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Comment by kurtvarner | Hacker News Reader

Ok, this is something that I cannot seem to understand - why is it impossible to create a well-designed remote for a TV device? Look at (seriously, look at them now) your remotes for your TV. What the hell? Compare this to the design of your actual TV. Or how about your laptop or phone.

I'm blown away that they insist on designing their remotes like kids' toys.

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On top of that why is that silly ABC keyboard used everywhere on TVs? I've seen it on the 360, Apple TV, and the Roku. I have to actively look for where the keys are. If it's QWERTY, I may have to push a few extra buttons, but I know where the keys are.

I was going to say something sarcastic about how most of us still remember the order of the alphabet, but then I realized that there is probably another reason for their choice. Unless the software keyboard is going to have four wide rows, alphabetical order is probably better. In the video the keyboard is a 6x6 grid, which lets it fit alongside the search results better.

Those keyboards are the devil, they're the most infuriating part of modern technology.

The most sensible work around seems to be generating passwords based on the keyboard type, having passwords that don't require jumping up and down left and right for every new character reduces the experience to a mild inconvenience. Fortunately I've not had to use a device with such a keyboard in a while, since putting my Apple TV in a box... if I ever have to go near one again then investing an hour putting together a keypad friendly password generator may be in order.

Mercifully, MS put out an update for the 360 that made that keyboard into a QWERTY keyboard.

I like the Boxee Box remote, which has a QWERTY keyboard on one side of the remote, which is a better solution than having an on-screen keyboard.

It's nice and small but it's almost impossible to read the keys in a dim room. I think remotes have to be backlit to be usable.

Aside from the numbers (which isn't really relevant for internet set top boxes), normal people only tend to use the channel changer, volume control, and the power button. Most of the other buttons tend to be ignored, unless it's Netflix related. Did I miss something?

Also, why is Roku missing volume control?

It can be annoying to have multiple "layers" of volume control: one for the player, one for the TV, one for the receiver/sound system, etc. It's arguably a lesser evil to leave volume completely up to the user's TV or audio system, the way Apple TV does.

But then you need multiple remotes, which I feel is the greatest evil of all. I agree the Roku doesn't need its own volume control, but if you stick one on there, you can make it programmable to control the volume of your TV.

That would be ideal, though it might complicate the experience for non-techies, especially during setup.

Tangent: one thing that drives me nuts about universal remotes that they are all modal; ie, you must put the remote in receiver mode before you change the volume, etc. I wish I had a remote that could remember device presets for each button simultaneously, such that volume always uses the receiver RF, D-pad always uses Apple TV RF, etc.

The keyboard that came with the Logitech Revue (Google TV) is probably the optimal HTPC remote.

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Keyboard-Controller-Revue-Goo...

The problem with it, is that it's the size of real keyboard. It's just huge, and it just doesn't feel natural either in the living room or on your bed. I've never found a way to only use it with one hand.

I felt the Co-Star's remote was much better.

Sony's Google TV remotes are very well designed:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/8/2692223/sonys-next-generati...

Yeah it looks like they copied Visio's Co-Star remote.

Their original remote was small, but it just had too many buttons. The sticks were strange as well.

I use a Roku almost every day and I love the remote. I think it's the most well-designed remote I've used. What issues do you see with it?

I see where you’re coming from but honestly the Roku remote feels pretty good to me. It’s not too thin like the Apple remote, the round back feels great in the hand, the buttons are good, and it’s a dead simple layout.

ROKU and most of the other serious TV device players have fully functional smartphone remote apps:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/roku/id482066631?mt=8

is this meant to validate the comment you're replying to? a touchscreen is a terrible (primary) interface for a TV remote.

Ummm, I like my Roku 2 remote and the Roku 1 remote before that.

What about these remotes bothers you?

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