The bane of existence: Universal Remotes

[dugbug]

These guys think they have a solution:

http://www.maya.com/web/what/clients/what_client_pdg_puc.mtml

Mayas prototype in action:
http://www.maya.com/web/images/projects/full/what_client_puc.jpg


Do you hate remotes like I do? Check this site out. If I wanted to blow $500 on a remote, Id go here for research. They go all out with custom code for your PDAs and whatnot. Good source for all your codes as well:
http://www.remotecentral.com/

[Ioman]

Remote comtrols are a touchy subject for me. I have yet to find a universal remote control I like. The problem with my house is that we have 3 televisions. I have one in the home theater room, one in the bedroom and one in the family room. If I use one remote for all TVs then whoever is watching television in the other rooms either wont have a remote or will have to use the stock remote while I use the universal remote, so it is a mute point. I do like the ability to use a Palm pilot as a remote, that is pretty cool. But aren;t you limites to iR as opposed to RF?

[Unregistered]

The new compaq (er - hp) iPaq 39xx series comes standard with built-in remote RF support and bundled with nevo software (http://www.nevo.com). Ie: its intended to function like a remote. Check out the nevo site for an interactive demo. It looks sweet.

Its reviewed at that remotecentral cite.


My concern is to have one remote that can work my main home theater system. I do have TVs and vcrs in other rooms, but their respective remotes aren't nearly as complicated as my living room is getting :)


The iPaq solves a lot of problems, but you still are using a touch screen. I dunno if I can get used to that.

[dugbug]

Oops: wasn't logged in so I couldn't edit.

That should be http://www.mynevo.com


check it out.

[dugbug]

Hmm wasn't logged in that time either....

think I figured it out now :)

[llbbl]

Io has a good point. If you replace all your remotes with one device and only have one of those devices than it becomes a problem when more than one person wants to use a remote to control something. Universal remotes are good if you have a bunch of devices all in one place, but they are not good if you want to replace a lost remote or in Io's situation. An easy solution to his problem would to be to put the remotes, to the devices that are located outside the home theater room, back.

Can anyone find a link to a PDA device that uses RF instead of only IR to control devices.

I know techTV has done some good reviews of the different remotes that are available. I wouldn't buy a PDA just to use as a remote. That would be silly, maybe that was one of many reasons that you were looking to buy a PDA to use for.

[dugbug]

Originally posted by vindisco
Can anyone find a link to a PDA device that uses RF instead of only IR to control devices.

The new compaq/hp iPaq 39xx series is the only one at the moment that I know of.

[llbbl]

If anyone actually owns an IPAQ than you might want to check this site out.

http://opie.handhelds.org/feed/ipaq/

Beware it is a file directory on a Open Source Handheld project. You will have to go up a couple of Directories to get to the home page in order to read more about it.

Basically this is what it says....


This is the new website for Project Opie.

Opie is a "fork" of the Qtopia codebase. Qtopia (formerly QPE) was written mostly by employees of TrollTech and uses the Qt Embedded toolkit which is produced by TrollTech.

The goals of Opie are:

1. Package compatibility between all platforms running Opie as well as commercial apps written for the Sharp Zaurus
2. Binary compatibility with TrollTech's offical Qtopia releases
3. Full synchronization framework w/ desktop PIM applications
4. Up to date distribution of Free Open Source applications
5. Fully open development model with public CVS
6. Creation of commercial quality integrated PIM software



It sounds cool !!

[llbbl]

Here are some more good links. ..

http://www.compaq.com/products/iPAQ/

http://www.compaq.com/products/handhelds/pocketpc/

http://www.handhelds.org/