Customer Reviews

TiVoSlide C00240 Keyboard Remote Control, Black

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

This is a brilliant idea TiVO should have built long ago. This remote was connected to a TiVO HD with a TiVO wireless adapter already connected.

Installation couldn't be easier. Plug the Bluetooth receiver (supplied in the box) into one of the USB plugs in the back of your TiVO (if you like there is a USB 'extension cord' you can plug in and Velcro to the top of your TiVO), put in the two AA batteries in the remote. Guess what, that's it. No seriously, there is nothing else to do. NADA, nothing, it works right out of the box perfectly.

Oh, I did oversimplify things a tiny bit, if you want to control the power for your television, and volume / mute on your A/V receiver; you have to do that programming. But, you know, you've done that already with the regular TiVO remote, so there's nothing new there. Hey, you did write down your code numbers, right? The instruction booklet does remind you to go to the TiVO menu, settings, Remote Control, and then select the appropriate control.

The thing you really want to know about, that keyboard. In a word, it is excellent. I absolutely HATED arrowing around to select letters on season passes, searching YouTube, and even set up my remote control. With this remote, when you arrive at a menu that wants letters entered, couldn't be easier, slide the remote open, press the letter keys on the QWERTY keyboard and numbers on the number pad to the right. It works so fast I couldn't believe it.

So setting up my television codes (Samsung) and my A/V receiver codes (Yamaha) I had to arrow down for a week to get to the S's, and then worst with Y's. On this remote, slip it open and press S, and there I was Samsung. Press Y and there you are for Yamaha. So quick, so easy.

The remote does a pretty cool glow whenever the room is dark and you press a button. The glow is white / blue and subtle. I've gotten so used to button location that the light is almost not necessary.

Comment on the size - this remote is a little chunk of meat. Mr. Peanut gained some weight, and he got shorter. He's about twenty five percent shorter than the original remote. It is a bit thicker, maybe twenty five percent. To my hand, it feels really nice. Small hands might find it a bit bulky.

Key layout is just fine. In order to shrink this thing, they had to move some keys up a bit. Select is now in the center of the top dial (it was below before). Pause is now in the center of the bottom dial (it was below before). Volume and Channel are now switched with the thumbs up and down buttons. I'm sure I'll hit the wrong button in the beginning. Otherwise the layout is pretty similar. It won't take long to get used to the slightly changed layout and key feel. You almost have to not think about where you are putting your fingers, they pretty much go where they should.

The keyboard is very easy to use. Spacing of the letter keys is very nice. Anybody that has typed on a Blackberry will feel at home here. There's an arrow / select button (replica of the top circle buttons on the TiVO remote) at the left of the letters. The interesting thing, it is rotated ninety degrees. This makes sense; you have to turn the remote ninety degrees to use the keyboard, so this orientation is logical or intuitive. The number pad on the right is very useful. Overall, it is super simple to perform any kind of search in the TiVO menus.

By default, the remote control transmits over Bluetooth for TiVO commands if the dongle is plugged in your TiVO. The remote tip glows blue when transmitting. For the volume, input, power, and mute buttons, both Bluetooth and IR commands are transmitted. The cool part of the Bluetooth instructions, it's no longer necessary to point at your TiVO. That's also a curse, if you drop your remote in the couch and buttons start pressing, all those bogus commands will go to your TiVO. I've accidently changed the channel a few times.

Overall, this remote is well built, feels very good in my hand, is super simple to install, and makes searches easy to do. I really like this remote.

I have a PS3, but haven't tried pairing to see if it will work like a keyboard for that device.

Sept. 5, 2010 Update: The remote mysteriously stopped working. IR worked fine, the blue light came on just fine, but the TiVO would do nothing. I tried pairing the remote (pretty easy to do) and nothing worked. So I tried TiVO on line chat - that never ever ever works with any company. But NO TiVO actually hired some smart fast people to help with support (just like their phone support). The problem was a defective bluetooth dongle. They're shipping me a new one. I happened to have a bluetooth USB dongle and tried it out. Voila, it worked. Sweetness.

Still is an awesome remote.

October 13, 2010 Update: PS3 pairing, doesn't work, at least I can't get it to do anything useful. Pairing was impossible through the bluetooth device menu on the PS3 - the PS3 scanned and scanned, the TiVO Slide was in pairable mode, and it was never found. When pairing it under the BD-Remote menu, pairing worked, the remote connected to the PS3. BUT, it wouldn't do anything useful. The keyboard did not work as if I was pressing letters. The buttons did random things - somehow I almost always ended up at the PS3 black screen asking me if I wanted to shut down the system.

So in a word, NO for the PS3.

Length:: 2:33 Mins

I filmed this review after a week of getting to know the Tivo Slide features and programing. This remote gives you many great features, my favorite being "learning" from other remotes and allowing one press of the power button to power on different devices simultaneously.

******UPDATE********10/9/2011

Still going strong. Happened to see the price drop at TiVo.com and thought I'd come back in here for an update. Nothing to report, still going strong, remote is still solid, etc. Doesn't show age at all, like the old remotes.

Sometimes I look at my old Glo-remote and it looks and feels cheap in comparison, the buttons are WAY too far apart and a lot of the "black" on the buttons are worn off. Plus, if you left on the "Glow" feature it ATE batteries at an ALARMING rate.

For the money, the Slide Remote is an even BETTER deal than before. I'd buy it again - no doubt.

*******UPDATE********2/11/2011

Had the Slide Remote 5 months now. Still works great. I don't use the keyboard that much, but when I do; it's SO much easier. Remote is holding up fine, well-built. Fast input, love the fast input vs. typical remote. I really enjoy the size, smaller IS better.

I sympathize with people who have had problems. I guess there are ALWAYS people who have problems. It's usually not me, however.

Best remote I've ever had. I wish ALL my remotes were bluetooth.

***********original review***************

I have a TiVo HD XL.

This is a Great Remote.

There are a lot of reasons to like the Slide Remote.

Of course, the slide keyboard. Bluetooth allows TiVo to be in a cabinet or control TiVo without line of sight-- like listening to music, etc., plus Bluetooth is not directional- so you don't have to aim the remote. Also, just like the older Glo Remote -- many keys are learning capable, the power button can turn on and off BOTH the receiver and TV with one key press. The backlight is better calibrated (turns on less) and nicer looking than the Glw Remote. The Slide Remote does NOT feel cheap or flimsy at all!!! Period. So null to the non-owning haters.

But for me, the best feature is the speed of input response. Everything just seems to be faster and more responsive. Trick play is faster. Moving between screens is faster. It's not that the TiVo is faster, probably, but the remote input is and that makes everything SEEM faster.

When this remote was announced with Bluetooth, I didn't understand why. But now I do. I think a real step forward, but not because of the qwerty slide keyboard(although, it's nice); it's the Bluetooth response and speed. Impressive.

The only downside, is that the IR is more directional. The Glo Remote has a fantastic Infra-Red power and spread. But it's a minor negative for the overall positive.

Great job, TiVo!

I purchased this remote for the keyboard functionality and was expecting it to be a suitable replacement for the remote that was supplied with my TiVo Premier. Unfortunately I find myself going back to the original remote for all but the most involved text entry operations on the TiVo. If I had it to do over again I would not purchase the TiVoSlide Remote.

Issues

1. Command operations: The biggest issue I have with this remote is the inconsistent results from button presses. Often if you press a button on the TiVoSlide Remote the LED on the remote will indicate signal transmission and the Bluetooth dongle will indicate activity, but the TiVo will not respond. In some cases, the first button press will do nothing but subsequent ones are properly acknowledged, as if you have to wake up the TiVo to process commands. Other times you can execute multiple button presses over an extended period of time and see no results. Finally, in some instances, a single press of a button (preceded by a long duration of no activity to ensure no commands may be in queue) will elicit multiple commands on the TiVo, as if you had pressed the button many times or held it down to repeat the command. There appear to be some issues with the TiVo's handling of Bluetooth remote commands.

2. Physical layout/design: This is the smallest iteration of a TiVo remote I have seen, whereas the TiVo Premier is the largest iteration I have seen (experienced with TiVo Series 1, 2, 3, and 4). The two remotes are worlds apart. As other reviewers have mentioned, the button arrangement on the TiVoSlide is overly compacted and it is heavy for such a small device. The added weight gives the impression of quality, but once you start using it you realize it's lacking.

3. Integration: I had read up on the details before ordering and understood that TiVo forces you to use Bluetooth if you want to use the keyboard functionality. Further, you must install the supplied external USB to Bluetooth interface because for some odd reason the brand new (released in 2010) TiVo Premier doesn't come with onboard Bluetooth. I knew this going into it but still think it's odd that a recently released platform doesn't come with the necessary interfaces to natively support key accessories. They should have either included onboard Bluetooth with the TiVo Premier or utilized a new IR code set for the TiVoSlide Remote's keyboard.

--- Update for Item 1 ---

I received a replacement remote and have found that the Bluetooth behavior is now much better, not perfect, but much better. So far there seems to be no lost button presses and most of the time the TiVo's reaction is timely. While much less noticeable now, there is the occasional short delay on the first button press, again, as if the TiVo is waking up to incoming commands via the Bluetooth/USB side. This is most noticeable for me when I press the fast forward button for the first time after having been doing nothing with the unit for a while (ie: just watching a program). The subsequent button presses, to increase the fast forward to the second and third speeds, and to resume playing, end up being instantaneous. The initial delay is now so short that it is livable.

--- Another Update for Item 1 ---

The replacement TiVo Slide Remote worked properly until one day when I had a laptop near where I was sitting. The laptop had its Bluetooth radio enabled and was only a foot or two away from the remote. Suddenly I was experiencing the all too familiar lost and duplicate commands. One instance was particularly noteworthy as the TiVo DVR was continually sounding the error tone/gong because of being at the end of a list and having the down button pressed. It carried on like this for about a minute until I intervened by moving the remote away from the laptop and then pressing another button on the remote. As far as I could tell, without intervention the errant command would have continued indefinitely. The symptoms were most prevalent when I placed the laptop in front of the remote, between it and the TiVo DVR. I could also significantly lessen, but not totally prevent, apparent interference issues by replacing the remote's batteries, which at 89% charge (according to the TiVo GUI) should have been just fine.

Conclusions:

1. Clearly the first TiVo Slide Remote I had was defective. There were no extraneous Bluetooth devices in close proximity (the same room) to it and even with fresh batteries the remote behaved poorly. It's unfortunate that it took so many communications with TiVo support to confirm this and finally get a new remote.

2. The replacement TiVo Slide Remote may or may not be defective, but it seems overly sensitive to extraneous Bluetooth radios. Interference issues seem to manifest especially when the battery charge gets below 90%. Further, it appears that the Slide Remote depletes batteries all too quickly, compared to the regular remote, with regular daily use.

I upgraded from a standard TiVo remote to this new "slide" remote and I am VERY impressed so far with its performance. I'm using it with a Premiere.

Here are the highlights:

* Typing is way easier when searching for shows. that's the big new feature.

* Noticeably improved the speed of navigating menus and responsiveness of the FF and 30 sec skip on my Premiere. This is presumably due to the bluetooth connection being more responsive than the infrared connection on the old remote. It was immediately noticeable upon plugging in the remote.

* Able to turn on my TV and my Sony receiver with one button push and control the receiver volume too. (it's a learning remote that can learn commands for the volume, input, mute and power buttons)

* Size of the remote makes all buttons accessible without needing to adjust the grip. (with the old remote, I needed to re-grip the remote to shift from controlling the arrows to the FF/RW buttons and the numbers - now it's all within thumb's reach from one grip!)

Negatives:

* small thing: controlling volume of receiver with the slide remote is not as responsive/quick as with the receiver's own remote, but this is very minor and not a significant problem at all.

* retail price is a little bit high for a remote, watch for a sale.

Other thoughts:

* Requires a bluetooth dongle (included) that plugs into a USB slot on the back of the Premiere.

* Keys are more sensitive (easier to push) than other TiVo remotes, but I prefer this new feel over the old feel.

Overall, HIGHLY recommend. Snap one up when it goes on sale.

UPDATE: 1/4/2012 - Demoted from 4 stars down to just 1

I should have gone back and read other people's reviews a long time ago. For about the last 10 months, I can no longer use most of the Bluetooth functions of this remote, due to the ridiculous amount of response lag. If I need to search something with a long title, I'll plug the dongle back in, but otherwise I now use only the IR functionality, and for this I paid $72.00! I tried repositioning the BT dongle, replacing the batteries, repairing the remote, just about everything. The only thing I didn't try was calling TiVo support, since the remote was already out of warranty. Like I said, I wish I'd gone back and read the reviews of others, since this problem doesn't seem to be at all uncommon.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: 9/9/10 - 4 stars

I was so excited to receive this remote, but I was dismayed to discover that I would need an extra USB port to plug in the Bluetooth receiver, since all compatible TiVo models only have two of them, and in my case, they're both in use (one by the cable company's tuning adapter, and the other by my wireless network adapter). To further the problem, while new TiVo Premiere DVRs have several options for supported USB hubs, apparently, my TiVo HD/XL DVR is only compatible with one model of USB hub, which is USB 1.1, not 2.0. So, after speaking with TiVo support, my options are to use an old technology USB hub, or buy a new N wireless network adapter that plugs into the ethernet port on my TiVo, freeing up a USB port for the Slide remote. Seems needlessly complicated, and I'm left wondering why my TiVo HD/XL, which is just a year and a half old, supports only USB 1.1. (USB 2.0 has been the standard for what, 5 years now?) Anyway, TiVo graciously offered me a free USB hub that is compatible but the old technology (when they get them in stock) or half off a new N wireless adapter. I bought the discounted adapter; it's a bit pricey, but at least it's new technology.

All that said, I did unplug my current network adapter to try out the Slide remote's Bluetooth functions, and they work VERY well. I only wish TiVo had better advertised the fact that many of their customers would need some sort of workaround in order to get the remote to a fully functioning state. After all, more and more cable companies are requiring the use of tuning adapters in order to broaden their HD channel lineup. Sure, I could switch to the cable company's DVR, but it's nowhere near as intuitive as TiVo's interface.

So to sum up, -1 star for lack of full technical disclosure on TiVo's part when marketing this remote.

I've had this remote a couple weeks now, and wow, all the positive reviews are spot on. Tivo hit it out of the park with this one. They CLEARLY had QUALITY as their number one design goal. Very solid feeling, and not cheap feeling at all.

It's great because:

1) Obviously the slide out keyboard is great for entering in show titles, actors, etc, plus youtube, netflix, pandora, etc... all the various text input areas, it vastly accelerates, and saves you time.

2) If you use the included extension cable, and mount the receiver high-ish up, it has vast range... at least 25 feet, and that includes through a wall or two. It's nice not having to worry about where I'm pointing the remote.

3) The Tivo Premiere responds like twice as fast to the blueray signal from this remote than it does to infrared signals coming from regular remotes. Keep in mind, this remote also has an infrared transmitter so it can still control other devices

4) It is a programable universal remote (to a large extent anyway)... and for those devices it doesn't have, it even has a learning mode that works well.

BTW, I found out the best way to use the learning mode is, once you push the button you want to learn on this Tivo keyboard remote, the sooner you press and hold the corresponding button on the other, the more reliably it learns the code. Wish I would have known this sooner, would have saved me at least an hour. Even the Tivo rep didn't know this. So this is definitely a golden nugget for those lucky enough to read this review.

I highly recommend this remote for any Tivo Premiere owner. It will definitely enhance your Tivo experience... and make you more apt to use Youtube, Netflix, etc, as it's far more natural with this.

It is so frustration finding a program with the left, right, up and down format on the Tivo. Ever accidentally go to far and back into the former menu ? I have it, while

not being a major problem, is still just annoying. I long for such a device as the Slide4 Remote and they finally made it. Finding programs, YouTube videos, etc is a breeze. Add to that Bluetooth and no more worries about aiming directly at your Tivo box !

Bluetooth setup was super easy ... plug it and you're done ! Ready to use ins seconds.

It is a little 'fatter' than the former Glo or standard remote, but substantially shorter. If you're like me and have all the buttons memorized it will not take long to readjust to the new size.

All the buttons are relatively in the same location just a bit more stuffed together. Normally this would be a bad thing as you would imagine them being smaller. No problems here !

Price ... well ok, $90 is a big chunk of change but well worth it to me. I did get mine though when the price dropped to $75.

So a win-win all around.

When I got the remote I plugged the Bluetooth adapter into a USB port on the back of the Tivo. When I went to use the new remote control it had a problem with a lagging response when the buttons were pushed. Sometimes when I would push a button once, it would repeat the command multiple times, or not work at all.

I found out what to do to fix the problem. The remote comes with an extension cable, and if you are having the problem that I described, hook up the extension cable and move the Bluetooth adapter to the front of the Tivo. It totally solved the lag and repeating problems that I had. The remote works perfectly since the relocation of the Bluetooth adapter, and now I am very happy with the remote.

Update 1/15/2012

After a month the remote stopped working. First the bluetooth stopped, and then the whole thing stopped working. I decided to disassemble it to see if I could figure out what was wrong. I removed the one screw under in the battery door, and then the bottom cover snaps off (not the slide part). I ran a flosser stick around the outside to unsnap the bottom cover from the base. There is a little card inside that plugs into the main board. It had come unplugged from the main board. All I did was plug the board back in, carefully making sure to align the pins, and snap the remote back together, making sure that the battery connections were in place. The remote works perfectly again. I guess that I dropped it on the hard floor a few too many times and dislodged the little board. I have not dropped it since. Of course it would not be advisable to do this if the warranty is still good. I still love my remote and wouldn't trade it.

I'm almost afraid to say this since it might jinx the remote but I bought this in Dec. 2010 and have not had any problems so I give it an A on reliability. I like the keyboard feature much better than the old remote where you have to arrow around the alphabet to spell out a title or do a search. The only thing which makes me give it less than 5 stars is that you have to press the arrows surrounding the yellow pause button, for play, fast forward, etc, very precisely or you may get the wrong action, e.g., fast forward instead of play. I liked the older set-up better, where you had separate buttons for play, fast forward, reverse, etc., but it's not a big deal.