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Comment by martingordon | Hacker News Reader

I hope someone can save us from the "grid of icons" UI that pervades set-top boxes. The grid works fine for handheld/desktop applications where access is non-sequential, but when we're using just directional arrows, that's a lot of tedious button pressing.

Traditional TV service has the advantage of shortcuts by way of being able to jump to a channel directly using the number pad, but the top set-top boxes don't have that affordance because they generally lack number pads.

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I feel that the grid of icons works great for the TV but the problem is the unimaginative remote control. Instead of a plastic remote with arrow buttons, a better solution is using a phone or tablet which shows a UI based on what is on the screen. You tap through apps on the phone and pick what you want to watch. Then, you hit play and it starts showing on the screen.

TVs aren't really great for interacting with - so a better approach is not to interact with them at all and do the interaction on a different, closer touch device.

> a better solution is using a phone or tablet which shows a UI based on what is on the screen. You tap through apps on the phone and pick what you want to watch. Then, you hit play and it starts showing on the screen.

This might be the former TV-addict in me speaking, but would you be able to change channels and adjust the volume without taking your eyes off the TV screen? Because remote controls in their present form are just perfect for that, and have been since at least 20-30 years. In other words, don't get rid of physical buttons unless you really, really need to.

You should be able to, at least volume and channel up/down; i.e. normal press of the volume keys when connected to the TV changes volume, long press changes channel. Much like how mediakeys are already implemented. Indeed, some remote apps for IRBlaster equipped Android devices support this.

That being said, I'd prefer my TV controls to be at least mostly tactile/physical. At least for the TV operations. I'd be thrilled if instead of menu arrow button hell I could just set things from my smartphone.

Have you tried the FanTV[1] remote and UI[2]? I switched from the Apple Tv remote/iPhone/iPad and even the Apple Watch hasn't gotten displaced this from my house yet.

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyYBJTFVOo0 [1] https://www.fan.tv/

I think this is something that's better on paper than in practice. I have apps for controlling almost everything that happens on my TV, and the only time I prefer it is when I need to type in some long string of text. Otherwise I'll pick up the hardware remote every time.

Having an entire app to do this would be a huge pain in the ass. Having an iOS widget thingie would be nice, at least for play/pause/up/down/left/right, would be handy for when I don't want to reach for the remote, but switching away from Two Dots just to choose an input is a hassle if the app takes more than a second or two to load.

The battery life on that would be awful, though. I can use my remote without looking at it or needing to charge it for months upon months on end.

Probably not as bad as you think. I already have a remote control with an e-ink display for changing settings, equalizer levels, bluetooth pairing and other functions. It's for a Vizio soundbar. I haven't changed the batteries since buying it.

You could have a e-ink based remote with some hardware buttons for the most common functions. The battery life could be good enough. I have a small project based on this.

Smartglass for Xbox One can control television (USB TV tuner, HDMI CEC commands for set-top box on One's HDMI input or infrared commands via Kinect's IR blaster or separate IR blaster) as you describe.

This sounds awfully similar to Chromecast.

Samsung and LG smart TVs both come with what's essentially a Wiimote as a remote control. It's a motion sensor that controls a pointer on the screen like a mouse.

http://i.imgur.com/XEn3vBk.jpg

Note the overlay over the TV image, and the salmon colored pointer near the vudu icon. No grid and no directional arrows.

I read (but can't find the article now) about the internal fights about LG smart TV UI. The webOS team created the simple UI that shipped. LG's design teams hated it because they had bonus incentives such that managers would get bigger bonuses the more widgets their teams shipped. The webOS design won mostly because it was done in time for CES. I think there are some good product lessons there. :)

Looking at the image and assuming a similar level of precision as the Wiimote, it looks like it would be hard to quickly land your cursor on the right 'ribbon' and I would much rather have a grid with big, easy to click on tiles.

On the other hand that stylish ribbon design looks like it would work well with directional arrows, 1 right for Netflix, 2 left for CinemaNow, quickly gets into your muscle memory.

A friend of mine has an LG Smart TV with one of these things, and it's completely awful. When he was staying with us for a week and realized that my remote would control his TV, he immediately went and bought one off the internet so he wouldn't have to use it.

Samsung has solved this with their Smart Remote [1] which is a kind of hybrid between a normal remote and a mouse.

I've only tried it in passing, but it's definitely a big step up from the standard remote.

1: http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-smart-remote-hands-on-with-...

Its not the lack of number pads, its the lack of "numbers" for the content.

It's both, really.

I personally use a wireless mouse with a trackball on the PC running my living room TV (Slackware, XBMC); previously some generic Chinese handheld, but now I use a Logitech M570 (which is what I also use on most of my desktops). Works much better than having to mash directional buttons all the time.

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