Use tasker to start Youtube TV from Harmony Remote app?

[Benoit Bourdua]

Hello,

I just subscribed to Youtube TV and am trying to find a way to optimize starting (and possibly shut down) everything.

My current setup is using an Android tablet to control the service and a Chromecast to display on TV.

I also use a harmony remote to get all my devices up and running.

The idea I'm toying with is getting a harmony home device which could be controlled by my android tablet.

The behavior I'd like to have is to pick up the tablet, start the harmony app, select an activity to watch Youtube TV, which would get everything running.

I would also like for something (Tasker?) to detect that I've chosen the Youtube TV activity in harmony and start the Youtube TV app on the tablet.

Bonus 1 : would be awesome if it would also get Youtube App to start casting.

Bonus 2 : would also be great if it were to stop all casting when ending activity in Harmony app.

Any of this sounds feasible?

Thanks,

Ben

[Kevin Layer]

Did it work out for you?

[Benoit Bourdua]

Yes and no.

I couldn't get the harmony remote to control the app and chromecast but I managed it the other way around.

Using tasker, with those 2 plugins I managed to put a shortcut on my android tablet that starts youtube tv, starts the cast and issues a command to my harmony hub.

Plugins are :

AutoInput
Tasker plugin for Harmony

I also used AutoNotification to create a notification with buttons to stop everything and the TaskKill plugin to make sure everything is dead and not streaming anymore.

Quite a bit of work but once setup it works pretty nicely.

[Sam]

Hi, you don't need Tasker for this, which is fortunate, because I haven't been able to figure out a way to get past the disclaimer on Android TV. What you do need is an app called Multilanguage Keymap Redifiner. You then need to add your Nexus Player to the Harmony app as a Windows PC - this is so that you can send commands that are not limited to those on the Nexus Player remote, like F1, F2, F3, etc. You can also add the Nexus Player in the normal fashion in addition to adding it as a Windows PC. From here, map a button of your choosing (such as F1) to the app of your choosing (YouTube). Lastly, when you create your YouTube activity, send the keystroke of the key you configured as part of the startup sequence, and it will go directly into the app. Credit where credit is due, thanks to the Reddit post and the OP that provided this solution - I don't remember the source, but it worked for me. Good luck.