MediaPortal Remote Controls? (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter Craysh
- Start date
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joostzilla
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Quote:
I have tried several remotes for controlling my htpc config (MP, mce and sound/tv system). And the logitech Harmony remotes work very, very well.
Also have a look at the new Philips remotes (some of them come with an Ir receiver)
http://www.remotecontrol.philips.com/
http://www.prestigo.philips.com/
Netherlands
I use a Harmony 555 (thinking of getting a 880 though). This is absolutely the way to go! One remote control that controls every device in your system and it is activity based (instead of device based as most universal remotes). In an activity each button can control a different device and all this is fully configurable. Eg: In my HTPC activity the cursor buttons control mediaportal, the volume buttons control the receiver, the menu button controls the TV menu, etc, etc.
Getting everything configured and tweaked the way you want can take some time though. I find the web based software from Logitech very very un-intuitive. Even the simplest of things need to be done through a wizard and for some things it can be difficult to find out where the setting is that you need. Settings that could be done with two mouseclicks in normal software takes six wizard screens and fifteen mouseclicks in the Harmony software, but you get there in the end. Once you have the remote configured to do everything you want you'll never want to go back! My six original remotes now live at the back of a drawer and the (good looking!) Harmony is the only remote on the table.
But 250,- EUR for such a remote is a bit heavy... wouldnt a nice black IR-keyboard do the same (or even better) job? Especially if your DVD and Sat-Receiver is replaced by the HTPC and you only have to control TV on-off, HTPC (via MP) and Receiver on-off-volume?
a keyboard in the living room
Here in the Netherlands the 555 costs around 82 eur and a 525 can be had for as little as 63 eur, so you don't need to break the bank.
I also have a very nice wireles keyboard/trackball (Adesso WBK3000), but don't use it very much, usually only for configuring stuff. Anyway, a keyboard will not control your receiver, tv, sat/cable boxes and the harmony will. If you want everything to be controlled as if it were a single device I believe that a Harmony is the best solution.
I want my HTPC setup to be about music and movies and try to avoid the PC factor as much as I can: It shouldn't look like a PC and it shouldn't act like a pc.
I use 2 different solutions at the moment.
The MP server sits in the basement with one screen going to the kitchen on vga and one screen going to the sitting room on s-video (MP runs great over tv out).
For the kitchen I use an ATI wonder remote. It's rf with the usb receiver in the basement and works very well upto 10m away through walls.
For the sitting room, I have mapped all the buttons from the remote which came with the tv card (compro dvb-t 200) to my multifunction remote which does everything else (TV, DVD, Dbox etc...). I had to extend the IR cable to reach the TV, but as it's just a 3.5mm jack, you can pick extension cables up from ebay for buttons.
Both work very well (the Compro thanks to the wonderful people at teamMP) and I am particularly happy with the way I got both setup and working for less than £40 uk.
The remote I use in the sitting room is just a cheap one4all with learning capabilites, but it works a treat and lets you control all the AV equipment with the one remote.
The MP server sits in the basement with one screen going to the kitchen on vga and one screen going to the sitting room on s-video (MP runs great over tv out).
For the kitchen I use an ATI wonder remote. It's rf with the usb receiver in the basement and works very well upto 10m away through walls.
For the sitting room, I have mapped all the buttons from the remote which came with the tv card (compro dvb-t 200) to my multifunction remote which does everything else (TV, DVD, Dbox etc...). I had to extend the IR cable to reach the TV, but as it's just a 3.5mm jack, you can pick extension cables up from ebay for buttons.
Both work very well (the Compro thanks to the wonderful people at teamMP) and I am particularly happy with the way I got both setup and working for less than £40 uk.
The remote I use in the sitting room is just a cheap one4all with learning capabilites, but it works a treat and lets you control all the AV equipment with the one remote.