Use HomeKit Television service type

[arkku]

This patch changes the service type to Television, which allows controlling the TV from the iPhone Control Center remote widget, including simulating remote control buttons (cursors, ok, back and two configurable buttons) and adjusting volume with the phone's physical volume buttons.

[MrDrache333]

i allready use his configuration with 4 Philips TVs in my House. The only Problem is, that the TV Controls only work for one TV. You can turn the tv off and on and control Ambilight and Input Source via HomeKit, but direkt control via direction Buttons etc. are only visible and functional for one tv🙌

[arkku]

The only Problem is, that the TV Controls only work for one TV.

Yes, this affects all television type devices in Homekit. For whatever reason, only one TV from one homebridge instance is shown in the television remote widget. There is a workaround by using platform accessories, which makes installation a bit more complicated. I didn't bother to make that change for this plugin since it's not my codebase, I don't like the coding style, and I don't really know JavaScript that well, but I have done another similar plugin that does use platform accessories: https://github.com/arkku/homebridge-rotel-arkku/blob/master/index.js#L17

So, if someone wants to change this plugin accordingly, I can say that it will fix the issue. But perhaps it would be a good starting point for an entirely new Philips TV plugin, this one has been forked so many times that it's hard to even keep track which fork does what anymore.

[MrDrache333]

Would it be hard for you to describe how to change it and leave an Example? We could also create another clean Repository and code it again or from a good starting point...many users wish this type of Feature cause Philips officially doesnt work on HomeKit Integration for its TV‘s...but with jointSpace there is clearly a way to do...

[arkku]

Would it be hard for you to describe how to change it and leave an Example?

Well, the devil is in the details, and I never found any good documentation on the topic so that I could say I fully understand it. However, by trial and error (which seems to be a common JavaScript development method), I think the following:

1. Instead of homebridge.registerAccessory use homebridge.registerPlatform, with a new class as the platform class[1]
2. In the platform class, create the instances of the (current) accessory class and publish them[2]
3. When installing, the accessories will not be automatically added, so you need to view the HomeBridge logs and manually enter the codes into HomeKit

[1] https://github.com/arkku/homebridge-rotel-arkku/blob/master/index.js#L16-L17
[2] https://github.com/arkku/homebridge-rotel-arkku/blob/master/index.js#L38-L48