What kind of remote do you use with your Apple TV?

Harmony with a hub will pair as bluetooth, and allow you to control everything else too.

My wife is about as tough as they come for WAF, and she is quite happy with the All for One Streamer $20 remote and Channels DVR. She has never touched the Siri remote and we have several Apple TVs.

The remotes that support Bluetooth are mostly more costly than the Apple TV itself... high end Logitechs and the Caavo. I have both, and use the One for All instead. The only things you really need Bluetooth for are closing apps, which I rarely do. I keep the Siri remote nearby if I want to use it, but rarely do. As I said, there is really only one button on the Siri remote that is Bluetooth, the rest work fine with IR. Only Apple would do something that silly.

Thanks for the input. The only reason I care about Bluetooth is because I like keeping all my gear in a closed cabinet. I like my tech, I just don't want to see it. :smile: I don't like the higher end remotes because they are really a lot more than I need -- plus I like a simple remote -- the fewer buttons the better.

Once you have stopped pointing the remote (hub) the thought of using an IR remote seems archaic...

1 Like

I miss the old apple tv remote. I was just about perfect IMHO.

You can get a 1rst gen remote on Amazon and I think would work with the new generations. So if you have one laying around you can try it.

Yeah, looked at that, but it would be a IR remote which I do not want. I will likely just stay with FireTV and hope that Apple comes to its senses and rethink their remote. Until then I will just have to deal with FireTV's sub, sub, sub par hardware.

The Sofabaton U1 works well, is Bluetooth and you can ignore most of the buttons (or reprogram them to take you to various areas of Channels). There are some small Bluetooth media remotes designed for iOS that you can also use if you really want a simple remote and don't mind the button selection - I use a Satechi one in the bedroom with my iPhone that I like pretty well. Mine is this one but there are several other options (e.g., this one has tiny number buttons).

Interesting. Very cool. Thanks. Much to consider. I love Apple TV for its butter smooth interface. Just need to figure out how to control it. Thanks again.

I was similar until my "cabinet" was reduced to an Apple TV primarily and a Blueray player we use once in a while. Sound is a Sonos soundbar and wireless surrounds. So I don't have anything in a cabinet anymore. One thing I've been thinking about doing with the OneForAll is just reprogramming it to use the TV CEC buttons instead of Apple TV commands because the TV is a bigger target for the remote than where I have the Apple TV. I'm using CEC commands to get Guide, Next, Channels, etc. and they respond instantly. That would solve your cabinet problem too if you have a TV with broad CEC command coverage. My Sony TV remote actually has the most capability of the 3 (TV, Apple TV, One for All), but it also has a lot of extra buttons I don't need and some that jump you into Android TV. Maybe I'll try the reprogramming for CEC and see how it goes.

Walmart has these in a 2 pack for $40 so I ordered and will reprogram to be CEC when they arrive. I wanted a couple more anyways because I have a TV without it and we keep losing the one in the family room so if we have 2 it will increase the chances of finding it! :slight_smile:

1 Like

Sounds like we are cut out of the same cloth. I use a Sonos soundbar too plus the sub. I don't do the surrounds because my TV doesn't output surround sound from optical -- only stereo. Need to think about getting a new one where that works and now make sure CEC is supported. That sounds like the way to go. Currently all my "gear" consists of a FireTV stick that is pretty lonely in my cabinet (I don't even own a Blueray player anymore -- I just rip them as soon as I get them), but there is my Channels/Plex/Home Assistant server to keep it company. I hope to drop the Plex server some day soon. At the rate Channels is developing, it probably won't be long. Either way, I control everything for now with the FireTV remote. I like FireTV okay, but there are lots of ads and the hardware is sub par. But then again, there may not be enough compute power in the world to make Android run as smoothly as TVOS. Keep us updated on the CEC thing.

The success you may have with CEC is highly dependent on what the TV itself passes via CEC to the streaming box. I discovered this when the developers here were building all the remote integration features and I was testing with my Sony X900s. Sony has a lot of good supported things in CEC, while some TVs don't. I don't recall which, but its either Samsung or LG that are missing some important stuff. For example, on my Sony remote, the number work, channel up/down, the colored programmable keys, FF/RW, skip, Last Channel, etc. Were it not for the couple of buttons on the remote that you can't disable that take you off into Android TV, that would probably be our main remote. Its just got a million buttons on it.

I have 3 remotes on the table in every room. Apple, Sony, and One for All. Everyone uses the One for All for 90% of everything. I use Apple if I want to pan quickly or need to close any apps. I us the Sony if we are going to watch a Blueray, or if I'm sitting in a place in the room that doesn't have clear line of site to where the Apple TV is tucked, meaning I have to stretch way out to use the One for All. This is why it occurred to me that if I just retrain the One for All to replicate the Sony remote, then I should be able to point at the TV instead of the Apple TV and life is grand. With the new remotes, I'll program the new ones that way and then I can easily compare which is more reliable.

CEC is a wonderful thing but its programmed differently by each TV manufacturer. Sony seems to be top shelf with CEC from my limited experience, and comments of others with different TV brands.

1 Like

I’ve been experimenting with CEC on my Visio tv. So far I am able to control my FireTV with my Visio remote and it works pretty well. I’ve gone ahead and ordered a OFA remote to see how that works. If it goes okay, I can introduce it to the family which would make the tradition to Apple TV down the road a bit easier.

You can still use that exact one, via Infared of course. Any old infrared remote will work. I wanted my AppleTV in a cabinet too so I just used this IR extender, which works great..

I also found this alternate IR remote, seems reminiscent of Apple's older one:

CleanShot 2021-03-26 at 19.04.35

I appreciate that it has a dedicated mute button. And for those folks who have TVs without CEC, or have A/V receivers that don't play nice with CEC, it's cool that this remote has a power button, too.

Yes, it would be better if if didn't require line-of-sight, but it's easy and inexpensive and would be fine for many folks in many different contexts.

All that said, I do have CEC and quite like the Siri touchpad remote, and have mine in a rubber Finite case. Works fine for me :slight_smile:

1 Like

I've been waiting for Universal Electronics to release their Bluetooth Siri remote.

I have not seen any information since it was announced in November.

1 Like

Are they selling direct to consumers? Not according to that press release...

They also makes the One For all streamer remote.

https://www.oneforall.us/about

Now we just need a Fancy Bits/Channels branded version of this one :crazy_face: :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

2 Likes

They went radio silent after the announcement hit multiple channels. I'm still waiting on more information.