I'm setting up a media PC for my TV using refurbished hardware. The biggest pain right now is controlling the interface. I got one of those cheap keyboards with trackpads but they stopped working in a month. Reading this post makes me wonder if I can reuse one of the old IR remotes lying around in my home. Generating shortcut keys and binding them might be easy but what can be done for text/voice to text input?
I'll have to read up on what you mean using IR remotes to control a Pi through HDMI HEC. The computer I'm using has an DP output that I've used an adapter to feed to my TV HDMI. So I may not be able to use your setup. But it sounds novel and interesting so I would definitely like to learn more. Thanks.