I got tired of my Apple TV not turning my TV on through CEC, and I really didn’t want to connect my TCL Fire TV to the internet. So, I decided to take things back a few decades and use an IR emitter in a new way—through Home Assistant. Now that Home Assistant has better infrared support, all it took was a $10 ESP32 board and a few small components, and my TV was smart without any internet access required.
