I bought a cheapo remote control to control it, but the pi3 supports HDMI remote control which uses your TV remote natively.
Caution: That part only works if the TV supports HDMI-CEC. Not all do. And some are buggy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Electronics_Control
CEC combined with Audio Return Channel (ARC) is nifty when it all works. One HDMI cable from a source like a cable box to a stereo/surround setup, and then one cable to the TV. The TV handles timing synchronization of the video and audio and sends it back to the sound system.
The TV remote can then (in theory) also control both the audio system and the source by sending commands to them. Synchronized on/off, volume control, channel changes go back to the source instead of messing with the TV input, etc.
In practice, it "usually" works if all three devices understand the HDMI 1.4 spec. Some areas where it falls apart are in super high fidelity audio from BluRay on the far high end of the market, since not many devices understand those formats. Sending audio through an older TV will drop the multichannel sound and make it stereo or maybe Dolby 5.1. Not the fancy stuff.
So then you're back to running an audio cable (usually optical) from the source (in this case BluRay) to the amplifier and the amp will convert it down to a dumber format for the TV but you'll have the TV speakers off and will listen through the amp. And then you get into decode timing and having to fiddle with delays at each step to get "lip sync" right, again. Which you killed with using ARC.
Anyway ... it's all spiffy stuff but there's a lot of gotchas in doing any sort of complex setup.
I've got lovely old Yamaha gear for my audio but I ran into the problem the ARC is supposed to solve.
Source: Satellite receiver
Standard analog stereo
Samsung TV on wall mounted very flush
Video path: HDMI out of Satellite Receiver to Samsung
Audio Path: Analog audio line level outputs (red and white RCA jacks) from satellite receiver to stereo
Problem: Samsung video is about 100ms behind the audio. The TV takes a little bit of time time process the video and display it.
Okay, simple fix...
Take giant TV off the wall and find analog line level audio output and wire direct to stereo.
First problem. Flush mount. Needed a 90 degree 3.5mm stereo jack to RCA adapter. Done. Put TV back on wall.
Second problem: No left channel. Argh. Stupid 3.5mm plugs. Take TV off wall. Test with three different adapter cables, some not 90 degree. Find out that 3.5mm stereo jack on back of expensive TV doesn't meet spec and can only get two channel audio if you partially unplug the male side.
Arggggh: Put everything back to "works but audio is slightly off mode and ponder...
1. Buy SPDIF (optical) to analog adapter so I can run optical audio out. Measure typical optical connector and probably have to get something fairly low profile to work with flush mount.
2. Buy new amp for stereo system that has ARC and CEC for a nice little "upgrade". Fixes whole problem if it works over existing HDMI cables and moves all sources into the HDMI inputs on the amp, no more multiple HDMI going to the TV.
The latter is what I'm looking at doing right now. Plus being a Yamaha fan who hasn't purchase anything in a very long time, I noticed they dove in hard with WiFi connectivity on their products with their MusicCast stuff which looks to be an excellent way to give Sonos a real run for their money if you're not a fan of their "speakers". Yamaha has full blown surround systems, stereo amps for music-only areas, all in one speakers like Sonos, and few small amps that aren't "audiophile" quality for driving an existing set of speakers, say like, in the garage, or even a box that simply provides a pre-amp level output. Huge number of choices.
Even a set of nice bookshelf speakers that have a USB input that can be hooked to a PC, and get this... anything fed into any of those devices can be routed multi-room over wifi.
One new surround amp for the basement setup, two of the pre-amp level output devices cheap to hook to the already existing Yamaha setups in the upstairs and the garage, and two sets of those USB fed bookshelf speakers for the office and the ham shack... and I could route any audio source anywhere in the house to any system. And control it all from a phone app.
Seriously thinking about the Yamaha stuff. They are massively dedicated to it -- they've added it to nearly every device they sell above the cheap consumer level stuff.
And it makes it so that I don't waste the existing Yamaha driven systems, I only "dump" one amp and that one only because I need to route the HDMI sources through it. Upstairs on the little TV I know that analog audio output works and can feed that into the pre-amp device.
Liking what I'm seeing from Yamaha. Makes the whole system very "don't care" about sources. As long as you can feed it in somewhere, their stuff will make it stream all over the house. Getting decent reviews too, with the usual "Apple makes it harder than Android" which is another nail in the Apple coffin soon to be closing in this house -- they published a $300 photo book of Apple designs and they can't get cloud file synching right yet? They're so getting kicked out of the house as soon as I figure out which Android phone I'm going to.
http://www.yamaha.com/US/MusicCast/
