Remotes

[nocable]

"2pints" wrote:

"somebody" wrote:
I mean the Netflix, Amazon, Sling and Google buttons.

It really annoys me if I'm watching something and accidentally hit one of those instead of Rewind.

I can get to the channels I use easily enough with Home and a couple of arrows, but if I just want to catch a bit of dialogue I missed and hit one by mistake all of a sudden it's exiting whatever I'm watching and it's firing up Sling (usually that's the one I hit by mistake).

IMO It was a poor design choice to put these buttons on the remote in the first place.    Despite it being thicker I much prefer the old 2XS remote which I still use on one of my TVs..

So far I've found 2 suggestions on other forums around the internet.

1:   Just put tape over them
2:   Take the remote apart and and literally destroy the contacts on the circuit board for those buttons..    

I don't want to do EITHER of those things.    Having the ability to reprogram them would be nice.   I could reprogram them to NULL or to just Rewind or maybe even to Volume and Power for my TV.   Then I wouldn't need two remotes just to watch TV.

I hope Roku got paid well by those 4 companies because it seems to be more of an annoyance than a benefit to customers.


In fact I even discovered some models have a button for Rdio which I never even heard of and is apparently a defunct company so the button is useless now anyway.

Option 3, if your prepared to take the remote apart, put some insulating material between the contacts ( ie plastic) that can be removed if you wish, saves physically destroying anything, although it will invalidate any warrantee

Option 4:
Stick the pointed end of a small hand knife parallel into the rubber button and lift. That deforms the button enough where you can now pull it out with your hand, or a pair of needle nose pliers. Repeat for each button. You can then use the needle nose pliers to pull out any rubber stands left above the circuit board. Now, wrap the button openings with electrical tape. I had three rolls of electrical tape. Only one roll had tape that was *not* sticky to the touch on the outside of the tape, and that was 3M Tartan 1710 General Use Vinyl Electrical Tape.

For the Voice Activation button, I removed it, and carefully cut the top half of it, so that when I replace it in the remote, it was now just below the surface, so it can't be accidentally activated, and that has happened a lot, when grabbing the remote beside me to quickly pause something...

[twiceover]

"nocable" wrote:

"twiceover" wrote:

"Binarygeek" wrote:
Hi all,

New guy (and Roku victim) here.  Regarding the Roku remote, there is just something inherently wrong when the first thing I did was physically remove the Hulu etc...buttons.  What's wrong with this picture?  This is not about "subsidizing" the cost of the Roku.  This is corporate greed running rampant and adding to the company profit line.  I can't believe I saw jeffrok suggesting "getting a new remote".  WTF??  On top of the cost I just paid for the remote?  That statement is absolute asinine...ASININE. Who are you, a Roku employee?  And let's make something absolutely clear:  This is not about "liking" or "using" these buttons.  If that's all it is, then there wouldn't be an issue.  This is about those buttons interfering with my use of the Roku.  Do you understand?  INTERFERING.

What's interesting is that these buttons are impacting the company line.  I just bought a Roku for my wife.  Instead of buying the new Roku Ultra 4660, I got her a used Roku 3 4200R for (40 bucks off of e-bay), without those buttons.  So there you go.  You've lost a sale.  Because of the remote.  Buying that used 4200R certainly doesn't help YOUR bottom line.

I've been using Roku or about 7-8 years and used to love and adore the Roku remote.  Just sheer simplicity.  No need to look at the remote to use it.  And then you blew it.

Should we take a poll?  See who supports those four shortcut buttons, and those that want them disabled/removed.  My guess would be that 85-90% of the users (Roku employees excluded) would like them gone.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Ugh.  They are a company, companies need to make money.  Get over it.

So, I guess Spectrum/Time Warner Cable, as a "company" is incredibly stupid, because, instead of putting per-labeled channel buttons on their remotes, they put 4 programmable buttons.
Actually Specturm/TWC needs to make money too, but, they draw a line somewhere, on being customer friendly. A line that Roku crossed. Becuase Roku is so much smarter than little 'ol Spectrum/TWC!!

I didn't say anyone was stupid.  I said they need to make money.  Advertising is Roku's main source of income.  Advertising is NOT a MASSIVE cable company's main source of income.

[5n0wfr33z3]

Anyone suggesting that this HORRIBLE User Interface is a good thing, AT ALL, is a moron or even worse, is insanely loyal to the ROKU company/brand. I am SICK of screaming at my kid for bumping one of the four buttons. No, taping them will not help. Removing the buttons and then taping those might have worked but he will just destroy the remote with water now. I am sick to my stomach myself with how absolutely miserable the remote is. Shame on you and your greed, Roku.

[jeffrok]

Sick to your stomach about buttons on a remote? You might need more than a newly designed remote.

Seriously, it's NOT that big of a deal.

[DBDukes]

"5n0wfr33z3" wrote:
Anyone suggesting that this HORRIBLE User Interface is a good thing, AT ALL, is a moron or even worse, is insanely loyal to the ROKU company/brand.  I am SICK of screaming at my kid for bumping one of the four buttons.  No, taping them will not help.  Removing the buttons and then taping those might have worked but he will just destroy the remote with water now.  I am sick to my stomach myself with how absolutely miserable the remote is.  Shame on you and your greed, Roku.

Your kid is probably sick of being screamed at too. Try being a decent human being and not get worked up over little things. Maybe then your kid won't hate you when he grows up.

[RokuShawnS]

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=38665

[IceNixie]

I desperately wish they were four colors, red blue green yellow, and were programmable. Both my remotes have Hulu and Netflix - which I do find useful - and two other services that we don't have. I'd love to be able to set Prime and YouTube, or whatever anyone else uses. Making blank programmable buttons would be fantastic.

[RokuTannerD]

@IceNixie Thanks for the feedback here. Feel free to drop a suggestion or add a kudo to an existing request in the 'Suggest a feature' section of the Community for future consideration. 

The latest Roku Ultra (model 4670) comes with a new remote which offers (2) programmable personal shortcut buttons. These can be set to perform often used, supported voice commands, including launching supported channels on your device. See more here. 

Thanks,

Tanner

[CLHough]

[Instructions below reference 3rd party, unofficial remotes]

consider re-programming them:

press the hulu (or lower button on the left) and OK button at the same time for 3 seconds. and indicator light will remain on. release keys

press and release the key you want reprogrammed. light will flash slowly.

point the original remote that has the desired use already programmed head to head with the roku remote. I would use them on a table to keep them flat and aimed at each other's IR windows.

press and hold the key on the working remote, the indicator will flash 3 times and remain on.

you can repeat this with other keys as long as the light remains on.

to release the programming mode, press OK & the amazon button (or the bottom right button.)

I hope this helps. It made a world of difference to me when I found this info in the box of a replacement remote.

[atc98092]

---

@CLHough wrote:

consider re-programming them:

press the hulu (or lower button on the left) and OK button at the same time for 3 seconds. and indicator light will remain on. release keys

press and release the key you want reprogrammed. light will flash slowly.

point the original remote that has the desired use already programmed head to head with the roku remote. I would use them on a table to keep them flat and aimed at each other's IR windows.

press and hold the key on the working remote, the indicator will flash 3 times and remain on.

you can repeat this with other keys as long as the light remains on.

to release the programming mode, press OK & the amazon button (or the bottom right button.)

I hope this helps. It made a world of difference to me when I found this info in the box of a replacement remote.

---

You can't reprogram any of the named buttons on any Roku remote. If you have any evidence to the contrary, we would appreciate seeing it. If you could post an image of those instructions that would help. But they may only apply to a replacement remote, and not a remote that was shipped with preprogrammed buttons.