Podcast #1012: DirecTV Stream and the sofabaton Universal remote Control

On this week’s show we opine on what is going on at AT&T and their DireTV Stream video service and we review the sofabaton U1 Universal Remote control. Can it make you forget about the Harmony? We also read your emails and go over some of the week’s news.

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Today's Show:

News:

• Rumor Has It, JVC To Release 3 New 4K Laser Home Cinema Projectors
• Amazon and Best Buy’s latest Fire TVs have a sleeker design and better HDR
• Philips Hue is launching brighter E26 smart bulbs
• Warner Bros., AMC Theatres Agree to 45-Day Theatrical Window in 2022

Other:

• Nature Relaxation™ Official Site & Store: 4K UHD/HD/VR Video Downloads
• SAG-AFTRA President On Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Black Widow’ Lawsuit: “Disney Should Be Ashamed”
• Scarlett Johansson Sues Disney Part 1
• Scarlett Johansson Sues Disney Part 2
• AIRCOM T9, Receiver and AV Component Cooling Fan System, Top Exhaust 17"
• Ara's Woodworking
• Join the Flaviar Whisky Club and get a free bottle

What on Earth is going on over at AT&T

This week AT&T spun off DirecTV as a separate video company. According to a company Press Release:

Under this new company, DIRECTV owns and operates the former AT&T U.S. and Puerto Rico video business unit consisting of satellite, streaming and IP video services. The new structure allows for greater focus, flexibility and resources to best position the business to succeed in the long term as well as deliver on a commitment to current and future customers, employees and shareholders.

For those who stream it, the newly branded DIRECTV STREAM will become the single brand for video streaming services previously launched by AT&T, excluding HBO Max. The transition will happen later this month, and service will continue to be available with no term commitment or hidden fees. To enjoy the best of live TV and on-demand, customers can either bring their own streaming device, or use DIRECTV’s exclusive streaming device.

Our Takeaway 

AT&T really messed up badly by acquiring DirecTV. In the end both companies were hurt. AT&T has a massive debt load, although they had debt issues before acquiring DirecTV, it got worse after acquisition. DirecTV lost their focus and then lost subscribers. 

Then there is WarnerMedia (Turner cable channels, HBO and HBO Max) which will also be spun off and eventually merge with Discovery and its Discovery+ streaming service. AT&T bought Time/Warner (WarnerMedia today)  for $85 billion in 2018.

AT&T is a disaster!

sofabaton U1 Universal Remote

The sofabaton U1 is the next universal remote that we test in our quest to find a replacement for the Harmony. This one comes real close for most of us and for others it will be all that they will ever need. The U1 goes for about $50 available at Amazon and has been seen as low as $37.99 during a Flash sale.

The U1 looks very similar to the Harmony remote but feels much cheaper. Both the Harmony and U1 are made of plastic, but the U1 feels cheaply made with slick plastic that will slip out of your hand. Lastly, the U1 has sharper edges that makes your grip less comfortable. 

Features:

• Support for 500,000+ devices from 6000+ brands

• Support for IR and Blutooth

• Smartphone APP for setup (Device Selection, Button Remapping, Macro definition)

Setup and Use:

This is where the sofabaton actually exceeds the Harmony. The configuration is done via an app that connects via bluetooth. Here you will select your devices. No codes to enter, just press the button on the app until you see the desired reaction of the device. Super simple. If you don’t mind switching between devices to turn on your system and control it, you are done. One remote will control everything. There is a scroll wheel just below the LCD screen to select the device that you want to control. When highlighted, all the buttons map to that device. You can inadvertently hit the wheel and end up controlling the wrong device. We’ll discuss a way around this in a bit.

Through the app there is a mechanism to override buttons for the selected device with those of another device. This is very convenient for a typical setup of a set top box, AVR, and TV. As with the last remote we reviewed, the Inteset 4-in-1 Universal on Podcast #999,  you can have the numbers mapped to the cable box, volume and mute to the AVR, and any other button you want access to from your main device. You will have to map every button one at a time. So it is a bit time consuming but you only have to do this once. The sofabaton is leaps and bounds easier to do this function than the $25 Inteset because of the app.

That same app makes setting up macros easier too. You can assign macros to any button on the remote. For our test, we assigned a macro to the power button in the AppleTV device to turn our system on and off. Within the app you select a key on the device then you say you want to tie a macro to it. The next step is to add commands with delays between subsequent commands. You can customize the delay between commands. Easy and straight forward.

Things to Consider:

The IR signal of the remote is not strong and you must keep your remote aimed at the devices without anything in between.  If you don’t and your devices get out of sync you will have to manually bring them into sync by either using the individual remote or walking up to the device in question and manually correcting the issue. 

The remote has bluetooth capability which works great. But when you are using the device in Bluetooth mode it will disconnect from the app. This is a bit of a pain when you are making changes and then want to test them out. To reconnect to the app you have to press the - and E button for a second or two. So not a big deal but it can become a pain if you are doing a lot if programming. 

For whatever reason, our remote would not work with Apple’s bluetooth volume commands. To work around this we mapped the volume control to the AVR’s volume commands. This works fine but with the weak IR we were hoping that the Bluetooth would make up for not worrying about pointing the remote directly at the AVR. Another annoyance was that we could not map and of the AppleTV bluetooth commands to a macro. To get around this we added AppleTV that was IR controlled. We then mapped the buttons that were not available to us via bluetooth through their IR counterparts.

Having two AppleTV devices show up on the screen was a little confusing so we named one AppleTV IR. This helped but then you had to remember not to use one since the button remapping only applied to the no IR AppleTV. The sofabaton has a great solution for you. In the app you can choose to hide devices so that it does not show up on the screen. This is a huge thing, not only for what we just described, but for Ara’s mom who constantly hits the device buttons on her Inteset remote making her remote useless. By hiding the other devices there is no way to accidentally hit a different device and send the commands to the wrong devices. This is as close to fool proof as you can get. 

Conclusion: 

This is the best Harmony replacement we have found for the typical home setup. If you have a lot of devices on different inputs the Harmony is still your best bet. But if you have a set top box, AVR or soundbar connected to your TV. This remote is the one to go with. Check back in a few weeks to see if it works better for Ara’s mom. Our prediction is that it will.  

Download Episode #1012