Daniel Ethier

And it happened again. I was watching my Apple TV and wanted to switch to my Nextgen TV box on HDMI 1. So I did the yellow color button, waited until the LEDs stopped, and pressed the A button, but the remote was locked up. I had to remove the batteries and replace them. Then it worked again. The macro on the yellow button is shown in the attached image. Seems pretty simple.

I have had some similar experiences. I have macros on three of the color buttons that shut off a box and switch to another HDMI, then I would press the new activity key, then do the same color button to power on the box for the new activity. I think I went a little too quick pressing the activity button before the macro had finished and the remote locked up. If I make sure to wait until the LEDs stop before continuing my sequence, it seems okay.

Thanks for all the hard work! I'm looking forward to the switching to free up my color buttons for other functions! One other thing I really like about the Skip 1s remote is that the plastic is brushed and not reflective. In my family room, the overhead lights will reflect off reflective remotes, or the screen of the X1, into the corner of my eye, which is distracting. That does not happen with the Skip 1s. Also makes it look more premium in my opinion.

I have had my Skip 1s for about a week and I got a Sofabaton X1 yesterday and set it up last night. I have to say that I'm underwhelmed by the X1. The Skip 1s feels good in the hand. The buttons work well. It seems to have the right number of buttons. I like that it has a number pad. But it's not crowded and not overly minimal. Seems to have that aspect just right. The quality feels very good. The software to set things up is reasonably easy to use. There are some things missing, but it sounds like those things will be added in the future. I am using the current beta version of the app and now that learning has been added, I was able to get my Nextgen TV remote learned. That gives me what I need. I have a fairly simple set up. Three activities: watch TV with the Nextgen tuner, watch Apple TV, or play a Blu-Ray disc (which I rarely even do any more). So the supported three activities are enough for me. I look forward to being able to update the learned keys or add additional learned buttons and especially to be able to switch activities without needing to turn everything off then switch and then turn everything on. I did create some macros to allow me to switch, but it requires three steps (macro to turn off current box and switch input, press the new activity button, macro to turn on the new box, leaving the TV on). It would be nice if I could access commands from any of my devices from any activity and if there was a command to set the current activity. Then I could do one macro to manage switching activities, at least for my simple set up. The Sofabaton X1 build quality did not impress me as much. It's good. But at times, I press a button and it does the command twice. Press volume down and it goes down two steps. Press OK and it does OK twice. I find I have to be very careful when pressing buttons to get it to work correctly. I am not a fan of the hub. I would prefer to have that functionality in the remote itself. And when switching to my Apple TV, it often does not get the Apple TV turned on, perhaps because it takes too long to get connected via bluetooth. Maybe a delay would help. I don't know. The software is also somewhat annoying. Every time I change a button mapping, there is a long delay while it syncs to the remote or hub. Syncing should be done after I make all my changes, not after every change. I also sent a customer service request to Sofabaton with a question and have not heard back at all. It's like their customer service does not exist. I have had several email exchanges with Flirc and always got a response by the next day, including pointing me to the beta app so I could learn my Nextgen TV remote. It's nice to know I can get help if I need it. So just I put the X1 back in the box. I will stick with the Skip 1s. It's more enjoyable to use and does not get in my way. Thanks for a good product and I look forward to the improvements in the software to make it even better.