Remote control is a great idea! I have a question though ... the TV remote control is all about being lazy right? Somebody said "I sure would like to sit my ass here on the couch and change the channel without having to move". HOW DID THAT ATTITUDE ACTUALLY LEAD TO INVENTING THE TV REMOTE?!!
The first TV remote control, called "Lazy Bones," was developed in 1950 by Zenith Electronics Corporation (then known as Zenith Radio Corporation). Lazy Bones used a cable that ran from the TV set to the viewer. A motor in the TV set operated the tuner through the remote control. Although customers liked having remote control of their television, they complained that people tripped over the unsightly cable that meandered across the living room floor. (ideafinder)
I bet this lazy dude was thinking "When will all this inventing work be finished? All I wanted to do was be lazy and sit here on the couch ... now I've got this damn cord tripping me up every time I go to the kitchen to get another Twinkie".
The other day I took a look at my coffee table and knew there had to be a better way to switch from TV to a DVD without picking up 4 different remotes (hmmm this looks like a job for bettergetter), so I suited up in my purple, blue and green bettergetter outfit and started the search.
Well, I found out they have some pretty cool remotes out there these days ... and get this ... they're CORDLESS (I guess lazy man finally got it right).
I found the good peeps over at CNET had already been through the multi-remote fiasco and offered up good research/reviews on a bunch of different universal remotes (it's good to know I am not all alone in my remote woes) Here's the top five rated:
Article comments
1 - L. Cue
Now if they can just make a remote that finds the lost remotes, things will be perfect!
Oh yeah and a remote that changes the televison inputs so I don't have to get up to switch from the Gamecube/X-Box to the VCR or back to the TV.
That would be couch potato heaven.
2 - SFC SKI
THe advent of affordable transistorized systems allowed for the remote to go wireless. I want the tremote that senses the channels that have something worth watching, and switches only between those.
I did have a remote that stored 5 quicklook channels for quality surfing, I miss it.