Many are close, yet the perfect AndroidTV remote control remains elusive.
My main system is a Shield TV 2015, and my spare room is a Nexus player for guests. Each box is a comprehensive and self-contained media centre, with Live channels+HD Homerun, a nice selection of retro games, full subs to amazon prime/netflix/crunchyroll/play music etc, and a nicely set up version of kodi. I have no other devices like a cable box or console, it's only the AndroidTV devices and TVs that need to be dealt with.
What I want is for both devices to be easy for anyone to use, with only a single remote needed for all important functions.
I just cannot get a remote solution I am happy with. I find this strange, as the following criteria for perfection are surely shared by many others:
Minimal Design. The quantity of buttons on the shield remote and nexus remote is (almost) sufficient. Forward/backward/play buttons like on the Fire TV remotes is also fine. I do not need numbers, coloured buttons, DEFINITELY not an air mouse, etc. Third party remotes generally have a ton of this stuff, aimed at cheap generic android boxes. Clutter makes the remote ugly, and most importantly confusing to someone unfamiliar with the system. Harmony remotes, although very nice, are not perfect for this reason.
Voice Control. This is hugely problematic - essentially, only the nexus/fire/shield/mii remotes can use voice. This more than anything else limits the controls I can use. I tried a third party remote with voice, but it doesn't really work well. Could the forthcoming Spot contribute to overcoming this one?
Infra Red Learning for TV Power. And possibly volume also. Everyone needs to turn their TV on and off! Everyone needs to adjust volume! CEC is an absolute PITA. I don't mind controlling volume through android, but IR learning for power and volume would solve nearly everyone's problem with multiple remotes at a stroke. Even a lot of the cheap android boxes' remotes have a few IR learning keys for this. The Shield 2017 implementation appears confusing and unintuitive (though I haven't used it myself).
Volume control ideally with a mute. Again, IR or through the android OS is fine. The slider on the shield is a bad design, + and - much more sensible.
That's it. Minimal Android style buttons, IR power, volume control and voice. With these things, anyone can pick up the single remote and control everything necessary with no explanation, 100%.
A quick summary of the flaws in current options:
A Sideclick remote solves the Nexus and Fire remote problems: https://www.sideclickremotes.com/
But they are very ugly, with a couple of unnecessary buttons and also uncomfortable to hold. Nevertheless, this is my choice for the spare room currently. My main room uses two remotes for the Shield and TV.
If anyone could point out a perfect remote I have overlooked I'd be forever indebted, but I think I have checked out everything.
Does anyone agree with me on this list? Is it really that esoteric?!
tl;dr - It's obvious what an ideal remote needs but it still doesn't exist.
So, I was wondering if there's been any further development of Pure Nexus builds for the ADT-1(molly)? As far as I can see, the most recent build was from April of 2016:
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=45275&sort_by=date&sort_dir=DESC
I still use mine almost daily and it's still running great.