there's really only six buttons on the remote. If we can brute force those, we're a long ways there.

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Sun Oct 04, 2015 11:36 am
pgershon offline
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Re: AirControl Plugin

So I have tried to set this up on an Apple TV 1. I installed aTV flash silver, and I theoretically have air control installed. But I seem to be unable to use it, either from the Mac app they have or from Indigo. I installed the plugin, but I do not know how best to access it.

Posted on
Sun Oct 04, 2015 1:28 pm
durosity offline
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Re: AirControl Plugin

If you open http://ipofappletv.local/npx do you get anything? If not aircontrol isn't enabled.


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Computer says no.

Posted on
Sun Oct 04, 2015 2:23 pm
pgershon offline
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Re: AirControl Plugin

Tried it and I got nothing. Some studying of the FireCore site suggests that AirControl for aTV Silver and AirControl for aTV Black may be completely different products.

From Knowledge Base:

BLACK: AirControl allows the Apple TV to be integrated with controller systems from Crestron or Control4 for IR-free control of the Apple TV. The included companion app can also be used to control the Apple TV from a Mac, no remote required

SILVER: Use the Loop Pointer from Hillcrest Labs to navigate menus, control video and browse the web on AppleTV.

Goal for me is to tell Indigo what Apple TV 1 is playing. Looks like I can do it only for Apple TV 2. Not for 3 either.

Posted on
Mon Oct 05, 2015 3:36 am
durosity offline
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Re: AirControl Plugin

Yeah unfortunately it looks that way. I suppose you could upgrade to an AppleTV 2.. but they seem pretty pricy, probably because you can jailbreak them. I'm hoping (although being realistic it's not likely) that there'll be an API for the new AppleTV that can allow for external control/status reporting.

Computer says no.

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