Recommendations for remote for NPVR on PC

[Joram]

Not sure if this thread belongs here or in the Hardware sub-forum, but here goes. (Mods: please move it there if you consider it a more appropriate spot for this subject.)

In light of the information gleaned toward the end of my previous thread, I'm looking for recommendations for a remote that will broadly work on NextPVR in Microsoft Windows. Here's the setup that we are looking to put together:

• One Windows PC getting a signal from a cable company set-top box via a Hauppauge HDPVR2. An HDMI splitter would send one arm to the HDPVR2 and the other straight to a TV set, which would also receive HDMI from the PC at another input.
  
• (Note: We have three TV sets, but for a variety of reasons we do not wish to set up a network, preferring two of the TVs to be fed by their own STB-HDPVR2-PC chain and the other one only by a cableco DVR.)
  
• All TV viewing with NPVR will be done at distances of 15-20 feet (meaning: not at a desk or on a portable device on our laps) and remote controls are preferred over mice and keyboards.
  
• And finally, we would prefer to avoid using the "smart" aspects of modern TV sets, working instead through either the Windows NextPVR Player or the Web app.
  

Those who have used Windows Media Center will see that we're trying to replicate the WMC model as closely as possible.

For those reading this who have a similar setup or who have used one in the past -- are there any remotes that enable you to control all of the NPVR functions in either the Web app or the Player? For changing directly to a new channel (as opposed to scrolling up/down a channel list), it would require a numeric keypad.

What type or brand of remote do you use or would recommend?

Thanks very much for any suggestions!

[mvallevand]

First the web apps doesn't support a remote.

WMC and Hauppauge IR remote (or Harmony based in those modes) support all the functions of NextPVR.exe. Myself I like USB HID remotes since they can be use RF or Bluetooth, and don't depend on line of sight.

What remotes other than WMC or Hauppauge might lack are

- dedicated keys for short, long skips and FF/RW
- separate page and channel changing
- colour keys
- dedicated library keys.

Some people like FLIRC but configuring all those means that the source remote has the keys and you like manual configuration of FLIRc itself.

There is another device the Sofa Baton that intended to replace the Harmony but I never was able to get 100% of the keys working with it.

Martin

[Joram]

Thanks, this is very good to know!

I just borrowed a WMC remote and receiver from another PC and tried them on the machine that's running NextPVR. I can confirm that they work great on the Player.

Meanwhile, digging into this subject revealed that @sub had already said that WMC remotes do work for NPVR:

Assuming you're using the NextPVR desktop client, you can just use your WMC remote for this.

Evidently I forgot about that completely...  

Looking around the Forum, I also found this discussion of the FLIRC option that you mentioned. I do remember seeing that thread a while ago, but I'd only looked at it before the most recent post went up. FLIRC sounds pretty intriguing, but a WMC remote should be plenty good enough.

Thanks again so much for your patient help.