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Cheap User Interface Hack Finally Solves TV Remotes Stupidity
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| posts about #tvremotehack more → |
Cheap User Interface Hack Finally Solves TV Remotes Stupidity |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
03/02/09
My wife had to ask me how to switch to the input for the DVD player on our receiver.
Which sounds like it might be hard, but the button is cleverly labeled "DVD". And she's done it before. And she's under 30. And she wasn't drunk (yet) at the time.
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The monkeys want your roommates to stop doing that.
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03/02/09
my mother in law (80 this week) is hard on remotes.. we go through about 3 a year for her..
try finding a simple 1 (TV) function remote. the minimum we've found is 2 functions (TV + ) which still confuses her... and of course we can't get a replacement for the original...
03/02/09
03/02/09
who's bright idea was it to put 50-90% of the functions of a device ONLY ON THE REMOTE?
even with a good universal you end up loosing functions if the original remote is gone..
way smart thinking there!
03/02/09
In this fashion, functions could be "Stripped" from cheaper models (ie, removed from the remote, and/or turned "off" on the mainboard). This would differentiate models while also saving money by being able to reuse common components of the chassis. For a while many manufacurers had hidden control panels under a door for channel select, tracking, etc, but that soon disappeared as well. The trend carried through as sleeker stark designs became increasingly popular.
03/02/09
You guys both need to look into the JP1 Forums (google it).
Many remotes manufactured by UEI (Now URC, sold under many brand names including Radio Shack, OneForAll, and many OEM remotes) can be "hacked" by interfacing to the on-board EEPROM and programmed by computer. This also means that all of those secret codes for all of those lost functions can be programmed in.
So even if YOU don't still have the original remote, the chances are good someone does, and they've learned and documented every function on the remote (and often many more that the device will respond to that AREN'T on the remote, but could be.)
03/02/09