Hi,
I am new to Roon and absolutely lOVing it! So many things to like I wish I had known it existed sooner. However, coming from Plex there is one big omission IMO: remote control via smart TVs (Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TVs etc.). The Plex App is good at this and my TV remote controls playback. Granted, not for high-end HiFi listening, but works with Sonos PlayBar+Sub/external DACs linked to TV). The rest of the household select and play music using the TV screens and this would be a way into Roon for them too. It’s convenient to pick up the TV remote and launch music which also gets displayed nicely on the TV.
Having said all that, Roon knocks Plex out of the park on anything else to do with Music!
This would definitely be cool to have. I had always assumed the absence of this was because of the audio limitations of ARC on most Smart TVs. As you’ve mentioned though, there are plenty of smart devices that would circumvent that bottleneck for the cases where eARC isn’t an option.
+1 from me. It would be cool to see this added to the roadmap as a lower priority endeavour - I think it would also be a really good thing for the Roon brand to get the name out there in those app stores too.
Although attaching a DAC to a TV is a good way to get half decent audio quality via the TV (for plex for instance), I think Roon could be onto a winner here, with a Roon TV app used as a remote to select and play audio in other zones, so the TV screen is used only as a display and remote. I feel this would significantly enhance the user experience especially for the non-audiophile members of a household. A lot of people are tired of having to launch things on their smartphones/tablets when the TV remote often more convenient.