Update: I managed to squeeze a photocell in there and when the appletv is closed it hardly lets any light in, so I was able to code a reliable upper and lower threshold to sense when it comes on or off. I ended up using a counter that counts up if a check is greater than threshold and down if not, and that counter has to make it to 5 before it kicks off the IR commands to turn everything else on. It's working great so far. Thanks again 