Controllers & Phone Remote

ynoTV can be driven entirely from a game controller, an HTPC wireless keyboard remote, or your phone — no mouse needed. Everything lives in Settings → Controllers & Remote, and all controller features are driven by a single pipeline: a raw button press is mapped through your custom button mappings and chord combos, then executed as a spatial-navigation action across the UI.

Spatial Navigation

When controller navigation is enabled, ynoTV switches to spatial navigation: instead of clicking with a mouse, you move a highlight between on-screen elements with the D-Pad and confirm with buttons.

• D-Pad / left stick — move the highlight between elements (channels, menu items, grid tiles).
• A (South) — select / confirm the highlighted element.
• B (East) — back / exit the current view.
• Holding a D-Pad direction repeats the press with an accelerating rate, so holding down will keep moving through lists (the repeat delay and speed are adjustable).

Deadzone

Adjusts the analog stick deadzone so drifting sticks don’t cause unwanted movement.

Hold repeat

Delay before a held D-Pad direction starts repeating, and how fast it repeats while held.

Background listening

Keep listening for controller input even when the window isn’t focused.

The live monitor panel shows detected gamepads, connection state, and a live button readout as you press them, so you can verify everything is working before navigating.

Button Mapping

Every physical button on your controller can be remapped. Open Settings → Controllers & Remote → Configure Gamepad, then press a button to assign it to any action — the app captures your physical button and binds it to the action you choose.

• Remaps apply live on boot and on settings import, and are saved as a custom profile.
• There’s a live visualizer that shows your controller graphic lighting up as you press buttons, so you can confirm mappings at a glance.
• Reset to Defaults restores the factory mapping at any time.

Button Combinations (Chords)

Holding a modifier button and pressing another button triggers an extra shortcut — the classic “chord” pattern from console remotes. The modifiers are L1, R1, L2, R2.

For example, you could hold L1 and press A to jump straight to Live TV, or hold R2 and press Up to page up the EPG. Open Button Combinations to see the full grid and assign each chord to a shortcut action.

Keyboard as Controller

If you’re using an HTPC setup with a wireless keyboard remote (like a Rii-style air mouse), you can bind physical keyboard keys to pretend to be controller buttons. The keyboard then drives the exact same pipeline as a real gamepad — your button remaps, chord combos, spatial navigation, hold-repeat, and the on-screen visualizer all work identically.

Getting started

1. Go to Settings → Controllers & Remote → Keyboard as Controller and enable it.
2. Arrow keys (D-Pad), Enter (A), and Escape (B) are pre-bound so it works out of the box.
3. Click any button card and press the key you want to assign — Ctrl, Shift, and Alt are supported as distinct keys and map cleanly (either side of the key triggers the binding).

How it behaves

• Mapped keys take over — they act as controller buttons and won’t double-fire the normal keyboard shortcuts. Unmapped keys keep their normal behavior.
• Typing always wins — while focused in a search box, letters and editing keys (Enter, Backspace) keep working normally for typing, while the D-Pad and Escape still act as controller buttons so you can move away from the field.
• Bind a modifier to a chord — map e.g. Ctrl to L1 and the chord system works from the keyboard too (Ctrl + Enter triggers whatever you assigned to L1 + A).

Tip

Since the keys are mapped to buttons, the on-screen keyboard is optional — just select a text field with the D-Pad and type directly on the physical keyboard.

Phone Remote

Turn any smartphone into a wireless TV remote. Settings → Controllers & Remote → Phone Remote (or the phone icon) starts a local server on your PC, and your phone pairs over your local Wi-Fi.

Pairing

1. Make sure your phone is on the same Wi-Fi network as the PC.
2. Enable the phone remote server — it’s off by default and only starts when you turn it on.
3. Scan the QR code with your phone’s camera, or open the connection URL shown in the settings page.

Once connected you get a full wireless touchpad, D-Pad, volume and channel rockers, and shortcut buttons.

Tip

Add the remote to your home screen for one-tap access instead of typing the URL every time.

On Android (Chrome, Samsung Internet, etc.):

1. Open the remote URL in your mobile browser.
2. Tap the three dots menu in the top-right corner.
3. Select Add to Home screen (or Install app).
4. Tap Install or Add to confirm.

On iPhone (iOS Safari):

1. Open the remote URL in Safari.
2. Tap the Share button at the bottom of the screen (the square with an arrow pointing up).
3. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.

A shortcut to the remote will appear on your home screen — tap it and the remote opens straight to ynoTV.

Navigation Tabs

The bottom bar of the remote has tabs you can show, hide, and reorder — and you can pick which one is the default landing tab. Available tabs include:

• Guide — browse categories and the full channel list, tuned to match the desktop guide’s ordering, names, favorites, and custom categories. Selecting a channel tunes it on the desktop, and the currently playing channel is highlighted.
• Sports — live scores for your followed leagues, with game links that tune the matching broadcast on the desktop.
• Multiview — pick the multiview layout and engine (HLS or MPV), and watch the multiview slots update live.
• Touchpad / remote — the classic touchpad, D-Pad, and media controls.

Customizing the remote

The Phone Remote Customizer in Settings lets you personalize what your phone sees:

• Skins & themes — pick a visual skin; updates instantly on connected phones.
• Corner satellite buttons — configure the 4 shortcut buttons around the D-Pad dial.
• Middle action buttons — remap the Back and Play/Pause buttons between the rockers and adjust their size (Compact / Normal / Large / Expanded).
• Quick action buttons — add, remove, and reorder the quick buttons below the D-Pad.
• Display options — show or hide the Now Playing banner, search bar, volume rocker, and channel rocker.

There’s a live interactive preview in the customizer so you can see changes before they hit your phone.

Note

The phone remote respects your desktop settings — including failover behavior (Always Play Primary / Keep View on Selected Channel), manual channel ordering, edited channel names, category filters, and the multiview engine selection.