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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Microsoft previews Xbox One dashboard, reveals console can control your home theater

Adinnieken said:
SvennoJ said:
So how does that work? Where do you point the IR blaster, since my projector, amp and cable box are all in different places.
I've never got along with universal remotes, program a sequence to turn everything on but still have to point it in the right directions while it's going through the steps, pointless.

Since everyone has commented so far, I'll provide an answer.

The Kinect itself is capable of doing the IR blasting.   Remember (or if you didn't know) Kinect comes with three IR lights on the front.  These are capable of lighting up a room for night vision on the Kinect.  Using those lights, Kinect is capable of sending out a signal to control your AV device.  It would be interesting if it worked with your projector, depending on where it is.  If it's in front of the sitting area, it might be challenging depending on how close it is to the TV.  If it's above or behind it, it'll probably work no problem.

The plug-in IR Blaster is only necessary if HDMI CEC or Kinect don't work.

??? if he has a projector he probably doesn't have a TV in front of it.... my 2 cents :D





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Keywords are IR Blaster.

You'll have to position the IR blaster (sold separately) coming out of the back of your Xbone to the front of the device you want it to control.

So it will only control one device at a time (stereo, tv or cable/sat box... not all at same time).

While this is interesting, I think its not very practical.



endimion said:
Adinnieken said:
SvennoJ said:
So how does that work? Where do you point the IR blaster, since my projector, amp and cable box are all in different places.
I've never got along with universal remotes, program a sequence to turn everything on but still have to point it in the right directions while it's going through the steps, pointless.

Since everyone has commented so far, I'll provide an answer.

The Kinect itself is capable of doing the IR blasting.   Remember (or if you didn't know) Kinect comes with three IR lights on the front.  These are capable of lighting up a room for night vision on the Kinect.  Using those lights, Kinect is capable of sending out a signal to control your AV device.  It would be interesting if it worked with your projector, depending on where it is.  If it's in front of the sitting area, it might be challenging depending on how close it is to the TV.  If it's above or behind it, it'll probably work no problem.

The plug-in IR Blaster is only necessary if HDMI CEC or Kinect don't work.

??? if he has a projector he probably doesn't have a TV in front of it.... my 2 cents :D



Obviously I' meant screen.



superchunk said:
Keywords are IR Blaster.

You'll have to position the IR blaster (sold separately) coming out of the back of your Xbone to the front of the device you want it to control.

So it will only control one device at a time (stereo, tv or cable/sat box... not all at same time).

While this is interesting, I think its not very practical.

No.  The Kinect acts as an IR Blaster.

Built into Kinect are three IR LEDs.  The signal is blasted out into the room, and if it all works as planned, reflects back into the device you're trying to control.



endimion said:
Mmmfishtacos said:
YOUR XBOX ONE WILL PRETTY MUCH DOUBLE AS A HARMONY REMOTE
my phone already does this.



phone apps are shitty as hell as far I have seen so far, nowhere close to an harmony remote and I still have to use buttons on a touch screen on top of that.... which even shittier 90% of the time

and what happens when I'm using smartglass and need to use the app at the same time if I didn't have kinect.....

so yeah it will double as an harmony remote for a 100 bucks more sign me up right now eyes closed

Guess you don't have and S4. Works really well. Tv guide works good too. Find the show, press it and off it goes. I can voice serch for shows too. 



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Adinnieken said:
superchunk said:
Keywords are IR Blaster.

You'll have to position the IR blaster (sold separately) coming out of the back of your Xbone to the front of the device you want it to control.

So it will only control one device at a time (stereo, tv or cable/sat box... not all at same time).

While this is interesting, I think its not very practical.

No.  The Kinect acts as an IR Blaster.

Built into Kinect are three IR LEDs.  The signal is blasted out into the room, and if it all works as planned, reflects back into the device you're trying to control.

You've got to be kidding me. That is the "plan"? My thoughts that it was an additional blast sound like it would actually work, albiet limited to a single device. This sounds completely foolish.

 

edit: what about other devices picking up on similar signals? or similar devices nearby? omg this is going to fail.



superchunk said:
Adinnieken said:
superchunk said:
Keywords are IR Blaster.

You'll have to position the IR blaster (sold separately) coming out of the back of your Xbone to the front of the device you want it to control.

So it will only control one device at a time (stereo, tv or cable/sat box... not all at same time).

While this is interesting, I think its not very practical.

No.  The Kinect acts as an IR Blaster.

Built into Kinect are three IR LEDs.  The signal is blasted out into the room, and if it all works as planned, reflects back into the device you're trying to control.

You've got to be kidding me. That is the "plan"? My thoughts that it was an additional blast sound like it would actually work, albiet limited to a single device. This sounds completely foolish.

Nope.  You've never operated a device via reflection?  It's pretty fun when it works.  Roll away from the TV, point the remote at the wall behind you and things turn off.  The challenge are getting the angle right and if something absorbs the signal.

However, considering that the IR emitter on Kinect is significantly more powerful than a remote control, I believe it's able to flood the room with the light and ensure something will reflect the signal back into the device.

My guess is that it works pretty well, otherwise that wouldn't be even considered as an option.



the-pi-guy said:
landguy1 said:
Multimedialover said:
Im sorry but how can anyone with a straight face say ps4 is next gen? Whether or not it has a miniscule power difference for graphics the one blows it away with actual technology that works and is the future. 4 years from now people will look at playstation and say thats that toy that people used to buy. Same way before iphone people had just a phone. Before iphone released the month prior nokia had phones out preordering it. Look how that turned out.


I agree.  I just don't get the majority of gamers sticking their heads in the sand on XBOXOne.  It seems, that most anybody that enjoys watching movies or tv would like an XBOXOne for it's entertainment system features alone.  Add in a gaming system capability and what now seems to be windows apps to your TV and this thing is the real deal.  THe only way i can think that people are hating on the XBOXOne is fear.  Fear that a "Just Gaming" box will dissapear from the future - which it won't completely(for another 10-15 years anyway).  Why not buy a game system that can play the AAA games AND do all the rest too?

It's one thing to have a preference, but that doesn't seem to be what Multimedialover has.  PS4 has multimedia player features too.  There isn't much that One can do that PS4 won't.  So I'm not sure what you are using as a basis.  

I agree that the PS4 has a lot of features that Sony hasn't pushed in their messaging.  But it doesn't have HDMI throughput and it doesn't have IR blasters for systems control.  That's part of the difference between having a Kinect and not having the PSeye as standard changes.  Not having HDMI in is a MAJOR difference on the Multimedia experience.



Adinnieken said:

Nope.  You've never operated a device via reflection?  It's pretty fun when it works.  Roll away from the TV, point the remote at the wall behind you and things turn off.  The challenge are getting the angle right and if something absorbs the signal.

However, considering that the IR emitter on Kinect is significantly more powerful than a remote control, I believe it's able to flood the room with the light and ensure something will reflect the signal back into the device.

My guess is that it works pretty well, otherwise that wouldn't be even considered as an option.

Considering I have yet to find any device that uses an IR Blaster that doesn't directly point at the device they want to control, I think this will fail for most people that don't have the optimum room configuration.

My house as an example has a large front room that opens up to a casual dining space. There is no wall directly behind my couch that faces the TV/ent center. Granted, I know I don't have to have WiiU Gamepad pointed directly at TV for its TV/Cable/Sat functions to work. (Too bad it didn't work other devices too and it would be the perfect universal remote)



the-pi-guy said:
landguy1 said:
the-pi-guy said:
It's one thing to have a preference, but that doesn't seem to be what Multimedialover has.  PS4 has multimedia player features too.  There isn't much that One can do that PS4 won't.  So I'm not sure what you are using as a basis.  

I agree that the PS4 has a lot of features that Sony hasn't pushed in their messaging.  But it doesn't have HDMI throughput and it doesn't have IR blasters for systems control.  That's part of the difference between having a Kinect and not having the PSeye as standard changes.  Not having HDMI in is a MAJOR difference on the Multimedia experience.

I don't see it being able to do anything, just a tiny convenience.  All it would be doing is getting input and able to output onto Television while doing other things.  But I don't see that as being a game changer.  Convenience, definitely.  But not something that unquestionably improves experience.  The IR blasters though, could be added, in fact that's what the other user thought this meant.  That it was a separate thing.  Some remotes already do something similar.  So, it's great if you have a preference, but it's no reason to knock what the PS4 is doing.  

What you are saying is exactly my point.  Most of the M$/XBOXOne haters seem to only acknowledge features that they want for themselves(somewhat understandable), but find a way to totally dismiss any feature that doesn't enhance their vision of core gaming.  The features that I mention do only directly impact a smaller portion of the buyers TODAY.  The Home Theatre area is an exploding market and will impact system sales and uses much more every year going forward.