There had been universal remotes from quite some time. Some which needs us to map key by key and some which allows us to map using a device ID. There had been some with Digital display and some which were apps lying on your iOS/Android devices.
I have tried a few. Some worked fine with limited capability. Like the STB remote for the Satellite TV which allows me to map my TV remote also into it, and Universal Remote, a device from gear4.
The STB remote worked fine, though with a bit of effort, when I had the TV remote from which the universal remote could learn. But recently when I had to connect to a TV for which the Remote was not working anymore, I ran to a dead end.
The Universal Remote, Unity remote from gear4 would have worked well (even though the app was not very good) provided they had used WiFi in place of Bluetooth. Now the challenge is that the batteries get drained so fast and by the time you are ready to use it ,
I hear there are other remotes which work well, but end of the day I feel the flexibility lacks in a fixed keyboard remote as you have to have a lot of keys there.
This is the area where Ray is relevant. Ray tries to have some of the common functions as physical buttons as volume control etc and the rest all as soft buttons. It also tries to integrate some of the old Google TV into the remote. With support for many STBs including what is in India, they are making it extremely interesting for the subcontinent. So now you can see detailed program guide as well as additional information about the program. It can learn from your choices and suggest more programs for you. (Some of the wish list items I had in another post in this blog:-)
I also happened to see a demo given by Ray to recode which showed some stability issues with the remote which may be a deterrent if that slips into the final product. May be a little too early to start worrying about it.
In India especially the demography of people who watch the TV may find it a little too techie to start with, but if the device really simplifies the remote by adding snap shots of the program and name in native language etc, it can really be an interesting product to have. I will keep a watch on this to see if I want to get one. As I said earlier, a lot may depend on what Homekit finally grows on to be.
I have tried a few. Some worked fine with limited capability. Like the STB remote for the Satellite TV which allows me to map my TV remote also into it, and Universal Remote, a device from gear4.
The STB remote worked fine, though with a bit of effort, when I had the TV remote from which the universal remote could learn. But recently when I had to connect to a TV for which the Remote was not working anymore, I ran to a dead end.
The Universal Remote, Unity remote from gear4 would have worked well (even though the app was not very good) provided they had used WiFi in place of Bluetooth. Now the challenge is that the batteries get drained so fast and by the time you are ready to use it ,
I hear there are other remotes which work well, but end of the day I feel the flexibility lacks in a fixed keyboard remote as you have to have a lot of keys there.
This is the area where Ray is relevant. Ray tries to have some of the common functions as physical buttons as volume control etc and the rest all as soft buttons. It also tries to integrate some of the old Google TV into the remote. With support for many STBs including what is in India, they are making it extremely interesting for the subcontinent. So now you can see detailed program guide as well as additional information about the program. It can learn from your choices and suggest more programs for you. (Some of the wish list items I had in another post in this blog:-)
I also happened to see a demo given by Ray to recode which showed some stability issues with the remote which may be a deterrent if that slips into the final product. May be a little too early to start worrying about it.
In India especially the demography of people who watch the TV may find it a little too techie to start with, but if the device really simplifies the remote by adding snap shots of the program and name in native language etc, it can really be an interesting product to have. I will keep a watch on this to see if I want to get one. As I said earlier, a lot may depend on what Homekit finally grows on to be.
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