Greetings,
First, I fully recognize there's a lot to work out so please don't take this as a rant nor anything else personal - just a recounting of my issues that we can hopefully work through for the next guy down the line. :-)
TL;DR:
1. Upstairs TV works great with a slight lag
2. Skip 1s Remote feedback - Damn I wish it had a few more buttons; esp a dedicated subtitle.
3. Skip 1s Remote + Flirc 1gen + Kodi - Damn it's slow... miserably and painfully slow.
4. Downstairs TV - Haier le55b1381 - Dismal failure + lag.
5. Downstairs Kodi with Microsoft MCE IR - complete 100% failure.
6. Skip 1s Remote feedback - button glow configuration would be really nice when in a dark room... for hopefully obvious reasons :-D
I bought two remotes because I've got an upstairs and downstairs setup. Let's start with upstairs which is a TV and a Kodi box. It's an AOC TV - found it in the App DB and added it. Great! It works! No complaints other then there is a noticeable lag between this and the AOC remote. By which I mean on the AOC remote: *press* *action* However on the skip 1S it's more like *press* *a small lag less then a second* *action*. But hey, TV works with all the functionality I use anyway. A win!
So let's switch to Kodi. This is an RPi4 with a first gen Flirc (clear plastic - a bit of a bubble). Found it in the remote DB and added it. Eh... it kinda worked?? OK, first - the skip 1s has WAY less buttons then the generic remote I was using. This is both good and bad. Damn do I wish there was a dedicated subtitle button after only a few minutes of messing with it... But more then that, I found I had to "program" the interface with the app to do things I want. There's gotta be a better way of overloading buttons... I'm programming the number buttons to do things like bounce between the Kodi screen and the video playing or overloading the directional pad to skip both chapters and do jump a heads (which I KNOW I'm going to accidentally do the one that I didn't want to do and then get really pissed off during a show when my wife asks "can't we just go back like 10 seconds?" and it jumps back a full chapter then exits out.... grrrr... I'm pre-getting annoyed at the thought of buttons that do too much... :-D ) Anyway... going from a remote with dedicated buttons to collapsing down to just a few... I'm very hopeful the community comes up with better solution to having a good Kodi layout then overloading the number buttons...
However, I must admit - I didn't get as far in my testing of buttons and layouts as I wanted because the Skip 1s is MISERABLY S....L....OOOO....OOOOO....W....!! Most button presses are - not joking, not exaggerating - 5 to 10 seconds before the action actually happens. And heaven forbid if I hit too many at once - a HUGE lag followed by a bunch of presses /really/ quick together. However, if I switch back to the generic media center remote I've been using for years? Instant response. So it isn't Kodi, it isn't the RPi4, it isn't the first gen Flirc.... it's the Skip 1S.
OK, after an hour I'm done messing with the upstairs. I'm going downstairs!
Welp. That was nothing short of a colossal failure....
To start with the TV, it's a Haier le55b1381. There are like 6 code options for Haier and absolutely NO indicators of which I should use. I went through all of them. Code 1 - turns tv on and I can change volume and I can bring up the input menu (but I can't actually change the input) and I can bring up the settings (but I can't navigate in them at all). Code 5 - the only other one that turns on the tv and I can do almost everything Code 1 does, however, I can't change volume but I can move in the settings menu (but I can't select a change). I tried really hard to look up the tv and the remote - nothing tells me which of those Code options to select. I also noticed the lag here too. It's still under a second but it's slightly more noticeable then the AOC TV.
Then to the Kodi device fail. It's another RPi4, however, this time the receiver is an old Microsoft Media Center Entertainment setup... kinda... It's the IR605/A receiver from an old Microsoft Media Center Entertainment remote, but the remote actually died years ago. However, the xbox 360 remote has always worked perfectly with it and Kodi so... *shrug*... why not keep using it? Well, I think I found my answer... After nearly 45 minutes just futzing with this portion alone I'm wishing I'd just bought a new Flirc receiver. Hell, I still might just buy a new Flirc IR if that's just the easier answer and *IF* I can get the dang TV to work...
So, I know this is beta but three hours in and I was hoping for more of a win then replacing the upstairs TV remote. Especially since it's the downstairs TV remote that chomps through 2xAA batteries every 6 months for doing almost nothing then a few button presses (gah, I want that remote gone... ;-).
But the lag between pressing a button and something happening, that's gotta get fixed.
Lastly, how do I keep the light glow on longer? It's a "oh hey, buttons light up! Oh, and now they are gone." In a dim room with a new remote - I can't see the damn button placement! I dug through the settings and found I could change the color of the remote led (whooo?? *shrug*)... but where is the "when a button is pressed, keep glowing for 10 seconds" setting? Am I just misunderstanding something?
Thanks for listening to me recount my evening putzing with the Skip 1S...