JP1 Remotes

[mattbatt]

I bought a Sofabaton U1 on sale for $40 after my remote took a swim. I know this remote is not supported, heck no one is even mentioned it on the forum.
My review on the U1 after owning about 6 JP1 remotes.
It's programing is done over bluetooth with an app. As long as your device is supported it's actually pretty easy to set up. Finding discrete codes required me to put in less of TV/Amp model number and I got a longer list of buttons that may or may not work.
Reassigning buttons takes a few extra taps but it's pretty intuitive.
I did make a "phantom remote" that I can hide from the screen with random discrete buttons.
I used the very top button as an all off and the power button as a macro execute for the thing you just scrolled to.
The case is crap! they put too much dye in the plastic and it reduces the IR transmit and Reception. Many users (including myself) have cut a hole in the front of the remote.
I like the little scroll wheel to select the device.
The app doesn't remember anything!!!! I was testing and I had alligator clips on the battery terminals and they didn't have a solid connection. The remote lost power a few too many times and wiped the memory. This is definitely my fault and Not SofaBaton's HOWEVER!!! It paired with the phone like a virgin device and my phone didn't offer to download the old setup. I had to start from scratch.
Now here's where it gets interesting
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UioYhqwMxupczjq29
The U1 has programing pads accessible under the battery.
I have very limited programing ability but I feel like this hardware has some potential.

Matt

[n8nagel]

here's my thoughts on it, lifted from a local forum.

I'm still using my Xsight Color, it was cheaper to buy an Inteset IReTV for my Fire Stick and keep using the Xsight than to step up to the X1 which wasn't available anyway when I tried the U1.

---

Due primarily to recent discussion here, I went ahead and ordered the Sofabaton U1 to play with. I didn’t have high hopes for it, but I was willing to give it a try. I’ve been using a pile of AR Xsight Colors with success, but they are slowly failing one by one; I think I have five of them with three having dead buttons now. Since they’ve been out of production for over 10 years, NOS ones are only going to get more expensive, and used ones are going to be less and less reliable. So, I was hopeful to find something that would work at least for a less challenging installation.

Our living room is pretty much bog standard consumer HT stuff. There’s a newish Sony TV and Denon AVR, fed by newish Sony UDP and Fire Stick 4K. The only oddball component is a Toshiba HD-D2, an old HD-DVD player that I found at Goodwill and basically have because it was $14 and allows me to play a format that nothing else will. It’s also a surprisingly good sounding CD player so it ended up as the kitchen stereo CDP for a while, but I hooked it up in the living room to test it once I finally got some HD-DVDs, and I also learned all the codes to my Xsight and posted them on the JP1 forums.
So, given all that, you’d think this would be cake right? Well, out of the box, the only things that appeared to work correctly were the TV and the Fire Stick (which, admittedly, is awesome, as that is a BT only device – the addition of BT remote capabilities is super great.) The Denon had some odd power button behavior, and neither the Sony UDP nor the Toshiba were even in their cloud code lists. Trying to program by the “does this power code work?” method didn’t work well. So, I contacted Sofabaton and told them what I’d found, and I also sent them the code lists for the Toshiba and the Denon in spreadsheet form (Denon actually publishes their code lists, in a word document format. I’d taken that and manipulated it in a spreadsheet so I could program an Xsight without having to learn everything and also so I could take advantage of buttons that weren’t on the factory remote. I still haven’t actually done so or tested it yet.)

To Sofabaton’s credit, they got back to me about 3AM today (for an inquiry 9PM yesterday) and told me to try again. It doesn’t appear they updated anything with the Denon, as I’m still having the weird power button behavior; the Toshiba HD-D2 is partially working; and there still is no codes posted for the Sony UDP. Additionally, while playing a bit more, I’ve realized that the Denon’s original remote uses discrete buttons to select the inputs, and the Sofabaton does not have programmable soft keys After a first pass through the code list, it appears that there are discrete input selection codes, but neither a code that throws up a menu of inputs (like Oppo does with their BDP and UDP series players) or a code that scrolls through all the available inputs. So, there doesn’t appear to be any way to select the input on the Denon without having the factory remote. I may be wrong on this and will look into it some more, but as of now the Sofabaton doesn’t work for me, and I don’t see a way to make it work.

That said, this is a product with a lot of promise. What would make it not only more useable but great would be if they had the button layout of the Xsight (the Sofabaton doesn’t have skip forward and skip back buttons, the Xsight does; those would be chapter skips on a Blu-Ray or track skips on a CD for instance); the screen of the Xsight with programmable soft keys like the Xsight has (but let’s not limit them to 15 per device like the Xsight does; let’s have 254 or whatever so for a big beast like an AVR or Pre-Pro you can just whack all the codes in and then organize them in order that you think you’re likely to need them. Memory is cheap, this is totally doable); and finally activity based programming like Xsight and Harmony used (this is supposedly a feature of the as now unavailable X1. U1 offers macros, but since I don’t have it fundamentally working, I haven’t played with them yet.) I know they wouldn’t do it, but the ability to read codes yourself, develop your own code lists from learns, share with others, etc. like Xsight does with Remote Master would be amazing. Basically, I want an Xsight Color with more hot keys and the Bluetooth capability of the Sofabaton. Is that too much to ask? Sadly the answer seems to be yes…
I’m not going to put Sofabaton on blast yet because they really seem to be trying. I'm not sure who else is really in the game as far as decent universal remotes go besides ultra high end stuff. I’m going to keep working with this and see if I can make it do the do. However, what seems like is really going to happen is I’m going to be watching ebay for another NOS Xsight in the $35-40 range and I will have to use that in conjunction with the factory Fire Stick remote to make this system truly easy to use for a non nerd – and it’ll take a couple long nights of testing while sipping on a tasty beverage to get it there. I am thinking the X1 will be an improvement, if it has activity based programming, but unless it also has soft keys I think it’s still going to not work for my really surprisingly basic, not complicated at all living room. I can’t really tell from any info available online whether it will or not – we shall see. I have a feeling the U1 is going on the shelf and I will be buying an X1 to play with as soon as they are available.

[mattbatt]

I can't remember what "soft Keys" are? are those the phantom keys that don't exist on the remote or the were they "activity" buttons like "Watch TV"?
I made a phantom device to add odd buttons to. And I used the scrollable devices to make "activities" Watch TV, Movie, MythTV etc. Scroll to what you want and hit the power button to execute the macro.

Also Also I found out that Sofabaton makes a cute little add on remote for the Roku and the Amazon remotes that clip on.
https://www.amazon.com/SofaBaton-Universal-Remote-Attachment-Amazon/dp/B07HMXYTRC

[The Robman]

[mattbatt]

Oh yeah So like I said I used the device names like the soft keys.

[dtrump]

I just noticed this thread, so am a bit late responding - but . . .

I received a Sofabaton for review through the Amazon Vine program and posted a review shortly after this thread's last entry. Here is a link to my review: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R376PDTOLXK2WE

I have not put the Sofabaton into permanent use because my JP1 remotes and several Harmony remotes serve me better. However, I have found it useful in quickly exploring some functions since it is so easy to add a device using just my phone.