Recommended Remote Contol

1st Official Post

    Hi folks,

    I've just refreshed my Kodi setup with Libreelec running on a RPi 4 - and very nice it is too. BUT my cheapo MCE 'type' IR remote really doesn't work well with the new setup. It's also been chewed by the dog several times, so I'm thinking of treating myself a new remote. TV is oldish and CEC is unlikely to work.

    Can anyone suggest a good, basic remote control for Libreelec that's "plug and play" on a RPi 4?

    TIA

    Quote from chewitt

    Flirc + "any IR remote you want to use" is always a winning combination.

    Not in my case :( My old remote is a Chinese IR MCE copy which worked OK with my old x86 based setup. Basically doesn't work (almost) at all with my new shiny RPi4 system. Pause seems to work if I press it long enough, the other buttons don't do anything.

    Are there any IR remotes you can recommend which are 'plug and play' on a LE RPi setup?

    Quote from Pioden

    Not in my case :( My old remote is a Chinese IR MCE copy which worked OK with my old x86 based setup. Basically doesn't work (almost) at all with my new shiny RPi4 system. Pause seems to work if I press it long enough, the other buttons don't do anything.

    Are there any IR remotes you can recommend which are 'plug and play' on a LE RPi setup?

    As chewitt says - a Flirc is often a great solution. It's a USB IR receiver only that you can use with almost any IR remote you already own (including your Chinese MCE remote - the FLIRC would just replace the IR receiver for that remote). You program the FLIRC on a PC or Mac and then plug it into the USB port on any Kodi device you like. The programmability of the FLIRC means you can teach it the IR codes from any remote you own pretty much, and definite what key press each IR command is associated with. It has pre-defined layouts for MCE etc but you can program pretty much any USB HID command with it.

    Flirc also has nice functionality like separate Long Press configs (outside of Kodi) and the ability to define Macros.

    Sorry for the delayed reply!

    Thanks for the FLIRC tip. I wasn't aware of it! My old IR remote came with a USB IR receiver, but it's clearly past it's sell by date!

    After doing some research I'm either going for the FLIRC unit and a new remote handset, or the OSMC Remote (OSMC Remote Control - OSMC). OSMC Remote is edging it at the moment due to the simplicity of the handset. I'll decide over the weekend.

    Thanks for all the input.

    The OSMC remote has the advantage that it is RF-based and likely to be slightly snappier in response terms. I've got one with my Vero 4K and like it for simple use cases.

    However I use Kodi on most of my devices for TV - so need numeric keys, and also like to have transport controls (FF/REW/STOP/PLAY/PAUSE and importantly RECORD) so have a huge number of other solutions ! (PS3 Blu-ray Remote is quite nice and uses Bluetooth, Tivo Slider Pro is nice because of the internal QWERTY keyboard - but you have to get that with the RF receiver dongle, and there are lots of RF remotes that work quite neatly that won't break the bank)

    The OSMC RF remote is very neat if the buttons do what you need though.