Setup MythTV and Lirc for YouTube Leanback

This page shows how to map the buttons of your remote control for navigation of YouTube Leanback and linking that into the MythTV menu.

Although there are some limitations for using the keyboard for control of YouTube Leanback, it is possible to use Google Chrome for all activities apart from searching without using a mouse.

You can obtain Google Chrome for Linux from here

Lircrc Configuration for YouTube Leanback

The Lirc utility "irxevent" maps the remote control buttons to keyboard strokes and sends those keys to the nominated window. The mapping is controlled by a lircrc file, to avoid any clash with existing irxevent mappings you can isolate the YouTube Leanback mapping into its own mapping file, shown below.

Thanks to http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-dev/2002-September/000316.html for discovering the correct irxevent configuration for the spacebar

nano /home/mythtv/.mythtv/youtube_leanback_lircrc

begin
    prog = irxevent
    button = Play
    repeat = 0
    config = Key space CurrentWindow
end
begin
    prog = irxevent
    button = Pause
    repeat = 0
    config = Key space CurrentWindow
end
begin
    prog = irxevent
    button = Left
    repeat = 0
    config = Key Left CurrentWindow
end
begin
    prog = irxevent
    button = Right
    repeat = 0
    config = Key Right CurrentWindow
end
begin
    prog = irxevent
    button = Stop
    repeat = 0
    config = Key ctrl-w CurrentWindow
end

begin
    prog = irxevent
    button = Up
    repeat = 0
    config = Key Up CurrentWindow
end

begin
    prog = irxevent
    button = Down
    repeat = 0
    config = Key Down CurrentWindow
end

begin
    prog = irxevent
    button = Ok
    repeat = 0
    config = Key Return CurrentWindow
end
begin
    prog = irxevent
    button = Home
    repeat = 0
    config = Key F11 CurrentWindow
end

Adding MythTV Menu Item for YouTube Leanback

Wrap up starting the irxevent and invoking Google Chrome into a script

nano /home/mythtv/.mythtv/youtube_leanback

irxevent /home/mythtv/.mythtv/youtube_leanback_lircrc &

google-chrome http://youtube.com/leanback 

killall irxevent

Then call the script from a MythTV menu item:

nano mainmenu.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<mythmenu name="MAIN">


    <button>
        <type>TV_WATCH_TV</type>
        <text>YouTube Leanback</text>
        <action>EXEC /home/mythtv/.mythtv/youtube_leanback http://youtube.com/leanback</action>
        <description>Launch Google to Youtube Leanback</description>
    </button>



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