Repurposing CRT TV controls

[CircuitBreaker]

Hi,

I've gotten ahold of a 90s Magnavox RD0946 CRT TV that I am using to show a series of video animations for an art project. I have connected the tv to a raspberry Pi via composite so the videos are playing nicely, now the big idea would be to be able to use the remote (and eventually the physical channel buttons of the tv) to switch from one video to the next.

The problem is that every time a button is pressed on the remote, a green overlay display appears showing time and "A/V". Sadly, the tv doesn't have a button to switch to A/V, which means i can't just simply rewire the IR to the pi. I couldn't find a switch on the circuit board to default the tv to A/V mode (there is a switch, but it seems to bypass the feed entirely)

How could this be solved? Being not much more than novice on the matter I assume this is very possible and easy to do, hope this is the case

Thanks for any help!

 

[crutschow]

the big idea would be to be able to use the remote (and eventually the physical channel buttons of the tv) to switch from one video to the next.

What is the source of the videos?

 

[CircuitBreaker]

I should have added the videos are procedural animations generated in real time and rendered via chromium in kiosk mode. In other words, they are more a series of animated HTML canvas renderings rather than a mpeg file. The Pi itself is connected via a RCA cable to the composite video input.

 

[crutschow]

So I'm confused as how you expect to go between videos using the TV remote.
It would seem that would involve controlling the Pi.

 

[CircuitBreaker]

Yes, that's why i am trying to do. My original post was not very clear sorry.
In the best of world, I would just rewire the Infrared receiver of the TV to the Pi and call it a day. The problem is that the tv needs to be in Video mode and (as far as i know) the only way to enable it is via the remote control.

I could have two infrared receivers mapped to the same remote codes (One to the pi and one to the tv), but then i'm still having the issue of the green display popping up over the video every time a button on the remote is pressed.

The only option I can think of is having two different remotes (one to switch to video mode, the other one to control the Pi), however that's not an ideal solution, was hoping for something more elegant.

 

[ChrisP58]

You can get learning (programmable) remotes.

Set one button to the Set TV To Video function. And other buttons to new unique PI functions.

 

[CircuitBreaker]

You can get learning (programmable) remotes.

Set one button to the Set TV To Video function. And other buttons to new unique PI functions.

That is a simple efficient solution. thanks!