Also some people don’t want a keyboard and mouse sitting on their coffee table. They want a remote control they can use from the couch.

Though it does surprise me such a solution doesn’t already exist. I was looking at something similar using an rpi, but u couldn’t seem to find anything with a remote.

Edit: I see all these people making open source mice for 3D printers. Someone should make a very generic open source remote, and whatever receiver (probably usb, which would plug into an rpi nicely) and then not sure what you would need to do to modify emby/jellyfin clients.