Status update on our GET box.

Last night when my girlfriend was watching TV our GET box fucked up for the last time. So after a year with this crappy box she finally stuffed it in the trash along wit it’s button crowded remote. About time!

And now we finally have peace, just one remote and no slow and hard to use menus. And we still get TV signals even though the city were full of posters that told us that the old signals would go down last year?!?!

Stay put for a update on my Master project that has taken a new turn. Coming soon.

What would happen if the people who makes remotes had made the iPod?

I have taken an iPod and made its controls like TV producers makes their remote.

As you can see every function has their own button, this means that every function is just one button press away. Amazing! There is even a area on the bottom where settings can be hidden and exposed by a sliding part. This thing looks amazing and is has so many functions, it must be a great product. Just se how much it can do.

 

I don’t think the iPod would have been around today if it were like this.

What do you think?

Today you have a wonderful opportunity to say what you feel about your TV remote controller.

I would be really happy if you would right down a list of the best and worst things with TV remotes.

 

You can do it in a comment or mail me at max.schroder@me.com

I’m looking forward to hear from you.

Panasonic’s multitouch remote control concept

Today when I were going trough my Google reader I saw this post about Panasonic’s new multitouch remote control concept. Original link: Engadget

It is nice to see that companies are trying out new things. I think that they often just bring out remotes with more and more buttons, so nice to see something different. 

This one has less buttons and makes you look at the screen instead of looking at the remote. Its like the track-pad that you find on laptops, so it’s turning the TV into a computer.

Som days with our new remote (Updated)

I’m not happy. So I had to hide some of the buttons just to see if it would help.

Our original TV remote now has these three functions left. ON/OFF, volume and signal-source.

I think this is a pretty odd situation, now I have to operate two remotes in order to watch TV. One for volume and ON/OFF, another to change the channel.

I think I will have to open the manual that came with the Get HD decoder in hope of a solution to this mess.

(Update)

And so after reading the manual it turns out that the top part of the Get remote is devoted to controlling the tv if you program it. (this kind of information is important and therefore it would have been nice if it where clearly advertised when you first resive this new remote) So now our dual wielding remote days are over? NO. They are not. Because our tv brand is not supported.

But the good thing is that the makers of this system did try to make it logical. Before I found this “program your remote” feature I were shoked by how badly this new HD tv system of the future were designed. But after this discovery it is slightly less bad.

But the menus and navigation between channels are still making me and my girlfriend mad. But this is for the next post.

A new remote in my home (Updated)

Today a new remote control did sneak into my home. Ai ai ai where do they all come form?

I can tell you where it came form, and that my friend is our new digital HD tv decoder from Get. (Witch I have been trying to escape from as long as I could) Nowadays you need a tv decoder to be able to see tv, because the old analog tv system is taken down.

So this means that to watch tv you now have to use two remotes instead of one. (and have an extra box under your tv) Twice the mess.

There is good intentions behind all of this I think. You get nice things like a guide where you can se what’s on the different channels right now, and what’s coming. And you get better video-quality and sound-quality. 

I just got it today but this is my first thoughts about this new stuff in my apartment:

1. The remote is crowded as usual. No surprises here.

2. The tv menus are a bit slow and unfamiliar.

3. I have to tiptoe around the channels I don’t have. Ai ai ai watch out.

4. I cant find a way to remove channels that are duplicated manny times. NRK for example has special versions for all the different parts in norway, really annoying when you try to zap trough the channels.

5. I like that i can make my own favorite list, but i can’t find a way to arrange them in the order I like. And I cant find a way to circle trough them without going into the menu. (So watch out for the channels you don’t own, or the duplicated ones.

(Update)

6. If you want to change the volume you have to use the tv remote. To change the channel you have to use the Get remote. Logical?

But this is just the first day. I will give it time and se what happens.

The remote controller experiment

The remote control is for me a mysterium. They often have so many buttons and functions that I get completely lost. It would be interesting to find out what other people think of this. Thats why I have started to make a user experiment.

Whit this experiment I want to find out if people would prefere manny buttons and functions, or a small amount of buttons and functions. Or perhaps something in between?

I’m still not sure about how this should be done, but I have an idea of masking all the buttons on a remote exept for the most important. (In varying degrees) This must be combined whit intervues and question forms before and after the masking of the remote.

This way of masking the remote controller have a problem, you often end up with an odd button placement. And what are the important buttons? Do you need symbols, text, both or nothing to communicate the different functions? This is just some of many unanswered questions.

If you have thoughts or ideas feel free to comment me, or maybe you would like to be part of the experiment when it´s ready?

Observation 13 Sep. // Apple TV

I and my girlfriend had a family birthday party in our apartment this saturday. We had familymembers in all ages. At he end of the party som of them wondered what our Apple TV could do. Then we showed them that we used it to rent movies, watch tv-shows and play music.

Suddenly smal children down to the age of 8 and adults were using it like they newer have don anything else in their life. It were surprising to se how quickly they had full control over the devise and browsed thousands of movies and tv-shows. I think that it’s fascinating how you can control so many features with such an simple remote.

Info:

Apple TV’s remotecontrol has six buttons, the menues ar on the tv screen so that you look at the tv and not the remote.