One remote to rule them all

papachango says:

10:43am | 13/01/12

I believe this is what they call ‘first world problems’...lol

but yea, +1 for Logitech Harmony. A little fiddly to set up, but once done it rocks! I’ve gopt six remotes that just sit in a jar, never used, unless the Logitech runs out of batteries, and even then it’s to transfer batteries from the original remotes to the Logitech.

TheRealDave says:

11:23am | 13/01/12

Not hat hard to setup. It involves looking at the back of your device and writing down the model number and brand….so you can look it up inthe logitech software.

I just hooked up an old Barbie TV/DVD player my dughter got handed down to her from a friend and despite not having any ‘brand’ manufacturer on it I was able to trace it back, via Google and looking at pictures, to a generic chniese brand that was listed in the software and apply it to the remote inside of 5 minutes.

Its a piece of piss.

neo says:

01:05pm | 13/01/12

I got my Bravia and my PS3, control both with the Bravia remote

PsychoHyena says:

02:16pm | 13/01/12

Universal remotes are great and all, on one condition, your appliance is supported by the remote. I’ve bought 4 Universal remotes and not one of them worked with my NeonIQ tv.

papachango says:

04:19pm | 13/01/12

@RealDave - true, but in mine you can set up ‘activities’ - which is a little fiddlier but well worth it.

e.g. i set up one activitiy called “Watch TV’, and with one button press it turns on the PVR, the TV and the amplifier, switches the amplifier input source to video 2, the TV input source to HDMI. It also then also knows to use the volume buttons to control the amp not the TV, and the channel selector buttons to the PVR, not the TV.

It took about 10 mins to set up, but each time I go to watch TV, this would have taken me 30 secs and three remotes to do previously.

papachango says:

04:31pm | 13/01/12

@PsychoHyena - even if your deivce isn’t on the universal remote’s database, unless it uses somethign other than infra-red, you can generally ‘teach’ the universal remote to operate it, but pointing the original remote at it and getting it to ‘learn’ the signals.

TheRealDave says:

10:26am | 14/01/12

@Papa - yep, my Logitechs are the same. You have a ‘Devices’ button to control the individual devices and ‘Activities’ button to setup your macros to turn various devices on/off, set the right input mode etc. Thats the beauty of it, you can set it up to be as simple or as complex as you like.

jim says:

12:43pm | 14/01/12

Thats not hard, I use a Keyboard, mouse and a real Operating System.

Robert S McCormick says:

01:12pm | 13/01/12

Paul,
What happens if, say, you have a Stroke (yes youngsters are having them too), and are left with a severe speech impediment? Will this mean your TV etc. will have tobe re-programmed to accept your new sounds?
Ok whilst we still can get the old-tech Remote there is no problem but, eventually, they will probably disappear & we will all be using this new technology for in a few year (month?, weeks?) new TVs etc will not be supplied with a remote & there will be no provision made for them.
I like the idea of walking into my lounge & simply saying something which switches the TV on ‘cos even god sometimes must wonder where I put the remote after a few nice reds!

TheRealDave says:

02:36pm | 13/01/12

@Rob, yes, if you suffer a severe speech impairment then you would have to ‘re-train’ your voice commands. Same for most Voice activated systems/software.

As for no remotes with the TV - easily done. Each brand/model has a set of infra red commands built into the remote and a receiver to accept those commands in the tv/device. They are predetermined and hardlocked. With the Logitech Harmony system they have all those codes from the manufacturers. You simply install the software on your PC, plug your remote in and add all your devices - via brand name/ model number drop down lists, and the software then puts the infra red commands directly into your ‘Universal Remote’.

So future ‘devices’ could easily come with no remotes and you could just ‘download the codes you need’ direct to your existing universal remote/ voice activation system with a few clicks…..or voice activation commands if we go down that path

Baddabing badda boom your done!

You can ‘fine tune’ your and play aroudn with it. ANd yes you can add devices that are not currently supported by doing it the manual way ie pointing your current reote at the universal remote and ‘programming it’ like you do with non-smart universal remotes.

I DO NOT sell or work for Logitech, but I am a huge fan of their products. I have a G35 headset (awesome), an original G11 Keyboard, G5 mouse and a 5.1 Surround Setup. I’m thinking about getitng a G13 as well…still not sure if I NEED it rather than just WANT it….the only non-Logitech peripheral I have is my Saitek X52…sorry, the Logitechs just aren’t as good as that bad boy

Aaron says:

11:56pm | 13/01/12

I’m going to use Siri as an example here:

Voice activated TV:
*Press button to activate Siri*
Siri, Change to channel 9
*Beep beep*
Changing to channel 5
NO! Channel 9!

Traditional remote,
*Click* .... You’re done.

I do see the advantage in the area of recording shows, setting reminders and things like “Play the next episode of Stargate for me” and it picks up from your library, but I doubt we’ll see that kind of integration, at least not on the level I’d require.

Miles says:

12:42pm | 13/01/12

I agree.  Using voice control for the TV would be ridiculous and annoying.  Are people really going to speak out each channel constantly when surfing?  It’s much easier to just press a single button.

maybe says:

02:25pm | 13/01/12

that one left me a bit puzzled also…

papachango says:

04:25pm | 13/01/12

I think she was trying to say, start out with the basics before getting to the fancy stuff. But since curing the cold isn’t the logical first step to curing cancer, it’s a crap simile.

‘Learn to crawl before you try to walk’ would have been better…

DT says:

12:32pm | 13/01/12

Vivan - geez bud; get a life. You really spent a long time nitpicking everything and writing it all down.

TheRealDave says:

02:46pm | 13/01/12

Viv, quick tip, get a Win7 Media box and plug it into your TV via HDMIO if you’ve got the ports. Don’t worry about a huge fast HD in it either or buckets loads of ram or high end processors. Just and entry level dual core PC with an HDMI output and a Wireless N USB or card, up to you.

That way you can stream all your media from your main box/storage directly to the TV (if you have a WAP, if not you need to go wired)  without the need for copying DivX’s and stuff around, finding USB thumb drives (mine seem to go throught he wash a lot) etc. The Harmony Remote works fine with WinXP/Vista/7 MC and you can browse all your shared media files with ease on the big screen and play what you want. Add a few customized mods like Media Browser and you get full media details, actor info, season covers, backdrops and its a gorgeous interface - all free.

I can kick back, bring up the interface, scroll around and pick…oh lets say en episode from Season 5 of NCIS….watch it, flcik around and pick an episode frm Season 2 of the Sopranos….etc all without getting off my arse Awesome when you have just over 6TB of movies and TV shows

Throw the portable drives away \

Nice link: http://www.hack7mc.com/ for all your WIn 7 Media Centre addons and mods. The ‘Hacks’ part is a misnomer.

Tator says:

05:55pm | 13/01/12

The Real Dave,
Got my HTPC from Ebay for $240, is an old HP Media Centre with a 1.8 ghtz Core 2 Duo with 2 gig ram and tv tuner.  I also bought a 300Mbps Wireless N modem and a Billion 7800N to connect to my $150 from ebay Linksys NAS where all my media is stored, total cost for this media setup was $510, albeit, I have just upgraded the NAS to a terabyte and have upgraded my main PC’s ram to 8 gig and moving the 4 gig that was there into the Media Centre.  So setting up a media network isn’t enormously expensive and costs a little more than a decent PVR if you hunt around.  By setting this up, I have also set up my son’s laptop so he can access the NAS and watch his favourite movies without having to risk scratching the dvds.  I had to buy a wireless mini keyboard with a track pad but having just seen the new Logitech Touch K400 , I might just upgrade to that in the future as it will be a lot easier to surf the net with.  Maybe when hard drives come back down in price after a spike since the floods in Thailand I might add a couple more terabytes to the NAS even though it is only half full.

TheRealDave says:

09:01pm | 13/01/12

Yep, thats the way we’ll all be going soon Tator. Nice fat centralized media storage and stream it all over the house. Watch what you want, when you want, where you want on whatever you want.

I have two lappies around the house and the kids can watch their crap on it. I can also stream to my Galaxy Tab both here and when I am out and about via Subsonic. Subsonic also has an Android app so basically ANY of our Android phones can stream all my media as well - no matter where they are as long as they can get on the net.

I’m planning on getting an XBox for the girls room, mount up a big LCD down there and they can use the extender to stream all the stuff from my main box as well. Best of all - get the Kinect and they won’t even need a remote…just wave their hands around and all their TV and movies are there

See, not hard at all - if you spend more than 5 minutes reading about the technology…and not just cutting and pasting media released and whats written on the side of the box ... and getting paid to do that….

Seth Brundle says:

01:59pm | 13/01/12

Hmm, even just a volume levelling TV would be a big advancement.  I despise the difference in volumes when the ads come on, and even in the difference between channels.

Alicia says:

02:13pm | 13/01/12

Yes because the single act of no longer having to get up to change the channel every now and then has made people obese. Unless people have to run 100m to do it?

Has nothing do with food. At all.

TheRealDave says:

02:49pm | 13/01/12

You just need to hit it in the right spot.

*bang*

‘You aint nuthin but a hound dog….’

Aaaaayyyyyy!

Tator says:

05:57pm | 13/01/12

The correct term for that is percussive maintenance.

Seth Brundle says:

02:02pm | 13/01/12

She is pretty, though.

Jane2 says:

02:10pm | 13/01/12

Personally I couldnt think of anything worse than everything being voice activated.

Could you imagine an entire open plan office full of people talking to their computers? The noise level would be extremely annoying and it would be impossible to talk on the phone and use the computer at the same time.

Voice activated gaming? Same issue. Most serious gaming involves having real time conversations with those you are playing with while performing independent actions on a keyboard/mouse/joystick. If you are saying “turn right, shoot shoot shoot” to get the console to do what you want, you cant say all the other things you normally say to your team mates like “duck!”

Voice activated TV? You are having a conversation with someone else in the room and the TV keeps changing channels in the background. You have someone talking on the phone at the other end of the room and they say “7” and the TV you are watching changes.

I have heard someone suggest that you should be able to lock it to one voice…well that is one way to control what and how much TV your kids consume as surely every parent would lock it to their voice.

I do agree she did have a lot of errors though.

Gary says:

03:02pm | 13/01/12

Jane, firstly there will never be games like that where you tell it where to move. They will attempt to use voice intiuitively, such as in conversations, or like they did in SOCOM. Secondly, there are ways around background noises, such as xbox’s way of saying “xbox, (command)”, as well as ‘training it’. Thirdly, voice activation will never replace controls, merely enhance. An entire office would never replace its machines with pure voice activation, only when necissary.

Baz says:

03:52pm | 13/01/12

This could change the course of the world in fact. Imagine a world where everyone was yelling all the time, because they were brought up learning that “he who yells the loudest, has the power”. *shudder*