What remote do you use?

Here is a photo of my top 5. They all work with my shield tv (2019) and channels app with every button custom to my liking. My favorite is the Xbox remote. I have the Xbox logo as my home button


This was all possible with flirc

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Sofabaton all I need to control any device in every room.

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SofaBaton for me too. After some configuration, it controls everything I need it to and passes the wife and mother-in-law test for simplicity.

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Can someone with a Sofabaton tell me if you can program keyboard keystrokes to the buttons, and control a pc over bluetooth? That is how I use my Harmony remote with the hub and it works perfect. I am looking for another option now that Harmony is getting out of the remote business.

Yes.

I would love to be able to use sofabaton instead of my harmony hub but controlling devices that are in a closed cabinet is a deal breaker for me... ATV wouldn't be an issue but my receiver is IR only. Haven't had good luck with IR extenders...

So every keyboard keystroke is available and can be added to any button on the remote?

What device do I enter into the database in the app for the keyboard? I think for the hub it is Microsoft/Keyboard.

Same issues here too. Too bad about the Harmony's. The hub works very well. I did pick up a spare companion for cheap as a backup. Keeping an eye out for another hub.

If you use the Nvidia Shield as the base device, you get access to basically every key on the keyboard. There may be a few lesser keys not present, but it should work fine.

I have 1 and 3. Do you mind telling me how you got the Xbox remote setup and working with your shield. I have had difficulty pairing

They make ir repeaters to solve that. Here is a random one from Amazon

A couple notes on Sofa Baton. It's what i currently use. I really want to emphasize point #6 about their customer service.

  1. No air mouse. So if u want air mouse this is a no go.
  2. No Netflix button (thank God, i hate those)
  3. Every button is programmable.
  4. Vast database of preconfigured profiles.
  5. You can have 1 profile control multiple things. My power button goes to tv, volume to sound bar. All other buttons to shield. You can have multiple profiles.
  6. **Most important. Sofa Baton tech support is on point. When I got mine we could not get Dish TV to do guide button. I emailed them. 36hrs later they sent a fix. I sent them a email asking if i could make fast forward button into a skip 30 seconds button. Within 36hrs they emailed me a fix. When I purchased a unknown brand soundbar from aliexpress (i love AliExpress). I could not get sofa baton to work. IR mapping did not work. They contacted seller. Got info for my sound bar and emailed me a fix. This time it took almost a week to resolve. But they stayed in contract and did trouble shooting with me while I waited.
  7. No voice search. Thank God. I don't like voice assistants.
  8. It's bluetooth and IR so it works with shield tube. No dongle required.

To sumarize. It's missing a few features. I don't like the features it's missing. Its super customizable. Comfortable in my hand. I dropped it 500x. Usually dogs knock it over. It still works. *The back cover is super glue on now. *

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So, needing a new remote to replace the Chromecast remote (middle dpad button failing), I found this remote and got all pumped since I liked it and was all set on getting 2 of them to replace our remotes and then realized it isn't compatible with any of the streaming boxes. Wtf. Anyone seen any similar remotes? I don't need a million buttons, the Chromecast / shield remotes are enough but one is failing now.

Living Room is using the Harmony Remote (#1 in the OP pic) and I am 98% happy with it. Other rooms are just using the default remotes (CCwGTV, TS4K+).

I went through a bunch to get there, including Sofabaton which is definitely runner-up on my list. It's IR range--though--is terrible, it eats batteries because the slightest vibration turns the screen on, and it won't stay connected if it goes to sleep for 30 seconds (I had to always hit the pause key twice to get a reaction).

You need a usb called flirc. Also button mapper app.

I have this one as well. The only way I got it working was set it as Roku remote and flirc also button mapper

:arrow_up: This! The Sofabaton is a pretty good remote, but its connectivity issues, bad battery life, and poor IR performance make it a challenge to deal with.

(Also, the added need to sign up for an account with a recent app update left a bad taste ...)

After switching the main TV from Android streamers to a new Apple TV, I'm slowly getting used to the default remote, which will probably remain as this room's primary remote.

Yeah but they have to sit somewhere with line of sight to your viewing position. Not a great look when your tv is cleanly mounted to the wall and you have all of your gear in decorative builtins that were custom designed. WAF = fail

You could piggy-back the IR blaster into your HDMI signal:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=9964

Or swap out your in-wall HDMI for a paired Ethernet connection to transmit your HDMI and IR together:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=8008

Then just mount the IR receiver end onto your TV's frame near its IR receiver, and you can point at your TV as normal.