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.