Best Remote Control (Budget) for HTPC

[samhfoley]

I am looking into remote controls for my HTPC that I can also use to control my TV as well. ANy thoughts. I considered the Harmony 510, but I don't know how well I can control Media Center or Total Media Theater 3 with that. Thoughts?? Thanks for the advice.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I use a bluetooth keyboard w/ touchpad for my HTPC, so I don't know about remotes.

My new HTPC (TT Mozart VC4000) comes with a HTPC remote, so I'll have to play with it to see.

 

[GlocksRock]

I would love to find an inexpensive mce remote that I can use in conjunction with my harmony one to control my media pc.

 

[samhfoley]

Gyration GYR4101US Air Music Remote

Gyration Universal remote control - Infrared/radio

or

Windows Vista Certified Media Center MCE Remote Control w/ IR Emitter and Infrared Receiver for Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate

these are what I am considering, any other options? ideas?

 

[GlocksRock]

Do you have a link for the last remote you mentioned?

 

[samhfoley]

http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Certified-Infrared-Receiver-Ultimate/dp/B0011RXUGM

 

[Ben_in_COSpring]

I use one of these (http://www.irblaster.info/receiver.html) with my Onkyo remote. Use LIRC in Linux (can be painful to set up), or WinLIRC in Windows (cake to set-up).

 

[bluebirdy]

Hey Ben the system you are refering seems complicated to me. Harmony remote are great for using multiple devices. I had use this for my Audio system and My new Sony plasma 42". Its fairly easy to use.

 

[Nemo128]

In Windows, just buy the Microsoft MCE IR receiver and whatever Harmony you want.

Or I'll ship ya a Dell MCE receiver (same one as MS but Dell branded) with remote, brand new from Dell, for $15. =)

Some newer computers don't have serial ports. That's really the best option, since as an RS232 device, you could write your own custom app to deal with the received IR codes. It's literally limitless in its capability.

For a plug/play USB option, well, I offered.

 

[GlocksRock]

Yeah, send me a link or more info on the Dell MCE receiver, I'm very interested. I like that it's Dell branded, since that's what type of PC's I use. I'm assuming this uses the standard MCE remote codes, so that I won't have to do any learning on the harmony remote?

 

[Nemo128]

It's the exact MS MCE remote, only Dell branded with a different color remote. Since you're using the Harmony, you won't care about the remote, but it comes with it.

It's exactly this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Media-Center-Remote-USB-IR-Receiver-OVU104007_W0QQitemZ370216379684QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item56329da524&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1234|293:1|294:50

If you add the computer to your Harmony account as a Media Center PC, it works exactly as it should. I used one this way, but I never set up the second one and I sold the first one already since I don't do HTPCing any more.

I will say it works better in general with Vista than XP. I used it with XP MCE, and the standby (power) button didn't cycle properly sometimes. In Vista, it works like a champ. This is an issue with all MCE remotes in XP though.

 

[Ben_in_COSpring]

Hey Ben the system you are refering seems complicated to me. Harmony remote are great for using multiple devices. I had use this for my Audio system and My new Sony plasma 42". Its fairly easy to use.

On Windows, it is pretty trivial to set up. WinLIRC is just a program that you run that can pass keystrokes back to the OS. You just need to program a universal remote to control a device you don't have, then map buttons on the remote to keys in Windows. It requires maybe 1-2 hours of set-up time.

On Linux, for reasons I don't fully understand, LIRC needs to be run as a kernel module, not just a regular application in user-space. That sometimes makes it very difficult to get working. In my mostly ignorant opinion, I think it's unnecessarily difficult, but then again maybe there is a good reason for this architecture.

The bottom line for you is that if you're on Windows, it's a relatively cheap option to RC'ing a HTPC, provided you already have a universal remote.

 

[samhfoley]

Great! Thanks for your advice!