Impossible to seek back on tvOS with Free remote

VLC 3.3.7 (432) on an Apple TV 4K

Using a Free remote, navigation is very very difficult if one attempts to seek forwards, and it's impossible to seek backwards.

There was a special Apple TV bundle available for Free ISP customers with an Apple TV 4K, but as a cost-cutting measure, the Siri remote was replaced by a cheaper Bluetooth and IR Free-branded remote. I got one of those bundles.

Original Apple TV remotes of different generations and the Free one on the left:

When using the Free remote:

• the right handside of the ring d-pad and the button will forward slightly faster, and pressing more times will accelerate the fast-forward speed. The only way to play at normal speed is to use the play/pause button to pause playback, and make it play again
• the left handside of the ring d-pad and the button don't seem to do anything (they don't cancel fast-forward, they don't seek back)

As a work-around, I tried using the Apple TV remote on an iPhone, but the -10/+10 seconds buttons don't appear. There doesn't seem to be a way to seek using the touch area.

Image from https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/tv/atvb701cadc1/tvos:

I would be happy to buy a second-hand remote for the developer that needs one to test this functionality. They're quite easily available on "Le Bon Coin" in the 20€-40€ range.

We will buy such a remote for testing. However, note that you can use the trackpad part of the virtual remote to click once for pausing and then seeking by swiping.

We will buy such a remote for testing.

It might be difficult to source outside of France, so don't hesitate to let me know if you need help sourcing some.

you can use the trackpad part of the virtual remote to click once for pausing and then seeking by swiping.

Oh, the seeking only works when paused. I've filed #1388 about some enhancements that could be added to the touchpad gestures. Thanks!

thanks, most of the team is based in France and some of them are even Free.fr customers, so this should be doable.

Thanks for the additional ticket on the gestures!

might be related to the binding profile

added AppleTV label

changed milestone to %3.5.0

assigned to @fkuehne

After thorough testing, this remote works quite ok with the current beta of VLC. We don't have a use case for the additional page up/down buttons, so while those are easily catchable, they will remain unsupported.

For the additional fastforward/backward buttons on this remote, we would need to support playback speed changes with the MPRemoteControlCenter as follows:

// MPRemoteCommands to handle dedicated fast forward and rewind buttons
let remoteCommandCenter = MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared()

// MPRemoteCommands to handle dedicated fast forward and rewind (short presses)
remoteCommandCenter.changePlaybackRateCommand.addTarget { [unowned self] event in
    guard let event = event as? MPChangePlaybackRateCommandEvent else { return .commandFailed }
    self.assetPlayer.player.rate = event.playbackRate
    return .success
}

// MPRemoteCommands to handle dedicated fast forward button (long press)
remoteCommandCenter.seekForwardCommand.addTarget { [unowned self] event in
    guard let event = event as? MPSeekCommandEvent else { return .commandFailed }
    if event.type == .beginSeeking {
        self.assetPlayer.player.rate = 24.0
    }
    if event.type == .endSeeking {
        self.assetPlayer.player.rate = 1.0
    }
    return .success
}

// MPRemoteCommands to handle dedicated rewind button (long press)
remoteCommandCenter.seekBackwardCommand.addTarget { [unowned self] event in
    guard let event = event as? MPSeekCommandEvent else { return .commandFailed }
    if event.type == .beginSeeking {
        self.assetPlayer.player.rate = -24.0
    }
    if event.type == .endSeeking {
        self.assetPlayer.player.rate = 1.0
    }
    return .success
}

changed milestone to %4.0.0

added Feature label