Reference application: atvremote

To more easily test pyatv, the atvremote application can be used. It is bundled with pyatv and supports all the functionality implemented by the library. So it is also a good place to go to for inspiration when implementing your own application.

Discovering devices

If you want to automatically discover devices on your network, use the scan command:

$ atvremote scan
Found Apple TVs:
- Apple TV at 10.0.10.22 (login id: 00000000-1234-5678-9abc-def012345678)

In case you have multiple devices, they should all show up. The discovery process is performed for 3 seconds, which might be too short and sometimes a device might not show up. Either just try again or raise the discover time with the -t flag, e.g. atvremote -t 10 scan.

More details about the discovery process can be found here.

Pairing with a device

To pair with a device, use the pair command. The remote control will be announced with name pyatv and PIN code to be used is 1234:

$ atvremote pair
Use pin 1234 to pair with "pyatv" (press ENTER to stop)
Note: If remote does not show up, try rebooting your Apple TV

You can override the settings using --remote-name and --pin. When you are done or if you want to abort, just press ENTER.

Note

It is hardcoded into pyatv so that pairing guid 0x0000000000000001 must always be used. So, if you have paired your device, just use that as login id. It is important that you add 0x in front of the guid!

Specifying a device

You have two choices:

  • Use -a that will perform the auto discover process and pick the first discovered device
  • Run scan yourself and manually specify IP-address and login id for device

Using the first option is easiest but also the slowest (you have to wait three seconds every time) and also works poorly with multiple devices. You can try it out like this:

$ atvremote -a <command>

To manually specify IP-address and login id, just do like this:

$ atvremote --adress <IP> --login_id <LOGIN ID>

Using these methods are mutually exclusive, so you may only pick one.

Push updates

It is possible to listen for and print push updates as they happen using the push_updates command:

$ atvremote -a push_updates
Press ENTER to stop
Media type: Music
Play state: Loading
     Title: Namnlös
    Artist: Okänd artist
     Album: Okänt album
  Position: 0/4294966s (0.0%)
--------------------
Media type: Music
Play state: Loading
--------------------
Media type: Music
Play state: Paused
  Position: 0/397s (0.0%)
--------------------
Media type: Music
Play state: Playing
  Position: 0/397s (0.0%)
--------------------
Media type: Music
Play state: Paused
  Position: 7/397s (1.8%)
--------------------
Media type: Music
Play state: Loading
     Title: Namnlös
    Artist: Okänd artist
     Album: Okänt album
  Position: 0/4294966s (0.0%)
--------------------
Media type: Unknown
Play state: No media
--------------------

Just press ENTER to stop.

Working with commands

Several commands are supported by the library (and thus the device). Easiest is just to use the command called commands, as it will present a list of availble commands:

$ atvremote -a commands
Remote control commands:
 - select - Press key select
 - down - Press key down
 - top_menu - Go to main menu (long press menu)
 - right - Press key right
 - next - Press key next
 - set_position - Seek in the current playing media
 - left - Press key left
 - play_url - Play media from an URL on the device
 - play - Press key play
 - pause - Press key play
 - up - Press key up
 - menu - Press key menu
 - previous - Press key previous

Metadata commands:
 - artwork_url - Return artwork URL for what is currently playing
 - playing - Return what is currently playing
 - artwork - Return artwork for what is currently playing (or None)

Playing commands:
 - play_state - Current play state, e.g. playing or paused
 - total_time - Total play time in seconds
 - title - Title of the current media, e.g. movie or song name
 - media_type - What type of media is currently playing, e.g. video, music
 - position - Current position in the playing media (seconds)
 - artist - Artist of the currently playing song
 - album - Album of the currently playing song

Other commands:
 - push_updates - Listen for push updates.

You can for instance get what is currently playing with playing:

$ atvremote -a playing
Media type: Music
Play state: Playing
  Position: 0/397s (0.0%)

Or seek in the currently playing media:

$ atvremote -a set_position=123

Logging and debugging

You can enable additional debugging information by specifying either --verbose or --debug. There are also some additional developer commands that might be useful, if you also specify --developer. They will show up if you query all available commands.