Hello
Which of these remotes are best? they seem to do very much the same.
Two features I would like to have is.
1 - Being able to transmit a signal to my stereo and tv to turn it on.
2 - Wake from standby with the help of this tool
http://www.xs4all.nl/~hveijk/mst/indexe.htm
I'd bet 90% of people will recommend the Microsoft MCE remote. I know the MCE is supposed to be able to "copy" the signals from another remote by facing them together and pressing a button on each, (google search for a how-to on it, I read it the other week somewhere), although I couldn't get my generic MS MCE remote to do that. I think it's missing the proper button to turn on the learning mode or something. If you look on the Microsoft MCE remote wiki, you'll see there's multiple versions, and those are just the non-generic ones.
Dunno about the standy thing, but at the worst would think you could make a command in HIP for it.
I'd say the M$ one for sure (I have both the MCE remote and the Hauppauge that came with the tuner).
The MS is better, in my view for this:
1) Better build quality and feel
2) Comes with two IR transmitters (that you need to control the stereo)
3) In my system, has much better responsiveness.
4) Has the built-in sleep button (which, with hope, you'd be able to also use for wake).
Deusxmachina -
re the "learning IR" - I managed to get mine to learn the TV on/off and vol+/- no problem. I don't think there was a special "key" - rather a combination of keys on the remote.
Note - I don't actually use neither daily - I use the Harmony 880 - but it controls GB over the MS remote IR receiver.
Most people would never consider spending too much on a remote, but once you have a logitech Harmony you will never go back... You can configure it for all you devices including your pc, and then it's one button for anything...
As far as mce over haupauge, I had both, and the mce is far superior in quality...