I’m using the Flirc USB adapter, which seems to be 20 year old technology. I have to be 10 feet away or less and pretty much directly right in front of the device for it to work. I works, just not that good. I have to recommend family members to get a Roku 2 usually just because of the remote issues. I have tried. I set up a RasPi with a nice case, bought a small remote, configured it all and shipped it to my dad. Was really enjoying it until remote control issues started. Reprogramming didn’t help much. I think we are all use to RF these days, so we stick cable boxes and whatever other devices where we want and not think about the remote control anymore. Unfortunately on the RasPi that Flirc has to be line of sight like all IR based receivers but it is fairly weak.
Has anyone come up with a better solution for controlling Plex? Can’t use a keyboard, wouldn’t want to. And don’t want to use my iphone all the time to control Plex either. I actually hate touch button remotes. Even though the Roku is also IR, it does work a lot better then the Flirc. Must be the usb adapter itself. Just cheap I guess, since trying different remotes didn’t help. The RasPi+, the case, Flirx, AC adapter, memory card, and whatever else cost just as much or more as a Roku 2.
Anyone come up with a better remote control option that doesn’t cost mega bucks and performs well?
I went through a few remotes trying to find the best one. I use this wifi remote with PI2 and a custom keyboard.xml file to change a couple of the keys to make it better to use.
It has a mic on it but Rasplex doesn’t support voice search. That feature of the remote is completely untested by me since I don’t have a minix box or other device that supports it.
As @NedtheNerd says, you could use CEC if your TV supports it. CEC is a little slower and only supports certain buttons/commands by default. But if your TV has it already, it’s a free remote. Hard to beat free.
Tried the CEC route and all I had were problems. It did work, but some key presses would not. I also have CEC control turned off. I’ll never have that stuff turned on. Really creates havoc when turning hardware on/off and lack of control of overlay screens.
My last try was using a Roku2 remote from my bedroom. That actually worked the best out of the many remotes I tried. I know it doesn’t have a stronger transmitter in it, just happens to work better. I actually had a few very old IR DVD player remotes that wouldn’t work at all, so the Flirc itself is fairly picky.
In the end I think I’ll stick to Roku for family members (that aren’t computer savvy) and the computer savvy users I’ll recommend the RasPi solution, since you can re-cycle the RasPi to something else if you want to.
Happy New Year.
The Roku 3 has a WiFi remote that works pretty well. It has a headphone jack on the remote that’s very convenient if you have need for such tech. I use it in the bedroom so my wife can sleep when I’m up late watching movies.
Downside to the roku is they play less media natively so your server may need to work a little harder depending on what format your media is stored in.
I have found flirc to be very reliable and, for the most part, easy to set up. Maybe your tv is blasting out a bunch of IR noise? Have you looked at Flirc’s advanced settings to try and filter out noise?
I second the RemotePi board, great build quality and works flawlessly and is supported natively in RasPlex. Also great if you have a harmony, adds support for all media controls along with auto boot/shutdown.
