Nearly there
It’s strange how things always go nearly well for me.
It’s a rare occasion when I do something and it ends out perfectly. There always seems to be some little glitch inserted just to piss me off.
I bought a new television yesterday. For various reasons we have been needing one for some time and I frequently nearly [or actually] put my back out carting screens around the place. So I did my research, balancing up my requirements against cost and came up with what appeared to be the right model.
The shop nearest to me advertised that they had one in stock to I tried phoning them as I know damn well with my luck that one will have just been sold. They have a nasty system though where I can’t ring them: they have to ring me. I tried leaving my number but their computer system kept fucking it up. I ordered the set online anyway with a view to collecting it later. They did phone back quite quickly to say that they didn’t have that model in stock! Quelle surprise!
The Nice Chap on the phone did inform me that there were two shops within a ten mile radius that did have my requirements so I picked the shop I wanted and he agreed to contact them and inform them I was on my way. Which he did. As I said – a Nice Chap.
I called to the shop and there it was. I brought it home. I unpacked it. I set it up. It’s a cracker.
Now of course I have yet another remote control to add to the pile. Even worse, it’s a horrible design unlike the television itself. So my next task was to hook the satellite remote control to the television. That way I just use the former to control both devices. To do this, I have to programme the remote with a four digit code to match it to the set. I went online and did a search for the model of television and its satellite code. Do you think I could find it? Hah!
I went into the satellite website, entered my make [Nordmende] and model number. They have never heard of it. I searched and searched. There were various suggestions on the forums and I accumulated quite a list of codes to try. None of them worked.
So now I have to resort to support emails or something crap like that, which I know won’t help anyway. In the meantime I am stuck with an extra horrible remote control just to control the sound and the on/off.
Why don’t things work first time in this house?
HOLY SHIT!
I just had one last go. I tried a drop of lateral thinking.
If anyone out there wants to pair their satellite remote control with a Nordmende NM32DLEDSM, then use the code for model NM32780. It’s 1065, if anyone is interested.
The new ugly remote control can now go in the drawer along with the growing pile of others.
Maybe luck is on my side after all?
Ah, the delights of remote controls. I don’t have satellite, but I have a remote for the amplifier (I run TV audio through speakers), the disc player and the TV. The TV one seems to have a mind of its own, insofar as it sometimes works, and it sometimes doesn’t. I haven’t worked out what the common factor is, yet. And last week, my phone kept telling me, with great fanfare, that my phone was now my remote! Ta da! But I didn’t want my phone to be my remote. I want my phone to be my phone and my remote to be my remote. So I’d dismiss the announcement. But the next day, at the same time, up it would pop again. Hey! Your phone is now your remote!
No, it’s not. It’s my phone.
This went on for nearly a week, and I couldn’t find anywhere to disable it. However, it must eventually have got the message, because the last time it happened, in addition to the ‘Later’ button, there was an ‘I’m not interested’ button next to it.
Since then, nothing, may the Gods be praised.
Bloody hell! If my phone started that act it would find itself at the bottom of the lake.
One of the reasons for the new set was to give Herself a reasonably decent one Upstairs. Yes – I store her in the attic these days. So she got the old set and I got the new one [not that I ever watch it]. I managed to pawn three of the remotes off on her – one for the television, one for the satellite and one for the little box what works all my “borrowed” films. In the meantime the new one downstairs now only needs one [even if it is an abomination of a yoke] as the new set sort of plugs into everything. I’m even thinking of wiring it to a webcam so I can see what Herself is up to all day.
I use a Logitech Harmony One which, over the 12 years that I’ve had it, has controlled everything. For example it switches on the TV, changes the channel, switches on the sound bar and puts that on the correct input and switches on the DVD recorder – all with a touch of a single key. I’ve had many different items from DAB tuners to photo frames and the Harmony has controlled them all. With my current setup it replaces 4 remotes.
The remote has now been discontinued by Logitech, but there is a new replacement model, the Harmony 950.
I’ll have a look. I have to say though that I have tried a few in the past and none has worked on everything so far. Maybe Harmony is my answer?
I had gone through quite a few universal remotes (as you do) before I had the Harmony. I must say that although it was expensive for a universal remote, there has never been an instance where it failed to control something. The remote is programmed by USB from your computer, it downloads the functions for a particular make/model of anything from Logitech, by ‘adding a device’. Then there are the ‘activities’ which bring the devices together, such as ‘listen to radio’ where it starts up the DAB tuner, followed by the sound bar, then switches the sound bar to the correct input. You write the activities yourself from the software on the PC. If I then go straight to something like ‘watch TV’, the remote then switches the tuner off, switches the TV on and changes the input on the sound bar. There is a separate off button which shuts down everything currently running with one key press.
Expensive but worth the outlay IMO.
“It’s 1065, if anyone is interested.”
What’s the betting you just voided your warranty on both the remote and the TV ? 😛
Why do remote controls have so many buttons? Does anyone know what half of them are for?