How to change TV channel with Python

[arsenal58]

Hi, I am a beginner as you can probably already tell. I have been watching a lot of videos and reading many articles on how to use python and I have been putting a lot of those skills to use. I was wondering how I could connect my python to my TV. I want to change the channel and or volume. Is this possible? Thanks!

[micseydel]

I almost pursued a similar project at one point. It should be doable, but depends on a lot of things.

First off, if you have a smart TV, it might provide some API for doing things easily. You'd have to do some research on that. I'll assume that's not the case for the rest of what I have to say.

You could make a "smart" TV remote. All you need is an infrared LED (which is what is in a TV remote) which either works by USB or you could hook it up to an Arduino or Raspberry Pi. When I planned to do this, I had an infrared reader as well so that I could record what my TV remote was doing and play it back, since I thought it would be more fun to reverse engineer than to look up documentation. You could use Python, or whatever, to control this hardware to do whatever you want it to do.

For someone new to coding, I'd say this is a medium to hard project.

[arsenal58]

Thank you I really appreciate it! Now follow up question. I do have a smart TV. How would I use an API to continue with python?

[micseydel]

You'd Google the API for that TV.

[Skaperen]

or, you might put an infra-red emitter on your computer and program it to emulate a remote control. python should be great for this.

[arsenal58]

Though I understand the literal definitions of what you said. Do you think you can put it in layman for a beginner programmer like myself? Thank you for the input.

[Skaperen]

are you expecting me to show you the code? i didn't jump in here for the long haul.

[Larz60+]

there's some info available on how you might interface to a remote control:
Although none of these address your project specifically, each shows how to do part of what you need:

ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvRLz4RLoeo
https://hackaday.com/tag/tv-remote/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd_Kc7BXa54
https://lifehacker.com/hack-a-tv-remote-...o-30794141
https://www.instructables.com/id/Hacking...e-Control/