Soundbar 700 Universal Remote (sucks???)

[ARonNYC]

So... My client just got a Soundbar 700 and surround speakers.  Is it just me, or does this remote REALLY suck?  Here are the issues -

1) Remote doesn’t change inputs when you select a new source.

2) Couldn’t reliably control current gen AppleTV, even though the light on the AppleTV would blink when trying to send commands - it worked briefly after inputting the model number, but then stopped.

2.1) This remote is only supposed to light up buttons that work with your device.  This is woefully inaccurate especially with AppleTV.  There should only be Menu, Play/Pause, Plus/Minus and the directional pad/center button.

3) There’s no way to fix issues with a particular device (not changing input, one particular button not working).  You just have to delete it and try again.

4) There’s no clear information when you’re trying to add a device and the app tells you “We’re trying to open the options menu.  Did it work?” With no indication of what a successful operation would actually look like.

5) The only thing that happens when you tap Advanced Setup is that it asks you for the model number of the device.  There is no further verification that the remote will now do what you want.

To me, these seem like pretty huge usability flaws.  Am I missing something?  Did Bose aim so very low on this device (that comes with an $800 speaker, btw), and this is the intended functionality?  Am I just doing it wrong?

Thanks,

Aaron

[ThierryB]

I had the same issue. Contact your local support they will send you a free IR transmitter to connect at the back of the soundbar which will fix the issue.

The question is why do you need to connect a $8 IR transmitter to a high end soundbar to get this working when other remotes can do the same without it...

CEC is broken, IR is broken ...

[DubCity]

Yes, the remote is very poor. Bose’s development team have no intellect to test anything before implementing it. 

[Itsjustmeee]

I don't use the 700 remote because I have an Xfinity cable box which has voice control. That's a feature even the best Harmony remote can't duplicate. But if I didn't use the voice control, I probably wouldn't deal with the Bose 700 remote. I've tried setting it up a number of times just to check it out and got annoyed by it not being able to control my xfinity cable box at all (after numerous attempts and methods to try to get it to work), and I'm not crazy about the buttons that only light up for a short second while controling a certain device. It's the classic case of form over function. 

[ARonNYC]

Yeah... it’s really not worth it.  However, you might be interested to know that the newest Harmony remotes DO have voice control.  Logitech really is at the top of the game in this department.

[Itsjustmeee]

ARonNYC, perhaps Harmony has released a new remote that I'm not aware of. I like the Harmony Express but I don't believe it will work with the X1. The problem is that the Xfinity X1 cable box's basic functions are IR but the voice control is RF. I'd love to have a more comprehensive remote but I haven't seen one yet.