Perhaps People Don't Really Mind Having Six Different Remotes
from the it's-not-so-bad,-really dept
Like many of you, I would guess, my living room coffee table is cluttered with remote controls. I actually do have a universal remote somewhere, but it's probably buried in the bottom of a box, rather than being used. A new study reports that even as more of us are being overwhelmed with more and more remotes, not that many are buying universal remotes to consolidate the devices. The study in question notes that people say they want a universal remote, but they also want something that's easy to set up -- and the study's authors suggest that the second part may be outweighing the first part. Of course, there's another issue that isn't discussed at all. Learning to use a remote actually involves a bit of work. How many times have you gone to someone else's house and had to ask how the remote works before you felt comfortable using it? TiVo has even received special praise for designing a well thought out remote. Thus, the mental effort to switch to a new remote and relearn everything that you already learned with the old remotes -- especially one that's designed to cram every function into a single pad -- probably just isn't very appealing for most people. The universal remote might just be the type of idea that sounds better in theory than in practice.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Logitech Harmony
The problem I've had with universal remotes is they become obsolete fast. My cable box remote which can also control the tv doesn't work with MY tv and I'm pretty much stuck with it until there is a universal remote that can control the cable box.
The Harmony may be able to do it all, but at $90, I'm not sure it is worth it.
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Perhaps People Don't Really Mind Having Six Differ
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Uh?
Maybe the real reason people put up with multiple remotes is not that they don't mind. I have still to find one that does not mind among my friends, relatives and acquantiances.
Maybe it's just they can't get a good deal with universal remotes: they are expensive, they do not really work all the time, they are not really easy to set up.
Maybe really, really, consumer electronics companies should meet around some table and draw and subscribe to a common standard for signal from remotes that allow some of them to create a real universal remote without recurring to incomplete, fixed-in-time, partly buggy reverse engineering of te codes of thousands of different devices.
Wet dream, huh?
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I guess electronic companies think that the $30 replacement remote revenue is worth the loss in usability.
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Missing functions
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Remotely Possible
I have 3 of them (including a programmable that came with my Denon receiver) and none of them will do the total job. There is always some function that the universal will refuse to operate on each device.
I will wait until this technology is perfected and operates via voice command, "submit post".
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Harmony Remote
Is it worth the money? I got rid of six remotes and replaced it with one that handles every function the originals did. I would have to say the convenience and lack of clutter I gained has made it worthwhile.
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I can use my universal remote for my TV and my DVD player, OR for my TV and my VCR, but not all three at once. Not to mention that the buttons for my DVD player aren't what they say they are: Play doesn't do anything, but the bottun below it does. Fast forward and Rewind don;t do anything, but ones next to them do.
Theres nothing worse than losing a DVD Player remote. All I ask for is a damn DVD player that has menu selection buttons right on the main unit. Is that so much to ask for???
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Harmony Remote
Granted, it did take some tweaking, but I Hit one button and the TV comes on, switches to correct input, stereo comes on & switches to correct input and I'm ready to watch DirectTV or a DVD. Very, very nice.
Highly customizable too.
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Re: Logitech Harmony
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Harmony Remote
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Often you can find the right remote (of 3 to 6 on the coffee table) and find the right button, in the dark a lot quicker with OEM remotes than you could with a universal.
For th past 5 years, I've been advising anyone I knew who has to pick up a new DVD player to look more at the remote than the rest of the unit. Most people find the output quality of different players indistinguishable, but if you are always hitting the chapter forward button when you mean to be hitting the go forward a little bit (or go back a little bit) button you are going to be generaly disatisfied with the unit as a whole.
Now, try to diplcate all of the controls for my DVD, TiVo, Stereo Reciever, TV, and HDTV Tuner on one remote, and make them usable in the dark. I don't see it happenign soon.
My stereo remote learned how to also have a TV volume control toggle, and can power on and off the TV.
My TiVo remote knows how to power on and off the TV, adjust it's volume, and mute it. That's perfect for when I'm watching TiVo, but it scrapes the surface of the TV functions, and doesn't get me turned on properly when the last thing I was doing was watching a DVD.
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Universal vs programmable remotes
also the codes for remotes are very poorly documented so there is a lot of trail and error involved in getting the most basic funcionality out of a universal remote and it is pretty much a lost cause finding one remote that will controll all fuctions of all your devices.
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The Kameleon
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They Don't work half the time
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universal remotes ain't the answer...
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Re: Remotely Possible
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Re: Uh?
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20FIRST post
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My Fav universal
I love it.
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What's NEEDED in a universal remote controller (UR
1. press the URC "device" button for the device (DVD, VCR, audio, cable box, etc.) whose controls you are about to program (ideally a light behind that button will indicate it's now active.)
2. put the original remote controller for that device "mouth to mouth" with the URC,
3. press the control on the URC you want to set the frequency for (e.g., ff, pause, play, stop, volume up, volume down) and then press the corresponding control on the original remote control.
At this point the URC will READ the frequency from the original remote and set its own internal frequency for that command. Again, ideally a light will flash when the input frequency is detected and set.
I suspect that there must be a controller that does this. If you know of one, please send me an e-mail with the info.
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