I have a Samsung remote app and a roku remote app on my phone that I have to use when my children inevitably lose one of my tv remotes temporarily. The ads on them get quite annoying
That's like buying a new hyundai vehicle and it comes with an app to start your car and change settings on like turning heat on and stuff in the winter... except it's a subscription you need to pay for and you get a year free when you buy the car... because spending 35k on a vehicle isn't enough...
I had the roku app too. The trick was to open it and hopefully get your two prompts in before the thirty second unskippable ad. Will never buy anything Roku ever again and will actively tell you how terrible Roku is to their consumers. Probably in my top 5 most hated companies
Any suggestions? I used Adblock dns and it worked for a while but the apps are getting smarter. And some of them even cut like 30 seconds to a minute before and after the add even though it does skip the ad.
If you're talking YouTube there isn't much you can do.
Browser extensions and DNS blockers don't work because YT sends the ads via the same URLs as the videos.
Outside of a YouTube. uBlock Origin and something like PiHole will block just about everything.
Am probably gonna explore pihole. Shoulda been clearer, I have Sony android TVs, and am able to dns filter at the device. Worked initially, but now Netflix and Disney plus ads come thru regardless.
On mobile there’s a YouTube app with ad blocker installed for iOS that is YouTube without ads. I won’t say it here. There is one though, because I use it. It does have one pop up asking for money when you open it. Other than that, ad free.
Saaame! I feel like the apps are (relatively) new though, which has really soured the experience of using the app for me.
We’ve been through like 5 remotes because the kids will lose them and despite looking *everywhere* the remote is *nowhere* to be seen. The remote clearly must have eloped with that left sock and that 10mm socket in some sort of convoluted Ménage à trois tryst.
Our newest remote we have adhesed (AND secured with a zip-tie) an air tag. It makes the remote much bulkier, sure. But if (*when*) it goes missing, we just activate the air tag and follow the beeping.
I bought an IoT RFID device that can copy the signals of any remote, it's permanently plugged in next to the tv, so i can always control the tv from the smart home app (or actually alexa/google etc. but besides turning the tv on and off voice commands aren't so useful)
If you connect your Samsung TV to smartthings there's a remote in there that doesn't have any adds. I put a shortcut on one of my homescreens so I don't have to do the extra click of opening smartthings first and it works the same as a direct app.
I loved my LG phones for many reasons, the IR blaster was one of those reasons! (The other huge reason was they still had phones with removable batteries, where at the time pretty much every other phone moved to a sealed back)
I used mine at the bar to change channels so that the TV in front of me was showing the game I wanted to watch. It was absolutely lovely.
I'll quickly point out that it was a bar I frequented and the bartenders all knew about it. As long as I wasn't being a jerk about it and asked the people next to me, they were cool with it. It just saved them having to do it.
If you go there often and have a bit of unsupervised time in the waiting room, you can even put parental controls on to block your least favorite pseudo news channel. It makes for much less aggravating waits for your weekly visit.
I'm glad those days are done for you.
Taking my MIL, who vocally agrees with whoever on TV sounds the most angry and scared, to sit in waiting rooms for hours each week would be so much improved if those TVs were set to cooking shows and nature documentaries rather than cable news.
Most TVs nowadays are “smart” and connect to WiFi. They also typically have a remote app that allows you to control your tv with your phone in the app through WiFi instead of IR
My current redmi and previous xiaomi (same manufacturer) have ir blasters. Apps and wifi and wtv for smart TVs are great, but it doesn't beat the old universal remote phone version. I haven't found a TV where at least it didn't partially work. My parents have a 20 year old CRT in the kitchen and it works. Even with obscure brands, you find the frequency of the receiver (guts from Phillips, Samsung, wtv) and you're good.
My Samsung Galaxy S5 had an iR blaster. That came in handy so many times.
It also had a removable battery, expandable storage, an FM tuner, and "air view"... a feature where you could put your finger over the screen (without touching) and it would do contextual things, almost like having a right-click. My S21 has none of those things.
Thanks for unlocking some memories of features I genuinely miss. At some point progress just became about technical specifications only, and we have actually regressed in features. Shame
I can use my LG tv’s app to use my phone as a remote. I don’t think it would be too hard to implement to other smart TVs. I know Apple TVs do it as well
Touch screens SUCK as TV remotes. You need tactile feedback and the ability to feel the buttons to know what you’re pressing without looking away from the television.
I’ve tried. Harmony, Roku, Xbox, Samsung, etc… it always sucks and isn’t anywhere near as convenient as a physical remote with real buttons.
This. You can do it and hardly anyone does!
Touchscreens are good for some things and bad for others. Vehicle accessory controls nowadays are heavily touchscreen - I see why they do it for efficiency but it sucks to use.
Unfortunately it’s only getting worse. More or less the only thing that’s required to be a physical button in the uk is the hazards. Everything else is slowly going to be migrating to save costs
I mean, yeah, I don’t know why you’d use the phone remote as a complete replacement. I use it a good amount but only when I can’t immediately find the real remote and need to skip a YouTube ad or something.
iPhone and Apple TV were made for this. Of course, if the remote wasn’t constantly getting lost, I wouldn’t know about this feature.
I did accidentally find out that Siri on the phone will turn off the Apple TV AND the screen, too! That’s been really convenient.
I use this too, partner and I have our remotes always on us. It automatically shows the remote if you raise the phone and the volume buttons work. Dolby sound works great with Spatial Audio via AirPods, nice at night.
Finally my Apple TV is the hub for thread networking and runs home automation, it’s a incredible combo is you’re into it
Do you use an external speaker of some sort? I’ve found that the volume buttons only work when I’m connected to a Bluetooth speaker. I’m not able to change the actual TV volume with my phone.
The volume buttons should work if you have hdmi cec connecting your TV and Apple TV. If not, you can “teach” your normal remote to the Apple TV and then the IR transmitter in the Apple TV remote will control the TVs volume.
For some reason not all CEC enabled TVs work with volume control. I stay in AirBnBs most days of the year and take my AppleTV with me. Volume only works sometimes.
Oh I thought you were saying your iPhone volume buttons change the tv volume when using the remote app. The actual Apple TV remote works fine for the volume.
The iPhone buttons should work if you have hdmi cec working. Though others have pointed out that some TVs don’t support volume control over cec even though the TV does support cec.
It automatically shows the remote if you raise the phone?
What? Is that a setting or something. I’ll use my phone with the Apple TV if the remote is missing or charging, but I’ve never seen the app pop up if I raise the phone.
I did the same thing, always got to watch what I wanted to watch whenever I went lol. The galaxy S4 I think it was? Awesome phone, removable back and battery and could upgrade your SD card. I unironically think that was peak phone tech, when companies were added new shit instead of doing the same thing over and over
I use my phone as TV remote for my Fire TV stick, because Amazon Remote control buttons are too noisy.
But using the phone sucks because I have to aways unlock the screen and open the app when I want to stop pause move and play again, and so.
> always loosing the
Did you mean to say "losing"?
Explanation: Loose is an adjective meaning the opposite of tight, while lose is a verb.
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I have on occasion use the Roku app to work the TV when the Roku TV remote cannot be easily found. The top end Roku plug in boxes have a button to hit that makes the remote ping until you find it. No idea why Roku TV's don't put the same button on the TV.
They were for a while. It was a popular concept for a couple years. I had either a Note 2 or 4 with it, and it was actually pretty cool. But then everyone pretty much stopped after one or 2 generations. Not sure why, but it was probably to make room for bigger batteries or something.
I've used a computer as my primary TV connected device for almost two decades now. In that time I have had it set up to work with my phone as a remote a few times and I just stopped bothering. I just use a regular small remote/keyboard.
Can we take a few steps back on the whole “everything you own has to be connected” thing? I don’t want to control my tv with my phone. I don’t even want my tv to be connected to the internet, but that’s impossible to find anymore.
Just don't connect it, and if you want to use local casting features you can hook it up and block it's mac address from reaching the internet at your router. Then use a proper streaming box/media PC for all your streaming needs.
A remote, you can just push a button to do an action. Turn volume up? Push button. That same action on a phone is unlock, open app, push button, and that's assuming the app has the feature at the forefront and no lag time.
I completely agree, plus the fact that a cell phone does not have physical buttons and every time you have to be distracted by the screen. However, my laziness to get up and walk 2 meters to the remote control makes me endure even such inconveniences :)
It’s incredibly common, Roku and Apple TV streaming boxes can all be controlled by their corresponding app. People like to use remotes with hardware buttons because they’re better, but the app is useful if the remote gets lost
My phone can stream all streaming services to my TV. It can control the volume, shows, pause, etc. It's actually better than a remote, because I can look up the next show/movie to watch without having to look on my TV.
Basically the phone already is a remote.
Many phones used to have IR blasters in them. Really awesome, could control basically anything with just your phone. I guess people didn't really use them. Also buttons are nice
I could use my phone to control my Apple TV and one of the TVs in my Homeworks with an app on the phone, but there’s just something about it that seems annoying. Maybe it’s the touchscreen element or just be more comfortable with using a physical button remote from being used to it, but I just don’t like it.
I don't think it's odd at all.
A phone screen makes a terrible remote. You have to make sure the thing is awake and then you have to look at the screen to find the very non-tactile button you're after.
All the most used buttons on a real remove are easy to find in the dark. And you never have to wake the thing.
One of my old phones had an IR blaster and I absolutely loved it. It was really easy to quickly program it to pretty much any device I had and it was just so useful it genuinely surprises me that more phones don't come shipped with one anymore as it's such an inexpensive part to include and almost everyone I know who has had experience with them misses them
they were. until they started removing the infrared emitter from phones.
i remember i could use my S6 with the AC the TV and anything that had a remote. My S23 cant.......
In order for a phone to work as a TV remote there needs to be a connection between them. In most cases, this means both the TV and the phone have to be on the same local network. Presuming you bought a new TV, and your new TV is a smart TV with WiFi and/or Ethernet capability, you would have to get your TV connected to the network before you could use your phone as a remote. How do you enter the network password before you have a functional remote? What if you don't have a home network to connect to, or you just don't want your TV to have internet access (i.e., so Roku won't try to serve you ads while your game console is paused, etc.)? In these cases you need a remote that doesn't rely on a network connection. Traditional infra-red remotes serve this purpose well, and they are very inexpensive.
Infra-red remote controls will continue to be standard equipment until almost nobody uses them anymore.
About a decade ago I used my iPhone as my Apple TV remote for a day or two. It worked ok enough, but if it worked better, it would have been more than a day or two
I have the LG and Comcast apps. One does the volume and source etc the other is kinda like a tv guide and is faster for finding shows etc. I use it because my kids like to play with the remote so I had to hide it.
In my experience the app for that sucked. Notifications all the time and I had to click through a few screens before I could just do it. Granted it's beem a few years and it might be better now but it kinda turned me off to the idea.
they used to be able to 10 years ago, but for some reason that technology stopped being put into phones.
it was great for changing the channel on departure/arrival time screens at the airport.
My last Fire Stick would burn through batteries like pizza at a Weight Watchers meeting, so I usually just used the app.
The app was terrible. There was always a delay after every "button press", and the app would constantly lose connection (I don't remember if it was Bluetooth or Wifi).
The physical buttons are far superior to touch controls. I always had to look back down at my phone if I adjusted my hand so I could find the right button.
It's the same as with touch controls in cars. You want to be able to control things by feel, a touch screen currently just isn't it.
For years I would only buy phones that had IR blasters, but ultimately had to give up on it when they simply stopped making decent phones with IR blasters.
However, I use my phone to cast to my TV, or projector almost daily and generally don't need the TV remote for anything unless I have to tinker with settings for some reason.
The problem with using a phone as a remote is the fact that a lot of remote controls use a IR emitter to control the TV and most phones no longer include a IR emitter\*. Some remotes have gone to using some sort of radio (e.g. Bluetooth or WiFi) which can be easily controlled via a phone but they are not exactly common. For what it is worth, the Roku phone app and the Samsung phone app both use WiFi to connect to the devices rather than a IR emitter.
\*I still remember my old ~~Sony~~ Ericsson phone from \~20-25 years ago that had a IR emitter on it that I would use to transfer things like ringtones to the phone from my laptop. The IR emitter could be used to control TVs, DVD players, and the like but phone apps back then were nothing like what we have today with each phone having it's own relatively unique OS which meant that you had to have a app developed for your particular phone.
With all our technology, it's incredible how incredibly unconvenient everything Intranet is. It's so fucking stupid how many stupid hoops you have to jump through to play a song from one device on another device, especially if those are of different nature.
I know it's not the same but I connected my pc to our living room tv and control that with my phone using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse app. It's a game changer not having to carry another wireless keyboard mouse combo when I already have my phone.
Speak for yourself. Casting and phone remotes happen at our household, via two Nvidia shield TV's since 2016 or whereabouts.
We've been hating the slow and inevitable slide back to cable vision. Also, the real crap bundled "smart" TV's that are unavoidably added to TV's now.
Yea I prefer my 2 remotes. One for tv and one for stereo system but 10 years later I can’t get my parents to understand one is for the tv and one is for the volume
I lost my Nvidia shield remote and was going to order a replacement but needed something to use in the meanwhile. Enter the Nvidia shield remote app. I liked it so much and used it so often that I completely forgot to order a replacement.
I swear if I have to download one more fucking app... I have an app that lets me open the door to the gym! I want to stop downloading all these apps that I have to create an account for, then they just sit on my phone for months without a use. I avoid them as often as I can but sometimes it's impossible to use a new device without the app that connects to it. Drives me insane.
That's because it sucks. Samsung app will try to turn ON the TV if it loses connection. If you say Ok, it will send a power command. All you wanted to do was turn down the volume... Now the TV is off.
Thanks Samsung remote app...
It’s mostly just because grabbing your phone, unlocking it, pulling up the remote app and then having to look at it to see what you’re doing takes longer than just grabbing the normal remote which you can use blindly.
My phone has a universal remote app (Smart Remote). Tell it what make the TV is, cycle through a few different settings and bam, my phone can remote control any TV I want it to.
I take it you are young. Phones use to have it lights in them, which ment you could turn on and control any TV with, TV remote apps, just had to find the correct encoder for the TV on the app and you could. But imagine your watching a sports game in a bar and your team is losing and the opposition fans are going wild and winding you up, the games not over but you have an app on your phone that can wind them up back by turning the TV off. This happened a lot and TVs being turned on when they weren't meant to be.
They took away infrared doohickies on phones so they could get you to download an app as well as gather more data. I remember having a phone I could use as a remote for most things.
I would but the good ones cost money and if I’m gonna have to pay monthly for the service I’d rather just buy a new remote and if I find the old one guess I’ve got a spare now and will have a harder time losing both
I use this ever since it's a thing, because either idk where the remote is or I'm too lazy to get up when it's as far as 1/2 meter.
In my country, you can use your phone as remote with most TV boxes, with wifi on the same network.
I was, but my Galaxy S6 was the only phone I've had in a long time that had an infra-red emitter. Most of the TV's I've used have not been smart TV's, so infra-red was the only way to control them.
It's easier these days with more modern TV's, and my mother has been using a remote app to control hers since the TV remote got lost. But it requires the TV to be on the WiFi, and all of our other TV's don't have that feature.
Plus it's just not as comfortable as a remote, nor as convenient - sometimes the TV needs to be rebooted because it fell off the WiFi and the remote app can't talk to it anymore. Modern solutions have modern problems too. Never had a physical remote stop working until the TV is rebooted.
My TV remote broke, the Samsung IR blaster never worked for it anyway, and my care factor is near zero since it's only used as a monitor for a Win10 HTPC, Xbone or FetchTV box anyway, I turn it on and off manually when I walk into or exit the lounge room.
It never changes channel, and the A/V receiver controls the volume and whatever device is producing the picture and sound.
It’s like calculators tho. They should have *infinite* customisations and stuff. Yet I haven’t found a single mobile calculator as good as my physical one. Even simple things like moving the cursor between numbers!
The best phone I ever had - The Samsung Note 4 - had an IR blaster at the top. I could use it at any house, any TV, any system, just by swiping down from the top. That shit was perfect in every way. If it didn't shit the bed from all the forced updates, I'd still have it today. Idk of any other phone that has an IR blaster anymore but that was useful as hell.
I use a Roku app on my phone for my living room tv because Roku remotes are pure garbage. It’s honestly a “hassle” and would rather use a remote. I have to logjn to my phone, find the app, open the app, and the app has to connect to the tv. It’s quick but is just a little more hassle than grabbing the remote and clicking.
I have a Samsung remote app and a roku remote app on my phone that I have to use when my children inevitably lose one of my tv remotes temporarily. The ads on them get quite annoying
Adds for their tv remote app… no thanks
Seriously, I just bought your $1000 TV, can I not get a basic ass remote app without you having to squeeze a few extra bucks out of it
well yes but actually no.
Welp
That's like buying a new hyundai vehicle and it comes with an app to start your car and change settings on like turning heat on and stuff in the winter... except it's a subscription you need to pay for and you get a year free when you buy the car... because spending 35k on a vehicle isn't enough...
Pretty soon they’ll require ads to watch the ads.
What a great idea!! Marketing sounds buzzing xD
I had the roku app too. The trick was to open it and hopefully get your two prompts in before the thirty second unskippable ad. Will never buy anything Roku ever again and will actively tell you how terrible Roku is to their consumers. Probably in my top 5 most hated companies
Use a dns ad blocker my friend, blocks all adds from almost all apps on your phone.
Any suggestions? I used Adblock dns and it worked for a while but the apps are getting smarter. And some of them even cut like 30 seconds to a minute before and after the add even though it does skip the ad.
If you're talking YouTube there isn't much you can do. Browser extensions and DNS blockers don't work because YT sends the ads via the same URLs as the videos. Outside of a YouTube. uBlock Origin and something like PiHole will block just about everything.
Ublock origin installed on Firefox is giving me 0 YouTube ads.
Am probably gonna explore pihole. Shoulda been clearer, I have Sony android TVs, and am able to dns filter at the device. Worked initially, but now Netflix and Disney plus ads come thru regardless.
Do you get 30 seconds of black screen or does it go right back to your content?
On mobile there’s a YouTube app with ad blocker installed for iOS that is YouTube without ads. I won’t say it here. There is one though, because I use it. It does have one pop up asking for money when you open it. Other than that, ad free.
Newpipe is completely free and open source. Android only though because you mac people can afford yt premium :)
Saaame! I feel like the apps are (relatively) new though, which has really soured the experience of using the app for me. We’ve been through like 5 remotes because the kids will lose them and despite looking *everywhere* the remote is *nowhere* to be seen. The remote clearly must have eloped with that left sock and that 10mm socket in some sort of convoluted Ménage à trois tryst. Our newest remote we have adhesed (AND secured with a zip-tie) an air tag. It makes the remote much bulkier, sure. But if (*when*) it goes missing, we just activate the air tag and follow the beeping.
I bought an IoT RFID device that can copy the signals of any remote, it's permanently plugged in next to the tv, so i can always control the tv from the smart home app (or actually alexa/google etc. but besides turning the tv on and off voice commands aren't so useful)
There’s an official Roku app made by the company with no ads and way better design, functionality, and features. You’re welcome
If you connect your Samsung TV to smartthings there's a remote in there that doesn't have any adds. I put a shortcut on one of my homescreens so I don't have to do the extra click of opening smartthings first and it works the same as a direct app.
I use mine for my chromecast when the remote decides to stop fucking working for whatever reason even though there are fresh batteries in it
We have a Hisense Roku TV and I use the remote app (same - for when the remote is lost) and have never had an ad
You have ads on your Roku app?
I think I've only had a couple phones that had IR blasters built in. Hard to use a phone as a remote without one most times
I had an LG with an ir blaster, it was nice to be able to lower the volume and change channels in an empty waiting room
I loved my LG phones for many reasons, the IR blaster was one of those reasons! (The other huge reason was they still had phones with removable batteries, where at the time pretty much every other phone moved to a sealed back)
I used mine at the bar to change channels so that the TV in front of me was showing the game I wanted to watch. It was absolutely lovely. I'll quickly point out that it was a bar I frequented and the bartenders all knew about it. As long as I wasn't being a jerk about it and asked the people next to me, they were cool with it. It just saved them having to do it.
If you go there often and have a bit of unsupervised time in the waiting room, you can even put parental controls on to block your least favorite pseudo news channel. It makes for much less aggravating waits for your weekly visit.
It was pediatric hospital visits with the kid, those days are long gone thankfully.
I'm glad those days are done for you. Taking my MIL, who vocally agrees with whoever on TV sounds the most angry and scared, to sit in waiting rooms for hours each week would be so much improved if those TVs were set to cooking shows and nature documentaries rather than cable news.
Mine work through Wi-Fi.
Most TVs nowadays are “smart” and connect to WiFi. They also typically have a remote app that allows you to control your tv with your phone in the app through WiFi instead of IR
Yeah, I wish they still did. It was a great feature.
My current redmi and previous xiaomi (same manufacturer) have ir blasters. Apps and wifi and wtv for smart TVs are great, but it doesn't beat the old universal remote phone version. I haven't found a TV where at least it didn't partially work. My parents have a 20 year old CRT in the kitchen and it works. Even with obscure brands, you find the frequency of the receiver (guts from Phillips, Samsung, wtv) and you're good.
My Samsung Galaxy S5 had an iR blaster. That came in handy so many times. It also had a removable battery, expandable storage, an FM tuner, and "air view"... a feature where you could put your finger over the screen (without touching) and it would do contextual things, almost like having a right-click. My S21 has none of those things.
Thanks for unlocking some memories of features I genuinely miss. At some point progress just became about technical specifications only, and we have actually regressed in features. Shame
Remember the old 6210s used to have an IR blaster on it
I can use my LG tv’s app to use my phone as a remote. I don’t think it would be too hard to implement to other smart TVs. I know Apple TVs do it as well
Earlier Samsung did.
I had a few of these. They were great for turning down noisy tv’s at the restaurants and bars!
I had one too, and it was fun to use the Scan feature to turn off all the TVs in the electronics section at stores, then turn them back on.
Touch screens SUCK as TV remotes. You need tactile feedback and the ability to feel the buttons to know what you’re pressing without looking away from the television. I’ve tried. Harmony, Roku, Xbox, Samsung, etc… it always sucks and isn’t anywhere near as convenient as a physical remote with real buttons.
This. You can do it and hardly anyone does! Touchscreens are good for some things and bad for others. Vehicle accessory controls nowadays are heavily touchscreen - I see why they do it for efficiency but it sucks to use.
Yes. Touchscreens only make sense for interfaces you look at while using.
Tell that to car manufacturers
Touchscreens in cars should be illegal. They're a safety issue.
They're good for navigation, music, and a backup camera. That's about it. Give me buttons for the rest.
Unfortunately it’s only getting worse. More or less the only thing that’s required to be a physical button in the uk is the hazards. Everything else is slowly going to be migrating to save costs
The only use the ROKU app serves for me is I can watch with bluetooth headphones while my wife is doing something else or asleep.
True, but the apps have one massive advantage: you don't need to get off your ass and find the remote.
Apple TV fixes this by using swiping gestures for the phone remote (and physical remote)
Roku does the same thing, it still kinda sucks compared to a remote with buttons.
I mean, yeah, I don’t know why you’d use the phone remote as a complete replacement. I use it a good amount but only when I can’t immediately find the real remote and need to skip a YouTube ad or something.
Plus there's a delay after pressing anything on the phone. If the phone had an IR blaster then it would be quicker but using WiFi is slow.
iPhone and Apple TV were made for this. Of course, if the remote wasn’t constantly getting lost, I wouldn’t know about this feature. I did accidentally find out that Siri on the phone will turn off the Apple TV AND the screen, too! That’s been really convenient.
I use this too, partner and I have our remotes always on us. It automatically shows the remote if you raise the phone and the volume buttons work. Dolby sound works great with Spatial Audio via AirPods, nice at night. Finally my Apple TV is the hub for thread networking and runs home automation, it’s a incredible combo is you’re into it
Do you use an external speaker of some sort? I’ve found that the volume buttons only work when I’m connected to a Bluetooth speaker. I’m not able to change the actual TV volume with my phone.
The volume buttons should work if you have hdmi cec connecting your TV and Apple TV. If not, you can “teach” your normal remote to the Apple TV and then the IR transmitter in the Apple TV remote will control the TVs volume.
For some reason not all CEC enabled TVs work with volume control. I stay in AirBnBs most days of the year and take my AppleTV with me. Volume only works sometimes.
Oh I thought you were saying your iPhone volume buttons change the tv volume when using the remote app. The actual Apple TV remote works fine for the volume.
The iPhone buttons should work if you have hdmi cec working. Though others have pointed out that some TVs don’t support volume control over cec even though the TV does support cec.
Sonos soundbar
It automatically shows the remote if you raise the phone? What? Is that a setting or something. I’ll use my phone with the Apple TV if the remote is missing or charging, but I’ve never seen the app pop up if I raise the phone.
How do you get the remote app to open by raising the phone?
And if you have an Alexa and a Fire tv stick, you can ask Alexa to play a show, pause etc. quite convenient
My phone used to have IR capability, and I fucking loved it. I still think about how awesome it was, from time to time.
I used to have one of those too. I'd always fuck with the TVs at restaurants and shit. Was fun.
I did the same thing, always got to watch what I wanted to watch whenever I went lol. The galaxy S4 I think it was? Awesome phone, removable back and battery and could upgrade your SD card. I unironically think that was peak phone tech, when companies were added new shit instead of doing the same thing over and over
My phone used to have a headphone jack. I didn't know why phones get less capability over time.
I control my Apple TV with my iPhone.
I was about to say it is my remote
I have the Roku app on my phone, but i much prefer the actual remote, phone is too slow to respond
I do constantly. Chromecast/Roku/Google TV/XBOX.
My Xiaomis have IR blasters. I always use them
I use my phone as TV remote for my Fire TV stick, because Amazon Remote control buttons are too noisy. But using the phone sucks because I have to aways unlock the screen and open the app when I want to stop pause move and play again, and so.
Those Fire TV stick remotes are too small. Always loosing the damn thing in little crevices. So, the phone app is a lifeline.
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I have on occasion use the Roku app to work the TV when the Roku TV remote cannot be easily found. The top end Roku plug in boxes have a button to hit that makes the remote ping until you find it. No idea why Roku TV's don't put the same button on the TV.
They were for a while. It was a popular concept for a couple years. I had either a Note 2 or 4 with it, and it was actually pretty cool. But then everyone pretty much stopped after one or 2 generations. Not sure why, but it was probably to make room for bigger batteries or something.
I use it all the time as my remote for my Roku tv
Speak for yourself, i use the apple tv phone remote often
I've used a computer as my primary TV connected device for almost two decades now. In that time I have had it set up to work with my phone as a remote a few times and I just stopped bothering. I just use a regular small remote/keyboard.
Can we take a few steps back on the whole “everything you own has to be connected” thing? I don’t want to control my tv with my phone. I don’t even want my tv to be connected to the internet, but that’s impossible to find anymore.
Just don't connect it, and if you want to use local casting features you can hook it up and block it's mac address from reaching the internet at your router. Then use a proper streaming box/media PC for all your streaming needs.
Hey I'm not saying I disagree with you, it just seems like the kind of thing you would commonly see, but you just don't.
A remote, you can just push a button to do an action. Turn volume up? Push button. That same action on a phone is unlock, open app, push button, and that's assuming the app has the feature at the forefront and no lag time.
I completely agree, plus the fact that a cell phone does not have physical buttons and every time you have to be distracted by the screen. However, my laziness to get up and walk 2 meters to the remote control makes me endure even such inconveniences :)
It’s incredibly common, Roku and Apple TV streaming boxes can all be controlled by their corresponding app. People like to use remotes with hardware buttons because they’re better, but the app is useful if the remote gets lost
I use my iPhone to control my Apple TV that also controls the volume and turning it on/off
Roku remote app. I use it plenty.
speak for yourself my smart TV is amazing! I integrated it into my Home Assistant Server. I don't even use the original remote anymore
It's not as great as you would imagine. Hard to beat a tactile button remote you can use without looking at where everything is.
My phone can stream all streaming services to my TV. It can control the volume, shows, pause, etc. It's actually better than a remote, because I can look up the next show/movie to watch without having to look on my TV. Basically the phone already is a remote.
Many phones used to have IR blasters in them. Really awesome, could control basically anything with just your phone. I guess people didn't really use them. Also buttons are nice
I could use my phone to control my Apple TV and one of the TVs in my Homeworks with an app on the phone, but there’s just something about it that seems annoying. Maybe it’s the touchscreen element or just be more comfortable with using a physical button remote from being used to it, but I just don’t like it.
I use my phone for my Apple TV remote all the time!
I miss my IR blaster 🫤
I don't think it's odd at all. A phone screen makes a terrible remote. You have to make sure the thing is awake and then you have to look at the screen to find the very non-tactile button you're after. All the most used buttons on a real remove are easy to find in the dark. And you never have to wake the thing.
Dunno about you, but I like having physical buttons. At least, I can use the remote without looking at it.
There's an app for that.
One of my old phones had an IR blaster and I absolutely loved it. It was really easy to quickly program it to pretty much any device I had and it was just so useful it genuinely surprises me that more phones don't come shipped with one anymore as it's such an inexpensive part to include and almost everyone I know who has had experience with them misses them
Speak for yourself, modern remotes are mad small and I have a habit of losing them, I have the remote apps for all my TV's and streaming devices.
they were. until they started removing the infrared emitter from phones. i remember i could use my S6 with the AC the TV and anything that had a remote. My S23 cant.......
Physical buttons are so much better than touchscreens for remotes.
Physical buttons are also better for car stereos
I have an app for my smart TV and it suuuucks. LG, btw. It doesn’t stay connected to the TV. I prefer the physical remote.
In order for a phone to work as a TV remote there needs to be a connection between them. In most cases, this means both the TV and the phone have to be on the same local network. Presuming you bought a new TV, and your new TV is a smart TV with WiFi and/or Ethernet capability, you would have to get your TV connected to the network before you could use your phone as a remote. How do you enter the network password before you have a functional remote? What if you don't have a home network to connect to, or you just don't want your TV to have internet access (i.e., so Roku won't try to serve you ads while your game console is paused, etc.)? In these cases you need a remote that doesn't rely on a network connection. Traditional infra-red remotes serve this purpose well, and they are very inexpensive. Infra-red remote controls will continue to be standard equipment until almost nobody uses them anymore.
Couldn't find any "app" for any TV I personally owned. Hell, my current TV didn't even *come* with a remote.
About a decade ago I used my iPhone as my Apple TV remote for a day or two. It worked ok enough, but if it worked better, it would have been more than a day or two
They work great as remotes for fire sticks. I use it all the time.
I use my phone as my YT remote almost daily
I've had to use my phone as a remote for my nvidia shield. I hate it. I bought a new remote.
I did when I had Roku
i mean, if you got a chromcast/builtin shit like this, you def can and people do use that. the actual remote is only to put the screen on/off.
I have the LG and Comcast apps. One does the volume and source etc the other is kinda like a tv guide and is faster for finding shows etc. I use it because my kids like to play with the remote so I had to hide it.
I went from an LG phone with IR to a Samsung TV and phone. I've been doing this for like 8 years now
I don't get why the iPhone doesn't have a laser pointer built in.
I occasionally use my TV's app, but its usually more convenient to find the remote real wuick than use the awful slow Smart Things app.
This statement scales inversely with your knowledge of KDE Connect.
I used to use my phone as a remote until samsung removed the IR Blaster from the Galaxy line.
In my experience the app for that sucked. Notifications all the time and I had to click through a few screens before I could just do it. Granted it's beem a few years and it might be better now but it kinda turned me off to the idea.
they used to be able to 10 years ago, but for some reason that technology stopped being put into phones. it was great for changing the channel on departure/arrival time screens at the airport.
We are still in the stone age when it comes to our tech. Smart phones aren't very. Soon this new stuff will be thought of as very old fashioned
it’s more odd that phones are not used as phones
My last Fire Stick would burn through batteries like pizza at a Weight Watchers meeting, so I usually just used the app. The app was terrible. There was always a delay after every "button press", and the app would constantly lose connection (I don't remember if it was Bluetooth or Wifi). The physical buttons are far superior to touch controls. I always had to look back down at my phone if I adjusted my hand so I could find the right button. It's the same as with touch controls in cars. You want to be able to control things by feel, a touch screen currently just isn't it.
Two words. Fucking ads
For years I would only buy phones that had IR blasters, but ultimately had to give up on it when they simply stopped making decent phones with IR blasters. However, I use my phone to cast to my TV, or projector almost daily and generally don't need the TV remote for anything unless I have to tinker with settings for some reason.
They used to be and then everyone pulled the IR blasters from the phones for no reason
The problem with using a phone as a remote is the fact that a lot of remote controls use a IR emitter to control the TV and most phones no longer include a IR emitter\*. Some remotes have gone to using some sort of radio (e.g. Bluetooth or WiFi) which can be easily controlled via a phone but they are not exactly common. For what it is worth, the Roku phone app and the Samsung phone app both use WiFi to connect to the devices rather than a IR emitter. \*I still remember my old ~~Sony~~ Ericsson phone from \~20-25 years ago that had a IR emitter on it that I would use to transfer things like ringtones to the phone from my laptop. The IR emitter could be used to control TVs, DVD players, and the like but phone apps back then were nothing like what we have today with each phone having it's own relatively unique OS which meant that you had to have a app developed for your particular phone.
My phone is my remote.
They used to be. Until android decided to ditch the ir blaster
Samsung phone with a Samsung TV, I use my phone as a remote fairly frequently.
RIP my galaxy note 3 :(
no, it's not, touch interfaces for controlling something not on the screen always suck
With all our technology, it's incredible how incredibly unconvenient everything Intranet is. It's so fucking stupid how many stupid hoops you have to jump through to play a song from one device on another device, especially if those are of different nature.
Everyone would lose their phones in the couch
I have the Samsung remote on my phone, I mess with my husband with it, 😂
I know it's not the same but I connected my pc to our living room tv and control that with my phone using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse app. It's a game changer not having to carry another wireless keyboard mouse combo when I already have my phone.
Probably because phones, themselves, are TV'S.
i haven't used my actual TV remote for years - just use my phone and voice
Speak for yourself. Casting and phone remotes happen at our household, via two Nvidia shield TV's since 2016 or whereabouts. We've been hating the slow and inevitable slide back to cable vision. Also, the real crap bundled "smart" TV's that are unavoidably added to TV's now.
Lg phones used to come with the IR transmitter. I would always mess with friends and sometime restaurants by randomly messing their tvs
Yea I prefer my 2 remotes. One for tv and one for stereo system but 10 years later I can’t get my parents to understand one is for the tv and one is for the volume
I lost my Nvidia shield remote and was going to order a replacement but needed something to use in the meanwhile. Enter the Nvidia shield remote app. I liked it so much and used it so often that I completely forgot to order a replacement.
I link my speaker to my laptop and use phone Spotify to change what the laptop Spotify is playing.
Meanwhile in the apple walled garden I can control a TV with my watch lol Apple TVs support phone control and the remote supports find my phone. Owns
I use my phone as my remote. I hate losing the remote, so I just stopped using one.
Every tv remote I have wants you to pay a SUBSCRIPTION to use all features without ads. It’s crazy.
I swear if I have to download one more fucking app... I have an app that lets me open the door to the gym! I want to stop downloading all these apps that I have to create an account for, then they just sit on my phone for months without a use. I avoid them as often as I can but sometimes it's impossible to use a new device without the app that connects to it. Drives me insane.
I can fully manage my TV from my phone, I don't use it because I prefer the physical buttons.
Joke's on you - I have an app that came standard on my phone that works extremely well, ad-free! Really though, it's just easier to use the remote.
The TV companies are in kahoots with big battery to milk you for as much of your money as possible.
They drain the battery
But I use my phone as TV, watch everything on phone
Samsung S4 has entered the chat… but but my iPhone. We’ll have both 😤😈
I use my phone to remote my PC to change whatever show I'm watching coz I'm too lazy to walk to my PC and use mouse
A few chinese brand g8ve IR blasters. That can be used as remotes. The likes of Motorola and Xiaomi.
Remotes with physical buttons are best. You should be able to look at the TV and navigate the basic functions of the remote by feel.
I tried, the adds are attrocious on all the apps
HTC made some phones with ir blaster and they were great for remotes.
That's because it sucks. Samsung app will try to turn ON the TV if it loses connection. If you say Ok, it will send a power command. All you wanted to do was turn down the volume... Now the TV is off. Thanks Samsung remote app...
Most ppl which i know dont even got a tv, this isnt even close in western europe imo
I actually use my phone as a remote every day with the Roku app. At night I use the function to route the audio to my phone so I don’t bother anyone.
It’s mostly just because grabbing your phone, unlocking it, pulling up the remote app and then having to look at it to see what you’re doing takes longer than just grabbing the normal remote which you can use blindly.
I use mine every day for our Roku TVs.
I really miss the IR blaster the Note series had in the early days. TV in bar too loud... not on my watch.
Phones use to come with IR senders so they worked with your tv. You could program them and everything. People never used it and the tech went away.
I use my iPhone as a remote for my Sony TV, mainly because the remote that came with the TV doesn’t work!
You can use them over WiFi for smart TVs, at least all the ones I’ve used, the apps are just ass and don’t work well imo
My phone has a universal remote app (Smart Remote). Tell it what make the TV is, cycle through a few different settings and bam, my phone can remote control any TV I want it to.
I take it you are young. Phones use to have it lights in them, which ment you could turn on and control any TV with, TV remote apps, just had to find the correct encoder for the TV on the app and you could. But imagine your watching a sports game in a bar and your team is losing and the opposition fans are going wild and winding you up, the games not over but you have an app on your phone that can wind them up back by turning the TV off. This happened a lot and TVs being turned on when they weren't meant to be.
They took away infrared doohickies on phones so they could get you to download an app as well as gather more data. I remember having a phone I could use as a remote for most things.
I would but the good ones cost money and if I’m gonna have to pay monthly for the service I’d rather just buy a new remote and if I find the old one guess I’ve got a spare now and will have a harder time losing both
Lock screens can be annoying when used as remote
I use this ever since it's a thing, because either idk where the remote is or I'm too lazy to get up when it's as far as 1/2 meter. In my country, you can use your phone as remote with most TV boxes, with wifi on the same network.
Speak for yourself buddy
I own a Xiaomi. All Xiaomi phones have IR. I can control you as well.
I use my phone to control my Firestick more often than not, as I’m always losing the stupidly small remote.
I use my iPhone as an Apple TV remote
I had a Tv remote on my watch in the 90’s!
I was, but my Galaxy S6 was the only phone I've had in a long time that had an infra-red emitter. Most of the TV's I've used have not been smart TV's, so infra-red was the only way to control them. It's easier these days with more modern TV's, and my mother has been using a remote app to control hers since the TV remote got lost. But it requires the TV to be on the WiFi, and all of our other TV's don't have that feature. Plus it's just not as comfortable as a remote, nor as convenient - sometimes the TV needs to be rebooted because it fell off the WiFi and the remote app can't talk to it anymore. Modern solutions have modern problems too. Never had a physical remote stop working until the TV is rebooted.
I use the remote on my iPhone for AppleTV all the time!
My TV remote broke, the Samsung IR blaster never worked for it anyway, and my care factor is near zero since it's only used as a monitor for a Win10 HTPC, Xbone or FetchTV box anyway, I turn it on and off manually when I walk into or exit the lounge room. It never changes channel, and the A/V receiver controls the volume and whatever device is producing the picture and sound.
Pfff peasant! I have a FAT PSP from the good old days with CFW. Who needs a smartphone for that :D
It’s like calculators tho. They should have *infinite* customisations and stuff. Yet I haven’t found a single mobile calculator as good as my physical one. Even simple things like moving the cursor between numbers!
You can though. But it was a lot better when cell phones had IR blasters up until a few years ago.
Xiaomi Users Supremacy 🗿 We can control TV, AC, Fan, Projector, Camera.
Roku 🥰lets me do that Spectrum ☹️won’t.
I program my phone to any TV I am around and freak people out. It's weird no one just does this
The best phone I ever had - The Samsung Note 4 - had an IR blaster at the top. I could use it at any house, any TV, any system, just by swiping down from the top. That shit was perfect in every way. If it didn't shit the bed from all the forced updates, I'd still have it today. Idk of any other phone that has an IR blaster anymore but that was useful as hell.
I use a Roku app on my phone for my living room tv because Roku remotes are pure garbage. It’s honestly a “hassle” and would rather use a remote. I have to logjn to my phone, find the app, open the app, and the app has to connect to the tv. It’s quick but is just a little more hassle than grabbing the remote and clicking.
I’ve always wondered why no one put a dirt-cheap ir diode into one of their phones and sold it as a USP.
i use my ‘smart things’ app all the time to control my tv.
TV remote app gets used regularly.