I figured this out a few days ago (and posted a comment about it on a Feature Request thread I had started) but had never heard of it before/seen it posted anywhere so I figured I would repost it here.
Turning on HDMI Device Link (PS4) or HDMI Control (PS3) in the System settings, plus HDMI-CEC on the TV (Anynet+, SimpLink, Bravia Sync, CEC, etc, depending on the manufacturer) allows you to control Plex with your IR-based TV or Harmony remote.
The remote control is rather limited, but the following buttons seem to work:
Play
Pause
Fast Forward and Rewind (which work as expected during playback, short press for 10 second skip and long hold for full ff/rewind).
Up
Down
Left
Right
Select/OK
Exit/Return
I was getting sick of turning on/off the PS4 controller constantly or wasting battery, this eliminates that entirely. I still need to use the controller at least once to get the system turned on, but can turn it off after that and don’t need to bother with it if I need to play/pause several times, or switch TV episodes. It looks like the PS4 media remote or hub-based harmony remotes would work also work (probably better), but this workaround for IR-based remotes saves me from having to get one of those.
Anyway, hopefully somebody finds this useful.
