Play Pause toggle key

[Jilas671]

While testing the Manhattan remote (thank you for helping with the codes). I noticed an issue.   Because the skip remote has a single Play/Pause button (that works on so many devices), what happens to those like the Manhattan that has distinct codes for Play and Pause.

The only idea I came up with, was if the remote can toggle between Play and Pause - so sending out different codes on each press.  To help sanity would suggest when an activity is started it defaults to Play when you start the activity.

[Nathan]

On 4/5/2023 at 3:24 AM, Jilas671 said:

While testing the Manhattan remote (thank you for helping with the codes). I noticed an issue.   Because the skip remote has a single Play/Pause button (that works on so many devices), what happens to those like the Manhattan that has distinct codes for Play and Pause.

The only idea I came up with, was if the remote can toggle between Play and Pause - so sending out different codes on each press.  To help sanity would suggest when an activity is started it defaults to Play when you start the activity.

Unfortunately, the only real solution is to use a second button as the pause or play button right now. We could certainly look into manually enabling saved states for buttons besides power, but unless a lot of people request it, it'll probably be low priority until we get things like recording remotes fixed. 

[Jilas671]

A second button for play and pause, isn't great solution, and maybe its design question for Skip2.  I don't know how many devices use one code vs two codes for these actions.

But leaving the future etc to one side.

You mention long press elsewhere, this might help be an alternative option and while still not as natural might help with the play/pause question.  Personally this would be a work around, but would be far better than assigning a totally different key else where on the remote, to be able to pause (sorry while it works, its not a fix - there is a play/pause button it needs to do that some how in the near future).

But you have the code in place on the power button to allow an On/Off state, would it not be possible to extend that to Play/Pause.  

I hope this is coming over as helping, vs sticking to a point, in an ideal situation, anyone should be able to pick one of these remotes and not need to know how it's setup, be told how to use and and should be able to assume what a button does.

Like activities, coming from a Harmony world, it was easy to say press DVD and the remote does it all. I see the power button as something you use to start the day with and then end it.  Here having to press an Activity then the power button to run a macro to set things up doesn't feel as natural.

[Nathan]

On 4/15/2023 at 3:11 AM, Jilas671 said:

Like activities, coming from a Harmony world, it was easy to say press DVD and the remote does it all. I see the power button as something you use to start the day with and then end it.  Here having to press an Activity then the power button to run a macro to set things up doesn't feel as natural.

This is almost certainly because you come from a Harmony world. With virtually all remotes that aren't Harmony, the only way to turn a device on or off is with the power button. Harmony changed that with their activity button, and Harmony users got used to it, but if you aren't a Harmony user, the idea that hitting a button to change what the remote does also changes what your TV is doing isn't necessarily obvious. 

With that said, we do plan on adding support for this style for past Harmony users who prefer it. 

[Jilas671]

And this isn't my first look at other learning remotes, and I hate that they push this view that you must do something one way.

Harmony at least let you remove/don't use the power button.  It gave flexibility to manage multiple devices at with a single remote.  So given the void that the loss of harmony will cause in the remote market, anyone that can pickup their good practises, and do it better will have a huge money spinner.

So I'm glad to hear making this possible is on the cards.

We did drift from the root suggestion, which is around the play/pause single key, and what to do when you have a two different codes to do that action (while the suggestion to use another key is possible... there are none suitable that are close by to use).  So I really look forward to seeing a solution.

 

[liambrown]

An upvote from me for play/pause toggle functionality 

[taeb]

Yes, I have the same problem. Play Pause Toggle should work with one button.

Toggle works with the Power button.

Why shouldn't it work with the Play / Pause button that has exactly the icon for Play and Pause?

Same for Forward / Skip Forward and Reverse / Skip Back: Pressing the button one time skips, holding the button goes forward or backward.

Edited July 22, 2023 by taeb

[JackTorrance]

On 4/14/2023 at 7:11 PM, Nathan said:

Unfortunately, the only real solution is to use a second button as the pause or play button right now. We could certainly look into manually enabling saved states for buttons besides power, but unless a lot of people request it, it'll probably be low priority until we get things like recording remotes fixed. 

Adding another voice to please add this feature. The latest flagship TVs have dedicated play and pause buttons separately so you can't use the media playback functions on the Skip without odd workaround options.

[theboomr]

Considering that this is kinda more of an issue with smart TV OSes being set up to only support separate play/pause buttons, I think a future Skip remote should just include separate buttons. If you're using a device that does properly support a toggle/combined button then you can just use one of them, but otherwise it's better to just have both in case you need them, the way Harmony remotes did.

I can't see a particularly good solution existing for the current Skip remote...if it simply toggles between play and pause codes with each press, that leaves way too much room for sometimes getting out of sync with whatever media is playing...how does the remote know I've started watching something, so the next press should be pause? Etc. Maybe best option is just the idea of assigning a different code to long press. That would be a bit annoying, but would at least work consistently.

(For the record this doesn't necessarily apply to me since I'm using a flirc plugged into a Chromecast with Google TV, and that does support a single code for proper play/pause toggling, but it would be good for this to be worked out on future Skip remote hardware because I'm sure I won't necessarily be sticking with Google TV forever...)

[Nathan]

On 2/21/2024 at 1:52 PM, theboomr said:

Considering that this is kinda more of an issue with smart TV OSes being set up to only support separate play/pause buttons, I think a future Skip remote should just include separate buttons. If you're using a device that does properly support a toggle/combined button then you can just use one of them, but otherwise it's better to just have both in case you need them, the way Harmony remotes did.

I can't see a particularly good solution existing for the current Skip remote...if it simply toggles between play and pause codes with each press, that leaves way too much room for sometimes getting out of sync with whatever media is playing...how does the remote know I've started watching something, so the next press should be pause? Etc. Maybe best option is just the idea of assigning a different code to long press. That would be a bit annoying, but would at least work consistently.

(For the record this doesn't necessarily apply to me since I'm using a flirc plugged into a Chromecast with Google TV, and that does support a single code for proper play/pause toggling, but it would be good for this to be worked out on future Skip remote hardware because I'm sure I won't necessarily be sticking with Google TV forever...)

I'm guessing the simplest way to deal with this issue is when we add long press functionality (or whatever we end up doing). Make a quick tap play and a long press of the same button pause. Or vice versa.