Remote Control Simulation

The brs-engine simulates the Roku remote control, offering customizable mapping and extendable capabilities. The browser libraries support Keyboard and Game Pad simulation, with the default mapping detailed in the section below. It is also possible to customize the control buttons mapping and enable multi-key support using a special manifest entry.

If you want to create your own control simulation, such as a touch screen control, you can use the Engine API methods sendKeyDown, sendKeyUp, and sendKeyPress.

When running under the CLI in a terminal (TTY), the keyboard acts as the remote control directly on the main thread while the app runs on a worker thread — see the keyboard table in the CLI guide. The NodeJS brs.ecp.js library additionally supports sending commands via the Roku ECP API from other devices on the network (--ecp option).

Keyboard and Game Pad Control Reference

The default mapping of the keyboard and game pads to Roku remote control is described below:

Keyboard	Game Pad	Roku Control	Description
Esc or Del	1	Back	Return to the previous screen, some apps will close at the main menu.
Home or Shift+Esc	9	Home	Close the currently loaded app.
Arrow Keys	Joys & D-Pad	D-Pad	Directional controls to navigate on menus and control games.
Backspace	2 or 4	Replay	Instant replay button.
Enter	0	OK	Select button.
Insert or Ctrl+8	5 or 16	Info	Information/Settings button
PageUp or Cmd+⬅️	6	Rewind	Reverse scan button.
PageDown or Cmd+➡️	7	Fast Forward	Forward scan button.
End	3 or 8	Play/Pause	Play/Pause button.
Ctrl+A	10	A	A game button.
Ctrl+Z	11	B	B game button.
F10	17	Volume Mute	Button to toggle the simulator audio mute on/off.
Letters & digits	n/a	Text input	Any other printable key is sent as a literal lit_<char> key, used by keyboard dialogs.

Note: There are mappings not listed above, specific for MacOS or Windows, please look at the file src/api/control.ts for details.