# Fuck Gadgets That Put All Functionality on the Remote Control **URL:** \ **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:** 2
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/21 "2008-07-10T15:51:44Z")
This is one additional reason Dish Network sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/22 "2008-07-10T15:54:02Z")
[QUOTE=Green Bean] I think they do it to save costs on the units. [/QUOTE] I think they do it because some people have this irrational idea that devices with lots of buttons on them are more complicated and difficult to use than devices with few buttons. Putting all the buttons on a remote circumvents this; why hiding them with a hatch doesn’t is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/23 "2008-07-10T16:16:27Z")
I agree. So many of these devices are menu driven; a ‘open/close’ button, some arrow navigation buttons, and an ‘enter/play’ button should be the bare minimum. More if there are no menus. [QUOTE=Darth Nader] Don’t forget actual dvds that won’t **play** without menu navigation that can’t be performed without the remote. [/QUOTE] There’s supposed to be a default path through the DVD, which includes watching the movie, accessible by only pressing the play button. I think some movies even start on that default path after a timeout of the menu screen. DVDs that don’t do this are breaking usability rules. (And don’t get me started on non-skippable content. That’s just _wrong_.) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/24 "2008-07-10T16:26:00Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] DVDs that don’t do this are breaking usability rules. [/QUOTE] Call the Usability Police! ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/25 "2008-07-10T17:24:21Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] I agree. So many of these devices are menu driven; a ‘open/close’ button, some arrow navigation buttons, and an ‘enter/play’ button should be the bare minimum. More if there are no menus.There’s supposed to be a default path through the DVD, which includes watching the movie, accessible by only pressing the play button. I think some movies even start on that default path after a timeout of the menu screen. DVDs that don’t do this are breaking usability rules. (And don’t get me started on non-skippable content. That’s just _wrong_.) [/QUOTE] Yeah, if it’s, say, the \*Firefly \* dvd set, where you can only watch the first episode if you don’t have the remote… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/26 "2008-07-10T18:01:27Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] There’s supposed to be a default path through the DVD, which includes watching the movie, accessible by only pressing the play button. I think some movies even start on that default path after a timeout of the menu screen. [/QUOTE] There’s always STOP, then STOP, then PLAY. That takes you to the beginning of the main movie. Useful for when you can’t skip through previews or FBI warning. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/27 "2008-07-10T18:24:01Z")
I feel ya! I can understand wanting very few buttons on the device itself, but at a minimum it should have up/down/left/right and enter, and probably a menu button, too. My otherwise-shitty Comcast DVR box has these, plus a few more, and you can do almost everything on the box. It’s a pain, but possible. These buttons would allow navigation of DVD menus, for example. also… Good: Remote control locater button/beep Bad: Blue LEDs ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/28 "2008-07-10T20:19:40Z")
They should use a wire to attach the remote to the device. Hey, they could even have the signal run through the wire! ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/29 "2008-07-10T20:36:21Z")
[QUOTE=Tabula Rasa] 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. [/QUOTE] Well, with a username like that… ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/30 "2008-07-10T20:54:55Z")
A-freakin-men My Blu Ray player has, if I recall, two buttons on it: Eject, Play, forward, reverse, and stop. I don’t even think there is a menu button as I’m pretty sure stop shuts down the DVD player. This also means that if I lose my remote, I can’t update the firmware. And anyone who owns the generation of my particular player knows just how important it is to update the firmware (yes, I recently had a bad experience - solved the problem myself, no thanks to Samsung). ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2008, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/31 "2008-07-11T11:46:06Z")
[QUOTE=drm] two buttons on it: Eject, Play, forward, reverse, and stop. [/QUOTE] That’s a lot of functions to get on only two buttons. ---
**Author:** ![Hogwash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@Hogwash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogwash)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2008, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/32 "2008-07-11T12:07:52Z")
Well if you get a Morse-enabled player you only need the one button for everything. ---
**Author:** ![Boggette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@Boggette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boggette)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/33 "2008-07-12T12:38:13Z")
I ran into this years ago with my VCR. From then on, I always look for brands that have the buttons on the machine as well as the remote. For VCRs, the only one I found (back then - no idea what they do now since I haven’t bought one in a while) was JVC. I even wrote one company to ask them why they did this and never got a response. They also wanted about $50 or so for a new remote. The VCR was only a bit more than that! ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/34 "2008-07-12T12:57:39Z")
[QUOTE=SomeUserName] 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. [/QUOTE] Mine has the eject button on the player, but you have to turn the damn thing on with the remote to activate it. All my previous players would turn on when you pressed the eject button. Not this one. So, the remote usually ends up placed on top of the DVD player while the disk is being changed. And yes, I’ve sat down and gotten comfortable before I see the remote sitting 8 feet away from where it should be. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/35 "2008-07-15T14:45:08Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] I’ve never lost a remote, but that’s because I only ever put them in one of two places. [/QUOTE] If you live with other people who have different ideas about where things are supposed to go, this doesn’t work. We spend several minutes per week playing the “where’s the [item]?” game in our house, and there’s only two of us. I can’t imagine what it’d be like if we had kids and had to find things reliably in a short amount of time. I have a feeling I’d have to start putting labels on everything until they were trained to do it the right way each time. :eek: We’ve got old TVs, and sometimes the lack of remote on one of them is frustrating. At least the one without the remote is the one who’ll only program the channels that get clear reception so we don’t have to scroll through channels that our antenna doesn’t pick up. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/36 "2008-07-15T15:02:22Z")
[QUOTE=Gatopescado] This is one additional reason Dish Network sucks. [/QUOTE] As does Charter. I used to have a nice big cable box with buttons on it and I could turn the box on and off and change channels and everything. Now I have this itty bitty cable box with no buttons and I can’t even turn it on without the remote. Fuckers. ---
**Author:** ![Borborygmi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/borborygmi/32/217_2.png) [@Borborygmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Borborygmi)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/37 "2008-07-15T15:32:30Z")
[QUOTE=Green Bean] 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. [/QUOTE] You still hanging around this thread, **Green Bean**? Just a quick suggestion to check the DVD player itself… I’ve seen some electronics units that have a little, almost-invisible slot where the remote can be housed. My parents used to have a TV like this, and if we or a guest would actually _use_ this slot as a place for the remote, it would be “lost” for days. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/38 "2008-07-15T16:30:55Z")
I feel your pain. We have lost our DVD remote. I tried to work with the sparse menu options available on the machine itself, but I gave up and now watch movies on my laptop. The screen is smaller, and it’s not as comfy as the couch (I find I have to keep changing the position of the laptop to make the picture crisp when I change my position–I never realized how fidgety I am when I watch movies), but even if I don’t have that remote, I have the control over my appliance. Modern appliance engineering tends to suck. Why is that? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/39 "2008-07-16T00:58:30Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] Modern appliance engineering tends to suck. Why is that? [/QUOTE] Because modern appliance designers hate you. Because now DVD players cost less than an a _Friends_ boxset, they earn fuck all, probably. My personal whinge with my DVD recorder is that it takes about a year and a half to power-up, or in fact to respond to any button press that might require it to do anything vaguely mechanical, but it still takes the trouble to remember any button presses you make while it is in Thinking Mode. So, after trying to access the disc menu, say, once nothing has happened for a few seconds you start mashing the button again thinking perhaps it hadn’t registered, then try a few random buttons and finally the off button, thinking it might have locked up. But of course it had registered, so once the machine has finished pondering the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything and actually deigned to do as it was asked, it will then respond to all those button presses in a big hurry, flashing through menus, opening and shutting the disc tray, tuning to a Bollywood channel you never even knew you had, and finally switching off in a fit of pique. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2008, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926/40 "2008-07-16T06:10:28Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] I think they do it because some people have this irrational idea that devices with lots of buttons on them are more complicated and difficult to use than devices with few buttons. Putting all the buttons on a remote circumvents this; why hiding them with a hatch doesn’t is beyond me. [/QUOTE] No, it’s mainly a matter of cost. Buttons are expensive, wiring them up when building the device is expensive, and they are one more point of failure on the device. So eliminating them saves money and makes the device more reliable. And hiding them away under a cover & a latch? That’s adding yet more moving parts to break. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-gadgets-that-put-all-functionality-on-the-remote-control/455926.md?page=3)