I use home-assistant with LIRC to give my Chromecast a dedicated play/pause button on the universal remote. It also pauses the Chromecast when I power off my A

I use home-assistant with LIRC to give my Chromecast a dedicated play/pause button on the universal remote. It also pauses the Chromecast when I power off my AV receiver. Then there's a cron job that beeps on the hour (a 4-bit number from 1-12), so I can hear if my computer and watch are in sync.