Remote control your Pioneer VSX receiver over telnet

telnet <ip> VU<enter> #win!

I’m a hacker, developer and lazy guy. So when I found myself in the kitchen cooking, just realizing that my Pioneer VSX 921 receiver was turned down too low I didn’t walk over to turn it up or find the remote; I instead remembered that it has a bad app for iOS, meaning that it accepts being controlled remote over the network. A little bit of google searching and I found a plugin for an I-dont-know-what containing an XML with some Lua code (XML with code — yay), and also a very nice mapping table for commands the same code runs against a VSX 1021.

So a quick telnet session later I had yanked the volume up without ever leaving the kitchen! These commands probably work for most of the VSX 921/1021 series and later. Enjoy:

Volume:

  • VD = VOLUME DOWN
  • MZ = MUTE ON/OFF
  • VU = VOLUME UP
  • ?V = QUERY VOLUME

Power control:

  • PF = POWER OFF
  • PO = POWER ON
  • ?P = QUERY POWER STATUS

Input selection

  • 05FN = TV/SAT
  • 01FN = CD
  • 03FN = CD-R/TAPE
  • 04FN = DVD
  • 19FN = HDMI1
  • 05FN = TV/SAT
  • 00FN = PHONO
  • 03FN = CD-R/TAPE
  • 26FN = HOME MEDIA GALLERY(Internet Radio)
  • 15FN = DVR/BDR
  • 05FN = TV/SAT
  • 10FN = VIDEO 1(VIDEO)
  • 14FN = VIDEO 2
  • 19FN = HDMI1
  • 20FN = HDMI2
  • 21FN = HDMI3
  • 22FN = HDMI4
  • 23FN = HDMI5
  • 24FN = HDMI6
  • 25FN = BD
  • 17FN = iPod/USB
  • FU = INPUT CHANGE (cyclic)
  • ?F = QUERY INPUT

If you want to change input to the iPod port and turn up the volume, given you’re using OS X or some Unix derivative, you would do this:

  1. Open a terminal
  2. Run the command telnet <ip>
  3. Select input by typing: 17FN<enter>
  4. Nod volume up 1 time: VU<enter>
  5. Repeat VU until you are happy.

There is a tone of other commands you can use, I believe this manual for the VSX 1120 is very much valid for other devices in the series.