The World of Universal Remotes: A Discussion with Enthusiasts and Industry Experts

As we navigate the complex world of home theater systems, one aspect often overlooked is the humble universal remote control. In this discussion, we'll explore the current state of universal remotes, their decline in popularity, and the implications for consumers.

In recent years, consumer-level universal remotes like those from Harmony have largely disappeared from the market. This shift has led to a vacuum in the industry, with enthusiasts like ourselves left to search for alternatives. Wire cutters top the list as our preferred solution, followed closely by the Sofa Baton. These tools offer a level of customization and flexibility that traditional remotes simply can't match.

So, what happened to Logitech's Universal Remotes? According to various sources, including industry insiders, the company has largely exited the market due to declining sales. The primary reason for this decline is the increasing adoption of HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronics Control), a technology that allows users to control multiple devices with a single remote. While HDMI-CEC may be buggy and problematic at times, its benefits are undeniable – it simplifies the user experience and reduces clutter.

The rise of HDMI-CEC has undoubtedly pushed universal remotes to the margins once again. This shift is particularly concerning for enthusiasts who value the flexibility and customization offered by traditional remotes. As a result, companies like Logitech have been forced to adapt or exit the market altogether.

In recent months, there has been an increased focus on creating user-friendly devices that can simplify the home theater experience. Martin Borac's Kickstarter campaign, which aims to create a universal remote with advanced features, is just one example of this trend. Borac's initiative highlights the growing demand for innovative solutions that cater to the needs of consumers.

Garrett Erant, another enthusiast who has reached out to us about remotes, recently shared his experience with different devices. His feedback underscores the importance of finding a universal remote that meets our specific needs. As enthusiasts, we must continue to push for better solutions and hold manufacturers accountable for delivering products that meet our expectations.

In a related development, Hae Martinez Gomez has reached out to us about a store visit where he was informed that an LG C3 TV features Dolby Atmos built-in speakers. While the store representative claimed that the speakers delivered authentic Dolby Atmos sound, Gomez remains skeptical. This scenario highlights the challenges of verifying claims made by manufacturers and the need for independent testing.

A more pressing concern is the way Dolby has licensed its Atmos name to various technologies that fail to deliver on their promises. Caleb Denison, a prominent figure in the Dolby community, recently released a video discussing this issue. While we can appreciate Dolby's efforts to expand its reach, we must also acknowledge the erosion of the brand's reputation due to subpar implementations.

In conclusion, our discussion has highlighted the complexities surrounding universal remotes and their role in the home theater ecosystem. As enthusiasts, it's essential that we continue to advocate for better solutions and hold manufacturers accountable for delivering products that meet our expectations.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enOn today's episode of You Asked how can you find out if you're getting 4K or HDR on your TV why is  Dolby Atmos music so hard to get are there any decent universal remotes anymore all of that  and more coming right up welcome back everyone I'm Caleb Denison and this is You Asked the show where  I answer questions that you asked in hopes that I can help you and others who have similar Tech  question questions if you've got a question for me please send it to youasked@digitaltrends.com  and let's see if your question gets picked to be answered on the show and let me just emphasize  real quick here that your question has its best shot of getting answered if you send it to that  us asked email because my email and DMS are absolutely overwhelmed and it's hard to filter  through those increasingly I'm just relying on that email box to find questions to answer I love  talking with you all on social media when I can but when it comes to this show when it's time to  sit down and find the questions I'm going straight to that inbox so please use it tell a friend in  need and guys thanks for sending the questions I wish I could answer all of them but we can  only fit so many in a show speaking of I'm wasting valuable time so let's get to it we'll start with  one that came in from John Angstrom who John is this your second time getting a question answered  that's like VIP status my dude anyway John writes just got a Sony X90L and was wondering how to get  the TV to show me the resolution and the format of the input signal HDMI or streaming app is there a  button on the remote that will show me that info or possibly somewhere in the menu I haven't found  it yet but it seems like it has to be there somewhere John you would think that button or  menu item exists because those kinds of buttons and info screens used to be fairly common but to  the best of my knowledge it does not anymore at least not on Sony TVs and honestly anecdotally  I feel like most TV manufacturers have stopped making that kind of information available or if  they do it's buried deep in a menu somewhere as with all things tech though there are sometimes  hacks we can use to figure it out or at least give ourselves some assurances that we're getting the  signal that we want one of them involves having an AV receiver that can read the eded that's short  for extended display identification data and would provide you that info or you could spend  thousands on a device like the ones merido makes for video professionals I'm assuming you're not  interested in any of that so for the format SDR, HDR, HDR10, Dolby Vision, HLG all that stuff the best  way to find out what you're getting is to click this wrench icon on your Sony remote then click  picture and sound scroll down to picture and click that and then look in the upper right if it's HDR  it'll say HDR if it's SDR it will say nothing as for resolution I don't have anything there  for you I mean if you're on YouTube you can check the resolution and even force it to the one that  you want by clicking up then going over to the settings cog icon and selecting the resolution  and then there's also the stats for nerd section which you can access if you scroll down a bit  further this will tell you the resolution as well as the codec in use the color space Etc  sometimes apps will give you some control over the default video resolution you get for instance  you can sign into your Netflix account on their website click account then click on your profile  icon then scroll down to playback settings and choose high as opposed to Auto or some of the  others and this makes it such that you may get some buffering at first but Netflix will play at  the highest available quality not a great idea for those of you out there with bandwidth caps  by the way often 1080p HDR can be IND discernible from 4K HDR when all their factors are equal but  I digress each streaming service is going to be different but this reminds me of something that  I really like about LG's TVs they have a Graphic that pops up when you start watching content that  tells you quite clearly what the format is even if it doesn't tell you what the resolution is anyway  I hope that is of some help and I've reached out to Sony to find out if they'll share any secret  tips on how to access this info on their modern TVs I haven't found it yet I'll pin a comment  down below if I do get anything on that Richie writes I recently bought an encho AVR and some  new ceiling speakers and I thought I could be up and running with Dolby atos music but it was not  that easy I thought because my receiver had title built in it would work easy but no I have a Roku  Ultra with the title app and it won't work long story short I had to buy an Apple TV in order to  get Dolby Atmos music to work why is it so hard to get Dolby Atmos music to work especially since  Dolby Atmos support seems to be everywhere I feel like with phone casting and AirPlay it should be  easy what's the deal with Atmos music being so hard to listen to to Richie what can I say but  I know right it's kind of ridiculous Apple Tidal and Amazon music unlimited all offer Atmos music  as a feature you would think that any device with apps for those Services would offer the full Suite  of features but they don't I mean not even close I can understand if say the title app in an AV  receiver is just not powerful enough to be coded to coordinate with tidle in a way that authorizes  and receives the atos music encoded string okay but when you're talking about Roku and Google  tv/ Android TV platforms where the devices that run those platforms are super powerful I think  it should be a no-brainer I think the reason why say the title app on Roku doesn't work for Atmos  music is probably a little different for why the title app on an Amazon Fire TV Cube might not work  I can also see Amazon keeping its best features for its own Hardware but at the end of the day as  consumers we don't really care about that right guys this is just one more reason that I keep  recommending the Apple TV box it is consistently the one device and platform where the most amount  of stuff just works it requires the least amount of workarounds it's just the safest bet and I  think all that counts for a lot in the Consumer Electronics market look if you can get Atmos  music over Wi-Fi using the Sonos app controlling a Sonos Atmos sound system but you can't get the  same sort of experience using say a Samsung Atmos Soundbar with a Samsung TV without also jumping  through a bunch of Hoops well then I understand why folks might pay more for Sonos I think people  are willing to pay a premium for fewer Hoops fewer questions and fewer frustrations anyway I'm sorry  getting Dolby Atmos music is hard and I think it's dumb especially when Dolby Atmos for movies and  TV is at least relatively speaking so incredibly easy now now I mean it's stupid and I hate it too  Chad asks what are the pros and cons to using an Apple Vision Pro as a home movie theater instead  of buying a large project Dolby Surround Sound Etc is it possible that this is the home theater  of the future can this approach be cheaper and better quality than what the traditional home  movie theater offers so Chad I'm glad you asked because I'm going to do a whole video about this  for everyone who doesn't tune into this particular show I've been thinking about it for a while and  I have a lot to say about it but here's the short version I think the Apple Vision Pro will provide  amazing picture quality I mean if the pixel density is right we're talking about close  range video where no light intensity is lost over long distances perfectly controlled ambient light  levels in other words total darkness The Vision Pro could offer the ultimate HDR video experience  and through noise cancelling computational audio enabled Apple airpods Pro or airpods Max we  already know we can get an incredible Dolby atos uh and spatial audio experience the quality will  probably be outstanding here's the thing though this is the one thing that will prevent the Apple  Vision Pro from ever meaningfully compete with a home entertainment space that little Apple  Vision Pro home theater it's a theater for one you're all by yourself now there's nothing wrong  with enjoying content on your own in fact it sounds awesome in some instances but just like  watching a big sporting event with friends or in a crowd is often more exciting and to some  of us more meaningful than watching alone so too is watching movies and TV there's something  awesome about experiencing a movie together with friends or family speaking personally some of my  favorite life memories come from those shared experiences Apple Vision Pro will never be able  to fully replace those shared experiences sure maybe you can look to your left and right and  see avatars or even real life representations of your friends or family family maybe you'll even  be able to hear them if Apple integrates voice audio among participants I'm betting they'll  do exactly that but that kind of experience will never be the same or as meaningful as observing  the same space together so a supplement to a conventional home entertainment rig for sure  a replacement though no shot Ben writes are there any universal remotes you recommend to control all  the devices in a setup such as an AVR TV Blu-ray player Apple TV I seem to recall them being fairly  popular a couple of years ago even being capable of controlling Smart TVs and smart devices like  the Apple TV 4K in your opinion is there any good way to get around this rigoll of juggling  three different remotes just to watch one show or is that a lost battle so guys let's all just  take a moment of silence to mourn the passing of logitech's Harmony remotes may they rest inpeace cool that awkward enough I think so yeah so Ben I am not aware of any decent universal remotes  although I did see a new one somewhere that looked like it came from a startup actually uh let's look  into that real quick so yeah I think this is it it's a Kickstarter project which I mean I'm not  endorsing this not until I look deeper into it but it's by Martin borac and he calls it the yo or the  yayo maybe we work on that name anyway nobody has swooped in to fill the void that Logitech left  yes there are some killer remotes available for Integrated Systems like those made by control 4  Savant and Crestron Etc but consumer level remotes like the Harmony brand no longer exist at least as  far as I'm aware I mean wire cutters top pick is the sofa baton and that's number one out of two  remotes on the list guys which I think tells us plenty so why did Logitech get out of universal  remotes I'm going to ask them Logitech actually has headquarter orders across the river from  me uh for their uee division but I suspect it's because sales declined as HDMI CC implementation  even though it is buggy and problematic allows us to control multiple devices with one remote like I  can control a TV Blu-ray player Apple TV and even some PS5 features with one remote just through  HDMI CC which I think pushed universal remotes to the margins once again us enthusiasts find the big  box Consumer Electronic space a very lonely place indeed which if I had to guess is why Martin Borac  is doing his thing by the way Martin please shoot me an email I'm about to blow your Kickstarter  page up also shout out to Garrett Erant who also emailed about remotes specifically looking at the  yo and the sofa baton I see you Garrett in Germany Hae Martinez Gomez writes I went to a store and  the guy at the store told me that the LG C3 has Dolby Atmos built-in speakers and when I heard it  it didn't sound precisely as Dolby Atmos I just want to know if they're telling me the truth or  if there's any TV with Dolby Atmos built-in speakers because I also had the opportunity  to try the A8L and the acoustic surface audio was amazing but I think that isn't Dolby Atmos either  okay for those of you who have heard me say this many many times already I apologize but hi mate  here's the deal Dolby has decided to license the Dolby Atmos name to technologies that in my  opinion do not really deliver what I think most folks familiar with Dolby Atmos are expecting I  love Dolby I love the people there I love Dolby Atmos I love Dolby Atmos music I have some really  awesome things to say about Dolby Flex connect in a video that's coming out this week much love to  Dolby goes out from Caleb Denison here but and I understand this may be a smart business decision  but I hate hate the most diabolical haters this side of the Mississippi hate that Dolby Atmos as  a technology and brand has been so watered down to the point that a TV with some tiny dinky speakers  that don't really deliver anything remotely close to highquality sound is getting the Dolby Atmos  badge I mean call it Dolby audio Dolby is still a flex in the audio world you can convey This TV  has better than average sound quality by saying it has do Doby onboard sound you don't have to  use Dolby Atmos for that but yeah if it were up to me and Dolby is probably just fine with  it not being up to me I would not slap the Dolby Atmos badge on any TV outside of just advertising  the fact that it supports Dolby Atmos saying the speakers built into any TV deliver a meaningful  Dolby Atmos experience is I think disingenuous and weakens the brand and with that soapbox  moment we have reached the conclusion to another episode of you asked thanks so much for watching  everyone I love your questions keep them coming drop me a comment down below would you I'll see  you there slap this video with a like subscribe and share if you want to see more I'll see you  on the next one and until then here are two other videos I think you might like any TV with Dolby  at most built-in speakers because wow I tried to hold that back but I could not anyway where was I\n"