Recommendations for a universal TV remote?

2026-06-26 04:05 UTC

So…this is very tangentially related to Self Hosting, but hear me out… We travel frequently, either for work or leisure. As a self-hoster, I always bring an Nvidia shield player on my travel bag, to connect to my Jellyfin host from whichever hotel we might be staying at, to watch at night for example. But increasingly, this is becoming a pain in the butt. As most TVs aren’t directly hooked anymore to just the antenna or the hotel’s connection. No, they usually will be hooked to an Android box handling all sorts of crap, from the hotel welcoming screens to some info, to their pre-set channels. And the android remote works via HDMI-ARC to control the TV, of which they usually hide the damn OEM remote. So, if you unplug their android box to hook up your own player, you lose the TV controls. In some cases (Sony, mostly) you might be in luck finding the 3 physical buttons they include somewhere on the TV itself to navigate inputs and volume. But in some others, you might as well end up stuck in an Android app menu where you can’t get out (I’m looking at you Phillips). So I think my next addition would be to get an universal remote to sort all these quirks when traveling. Anyone else went through these considerations? Any recommendations?

Replies (6)

@ryokimball@infosec.pub 2026-06-26 04:54

Flipper zero. At the very least it has built-in universal power, volume, channel, and maybe some other buttons. Now that I think about it though, I bet I could make a companion app so your phone acts like the TV remote and sends the signal over the flipper via Bluetooth. Plus you can store your hotel key, garage remote, and who knows what else in it. It’s a really cool little tool to have.

Open ##3556964
@jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.works 2026-06-26 06:20

The FLIRC Skip 1S might be your best option. The software for it is a little finicky but you can program the volume button up/down to fire multiple volume commands. One button press could control a bunch of different TV brand volumes. I’m not sure if it can control the shield, but you may be able to program it.

Open ##3566967
@Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de 2026-06-26 04:41

perhaps something like a Sofabaton U2 would do well for you? you can put in a device preset for the shield and for your home devices plus anything else you need, but also pull a codeset for the hotel TV and swap it out as needed from their app when travelling. you rarely need exact model number matches, usually just something from the right era from the right manufacturer gets you all the commands you need. Add a Flirc USB to use IR on the shield with more control (or on shields without built in IR), you can use any IR codes then, and map keyboard macros and such, or use the sofabatons built in Bluetooth support for a native remote. Nothing selfhostable in that regard, and most of the solutions that do exist are either terribly tedious, or rely on chinese server at some point. Outside of that, i’m playing with an Astrion remote at home at the moment, which also uses Chinese servers, but you can block all of that and connect it directly to home assistant. it’s far from perfect and a lot of features are still in the development timeline, but they are keeping their word so far with version drops, and the majority of the code is public on their github. Hardly an option for travelling with though.

Open ##3569584
@AMillionMonkeys@lemmy.world 2026-06-26 14:03

I bought a Sofabaton U2 to replace my worn-out Harmony and it’s… okay. The main frustration is the buttons. You really have to mash them to get them to register, and way the remote is designed the IR signal gets weaker as the batteries fade, which can be really frustrating. The wheel that chooses your program has also become very flaky. That said, the app for programming it is better than Logitec’s for the Harmony. If you’re in there frequently to set up control of different hotel TVs it should be fairly easy.

Open ##3610005
@MaXsteri@lemmy.world 2026-06-26 07:59

A year ago I replaced my Logitech Harmony Elite with a SofaBaton X1S, and I have no regrets. The SofaBaton is much more reliable than the Logitech was. The Harmony remote would sometimes unpair itself from the Nvida Shield I was using. I appreciate a hub based remote might not be ideal for travelling. But there’s not doubt other models that might be suitable.

Open ##3610295
@Maggie@thelemmy.club 2026-06-26 11:32

Visit the play store

Open ##3655740