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I am a big proponent of IR over CEC or (shudder) Bluetooth. IR is wireless by default, there's almost no input latency, and it's open enough where you can get a
by pathartl 2y ago
I am a big proponent of IR over CEC or (shudder) Bluetooth. IR is wireless by default, there's almost no input latency, and it's open enough where you can get a universal remote like Harmony and do anything you want.
CEC on the flip side is wired only, only works with certain devices, and its success is dependent on manufacturers coming to some sort of agreement. CEC is missing some sort of bridge, something where other non-CEC devices can control everything on the bus. Something that can remap buttons for specific devices.
CEC has also led to a lot of devices outright not adding IR remotes to their setup anymore, which makes any sort of external control 100x harder and prone to failure. I have an LG OLED TV, Pioneer AV receiver, and an Nvidia Shield. My choices for remotes are either the Shield's terrible Bluetooth-based remote that eats 2xAAA's every week, or the LG's magic wand where anything other than the TV doesn't support the pointer and tons of buttons can accidentally be pressed resulting in webOS rearing its ugly head on my display (with ads as a bonus!).
With IR in the mid 2000's I could get a Harmony that would control every single device in my cabinet. If their database didn't have a remote's profile, you would have to learn the extra buttons and program it, but you could do it. There were certainly downsides, like activities were poorly planned and the lack of a bidirectional communication meant that the remote was often out of sync for what devices were actually on.
Honestly, as much as the post trashes on USB, I would almost want CEC's capabilities to be a part of USB. Let me route my USB keyboard, mouse, remote, gamepad, whatever to whatever device in the chain. Let me remap any of those buttons to talk to a specific device in the chain. Basically, let me have a KVM that relays inputs based on configuration.
- replygirl 2y agotip: there is a service menu setting to disable ads. webos is much nicer since i toggled that. the entry point with the standard remote varies between models and os versions, but you can also get service remotes on amazon for cheap
- ianferrel 2y agoMy experience with the Harmony remote was that it was a very brittle solution. It took tons of setup, and would regularly strand me in some intermediate state where some components were enabled and switched properly and some weren't. Add to that the fact that 1. Some devices have separate "turn on" and "turn off" signals and some only hav a "power toggle" 2. My receiver had buttons that did not exist in Logitech's database. My attempts to have the remote learn them was only partially successful (like, it learned some of them properly and others never worked) 3. My screen was a projector that refused to turn on again until a 1-2 minute cooldown after it had been turned off (I assume to avoid heat stress on the bulb) It was a right mess. When it worked it was great. The 5% of time it failed hard I had to dig out the individual remotes because the projector's cooldown made Harmony's attempt to fix things not work at all.
- m463 2y ago> strand me in some intermediate state this was exactly what I found. IR is fundamentally flawed because it is one-way. It is like UDP across a modem.
- KerrAvon 2y agoPro tip: If you don't connect your LG TV to the internet, it doesn't display ads. Get an Apple TV and you'll be able to stream everything and never see ads from the streaming box itself again. It does make receiver-based setups more complicated; I feed my receiver through eARC and live with the slight downgrade in sound quality.
- ornornor 2y agoI had to choose between a Panasonic OLED and a LG OLED when buying a TV. I went with Panasonic and don’t regret it for a second. The TV turns on in 10 seconds flat from standby to picture, there are no ads anywhere (it’s just not a thing Panasonic does), the OS is invisible, and the picture is amazing. For other readers: don’t buy LG garbage.
- m463 2y agoI bought an LG OLED because I could just buy it at costco. I bought it for what it was not (ie vizio, samsung, sony, tcl) I don't hook it to the internet and I have disabled the nonsense anyway. Only really (really) annoying thing is the soundbar MUST be wifi, and it creates its own access point. Can you even get a Panasonic OLED tv? (also, I have found that unless you have a very dark room, the benefits of oled are lost, especially with dark movie scenes)
- ornornor 2y agoI don’t know if they still sell Panasonic OLED in North America, but I can buy it easily in Europe. OLED is nice, I don’t regret my choice. But yes indeed if you only ever watch in a very bright room, you might not get most of the benefit from an OLED screen. I still find the colors more vibrant in any context compared to LCD and I love that the black is black (instead of greyish) but I can understand the premium isn’t worth it for everyone. In any case, I understand what you mean by not Samsung or Vizio… These are dumpster fires when it comes to build quality, privacy, software quality, and after sales service/“repairs” For those who don’t know the term, look up “automated content recognition” and see how Samsung sells absolutely all the data it can gather from your TV, your LAN, your watching habits, what you actually watch… creepy.
- negative_zero 2y agoI guess I am showing my age maybe, but 10 seconds for a TV to turn on is insanely long for me and seems even more insane when that is perceived as impressive. Companies love their bloatware.
- 2y ago