Controlling an Apple TV without a TV screen

Perhaps I'm not phrasing my question correctly but I have been unable to find a solution. I have an ATV 4K 3rd gen. device. It's connected to my TV via HDMI and I extract the audio from HDMI and play through my home hi-fi system via a D/A convertor. All good while watching TV. However, I would also like to play from Apple Music via the same sound system and this works fine so long as I have the TV turned on and can visually navigate Apple Music. As everything is currently connected, if I turn off the TV, I can still hear the music but I can no longer see what I'm doing. OK for listening to an album but not so good if I want to dip in and out of artists.


Is there any means to see what I'm doing without turning on the telly? Obviously, I've Music on my iPhone but I can't think of a way to use this to control the ATV. It doesn't mirror what Music is doing on ATV.


If anyone knows any way around this, I'd love to know. Thanks in advance.

Apple TV 4K, tvOS 18

Posted on Aug 13, 2025 10:03 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 13, 2025 10:27 AM

No magic way to see the Apple TV screen without turning on the TV sorry.


You can always just Airplay from your iPhone to the Apple TV instead of playing directly on the Apple TV, so the Apple Tv's screen is not involved. This way you control everything from the iPhone's screen, and the Apple TV simply plays what the iPhone tells it to play.


On the iPhone, swipe to open Control Center, tap , select your Apple TV in the list of devices, then tap  (if the audio isn’t already playing).

click here ➜ Use AirPlay to stream audio and video to Apple TV - Apple Support


4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 13, 2025 10:27 AM in response to Martin Crawley1

No magic way to see the Apple TV screen without turning on the TV sorry.


You can always just Airplay from your iPhone to the Apple TV instead of playing directly on the Apple TV, so the Apple Tv's screen is not involved. This way you control everything from the iPhone's screen, and the Apple TV simply plays what the iPhone tells it to play.


On the iPhone, swipe to open Control Center, tap , select your Apple TV in the list of devices, then tap  (if the audio isn’t already playing).

click here ➜ Use AirPlay to stream audio and video to Apple TV - Apple Support


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Controlling an Apple TV without a TV screen

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