The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

[Dragonfly]

• The Good
  The remote itself. I've had so many remotes in the past, in various price ranges. They all lacked something in terms of build quality. Regardless of their functionality, either the weight, looks, button quality or the layout where off. But the Skip 1s has this really premium look and feel! I just love the button feel and travel (no 'click' sounds), the matte finish as opposed to the cheap glossy plastic look and it's nice weight. A premium solid remote!
  If in the future a Bluetooth version (with voice control) comes out, I would certainly buy one.
   

• The Bad
  The Skip 1s Software. It's just not there yet....
  At first glance it looks nice and has a nice interface. But when you start using it, problems begin to arise. There are many counter-intuitive ways you'll have to through to achieve something. Actions that otherwise can be accomplished with just one or two clicks, are forced to be taken by the 'long route'. But those I can live with.
  It's the many inconsistencies, flaws and other curiosities that are causing frustrations. I would make for a long topic to mention them all, but here and here are some of my findings.
  
  There are (at least for now) two major flaws that are utterly frustrating:
  
  SYNCING
  Well it's NOT really, its just only WRITING. Syncing suggest a two way operation. Changes made on one side should be reflected on the other.
  
  Imagine this scenario:
  Configuring your remote is not something you do on a daily basis. Initially you'll spend hours configuring (at this moment in time) to ultimately get the remote to do what you'll want. Then it's 'Set and Forget'. You go and use the remote. After a few weeks/months you'd want to change something. Most likely you won't have the software installed anymore or you'll want to use an another PC (laptop) altogether. So, you install the software again and are presented with a clean late. No worries you'd think, just plugin the remote because it would read the remote configuration by SYNCING, no? Just as if I would reinstall my One Drive/Google Drive, all would be there again locally.
  Sadly, I can't SYNC as the software can't read from the remote, it can only WRITE. At least I haven't found a way.
  
  But I do have a backup right?
  
  IMPORT BACKUP
  Yes! But it can become quite useless. If your devices (TV, Audio, Settop box etc.) are still the same, you can probably use that backup. However, if something has changed in that setup (you've bought another brand of TV), you'll need to add that device to your activities. Doing so, would require you to edit your activity via the cogwheel -> Wizard or Mappings. But once you've added your brand new TV as a device, all painstakingly manual previous mapped buttons are in their default state! Arrghhhh!!! Gone is your hard work...So much for backups.
  
  Sharing your config with another person becomes utterly useless this way. Nobody has the same hardware. So eventually, if they use your shared config, they would need to add there own devices, in which case you would loose the pre-made mappings.
   
• The Ugly
  The utter lack of response from the developers or even the forum admins for that matter. I've pointed out some minor, but most importantly, some serious matters and asked questions about those. No reaction whatsoever. Very, very disappointing...

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by Dragonfly

[NowhereMan]

Yeah I have to say after having used the 1s for a little while now, I've decided to put it off to the side and go back to using my Harmony. The battery life sucks at this point but the overall functionality just works better than what the 1s currently is. I'm hopeful that the software will improve/add functinality that gets it to where I'd like it to be, I'll check back in sporadically and see what's happening. The main issues I have with the remote currently are:

- It doesn't seem to be as reliable as the Harmony in consistently turning devices on/off
- The inability to switch activities without needing to turn devices completely off and back on again; ie if I'm using my PC and I want to use my Nvidia Shield, instead of being able to keep the TV/Receiver on and just switch inputs I have to turn them completely off and back on again. That's a big one.
- The overall ability to use different functions of different devices from within the set activities is cumbersome. As in with my PC activity, if I have a need for whatever reason to make adjustments to my TV and/or Receiver settings, it can be cumbersome/problematic to program all of the needed buttons for each of those devices into the remote buttons available. Whereas with the Harmony there's an entirely separate "Devices" functionality that I can do everything from all of those different devices depending on which one 1 pick. I can program SOME functionality into the 1s buttons within the activity, but it's much more limited based on how it works.

It's certainly a potential Harmony replacement and I'll see how it develops, but for now I'm going back to the Harmony. 

[Gviso]

I'm the same and have stopped using it. A combination of frustrating software UX/UI, not 100% reliable operation and incomplete remote templates. 

I've had some direct follow-up to issues from Jason Kotzin, but other requests have been ignored.

I noticed that he has never addressed the multiple questions of when the Flirc will be able to learn remote codes from existing remotes. I cannot see any reasonable response to this, which I know many users are expecting and was mentioned as becoming available at some point in time.

 

[Dragonfly]

That's the core of the problem. Lack of decent support.

One can expect issues with any given software package. But the Skip 1s software has just too many issues and inconsistencies at this moment. These software issues are bound to raise multiple users questions. As this is very specific software, most of these questions can only be answered by the developers.

That's where this forum is for. It's the only way you can get some answers. But if questions are completely ignored or if a topic has multiple questions and only the 'easy' one are answered, users are left with their problems. As a result many users are frustrated, write negative forum topics/reviews, which can lead to declining sales and ultimately in a failed product. I'm sure the developers don't want that.

The developers need to listen to their users, address all of the current issues (before implementing new features) and maybe then this negative vibe surrounding the Skip 1s might disappear.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Dragonfly

[mrak]

I just bought this remote (Jan 2024), and it is sad to say that this is really not ready to be sold in a commercial manner.

If this was a community open source project, I would be very supportive. But as a product that is being sold under the pretenses that it works (it doesn't) and a that there is great community adding all kinds of devices (also false), the developers really should be ashamed of themselves.

I have 4 remotes (OSMC, Bose soundbar, LG OLED TV, and Freebox) and only the Bose remote appears to be implemented. Using the new recording method with the Alpha-v4 software, only the power button for the LG remote seems to work. This, is thus, is a total bust for me. It simply is unusable and there is no support in the forums.

One major problem is that the software if not logical. Even after reading all the docs and spending an entire week playing around with it, it really does not make any sense whatsoever, and it is extremely frustrating to edit your configuration after going through the equally confusing configuration wizard. The way that this forum is organized is also not logical: it really is not clear which sub-sub forum one should go to for further info. All this is unfortunate, because the physical remote is great, and there is a real need to have a programmable universal remote.

Flirc has some great products, but this is not one of them.

[Dragonfly]

Yep, you're right on point there and you're certainly not alone in your observations.

Sadly, all these users' comments seem to to be in vain. Support hasn't been improved and the software remains confusing and frustrating to use.

You'd think that after all the comments from numerous users, the developers would rethink their strategy. But they remain on their path.
This kind of behavior you'd only expect from Chinese manufacturers: Good hardware, bad software and an even lesser form of support.
 

 

Edited January 28 by Dragonfly

[JackTorrance]

The inability to put play/pause on toggle is probably the primary issue I've had with it in regards to just controlling the TV.

It's a really nice remote but even more minimal than Sony's premium remote with the backlight.

Thanks to the devs actually caring about the product, perhaps they will consider adding toggles and longpress functions into the firmware. It would greatly increase compatibility. Especially for use as a media center control.