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TV remotes are famously bad, like you said.

I think a good solution would be to use a Wii-like remote, that just has a handful of buttons on it. Put the common options (volume, on/off, last channel, menu) on the remote, and everything else as an on-screen menu, which you would point to with the Wii-mote.

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The wii mote grates on me - there I am holding a device with buttons, with up/down/left/right buttons, and not only that, but with a directionless bluetooth connection instead of infra-red and what do I need to do to choose menu items? Hold it up in a place where it can see the TV(!), accurately point to a few square centimeters half a room away, and then press a button on the device anyway.

You make a very good point: not everybody has a large screen TV. Also, the Wii-mote has accessibility problems: while it may be great for gamers, it's not so good for people with limited dexterity.

Maybe using a scroll-wheel, like the one on the iPod, would be a better solution. You'd be able to quickly scroll through on-screen options with the wheel.

Once in-game that can change.. I always use the up/down/left/right buttons in the menus for Mario Kart for example. But some games don't have that - and it's annoying in the base of the OS itself.

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