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Magic Remote

The LG Smart TV is boxed with one of the two following remote control units:

  • Magic Remote Control Unit allows for free pointing and clicking, as well as standard 5-way controls. Voice input and universal remote functionality are also provided.
  • Conventional Remote Control Unit allows for standard 5-way controls, with additional physical keys as shortcuts to commonly used actions.

Magic Remote control unit

Image of Magic remote control
ButtonApp Usage
Power, Volume, Mute, VoiceGeneral system functions
Channel +/-N/A
Smart Home (Icon image of Smart Home)Returns to Home Screen
OKSelect/Enter
WheelScrolls content on hover
Navigation - UpMoves focus to up
Navigation - RightMoves focus to the right
Navigation - DownMoves focus to down
Navigation - LeftMoves focus to the left
BACK (Icon image of back button)
  • Short press: Returns to the previous page. If there is no previous page,
    • on webOS TV 6.0 or higher, a popup asking whether to exit the app is displayed.
    • on webOS TV 5.0 or lower, the Home launcher is launched.
  • Long press: Returns to the last input mode.
Color Buttons:
Red, Green, Yellow, Blue		Customizable by the app

The following remote keys are available:

ButtonKeycode
Left37
Up38
Right39
Down40
OK13
Back461
Red403
Green404
Yellow405
Blue406

Media playback keys on a conventional remote control unit

On a conventional remote control unit, there are additional media playback keys listed in the following table, which do not exist on Magic Remote.

ButtonKeycode
Play415
Pause19
Fast-forward417
Rewind412
Stop413

Basic pointer actions

  • Pressing Up, Down, Left, or Right key, while a pointer is active, will switch remote into 5-way modes.

  • In a 5-way input, the pointer function will be disabled.

Basic key actions

ActionDescription
PressPerforms the function mapped to the key.
  • OK: Select an on-screen UI element.
  • Back: Returns to the previous page or the system Home.
  • Numbers: Enter a character (numbers or letters).
  • Arrows: Move left, right, up or down.
Press and hold
  • The alternate key function is performed.
  • e.g. Pressing the arrow keys in a list will accelerate the scrolling speed.
RollScroll up or down the content.

Back behavior

Web apps can control the behavior of the remote's Back button. You can map the Back button to navigate the previous webpages or go to Home UI. Once the app is done handling the Back button, webOS TV will take over the behavior of the Back button. For more details, see Back Button.

As described at the top of this article, remote controls have two navigation modes, pointer, and 5-way modes.
  • Pointer mode:
    The remote control works similarly to a mouse (or, we prefer to refer to a wand). You can point or select items, or scroll up or down using the wheel. You can use the standard JavaScript events for the mouse, such as theonmouseover event and theonclick event.
  • 5-way mode:
    The arrow (Up, Down, Left, and Right) and the Enter keys are the major function keys in this mode. The scroll wheel is also active.

Here are additional tips and information about the navigation modes:

  • Pressing any of the arrow keys (Up, Down, Left, or Right) while using pointer mode will switch the navigation mode to 5-way mode.
  • Shaking the Magic Remote while in 5-way mode will switch the navigation mode to Pointer mode.
  • When the Magic Remote is in 5-way mode, the cursor will not be displayed on the screen. In Pointer mode, the cursor is displayed on the screen. You can check the cursor visibility with thecursorStateChange event.
  • The LG Smart+TV's primary input mode is Pointer mode but all apps MUST also support 5-way mode. Developing functions that do not support the "5-way" input should be avoided.
  • The Moonstone and Sandstone libraries support both Pointer mode and 5-way modes of LG remote control.
  • While the overlay type system UI such as Launcher or Settings menu is displayed on the screen, apps cannot receive the pointer events. You can check it using the onblur event and theonfocus event from your app.
  • On touch-enabled TV devices, the Touch Remote interface is provided. For details, see Touch Remote interface.
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