# Fuck Gadgets That Put All Functionality on the Remote Control
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [July 10, 2008, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926 "2008-07-10T02:11:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/1 "2008-07-10T02:11:39Z")
When we got our first VCR, all the functions were accessible on the remote control _and_ on the console of the device itself. Whose bright idea was it to stop this?
I can’t find my remote. Now I can’t use the stupid thing.
Fuck.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/2 "2008-07-10T02:21:33Z")
I’ve run into that with televisions that have multiple inputs, but no way to select among them without the remote. Big pain in the ass.
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### Author:  [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/3 "2008-07-10T02:28:45Z")
My DVD player won’t hardly do shit without the remote. Hope I never lose it. If they want to keep the electronics “sleek” looking (maybe one reason for lack of buttons?) they can hide the fucking buttons under a flap or something.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/4 "2008-07-10T02:30:00Z")
This particularly irks me when the device is being used in a classroom and the remote is missing or the batteries have been taken.
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### Author:  [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/5 "2008-07-10T03:09:36Z")
Don’t forget actual dvds that won’t **play** without menu navigation that can’t be performed without the remote.
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### Author:  [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/6 "2008-07-10T03:17:23Z")
[QUOTE=myskepticsight]
My DVD player won’t hardly do shit without the remote. Hope I never lose it. If they want to keep the electronics “sleek” looking (maybe one reason for lack of buttons?) they can hide the fucking buttons under a flap or something.
[/QUOTE]
Sleek, shmeek. I think they do it to save costs on the units.
But yeah, it totally sucks. I’m pretty good about not losing remotes, but my DVD player came with a remote hardly bigger than a credit card! It’s missing, of course.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/7 "2008-07-10T03:44:57Z")
Amusingly, I saw for a mere $10 in a pharmacy the other day a universal remote that was about 6" by 10". You’d have to work at losing that puppy.
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/8 "2008-07-10T04:05:18Z")
I’m picturing the next sequel to _Saw_
> [@Jigsaw](#):
>
> [man wakes up in a dungeon with a TV]
>
> Hello, Mr. Jones. I’d like to play a game.
>
> That device around your neck is a bomb set to explode in ten minutes unless the deactivation number is entered. To find the right number, you’ll have to watch a short movie I’ve prepared for you. It’s on that DVD to your left.
>
> The player is here by the TV. You may recognize the design, it’s your company’s best seller.
>
> Are you looking for the remote? I’m sorry, I seem to have misplaced it. But no matter, that shouldn’t pose any problem for you, now should it?
>
> Better hurry up, Mr. Jones. It’s showtime.
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### Author:  [@DellieM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DellieM)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/9 "2008-07-10T04:05:30Z")
[QUOTE=susan]
This particularly irks me when the device is being used in a classroom and the remote is missing or the batteries have been taken.
[/QUOTE]
Doubly annoying when every single remote in the house has been raided for its batteries so the short human in the house can play Guitar Hero (which seems to suck the life from batteries like no other device known to civilisation).
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### Author:  [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/10 "2008-07-10T04:18:07Z")
My fuck gadget doesn’t even _have_ a remote. 😕
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/11 "2008-07-10T04:18:08Z")
I’ll tell you what pisses me off even more, are remote controls with soft rubber buttons. I fucking hate these kind of buttons. It’s impossible to effectively use the search function with the soft-ass rubber buttons. They suck elephant-seal cock.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/12 "2008-07-10T04:51:06Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
I’ll tell you what pisses me off even more, are remote controls with soft rubber buttons. I fucking hate these kind of buttons. It’s impossible to effectively use the search function with the soft-ass rubber buttons. They suck elephant-seal cock.
[/QUOTE]
Well, they’re _made_ of elephant-seal cock. Everybody knows that.
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### Author:  [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/13 "2008-07-10T05:09:01Z")
[QUOTE=Gorsnak]
My fuck gadget doesn’t even _have_ a remote. 😕
[/QUOTE]
You clearly aren’t making full use of the shopping potential of the Internet. 😃😃
You wanna see a remote-dependent object? [Observe,](http://www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_tv/index.html?country=global&lang=en) the big white box of DVR with no buttons at all. I ordered a spare remote in case the company kicks the bucket some years hence.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/14 "2008-07-10T05:33:52Z")
What they ought to have done, at the same time as reducing functionality on the appliance, is including a “remote control locator beacon” button, that will cause a beeping and a flashing on the remote until you can find the little bastard.
I’ve never lost a remote, but that’s because I only ever put them in one of two places.
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### Author:  [@Tabula\_Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabula_Rasa)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/15 "2008-07-10T05:38:07Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
Amusingly, I saw for a mere $10 in a pharmacy the other day a universal remote that was about 6" by 10". You’d have to work at losing that puppy.
[/QUOTE]
I just bought two of those (too much rummaging around in crumbs in couches after the kids have been watching TV). I felt like Moses, wandering around with both of them.
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/16 "2008-07-10T06:28:51Z")
[QUOTE=Gorsnak]
My fuck gadget doesn’t even _have_ a remote. 😕
[/QUOTE]
You’re doing it wrong.
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### Author:  [@SomeUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SomeUserName)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/17 "2008-07-10T09:58:05Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
I’ll tell you what pisses me off even more, are remote controls with soft rubber buttons. I fucking hate these kind of buttons. It’s impossible to effectively use the search function with the soft-ass rubber buttons. They suck elephant-seal cock.
[/QUOTE]
I agree. They also have the tendency to get stuck under the hard plastic hole that surrounds them. I can’t tell you the times I thought my DVD had lost its marbles when I hit play and the thing kept advancing only to realize the stupid rubber button is stuck.
On the other side of the coin I can’t stand my DVD remote as it is missing a button. The ON/OFF button. WTF? I can eject the fucking disk from across the room which makes no fucking sense since you have to get up to change a disk anyway but I can not turn it on or off from across the room.
It also has a bright as fuck blue led light about the size of a half dollar on the front that surrounds the volume knob. In a dark room it is distracting. No matter how you train your eye on the TV your brain can not help but move back to that blue light. Ohhhh Shiny. I crocheted a little cover to hide the fucker.
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### Author:  [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/18 "2008-07-10T12:30:27Z")
Buy a spare remote and duct-tape it to the front of the device.
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/19 "2008-07-10T12:42:32Z")
Bose Radio.
OMG, should you lose the remote you can’t even turn it on or get out the cd, not a single button on the unit itself. GRRRRR!
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### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/20 "2008-07-10T13:05:49Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad]
I’ve never lost a remote, but that’s because I only ever put them in one of two places.
[/QUOTE]
We attach an 18" florescent orange ribbon to the remote. Makes it very easy to find.
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