Apple TV remote replacements

The Apple TV remote is kind of neat, but the downside is that it's small and people often seem to lose it (people like me).

What's neat is that you can use third party remotes to control it.

I had programmed the remote for the Oceanic DVR to control the Apple TV, but the DVR crashed and I returned it.

So now I either have to use the Apple TV remote again or use another remote for the Apple TV.

I choose the latter.

My first option was to use my One For All remote.  I'm already using the AUDIO function for the Roku (used learn mode), so I wanted to use the STB function for the Apple TV.  Unfortunately it didn't recognize the buttons in STB mode (which had been programmed for the Scientific Atlanta cable box).  Actually most of the AUDIO buttons worked, but some didn't.

How about this?  Let's try the Sony BD remote.  That worked.  The only problem would be if the BD player is on and it might get confused and do something when I'm trying to use the Apple TV instead (actually it did as the player turned on and the TV sensed the HDMI output and switched to the Blu Ray player).

Another option is the replacement remote I bought for the Toshiba DVD Recorder.  That worked too.  But I kind of don't want to use it since it was kind of expensive and I don't want to break it through over-use.  (Don't know if that's true, it seems a lot of my non-functioning remotes stopped working after I just let it sit lying around and not using it.)

How about the Panasonic TV remote?  The problem with that is that I have to find buttons that I don't use normally use with the TV.  For example, if I use the MENU button, it brings up the TV menu.

OK, that might work.  I'll use the Sub Menu button instead of Menu.  And I'll use the Return button for skip back.  Couldn't find a button that made sense for skip ahead, but that's OK.

Back to the One For All.  Since it recognized the Toshiba replacement, it should recognize the One For All since it's been programmed also as a Toshiba.  But for some reason, the up button didn't work.  So let me reprogram the up button in learn mode.

OK, how I do that?  Let me look.  Nope not there, actually here (from when I had it learn the Roku).

"press and hold the LEARN button, then the device key, the press the button you want to learn.  It flashes.  Then you aim the original remote at the One For All.  If the button is learned, then it flashes twice.  [Then Press and hold the LEARN key to save your settings. The indicator light flashes twice.]"

At first it didn't work.  The problem was with the Toshiba replacement remote.  Apparently the battery contact in the replacement isn't that good.  I think I had put in leaky batteries.  Another reason not to use that remote.  OK, twirl around the batteries.

OK that worked.  The One For All remote doesn't have a next chapter, previous chapter, or skip ahead button.  But I'll live.

So now I have five remotes that can control the Apple TV.  The original Apple remote, the Sony BD remote, the Toshiba DVD-R replacement remote (RMC 10339), the Panasonic TV remote, and the ONE FOR ALL remote (which is actually programmed to emulate the Toshiba DVD-R).  So actually I should be able to eliminate the ONE FOR ALL remote since it should be using the same codes as the Toshiba replacement.

Checking the ONE FOR ALL in DVD mode, the Menu key didn't work. I think I used the Top Menu on the RMC 10339 instead of the Menu/List.  Let's reprogram that key.  Nope didn't work.

OK, let's learn the Top Menu key as the Menu key for the ONE FOR ALL.  OK.

Trying it out... Actually the left and right buttons work fine instead of using the fast forward, rewind keys.  That's how it's used on the original remote (which doesn't have fast forward and rewind buttons).  And after playing around, the fast forward, rewind keys actually don't work very well.  They lead to the picture pausing.  At least on my slow network.  So I'm better off without them.

OK, put away the Apple TV remote.  And the RMC 10339.

Wait, here's another idea.  Let me program the ONE FOR ALL STB function with the Apple TV functions using Learn mode.  Yay, that worked (did it one by one, don't know how to do a sequence of keys).  OK, so the ONE FOR ALL should work in both STB and DVD mode.  Yep.  Cool.

I kind of like pressing the Guide Button instead of the Menu button on the One For All since the Guide is to the left which is where the Menu button on the Apple TV is.  OK, I'll learn that button as the Menu button as well...

Actually the original Apple TV remote only has seven buttons: up, down, left, right, select, menu, play/pause.  Good enough.  So these other controllers are actually overkill.

[My old Roku remote has 14 buttons.  Back (which is essentially Apple's Menu), Home (Apple's Menu pressed down), up, down, left, right, OK (select), rewind, play/pause, forward, asterisk, Netflix, Pandora, Crackle.]

[Here's Apple guide to using the remote.  Couldn't get slow motion to work though.  Didn't work in Netflix in Hulu anyway.  It's mentioned here too.]

And actually it seems you don't even need the play/pause button as the select button serves that function when a video is playing.

I guess I should delete the Panasonic.  If I press MENU, then navigate the TV menu with the arrows and the OK button, it also controls the Apple TV, leading to mass confusion.

Maybe I should delete the Sony BD remote too to prevent possible future problems (since I now have the Sony BD hooked up to the main TV, now that the DVR is gone).  Yeah, that simplifies things more.  I can always easily add it back later if desired.

So that brings it down to the RMC 10339.  And actually I can delete that too I can use the One For All in Apple mode instead of the Toshiba mode.

Down to no learned remotes!

Wait, I kind of like the skip back button.  I'll add back the 10339 for now, programming the repeat button for skip back and the skip button for skip ahead.

So I can use the One For All in Toshiba DVD-R mode when I want to skip back.  Now if I hook up the Toshiba DVD-R to the main TV again, I might run into problems.  But maybe not, because I won't be using the Apple TV and Toshiba DVD-R at the same time.  [The Sony BD is odd because it seems that pressing certain buttons on the remote turns it on.]

OK, one learned remote.  Which is the Toshiba DVD-R replacement remote.  But I'm not planning to use it. Instead I'll use the One For All remote instead either in DVD mode or STB mode.  The AUDIO mode is for the Roku.  And the TV mode is for the Panasonic Plasma TV (the main TV).

I guess that's enough for today...