Is the IR Blaster any good?

[tdizzel]

I'm in the market for a new tablet and I've narrowed it down to a couple, the G Pad being one of them. Well, today, my $120 touchscreen remote decided to jump under my foot as I was taking a step, and apparently those things aren't designed to have 220 pounds dropped on them. So now I'm out a remote. I'm hoping the G Pad can take its place as a remote. I know the Q Remote function is limited on the G Pad but maybe other apps can fill in for what I need. I want to be able to control my TV, Blu Ray player, Uverse box and audio receiver. On my broken remote I could press a button(such as "watch tv") and it would turn on/off whatever needed to be on/off to do whatever function i wanted.
If I can do this with the G Pad, even if I have to buy a more functional app, then this tablet would jump to the front of the list. Anyone have any experience with using it as a remote?

 

[Haalcyon]

I'm doubtful the GPad would compete well with the ease of use of, say, a Logitech Harmony Remote but it may control some individual devices okay. Hopefully, you'll get some more input.

 

[tdizzel]

I'm not expecting it to do everything my broken remote did. After all, I want something thats gonna be a tablet first. But if I can get enough functionality out of it to not have to buy a separate remote, I'd be very happy with that.
Based on the number of views and responses, it seems like a lot of people are wondering the same thing, but nobody really knows.

 

[Haalcyon]

Yeah, I don?t use any of my devices as remotes even though I could.

gp8.3

 

[ffejjj]

I use my One quite often as a remote. I just tried out my daughters Gtab and it works alright for basic functions

There is an app called MyuRemote that gives you loads of functional control but it's 40$+ Not really a feasible option when you can buy a normal universal.remote for less than that. Cool app nonetheless

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums

 

[tdizzel]

I use my One quite often as a remote. I just tried out my daughters Gtab and it works alright for basic functions

There is an app called MyuRemote that gives you loads of functional control but it's 40$+ Not really a feasible option when you can buy a normal universal.remote for less than that. Cool app nonetheless

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums

Looks like my best hope is to go check out the Play Store and see what I can do with different apps

 

[angry english]

Onetrtav2 is a great little IR Blaster app, has over 45,000 codes, i use this on my HTC One, ive also used it on the S4 so i would imagine it will install fine on the G Pad, give it a shot, its free, not in the play store, its by a guy on XDA

[APP][IR] ONE To Remote Them All [4500+ User Codes][45'000+ preloaded Codes] - xda-developers

 

[roustabout]

The problem with the gpad is that (when I briefly owned it) none of the 3rd party apps could drive the IR chip.

It's not an open IR blaster like Samsung or others use, it has a proprietary interface and few or no 3rd party apps support it at this time.

I'd be looking at a gtab 7 or 8 if I was primarily looking for a remote. If I also wanted a high spec tablet that could do it, I'd keep an eye out for sales on the Note 8 or look into what HTC and perhaps Sony have on offer these days. (I don't know if Sony's IR blaster is as well supported as the Samsung and HTC ones seem to be - most apps seem to target Samsung and HTC.)

 

[tdizzel]

The problem with the gpad is that (when I briefly owned it) none of the 3rd party apps could drive the IR chip.

It's not an open IR blaster like Samsung or others use, it has a proprietary interface and few or no 3rd party apps support it at this time.

I'd be looking at a gtab 7 or 8 if I was primarily looking for a remote. If I also wanted a high spec tablet that could do it, I'd keep an eye out for sales on the Note 8 or look into what HTC and perhaps Sony have on offer these days. (I don't know if Sony's IR blaster is as well supported as the Samsung and HTC ones seem to be - most apps seem to target Samsung and HTC.)

Thanks for the heads up on that. I'm not looking for one primarily as a remote, I'm looking for a tablet first but it would be very nice if it worked as a remote also. I went to Best Buy and played with one for a while and really liked it. I'll probably end up getting one and if no 3rd party apps work I'll jest get a separate remote. I'll contact some devs and see if they can get their apps working on it.

 

[SleepingBears]

As roustabout said, the Gpad doesn't work as a remote for alot of devices yet. As soon as LG will release the code for the IRblaster I hope it won't take long before it will be a remote that can control more devices.

 

[stujoe]

Right now, it will do tv's and some cable boxes. No stereo or bluray or anything else. It has promise but not real useful to me at this time. As said above, I have had no luck getting other IR apps to work on it. The proprietary part now explains that. The Qremote app is actually really good but it needs support for audio equipment, bluray, etc to be useful to me. Not that I would use it a lot anyway but it would be a nice feature if support for more devices was added. Everything else on the tablet seems to exceed my expectations.

 

[Stacy Gaddis]

Works great on my TWC box, but I have a Hitachi TV and that is a no go!

 

[krackbaby#AC]

FYI
-----------------------------
LG Developer
to me

Hello.

Unfortunately, G Pad models that were already launched to the market are not be supported by Android ConsumerIrManager APIs. So, most of IR remote controller apps which use these APIs could not be run on the LG G Pad. We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

Thanks for your opinion.

LG Developer site Team

 

[Jay Sacks]

I use the Quick Remote on my LG G Pad 8.3 for my Panasonic 50 smart tv and my Direct TV DVR and it works great. Just sorry it does not have any audio setup. It has air conditioning, but no aux audio...go figure!

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