TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL
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Damnit. What the hell is wrong with the remote control industry?
Design problem:
I have a bunch of Logitech Harmony brand remote controls, which are wearing out because they're old and need to be replaced every so often, and one of them is for the TV in my kitchen, which I watch while I'm doing the dishes, so it gets wet and wears out faster.
I have four TVs, each equipped between 0 and 1 AV Receivers, and an arbitrary number of input devices (one Tivo device, plus between 0 and five others). The TV in my Den (my main TV) has Apps, so that remote needs to control that TV as well.
Design Goals:
- Each TV setup needs a single remote control that controls the TV, the AV Receiver if applicable, and all input devices attached to that TV.
- Each TV setup has a single device designated for volume control. (If an AV Receiver is present, it's the AV Receiver. If not, it's the TV.) Regardless of remote control mode, the volume buttons must be bound to the designated device and must not send a volume command to any other device.
- Each TV setup has a single designated device that switches between the inputs. Regardless of remote control mode, the input command must switch input on that device, and not send a switch input command to any other device.
- There are some "logical devices", i.e., scenarios where multiple devices needs inputs switched in sequence. (The Den TV's normal input switching device is the AV Receiver, but in order to do Apps, both the TV input and AV receiver input must be set correctly in sequence.) The remote must support macros to handle this case.
- I want the remote to save the commands to memory so I don't have to reprogram it when the batteries die.
- I don't want voice commands. I don't want a microphone in my house listening in on what I'm talking about with my wife or my friends.
- This all needs to be done as a piece of hardware, not my cell phone. I can use the phone for setup, but I need to be able to hand this to my brother when he's watching my house and take my cellphone with me and have everything still work.
- It needs a "Live TV button" that can be programmed to implement that Tivo feature (skip ahead in a recorded program to the live program that's currently airing.)
- I'm willing to program special things that I want, but I need a database of correct codes that the programming tool uses because I don't necessarily have all the original remotes.
Logitech stopped making Harmony devices, and now I'm having trouble sourcing them. The only thing I can find is the Sofabaton U1, which claims to have Harmony-style features, but only supports one remote control per email address. (
). It's also missing the hardware Live TV button and doesn't have any macro buttons. (To do a macro, you have to take away an existing hardware button's feature.)How do you guys control your TVs?
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@GuyWhoKilledBear said in TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL:
the TV in my kitchen
Hey guess: I do not have a TV at all!
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@GuyWhoKilledBear said in TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL:
How do you guys control your TVs?
Once upon a time I used a Universal Remote Control MX-500. Had it all set up nicely with proper controls and punch-throughs for TV, Receiver, Cable Box, Game Machines, and such so it was just one button to turn on and switch to whatever you wanted to watch. It eventually broke and by that time they'd decided to not sell directly to consumers. :(
After that I had a Harmony hub with the very basic remote and the phone app. Never quite happy with it, too much inertia to get something better (even a better Harmony remote).
Now I have a very simple setup based around a TV with built-in Roku. No receiver, just a Blu-ray player and a Raspberry Pi-based emulation box on the extra HDMI inputs. It's mostly used for Netflix. The other TVs in the house are just used for cable with the cable remotes.
