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The Ultimate Universal Remote Control
TheMayor writes: "CNN.com has a story about how researchers at Maya Designs, Inc. and Carnegie-Mellon are trying to come up with a remote control that controls everything in your house. From the TV to the blender, these guys want to make an all-in-one piece to turn everything on and off. Now I wonder if I could remotely flush my toliet?"
only have to lose 1 remote
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Check out the finished product. Who wouldn't like to get their hands on one of these?
"All art is quite useless." -- Oscar Wilde
These guys made software for the iPaq that does the following:
"The prototype handheld has so far been used to control two lamps, a fan and a stereo with a five-CD changer. "
Worst slashdot story ever - and this is worthy of a CNN story???? Give me a break. Check out the mega-remotes from Philips and Marantz if you're looking for a product like this.
(feel free to answer - easier than Ask Slashdot!)
I'm having a house built. I can't touch things until I move in, but then I can retrofit. Some of the things I see include the tile warmer (no cold feet), the mirror warmer (no fog), IR light switches (walk in and it turns on).
What else would y'all recommend? I'd rather have a smarter house than a smarter remote. Oh, and I don't want to give X-10 any of my money. The last thing I want to do is encourage their ads.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
With Trey Parker and Matt Stone from South Park? Remember the scene where Orgazmo and Choda Boy walked around town making all sorts of people (the old lady for instance) orgasm on command by remote control? See the connection? Um, never mind...
I have yet to see a universal remote that actualy:
.)
A: Was universal
or
B: Did not take a universally large amount of time to setup.
I am a Nerd, I have an IQ of 156, I throw computer boxes together with reckless abandon, I have done tech support in my sleep, but the damn universal remote control still is not all that 'universal'. (and even those that are end up depreciated the second the latest wave of new devices come out. . .
Number pad
Play/Stop/FF/RW/Pause/Eject/Power
Volume up and Volume down
Channel up and Channel Down.
Everything else after that is rather extraneous. . . .
And quite frankly I should not need a 30 button remote for just my DVD player. This is why I only view DVDs on my computer, faaar easier, don't have to switch around audio and video inputs until hell freezes over, then select the proper audio decompression scheme, then select the proper surround sound scheme, and THEN sit down and 'enjoy' the movie, and then have the honor of switching all that shit BACK to watch regular TV.
No thank you. . . . I can pop a DVD in my computer's drive and it starts playing, and when it is done I take it out, close the program, and I am done. End.
Doing all of that in the first list above would require a 'universal remote' with more keys on it then my keyboard (all of the various device's special buttons and such) either that or a control scheme that changed its own layout for each device mode that was switched to (which would almost be even worse since memorizing key presses and locations would become a ton harder with a constantly shifting pad depending on which 'mode' it was in).
Quite frankly I think that I'll stick with just pairing the remotes up together with rubber bands. Harder to lose that way, and a ton less complicated.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Wasn't Plug N Power just a brand name for generic X10 products? I believe they work over the same protocol, IIRC.
what happens when you get hacked?
- the toilet flushes
- the blender is on 'liquify'
- the vcr is recording over your tape
- the garage door is open and security off
- the disposal is on
- the dishwasher is on
- the room lights strobe left to right
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
Your remote would be able to control 340 trillion trillion devices?
Everyone is born right-handed; only the greatest overcome it
If you have to remotely flush your toilet, odds are you're doing something wrong.
Liberty.
There are four remotes in my living room: TV, VCR, cable box and DVD player. Most functions are handled by the cable box remote, which has some universal remote functions. However, there are still some device-specific functions that require each remote control to be present. For the technology-oriented individual, more buttons is clearly more of a status symbol than one. So what's the ideal solution?
**Turn all your remote controls into a huge remote keyboard!**
All you have to do is get a short piece of plywood or balsa wood and velcro the remotes to each, placed tightly together. The end product will be more than a remote control, it will be an audio/video command console!
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Research?
Are they talking about universal remote controls? The Philips Pronto TSU2000 and VAR derivatives, like the Yamaha RAV-2000 and Marantz RC5000i are not "in research" products - they are current universal remotes with a user defined interface. If you had a Microwave that accepted IR controls, these would work with it, and quite nicely so. If they are interested in bringing a universal remote to the market, they have a tough act to follow.
Or are they researching controlling everything in the normal house? Like using Bluetooth wireless technology, or using JNDI as a naming and control mechanism? (Well, they used X-10, but that's besides the point) If that is their focus, I wish them luck in bringing the industry into a situation where they both care and cooperate with standards.
They seem to be doing everything with RF (not IR) wireless technology, but that is both uncommon and unsupported on current and legacy systems. I don't know how they plan on supporting, in a cost effective way, IR and wireless in a single remote, as well as all the wireless devices you would have to deploy around the house to justify the cost of the remote. Perhaps in a market of sufficient scale this would be viable.
Knowing Java, if you wanted to watch Seinfeld at 7:30 on channel 6 you'd have to tap "0 6" on your remote at approximately 7:19.
Easy to create: just combine mood ring, small digital camera+small lamp and universal remote control and some software logic - and volia! You have mood remote control!
Interesting to figure out what this thingie will do if you are watching TV and it's programming to switch TV from the programs you don't like! Advertisement avoider!
So, what if you had a setup where you could call the company, their support staff'd ask for your model numbers, and they'd program it remotely!
Oh, and can you imagine, on this remote control, a big, back-lit display so that you could see what !@# button to push to turn the !@#!@ thing down?
So, what you have is a device that:
1) Can communicate with the parent company,
2) Has alot of buttons,
3) A small CPU in it,
4) A large backlit screen.
Sounds an awful lot like a cell phone, eh?
No, really! Just put an I/R LED at the end of your cell phone, it'd make an EXCELLENT UNIVERSAL REMOTE.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
I like remotes that only need one hand to operate, and that you don't need to look at to see what you're pressing. I don't know. Might seem crazy.
Yeah...would be nice to be able to control my house from the iPaq and wireless connection, but what I really want is to be able to be able to walk out of the bathroom, say "flush the toilet", walk into the living room say "play cd 5" (which would turn on the receiver, cd player and play that cd), say "oven on at 450" and "lights on".
Much better than walking around trying to punch little buttons on the iPaq. Of course I want all the voice recognition to work just fine with the cd player turned up to 11.
Doesn't WWW.X10.COM stuff do this already?
It turns out that this so-called x10.com is very dangerous after all. X10.com will re-write your hard drive. Not only that, it will scramble any disks that are even close to your computer. It will recalibrate your refrigerator's coolness setting so all your ice cream goes melty. It will demagnetize the strips on all your credit cards, screw up the tracking on your television and use subspace field harmonics to scratch any CDs you try to play.
It will give your ex-girlfriend your new phone number. It will mix Kool-aid into your fishtank. It will drink all your beer and leave dirty socks on the coffee table when company comes over. It will put a dead kitten in the back pocket of your good suit pants and hide your car keys when you are late for work.
X10.com will make you fall in love with a penguin. It will give you nightmares about circus midgets. It will pour sugar in your gas tank and shave off both your eyebrows
while dating your girlfriend behind your back and billing the dinner and hotel room to your Discover card.
It will seduce your grandmother. It does not matter if she is dead, such is the power of x10.com, it reaches out beyond the grave to sully those things we hold most dear.
It moves your car randomly around parking lots so you can't find it. It will kick your dog. It will leave libidinous messages on your boss's voice mail in your voice! It is insidious and subtle. It is dangerous and terrifying to behold. It is also a rather interesting shade of mauve.
X10.com will give you Dutch Elm disease. It will leave the toilet seat up. It will make a batch of Methamphetamine in your bathtub and then leave bacon cooking on the stove
while it goes out to chase gradeschoolers with your new snowblower. For the sake of your grandmother and the youth of the nation, X10.com must be AVOIDED at all costs!
I have an IQ of 156
[...]
This is why I only view DVDs on my computer, faaar easier, don't have to switch around audio and video inputs until hell freezes over, then select the proper audio decompression scheme, then select the proper surround sound scheme, and THEN sit down and 'enjoy' the movie, and then have the honor of switching all that shit BACK to watch regular TV.
Here is my question: Since you're so smart, why is it such a difficult task for you to use a console DVD player? I mean, it's not that hard really. 5 to 10 seconds tops, insert DVD, push play, that's it. I simply can't see how you would prefer sitting hunched over your computer to watch a DVD than using a TV.
Why must they make such inane statements?
:) - or vacumns, unless just to spook your pets.
Secondly, there are many items that would never be in need of remote control as many have many manual operations to do before actually use them.
Areas that I find valid are.
1. Lighting
2. Heating/Cooling
3. Changing temperature of hot water heater
4. Garage doors.
5. Perhaps windows that open/close automatically?
6. Ovens for preheat.
7. Coffee makers, setup in advance, but we have timers for this.
8. Gas Fireplaces
9. Perhaps, being able to remotely shut off the gas in the house or water would be a safety benefit.
10. Alarm clocks, won't have to go back upstairs to turn it off, after all you got so used to the snooze button you forgot it actually has an off switch.
11. Turning off ringers on the phones.
12. Forcing the anwsering machine to pickup.
13. Remote start of television recording.
14. Music and/or Tv (background noise)
But not the majority of kitchen appliances
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I have a Marantz RC5000i, the same hardware unit as the Pronto TSU-2000. It controls EVERYTHING. My setup is a little complicated since I have a TiVo as well as a cable box that does High Definition. The TiVo doesn't do HD so I have to swap inputs to go from TiVo to HD and back. With a normal remote it was a mess.... Switch the TV input, switch the receiver input, change the channel...etc..etc....
These remotes have great macro routines. One button and it changes the channel and handles all the background work. Well worth the money. Even controls my Rio Receiver.
The GUI is completely customizable with many sample configs and device setups already at www.remotecentral.com. The good part of that is you can set it up how you use it, not just throw buttons on the screen. I don't use the 50 buttons on my receiver remote, so why deal with them?
Here is my question: Since you're so smart, why is it such a difficult task for you to use a console DVD player? I mean, it's not that hard really. 5 to 10 seconds tops, insert DVD, push play, that's it. I simply can't see how you would prefer sitting hunched over your computer to watch a DVD than using a TV.
.... ).
Insert DVD;
pick up remote #1, set video input to CD (closest label to DVD that the remote has on it)
Pick up remote #2, set audio input to LaserDisc (closet thing remote has to DVD on it), set audio output format to 5.1 surround.
Still using remote #2 turn up volume on receiver, because even my DVD player at max still puts out barely a whisper at what makes the output from my cable box boom.
Pick up remote three, press play, goto settings, select audio out method (there are three of them, different DVDs apparently use different types, beats the crud outa me, rather irritating), turn of subtitles (apex
When DONE with video;
pick up remote #1, set video input back to VCR (since cable is routed through VCR and all, digital cable, yummies, RF connectors. . . . bleh), pick up remote #2, set sound mode back to faux 5.1 (copying front speakers to rear speakers), set audio input back to VCR, rush to turn down master volume because it is way to loud.
Now, please do compare this to:
Put DVD in drive;
Sit back and enjoy on my 36" computer monitor (E-bay rocks) with 4.1 speaker setup (ok ok it is not 5.1 but it works!).
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
It'd be funnier if it was a beday...
"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality." -Jules de Gautier
Uh, I've had a Kyocera smartphone for somewhat over a year now, and it has an IR LED on its end. This is because it's also a Palm Pilot, and they all have IR LEDs. Most of them can now be turned into phones, too; mine just came packaged that way.
So far I haven't seen any "remote control" software available for download. I guess they skipped over such important things, and spent their time on lesser ideas like wireless IP, a browser, email, and so on.
Maybe they'll turn into remote controls next year. When they do, I don't think I'll get the software, though.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
I had remote control software for my Palm VII. I think I grabbed a demo from download.com or somewhere similar. It was programmed by pointing the original remote at the Palm's IR port, which read the signal and duplicated it to a button on the remote control app.
kinda neat software, although whipping out my Palm to change channels always seemed more awkward than just using the original remote.
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
yeah. this would be useful, considering how hard it is to reach 3 feet and flush it manually.
... Flush! ... FLUSH!"
"Done! Euh... where did I leave the remote?"
(searches through other rooms, finally finding it in the kitchen where somebody needed it for using the blender)
"Thank you, now flush!
(slaps remote control in hands, maybe a loosy contact somewhere)
"flush!"
(slaps remote control harder until you hear the sound of a remote falling into the water of the toilet)
"Euh... How did this so called 'manual' setting of the toilet work again?"
(toilet flushes)
bash$
OmniRemote is the first one to come to mind, but it's not the only one out there...
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
John already did that on Ally McBeal...
Too-Many-Cooks-In-The-Kitchen Law: At some point, it actually becomes more efficient to have multiple remotes.
Devices already exist to do this, without their kludgery of needing a laptop to actually do the IR transmission.
The Philips Pronto is the most popular of the fully programmable universal remote. You can control thousands of devices with the Pronto, including X10 modules to control lamps, fans, and other appliances.
It has a PC application to set set the GUI for controlling all the devices. It comes pre-programmed for many devices, and just about any other can be downloaded from various internet sites or manufacturers.
The GUI to program it has a bit of a learning curve. If they wanted to make that process even easier, they could have saved a lot of effort by just making a better config GUI, rather than re-inventing the hardware.
Another option, if you really want a PDA as your remote is the Nevo software for the new iPaq, which includes a more powerful IR transmitter.
Maybe he just wants a zone implant so she'll let him have sex with her in an uncomfortable place.
:P
"Like the back of a volkswagon?"
No, someplace else.
..But not the majority of kitchen appliances :) - or vacumns, unless just to spook your pets
:-}), and hooked up a vacuum cleaner in the on position to a nearby X10 controlled relay. That night, in the middle of the night, I was jarred awake by the sound of a cat scurrying up the stairs, and a vacuum humming away. After several nights of sporatic vacuum activations, the lesson was learned and the cats equated the couches with bad things, and ceased going on them. Anyways, long story short (whoops, too late for that now!), it worked great.
Actually, don't laugh-It works! Prior to our last move, my wife and I allowed our two cats to jump on, sleep on, kneed on, and otherwise abuse our livingroom furniture, but one of the first things we did when we moved was to replace the old furniture with new furniture. As hard as it was to do, this necessitated making the new furniture a "no go" zone for the cats, both of whom had gotten very use to the idea that it was their domain (the reason, btw, is because I have not, and will not, get my cats declawed, however they damage upholstery just by moving around as they insist upon using their claws for added stability). Quickly they learned that any transgressions in our presence would lead to a rapid shushing, and they stopped, but I knew by tell tail crinkles on the surface that I'd carefully smoothed as a test that they'd ventured on the forbidden land during the night, and when we were away. Anyways, I set up one of the X10 infrared sensors on the edge of the couch (the "Hawkeye II", I believe
I see, people don't remember this and this (or this if you use MSIE or Lynx, or PDA-based browser)?
Second camera is gone for now (until I'll place it in another room) but both camera and controls are working perfectly after years of being in use, and relocation from California to Colorado.
I use this a lot from a regular computer, or PDA, with a web browser and all kinds of wireless setups, including 802.11b, and this thing was up and running for more than four years.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Slow news day, CNN?
These guys design these things, but they never look at the facts. For the most part, we are a nation of people whose VCRs (unless they can set themselves) are blinking "12:00," and who are usually shocked to learn that the right mouse button doesn't do the same stuff as the left button.
Any remote powerful enough to control everything in the house will be expensive, and so complex that the people in the target demographic will never learn how to operate all but the most basic of functions. Did they ever write down the business plan? I doubt it, because it's something like this:
1) Market expensive, complex device to cheap, dumb/lazy users.
2) ???
3) Profit!
The people who want to automate their homes are already doing it, and they're rolling their own solutions by using a bunch of low-cost components together in a clever way because they enjoy the tinkering it takes to achieve the end result. They're not just going to buy some pricey gewgaw to do it for them-- where's the fun in that?
As for me, I've had a Mac running my house via X-10 with great success for years. In addition to remotes, I can send commands via IM, and I've got a good bit done on a web interface. I'm always adding to and improving my system, and it works wonderfully.
Leave the home automation stuff to the DIY geeks, and the filthy rich who can afford to pay someone else to customize a system for their homes. One-size-fits-all home automation solutions will never cut it, especially when they cost a few hundred bucks like this one does.
~Philly
Now we will need to have full Unicode implementation on a handheld just to declare compliance with this protocol.
While the base idea is sane, I don't really see much of a point of doing that -- user interface for single appliance can be just kept on the appliance with some simple definition, but people would most likely use multi-device or scriptable user interfaces that combine them by controls' names.
Including a scripting language into protocol seems to be pointless -- scripting should be done in some central place that definitely knows all scripts that are running because information about active scripts is just as important as information about devices' state.
IMNSHO devices' interfaces must be very, very simple, or devices will get way too expensive, and user interface's definition in the protocol should be just a little more complex, or it will be a portability hell. Everything beyond those things should not be within this system, it just should be aware that there are scripts written in something else, that can see states and process requests.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Actually, the prototype client is Java. Runs fine on the Sharp Zaurus (and the widgets look nicer).
Anyway, the important facet of the system is the XML specification and protocol, which could be implemented on any platform. We'd love to do a cellphone...
...Has already been developed.
ConnectedTV for the Palm is a universal remote control integrated with a personalized television guide, that's designed to be easily used with one hand.
Like Mozilla and The Sims, it features "pie menus", which enable you to easily and reliably select several different functions from each button, without using (and losing) the stylus. Pie menus make ConnectedTV more powerful per square inch than physical remotes that only support one function per button.
The buttons are big enough to easily select with your finger, and have useful functions in different directions. For example, stroking left or right scrolls to the previous or next page. You can stroke up on the name of a show to find out more about it, or stroke down to watch it, and ConnectedTV sends the numbers to change the channel, without you having to know or press any digits.
"Touch Tuning" with ConnectedTV is like speed dialing for the remote control. It also functions as a hot list and spam filter, so you can easily mark and find your favorite shows, while hiding shows you don't like. It's much better than the slowly scrolling on-screen guide, because it doesn't block the tv screen, you can take it anywhere with up to two weeks of guide, and use it at your own pace.
-info@Connected.TV
ConnectedTV turns a Palm handheld into your personal TV guide and remote
"Touch Tuning" with ConnectedTV is like speed dialing with the remote: you can forget all those channel numbers, and easily operate ConnectedTV with one hand. ConnectedTV features "pie menus," which enable you to quickly and reliably select several different commands from one button by stroking in different directions.
ConnectedTV is indispensable if you have hundreds of digital cable or satellite channels, because you can filter out the channels and shows you don't like, and mark your favorites so they're easy to find whenever they're on.
-info@Connected.TV
ConnectedTV turns a Palm handheld into your personal TV guide and remote
pick up remote #1, set video input to CD (closest label to DVD that the remote has on it)
.... ).
Most receivers made within the last few years have video switching built-in; hence the elimination of step #1.
Pick up remote three, press play, goto settings, select audio out method (there are three of them, different DVDs apparently use different types, beats the crud outa me, rather irritating), turn of subtitles (apex
Uhh, no. Set it to output SPDIF digital @ 5.1. Analog output DVDs will output over the RCA cables, the 5.1 over the digital coax. A decent receiver will let you hook up both at the same time, therefore routing the proper signal over the proper cable, and the receiver switches to digital only when there is a digital signal.
For the subtitles (yeah that's an Apex/Daewoo bug) go into the configuration menu, set subtitles to "OFF" and they will be off by default now.
I suggest you sell the 36" monitor and go buy yourself a nice $200 receiver that does all the above mentioned and more.
Um, then you would go to a manual backup called a "key". Every electronic lock system I have EVER seen has manual operation. Probably would violate fire code if it didn't.
The original poster may have been joking, but leave it to the Japanese to come up with such a thing. Toto makes many fancy toilets, some with remote control. But for the do-it-yourselfer, they make a retrofit remote control add-on.
which you must be using unless your DVD player has the AC3/DTS decoder on it, which I hope that your supposed 156 IQ wasn't dumb enough to buy)
:-D ), 4.1 sound setup, DVD, VHS, Cable TV, (those last two thanks to a generic $20 BT Chipset TV-IN card and DScaler), and enough storage space to store whatever the hell I want to (ok ok a mere 100 gigabytes and I could get it all now days for 1/2 the price of what I paid for either individual drive when I first bought them), and a cheesy 6x CDRW drive (firmware upgradable to 8x!!! :-D Remember those Ricoh 6x drives that everybody was so excited about because they could be upgraded to 8x, when 8x was all the hot new rage? Yah well I have one of those. Heh. A weeee bit old, hehe).
:-D ). When you are talking throwing multiple GIGAHERTZ of modern computing power at a problem;
Now who the fuck ever said the damn player was bought under MY advice?
Two words: Apex AD-703 (ok technically a company name and a model number)
My god, you actually use one of those garbage "simulated surround sound" modes?
No, I use the "copy front speakers to rear speakers" mode because it is rather pointless to have half of the speakers dead nearly all of the time.
Leave it at Dolby Digital (which, again, it'll default to) and be done with it.
Because if that is done nothing can be heard on half the discs inserted while the other half work just fine.
Oh and the setting is line out mode, raw or PCM. Now having to change that based upon which movie is being watched is NOT exactly something that you can expect your average consumer to get by doing, and hell I don't like doing it either and I grew up dinking around with electronics. Royal pain in the arse.
Replace it.
For those of us who are NOT rolling in cash, any A/V purchase is a minimum of a 5 to 6 year investment, get burned it's awhile before anything can be replaced. (heck, one of my TVs still has knobs on it and separate VHS and UHF selectors. ^_^ TV works grand though, it is lasting a lot longer then newer made ones)
Smarty pants has a seriously dated receiver, and should realize that he's comparing using an outdated stereo setup with a modern computer system.
Oh fuck it man, I could shove a cheap ass DVD-ROM drive in my freaking 266mhz Pentium II (yes it could manage DVDs, it can manage MPEG4's just fine, bleh) running Windows98 (or hell Windows 95 even), with whatever bleeming sound card I want shoved in there (kick ass consumer sound cards have been down to well below $100 for quite some time now, like, err, a few years) that supports decoding whatever it is that I want, and have no touch DVD playing.
Or, I could play it on a stand alone DVD player that takes more button presses then installing a halfway modern OS.
Oh and none of the A/V kit is more then 3 or 4 years old, VS the 266mhz which was bought some wheres around 97 or so.
Hell I checked out on getting a receivers for my computer recently, pleeeck. For the cost of the LOWEST END receiver I would end up paying more then I would for a half ass decent PC sound setup. Sure the audiophiles may crinch, but they can fuck off, I ain't paying more for a receiver for my computer then I did for my computer as a whole. (that and nobody sells receivers without all that digital decoder crap in it, fuck man, if I got XXXghz behind the hood why the hell would I want to pay for an external decoder too? Especially since the newer sound cards do the same thing, I just wanted a freakin box of plugs to run the speakers from).
So in summary:
My total PC setup cost, around $1100 or so.
36" monitor (got a secondary one for graphics work of course, heh. Need a decent refresh rate after all. Matrox G400 rocks.
For about that same price, the A/V setup is 5 chessy ass speakers, a sub with such a huge fucking drop in it that you can pretty much hear in drumming along, and one of those RCA televisions that was named the worst TV Ever.
The TV is that one with the faulty tuner that had the class action lawsuit against it. This particular TV apparently was made 'just after' the faulty ones stopped being produced, but for whatever reason. . . . bleh, got it fixed, but still not nice, and since it does not have separate RF or S-Video tuners on it, cannot plug items into both at once, and since the DVD player cannot pass signals through it (the remote does not have an off button, thus pretty much fucking it all up to hell as that damn Apex blue screen always shows on whatever line it is outputting to, unless I want to run up and down to turn it on and off all the time, nooo thank you!), well,
as I said.
Put disc in drive.
Close drive.
Watch movie
When done take disc out of drive and close program.
My argument was that with a sufficiently powered computer that users need not worry about how shit goes together, you throw enough power at a problem and IT WILL BE SOLVED (well, as long as your programmers and UI designers have SOME brains in them, heh, sucky UI and everything else pretty much goes down the tube as far as the entire usability thing goes.
Hell, the user WILL NOT have to be able to worry about WTF plugs into WTF in WTF order, all shit WILL go in its properly colored holes and IT WILL WORK. With that much power to spare the user needs not worry about the receiver not being able to auto switch inputs, or not being able to properly decode whatever audio format is in use.
After a certain point, shit just starts working.
And quite frankly given another few years I have little doubt that for people willing to put the time in initial setup (and save on long term usability), that setting up a PC in the family room that does everything it is asked to automatically will be far easier then fucking around with at least 3 or 4 different 'set top boxes' all with different remotes and interfaces that all may or may not play together well all using a wide variety of interconnect standards (you know, I do not think that a SINGLE device in the entire A/V setup here actually uses the same damn wires to connect to another device as any other device uses to connect, except for maybe some parts of the audio setup but even then there is the 4 wire connections, the 2 wire connections, and the RF connections, bleck!)
Quite frankly I am just wishing for the days back of a single wiring connecting all. Why the hell didn't somebody make some LOW COST single video/audio wire that supports at least 4 speaker surround sound? Hell even make it analog, not like I have any wires right now that is digital any ways, (and those bleeming optical wires cost so much, yeesh!) a good single high quality analog wire would be a blessing.
Just daisy chain it all together like it used to be, nice and simple to setup. None of this extended star topology crud.
Oh, and for reference's sake, I DID NOT PURCHASE ANY OF THE A/V KIT MENTIONED ABOVE
Nor was I even asked about it, bleh. Well I was technically asked, but my advice "not to buy the cheapest receiver that you can find just because it has the words Pro Logic written on it" was not followed.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
*God looks for his Universal Remote Control*
"Now where in the hell did I put that damn thing... I've got a Nova to light off at three!"
*A tech from Maya Designs fiddles with Universal Remote's features, sucking Earth into a black hole.*
"Sigh. I'm gonna have to start all over again now. In the Beginning..."
You need a FREE iPod Nano
A remote control that sends a narrow beam to a long distance with the "turn off" codes of most popular TV models. If it has good sights and a narrow beam I bet it could do it from a distance of well over 100 meters.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
Does the warranty expire on December 21, 2012?
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Have they considered using Crestron panels to control everything?
I use Macs to up my productivity, so up yours Microsoft!
I know they sell high intensity IR LEDs similar to the ultra blue/white ones. I wonder if you could just wire em into a regular univeral remote and let it rip?
You need a FREE iPod Nano
It is interesting the connotation behind the words "remote control." Symbolic of how we humans are in an ever-increasing battle to control the environment around us. So along comes the 'universal remote' which allows the greediest of control freaks to covet the power in one isolated unit. And I thought it was bad when my stepfater refused to release his grip from the TV remote... just imagine the power struggles taking place in the average houselhold when the remote controls not only the appliances, but lighting, temperature controls, etc... That thing better have a hidden book of matches tucked within its injection-molded body... just imagine during a power loss and the remote appears to be working, but the damn lights just aren't responding!!!
Bacillophobia, misophobia, molysmophobia, spermatophobia, ...
It all comes down to a reluctance to fiddle with the knob everybody else touches after wiping their backsides and before washing their hands.
Of course, remote flushing does nothing to shelter you from the flush-resistant sticky bits left by the previous occupant that are persistently clinging to the edges of the bowl. And you still have to sit on the bit everybody else sits on, or develop some serious acrobatic skills.
Better just hold it in.
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
"Now I wonder if I could remotely flush my toliet?"
This is as far as technology has taken us? Bidding Bon Voyage to a turd using a remote? You're making me happy that my dog and I use the same tree to take a whizz.
Like I have the cash for a freakin digital wire? Hardly, those things are evil expensive even for short little chunks. And besides any movies I watch are likely in, err, uh hum, MP4 format any ways.
That's what I thought till I went to Best Buy:
6 foot digital coax - $13. I actually remember paying $8 or $9 at the store but that was a while ago. Sure beats Circuit City, where the mofo tried to sell me a $40 digital cable. Ha!
Duuuude, digital cable box, RF wire goes INTO BOX, then an RF wire comes OUT OF the box!
And on BACK of BOX there should also be three connectors labeled "Audio Out (L)," "Audio Out (R)," and "Video Out," which, you might guess, would go into that video capable receiver.
I'd like to have a remote control that would control my legs and arms. Hell, why not the whole body? Sometimes, I'm just too damned lazy to get up and this would really help. Just press a button, and *boom*, you are standing in front of the fridge ready to get another beer.
One remote to rule them all, One remote to find them,
One remote to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Hell, I'd be satisfied with the one remote to find 'em.
Do you mind, your karma has just run over my dogma.
Get a remote with Jp1 and also get X10 stuff and you can control almost anything from a single remote, and you can program the remote (you get to make your own serial cable to interface to your computer) so any button does excatly what you want.
I've got a radio shack remote that transmits RF to an IR transmitting base, so I can turn lights off from the back yard if I wanna see stars better, or kill the WIGGLES on the TV after my daughter has stopped watching them.
M@
Krispy Cream is people
Oh, wait...
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
"Now I wonder if I could remotely flush my toliet?" "
I always secretly suspected timothy was really the biscuit from Ally McBeal. Now we have our proof!
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
...lowered the seat by remote control, or better still automatically if your wife (any female SO or relative) carried her remote near it and the toilet wasn't being used.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
The omniremote module also can optionally come with a blue LED for use as a flashlight. It's pretty damn cool stuff. I have one, and if my visor screen weren't cracked I'd use it nonstop.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The point is that one should not have to "program" the remote. From a human interface standpoint it's insufficient to say "the learning curve is a bit high...". There should be no learning curve, not when it's a device for the masses. That's what the revolution is about... it's not about designing the hardware, it's about designing the interface.
"Maya and Carnegie Mellon claim people using their Personal Universal Controller, or PUC, could operate a stereo twice as fast and with half the errors that are made in running it manually -- without taking days to learn how."
For the record, I work for MayaViz, the sister company of Maya Design. (We share office space, though we work on different things).
yours,
kbs
We had my wife's eight year old nephew sleep over on Friday and Saturday nights. The heck with remote flushing - I'd like a toilet that automatically puts down the freakin' lid!
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
This doesn't sound like anything new. Any CCF format device such as a Pronto featured at RemoteCentral can handle your A/V equipment. There is software and hardware for controlling this on an iPaq. Using a BX24-AHT which is currently compatible with the Misterhouse home automation system, you will soon be able to control your lights and other X10 modules from such CCF devices by simply adding a $7 IR receiver. Add some IR repeaters around the house and you can control it all from anywhere in the house. Use something like a wireless Aquapad to access the home network and the Misterhouse web interface to control it all. What "Future"? The tech is already here. Just use it.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
The huge learning curve for computer usage didn't stop them from taking over the world. How clunky was DOS back in the day? A product has to be useful first, dumbed down second.
I simply can't see how you would prefer sitting hunched over your computer to watch a DVD than using a TV.
This may come as a surprise to you, but many people have bigger, better computer screens than televisions. People in dorms often use their 19" moniters as their TVs by using a tv capture card. My goal is to get a projector screen for my computer so that my entire wall can become my computer screen. That would be great for TV, DVDs, and Counter Strike! And yes, my computer screen is nice and big, higher resolution than my TV, and in front of a couch. I don't feel 'hunched over' when watching it at all.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Does it handles remotes with two alternating code sets? I recently replaced a DVD player and TV that busted within weeks of eachother, and when I programmed the universal remote for the replacements I found that if I hit the same button twice in a row (or hit one button followed by certain others), the second button would be ignored.
After a little experimentation I discovered that the devices had two sets of codes (call them A and B). When the remote is using the A set, and you hit a button, it sends the code from the A set, then switches itself to the B set. When you hit the button from the B set, and hit a button, it switches itselft to the A set. The devices will not recognise two consecutive codes from the same code set.
The devices were from different manufacturers too, so I'm guessing this is something that is becoming relatively common.
I have yet to see a universal remote that actualy:
A: Was universal
Not seen any ir based remote my pronto can't handle yet.
B: Did not take a universally large amount of time to setup.
That depends on what you mean by large. A pronto is configured on a computer so that speds things up a great deal.
And quite frankly I should not need a 30 button remote for just my DVD player. This is why I only view DVDs on my computer, faaar easier, don't have to switch around audio and video inputs until hell freezes over, then select the proper audio decompression scheme, then select the proper surround sound scheme, and THEN sit down and 'enjoy' the movie, and then have the honor of switching all that shit BACK to watch regular TV.
Or do is I do: have a big button that says DVD on the remote, which when pressed selects correct input on the TV and amp, then reconfigures the remote display for DVD playback control. My amp is five years old, but even that is able to correctly autoselect decoding, what kind of archaic hardware have you been using?
No thank you. . . . I can pop a DVD in my computer's drive and it starts playing, and when it is done I take it out, close the program, and I am done. End.
Funny.. After several hours of configuring DVD playback software on a PC I found that the playback software wasn't able not to reformat anamorphic material. Since the videoencoder was unable to sync to 16:9 square pixel modes (internal videoencoders in gfx cards does not have component outputs, which I require). End result was that the PC based system was unable to output 16:9 anamorphic pictures, resulting in significant image degradation.
And don't even get e started on the general unreliability and unfriendlyness on PC surround sound systems. Most of the time, it seems they assume you want some strange effects applied, or they refuse to decode at all. In contrast in my regular DVD setup i just have a regulat 75 ohm cable from the digital out of the DVD to the DVD s/pdif input of the amp, the rest just works.
That's what I thought till I went to Best Buy:
6 foot digital coax - $13 [bestbuy.com]. I actually remember paying $8 or $9 at the store but that was a while ago. Sure beats Circuit City, where the mofo tried to sell me a $40 digital cable. Ha!
You've been had. Digital coax cable is just regular 75 ohm cable with RCA jacks (though the tolerances are so wide you could also use a rusy coathanger).
This happens to be the same spec as for composite video. Chanses are that you have a pile of these lying around as they tend to come bundled with just about any piece of AV equipment. If not you should be able to pick them up for $2-6.
Opticals are less commonly bundled, but should be possible to find for around $6-8.
Actually my digital audio cable is pretty flexible, oxygen free. Most RG-6 cable is stiff as can be. Plus it's got gold connectors on it, and they're probably crimped. The best I could come up with is soldered (a good crimping tool will run waaay over the cost of the cable) and so would the gold connectors. I'm not complaining.
Dare I mention that this is nothing new nor original? MisterHouse have much better ideas: the guys at misterhouse made some all-in-one home control centers, and the system even has text-to-speech "Trekkie-style," and the system even has GPS receivers on the vehicles with some kind of ARPS data relay to give telemetry. There's also some kind of WAP bridge so that you can control house stuff from a cell phone. In short, MisterHouse is light-years beyond a remote control. And best of all... it's GPL'd ... and it knows Kung-Fu! Btw, it would really suck if someone hacked your house. ... Water shooting out of the drains, the toaster burning things and the lights going on and off.
The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.
A little USB connection on the side would enable you to connect it to a computer. Select the equipment you have and it does a CDDB-like lookup (RCDB?) and configures your remote for you. If you have to program it by learning, ie zapping your current remote at it and telling your new remote what IR code that corresponds to, then you can upload that to RCDB for all to share. Being able to drag and drop buttons to design your own GUI would be a nice extra.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
Well, if it did, can you imagine the havoc caused by the dog if he finds the remote control unit and starts chewing on it?!
-- Soruk
Hmm, let me guess you are either not married or you ARE the wife
Women have all the power these days.
no sig.
Damn, I just looked at that page. Some of their remotes are way cooler than mine! I want the remote fan speed and flame height! (I suppose I'd have to get new valves if I wanted remote flame height, though...)
Anyway, the better-than-convenience part is that they measure the ambient temperature right there on the remote and use that to turn the burner on/off. So if I set it to 78 degrees and put it on the table in front of the fireplace, it shuts the burners down at 78, and relights them at 75. The response time is quite slow (big mass of air, changing very slowly over time) so hysteresis is very noticable. That +0/-2 degrees easily becomes +5/-5 in the room.
But the biggest drawback is that the RF signal has no feedback, so the remote doesn't know if it was successful or not. And it doesn't keep trying even if it gets warmer. (The internal fireplace thermostat shuts it down if the firebox gets too hot, but I don't like relying on what should be a worst-case safety device.) Also, if you glance at the fireplace it may not be lit, but the remote can still be on (just too hot) so it could relight later as it cools down. So my advice would be twofold: keep fresh batteries in your remote, and CHECK TO MAKE SURE THE REMOTE IS OFF WHEN YOU'RE LEAVING.
John