ATV Restart from Siri Remote (2nd gen) Seems to be IR Only?

[khollister]

Just picked up a 2nd gen ATV 4K with new Siri remote. Everything including powering on/off TV/Receiver, Volume on receiver etc works via bluetooth except the 2 button ATV restart, which seems to be IR only. I have searched and found nothing about this - is this normal?

Also, even though I have sleep set to Never on the ATV, using the power button on the remote to turn off everything appears to put the ATV to sleep (white light goes out). Normal?

 

[w5jck]

Just picked up a 2nd gen ATV 4K with new Siri remote. Everything including powering on/off TV/Receiver, Volume on receiver etc works via bluetooth except the 2 button ATV restart, which seems to be IR only. I have searched and found nothing about this - is this normal?

Also, even though I have sleep set to Never on the ATV, using the power button on the remote to turn off everything appears to put the ATV to sleep (white light goes out). Normal?

I had never heard of the two button restart method, so I looked it up. On my ATV 4K 2017 and 2021 remote I either simply go to Settings and select Restart, or I simply unplug the ATV and wait 20 seconds then plug it back in. This always works. Leave it to Apple to add steps to a simple operation. BTW, I rarely have to restart it, and when I do the go to Settings and select Restart works just fine.

You are correct in that pressing the Power button to turn everything off does put the ATV in sleep mode with light off.

I think the Power button uses only IR because I have to elevate the remote to a certain height and point right at the ATV to get it to power on/off. All the other buttons seem to work without that inconvenience, so I assume they use BT.

 

[khollister]

I just tested my rig and the power on/off works with the front of the remote completely covered by my hand and pointed away from the AV stand, so it is definitely using BT. I suspect this is highly dependent on the specific HDMI-CEC implementation of the TV and connected equipment. In my case it is a Marantz 8805 pre-pro and Sony TV. The power amp is controlled by hardwired remote between the 8805 and amp.

I have to reset the ATV once in a blue moon due to a HDMI handshake failure - the ATV GUI fails to display upon power on. Much less of a problem with the Marantz than with the Emotiva pre-pro I was using before.

BTW, fellow Apple II+ owner. First Mac was a Mac IIcx although I used a couple original Macs at work before then.