Remote control suggestions? (1 Viewer)

[CyberSimian]

Is this the receiver I would need? Inteset IReTV USB IR Receiver

Yes, I see what you mean about the description being a bit vague. I guess that with the demise of WMC, the remote control products are now oriented towards Fire sticks, Nvidia shields, and the like.

The important acronyms to looks for are "MCE" or "WMC" (they mean the same thing -- Windows Media Center). The Inteset product page does mention MCE, so I think that it will work OK.

Searching on Amazon finds very few hits, but Ebay is better. Hewlett Packard did a nice IR receiver, such as this one (I have one of those). My Dell HTPC came with a Dell-branded remote and IR receiver that are identical to this pair that have Lenovo branding. Both of the linked items are new, but you have to purchase from China.

Correction -- the Lenovo pair are in the UK.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Gcarr]

Thanks @CyberSimian for all the good info. Before the day is out I'll have one of these on the way.
EDIT: and thanks everyone else that chimed in too!

 

[drumrob]

If you want to use your phone as a remote, I have found Unified Remote (link) unbeatable. Install the app on your phone, install the server on your PC and follow the instructions to pair the two. Works over your home Wi-Fi, so you can control your computer from anywhere your phone is within your router's range. The phone app has specific layouts to control a variety of programs, like MP1.xx, iTunes, Kodi, Netflix, even WMC for you diehards out there, as well as many computer functions. Mouse pad, text input etc. etc. Not trying to advertise, but after much trial and error, Unified Remote is hands-down superior. No buying of $400 IR remotes and fiddling with IR blasters.

Here's my setup:

• PC upstairs in the office, older model (non-smart) TV downstairs in the living room, set up as a second monitor.
• TV signal reception is via coax cable (Frontier FiOS) to a Ceton InfiniTV4 PCIe CableCARD tuner ($5/month for the CableCARD) in my PC. No set-top box required, everything is recorded on PC.
• Video output from my graphics card: DisplayPort to PC monitor, HDMI to an IOGear Wireless HD (1080p) transmitter; the receiver is is hooked up to the TV downstairs (about 30 feet away). Signal goes through walls.

 

[Gcarr]

If you want to use your phone as a remote, I have found Unified Remote (link) unbeatable

That sounds pretty nice. I'm currently testing a Harmony remote that CyberSimian helped me get going. It's working pretty well so far. It's good to know there's another option though.

 

[Gcarr]

So just to finalize this thread. I ended up going with an RC6 type IR Receiver to pair with the Harmony 665 which I had already purchased. I Programmed the Harmony for Windows Media Center and boom, everything worked right out of the box. After a few days of testing I can tell you that this setup works great! All the buttons work, even the Teletext color buttons which I thought were going to give me a problem. Couldn't be happier. Not sure why I forced myself to suffer through years of contending with the CEC remote haha.
Thanks again @CyberSimian

 

[DiscoPanda]

What options exist for us that cannot use IR? I’ve looked on here for Bluetooth and 2.4 options but they seem unsupported?

 

[CyberSimian]

What options exist for us that cannot use IR? I’ve looked on here for Bluetooth and 2.4 options but they seem unsupported?

What is the problem with using an IR remote control? IR is the best supported for MP.

There used to be available a few RF remote controls for WMC, such as this one and this one by Emprex (they look identical). But as you can see, they are no longer available new from Amazon. You may be able to obtain pre-loved samples from Ebay, but personally I would not buy a pre-loved remote control, as the buttons wear out after a few years, and you may end up buying a remote control with pre-worn-out buttons.

Any remote-control solution that produces WMC keyboard shortcuts ought to be usable with MP, but you need to use some sort of mapping layer to convert WMC keyboard shortcuts into MP keyboard shortcuts (these differ for some keys). For the Ortek/Hama IR remote control there is the "Centarea HID" which does this, and this may be usable for any remote control that produces WMC keyboard shortcuts, but I don't have an appropriate remote control to test this hypothesis. If the "Centarea HID" does not work, the fallback position would be to write an AutoHotKey script to perform the keystroke mapping.

Mobile-phone based apps may offer more flexibility, but as I have never used any of those, I cannot comment. @drumrob 's post above explains his solution using a mobile phone. Perhaps that would work for you?

-- from CyberSimian in the UK