There are usually a few remotes sitting near your lounge. There are probably more stacked in a drawer somewhere near wherever you keep your batteries. It’s amazing how they proliferate. How many do you use?
Photo by gielmichal
We’re pretty sure all those extra remotes are the metamorphosed end-result of the lost single socks you always thought just went missing in the wash, born anew from a cocoon of lint. It doesn’t matter how many you throw away. More will come. Nonetheless, a universal remote may at least keep the extras banished to the cabinetry for a while. We’ve shown you how to choose the right remote for your home theatre PC. But for now, we’d like to know:
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14 responses to “How Many Remotes Do You Use For Your Home Entertainment Centre?”
Jaycar has a universal control with a usb IR receiver so you can plug it in to your computer. I just ordered it but have high hopes as it was reviewed in a magazine. And just a word of caution, the logitech harmony remotes don’t have usb IR receivers, so unless it has another wireless connection format, it won’t work on your pc without an extra IR receiver even though it says it connects to your computer. It only connects via cable so you can download the codes to connect to your other devices.
True, but how many times do you buy new devices and need to connect wirelessly to add the device?
I have the harmony and I connect to my PC once a year(ish) and I love it.
I have the harmony smart control. It’s the hub plus a simple remote.
Really great! The hub has an IR blaster, built in wifi, bluetooth, and RF to receive signals from the simple remote. You can also control it over wifi on your smart phone. It also connects to philips hue lights.
The simple remote is great as well, it’s thin, light, small, buttons are positioned nicely (except for the media controls. Except it doesn’t matter because I use the navigation pad to do all that as I mainly use the Apple TV for media).
Would be a huge hassle without it!
I definitely recommend it for anyone with some sort of home theatre setup.
It’s around $170 AUD off the top of my head. Could probably find it cheaper.
In my opinion I think it’s better than the more expensive ones with the touch screens.
The touch screens (from what I’ve seen) don’t work too well, and you just lose buttons. Also there is a huge bulge for the batteries.
The simple remote just uses a button battery so it’s really thin and light. Harmony Smart Control is cheaper too!
Are you saying the harmony smart without the screen can control the Philips hue? The website doesn’t claim this but if it’s does I might actually consider it. I have hue, Openelec/xbmc/pi, Apple TV, PS3 and hue which would be great to combine.
It didn’t initially, but they updated it. You configure it with the iphone/android app, then you can assign it to an activity or (i think) button as well.
I have a Harmony 1100i with touch screen. When they talk about one remote to rule them all this is what they are talking about.
I use the MS Media Centre Remote 1039 which has a power button for your monitor (TV) and the ability to map the volume +/- to your amp. They’re discontinued but can still be found on eBay.
http://usb.brando.com/microsoft-media-center-remote-model-1039_p01464c035d015.html
Now I have the new xbox, I only need the TV remote to turn on the TV and now everything is via smartglass on my phone. Awesome! xbox watch tv, xbox play bluray. Verbal commands! Finally something that actually listens to me and does what I say!
I’ve got a universal remote to run the physical TV (volume/power on/channels), everything else is done by the XBMC app on various phones and tablets.
I’m just using the standard remote that came with my Sony Bravia TV; but my home theatre, XBMC’ed Raspbery Pi, and PS3 are all HDMI-CEC compliant.
The remote for our Yamaha receiver *can* do everything it needs to but for ease of access we keep the standard TV remote around for times when we aren’t using the Apple TV.
I managed to get my Logitech Harmony Touch on special at Dick Smith, after I broke my old Harmony One remote. The setup for the Harmony Touch was the same sort of format, but because I had the Harmony One I could load in all of my devices, a few quick changes for my new media player and changes in cabling and ta da, a terrible LOTR reference!
I picked up a Logitech Harmony 300 for $13 at Aldi a couple of years ago. Because it can “learn” from other IR remotes, it’s almost infinitely hackable. I use it to control my TV, Foxtel IQ, PVR, amp and subwoofer. It’s so good that I bought a second one, for when the first one goes missing. I just logged onto the My Harmony website and downloaded all the settings from the first remote onto the second one.