Apple TV remote

Turn off your TV or receiver

Press and hold Apple TV App/Home  to bring up Control Center, then select Sleep. This puts your Apple TV to sleep and automatically turns off your television or receiver. Need help?

Adjust HDMI-CEC and volume settings on your Apple TV

Go to Settings > Remotes and Devices, then choose the following:

• Control TVs and Receivers: Choose whether your Siri Remote or Apple TV Remote automatically turns on your television or receiver.

Yes it can. That is precisely how I use it.

• To have other devices (TV, receiver) go to standby/sleep mode when the Apple TV goes to sleep mode, or to wake other devices (TV, receiver) when the Apple TV gets woken, simply activate HDMI-CEC on all these devices. For Apple TV, that setting is Settings﹥Remotes and Devices﹥Control TVs and Receivers﹥On. For other devices, see their manual.
• To control the volume on the receiver, you can choose to use HDMI-CEC volume control (if supported by the receiver), or volume control through IR. Settings﹥Remotes and Devices﹥Volume Control﹥Auto via HDMI (receiver) | Receiver via IR | TV via IR.

Depending on the Apple TV and the remote, yes. If you have an Apple TV HD or 4K, please use Apple TV - Control your TV or Receiver

So it can control a tv or receiver, not both?

That depends on the level of control that you seek.

• Audio can be controlled on one of them, usually the receiver, as that is the audio system. Both at the same time makes no sense.
• HDMI-CEC from the Apple TV box can wake-sleep all connected devices that will listen to that signal.
• The Apple TV Remote doesn’t control other functions on your TV or receiver.

rkaufmann87 wrote:

You may be a candidate for a true universal remote control such as a Logitech Harmony remote. Simple to setup and use.

Harmony remotes are some of the most aggravating technology to set up that I've ever encountered. Fortunately, they survive being flung across the room.

Sorry to hear that, it took me about 15 minutes to master it and I've never had any problems since. we have 3 in our house and all work great and were extremely simple to setup and use. My wife's previous husband (he had a brain tumor and passed before I came along) also had trouble setting his up, when I inherited it, looked for the manual and like I said 15 minutes later I got the thing controlling our HT setup including our receiver, Apple TV, Direct TV and the TV itself.

Perhaps my expectations are too high. I can get them to turn things on and off, change volume, etc. But, I can never get them to do the fancy routines they're supposed to be able to do (e.g. turn on the TV at 11:30pm on weekdays, turn to channel 2". I finally gave up.

If your Sony TV is so old (it must be at least 15 years old to not have an HDMI connection) the only way you can connect the Apple TV to it is through your Receiver and then hopefully your receiver has passthrough. It sounds like you may be way overdue for a new TV.

You may be a candidate for a true universal remote control such as a Logitech Harmony remote. Simple to setup and use.