Why are so many remote controls designed by cretins?

[Forester1965]

Zetec-S said:

Minor rant, but why do so many companies struggle to design a remote control which is actually practical and relevant to (most) peoples usage? Take our Samsung TV remote as an example, the main buttons we use are the on/off, the volume/mute, and the teeny tiny miniscule pathetic play/pause/fwd/rwd buttons I don't exactly have sausage fingers but can spend ages stabbing away at them in a vague attempt to start or stop a program on Netflix.



Why the fk is half the remote taken up with a massive numerical pad which surely no-one ever uses? Or at the very least, surely someone would think to make the main buttons you need to use for all streaming services just a little bit bigger???

It's not just our TV, so many other things as well. I don't think I ever owned a DVD player which had a remote control with sensibly sized play/pause/fwd buttons either.

Sky might be guilt of a lot of crap, but at least their remote is sensibly designed.

/rant over

Have the same remote. Agreed. It's crap. The one on my LG TV in the lounge is much better.

[AC43]

I am alright Jack said:

AC43 said:

I am alright Jack said:

Why wouldn't people use the numerical pad? I don't stream anything so would be lost without it.

I haven't watched anything on terrestrial TV for many many years.

I've settled on Roku for all my TVs. Really easy to hop around the various services and through the menus within them. The Roku remote is very simple and intuitive.

I read somewhere recently that 75% of viewers watch terrestrial TV even if just occasionally so I guess number pads are not going anywhere yet.

For me streaming is just too slow, nothing seems to load that quickly then it's menu this - scroll that and I really can't be arsed. I just wanna change the channel.

It's all about the content for me; Netflix and Iplayer for drama, YouTube for car content, Now TV for the odd bit of live sport or one of the catch up services if it happens to be on ITV, C4 or BBC.

So the latter's the only time I watch a traditional TV channel now. Same in the car; I rarely listen to the radio; I just stream pods, books and music. I create my own channels/stations.

[miniman]

Zetec-S said:

Minor rant, but why do so many companies struggle to design a remote control which is actually practical and relevant to (most) peoples usage? Take our Samsung TV remote as an example, the main buttons we use are the on/off, the volume/mute, and the teeny tiny miniscule pathetic play/pause/fwd/rwd buttons I don't exactly have sausage fingers but can spend ages stabbing away at them in a vague attempt to start or stop a program on Netflix.



Why the fk is half the remote taken up with a massive numerical pad which surely no-one ever uses? Or at the very least, surely someone would think to make the main buttons you need to use for all streaming services just a little bit bigger???

It's not just our TV, so many other things as well. I don't think I ever owned a DVD player which had a remote control with sensibly sized play/pause/fwd buttons either.

Sky might be guilt of a lot of crap, but at least their remote is sensibly designed.

/rant over

You can control everything on Netflix with the central L R U D Enter buttons, you don’t need to touch the tiny play ff rew etc controls at the bottom. But as above, the mini controller is much better, particularly the one with the solar panel on the back to charge it.

[MikeM6]

I have the LG magic wand one and it works fine, as well as a couple of the Samsung remotes as in the first post. Can't say it ever occurred to me that any of them were anything less than decent.

[durbster]

miniman said:

Zetec-S said:

Minor rant, but why do so many companies struggle to design a remote control which is actually practical and relevant to (most) peoples usage? Take our Samsung TV remote as an example, the main buttons we use are the on/off, the volume/mute, and the teeny tiny miniscule pathetic play/pause/fwd/rwd buttons I don't exactly have sausage fingers but can spend ages stabbing away at them in a vague attempt to start or stop a program on Netflix.



Why the fk is half the remote taken up with a massive numerical pad which surely no-one ever uses? Or at the very least, surely someone would think to make the main buttons you need to use for all streaming services just a little bit bigger???

It's not just our TV, so many other things as well. I don't think I ever owned a DVD player which had a remote control with sensibly sized play/pause/fwd buttons either.

Sky might be guilt of a lot of crap, but at least their remote is sensibly designed.

/rant over

You can control everything on Netflix with the central L R U D Enter buttons, you don’t need to touch the tiny play ff rew etc controls at the bottom. But as above, the mini controller is much better, particularly the one with the solar panel on the back to charge it.

Yeah, I have that remote and I don't think I've ever used the tiny buttons at the bottom. I've always used the arrows and centre button for playback controls.

That said, it's still bad design because it's clearly not intuitive enough that you can do that.

I did also get the tiny Samsung one that only had a couple of buttons and I quite liked that from a nerdy point of view. Unfortunately it didn't survive falling into a cup of tea and I wasn't so keen on it that I'd pay for another.

[DKS]

I never ever watch terrestrial television but I do use the number pad for shortcuts. Youtube hold down 1, 2 for iplayer, 3 ITX etc then 8 for PS4.

[captain_cynic]

AC43 said:

I am alright Jack said:

Why wouldn't people use the numerical pad? I don't stream anything so would be lost without it.

I haven't watched anything on terrestrial TV for many many years.

I've settled on Roku for all my TVs. Really easy to hop around the various services and through the menus within them. The Roku remote is very simple and intuitive.

Numpads can also be used to type words... Especially fast if you're an old school Nokia user.

Nothing annoys me more than the remotes that have no buttons, it means everything is hidden behind menu after slow moving, laggy menu... Then trying to type in something in YouTube/Netflix/Prime Video which takes even longer as you use the arrow keys to find each letter.

Amazon's FireTV stick for example.

[hidetheelephants]

AC43 said:

I am alright Jack said:

Why wouldn't people use the numerical pad? I don't stream anything so would be lost without it.

I haven't watched anything on terrestrial TV for many many years.

I've settled on Roku for all my TVs. Really easy to hop around the various services and through the menus within them. The Roku remote is very simple and intuitive.

Broadly agree but a major pain if you want to search for something; using the cursor to pick letters/numbers is the sttest interface of ever. Not that this is exclusive to Roku.

[FMOB]

I think the reality is, designing a remote control that works for everyone is actually really difficult and a thankless task when you have a budget of a $1.

[Jinx]

Agree with the OP which is why I have one of these:

[miniman]

Jinx said:

Agree with the OP which is why I have one of these:

I found the Harmony utterly frustrating, conversely.

[Cloudy147]

Roku remote, used for years. The only thing missing is a power and volume button that’s linked to the tv itself. Otherwise it’s perfect.

Compared to regular tv remotes, I love the simplicity!

Edited by Cloudy147 on Wednesday 15th May 17:24

[TheBinarySheep]

I'd love remotes to come with glow in the dark buttons or lights behind them, so when you're in bed, in the dark, watching TV, you can find the button you're looking for without switching on the god damn light! Most of the time I just stab at the buttons until I hit the right one.

[RichFN2]

This is why I'm greatful my phone has an IR blaster built in, replace any remote using my phone and no issues seeing buttons in the dark etc.

[Forester1965]

TheBinarySheep said:

I'd love remotes to come with glow in the dark buttons or lights behind them, so when you're in bed, in the dark, watching TV, you can find the button you're looking for without switching on the god damn light! Most of the time I just stab at the buttons until I hit the right one.

The one with my Cyrus hifi lights up when you move it, works really well.

[captain_cynic]

Forester1965 said:

TheBinarySheep said:

I'd love remotes to come with glow in the dark buttons or lights behind them, so when you're in bed, in the dark, watching TV, you can find the button you're looking for without switching on the god damn light! Most of the time I just stab at the buttons until I hit the right one.

The one with my Cyrus hifi lights up when you move it, works really well.

It was a big thing back in the 90s. Almost all remotes had glowing the dark buttons.

Not sure if/why it fell out of favour.

[Glosphil]

MB140 said:

We have the Lg magic wand ??? Remote. Point it at the tv and it moves a cursor around the screen. A fairly big home button which takes you to all the menus.

Pretty big power/volume/channel/source buttons. It’s pretty good.

Our Sony up in the bedroom. Absolute crap remote. All buttons feel the same. And tiny. I would never buy another Sony tv just on this principal alone.

Also why are none of the remotes backlit so you can use them in the dark.

I have the same LG remote. The best remote I've ever used. Unfortunately the cursor doesn't work on all the streaming & catch-up apps.

I did once have a backlight remote but I can't remember with which device.

Edited by Glosphil on Thursday 16th May 09:53

[Trustmeimadoctor]

It's funny but I think the lg magic remote is one of the worst

I still love the Samsung small one mentioned above but not the new black plastic one! I kept my older aluminium version it feels much nicer