Hi.

What is the best way to integrate your universal remote with the PS3?

I was reading about this hack and was wondering if anyone has tried it out?

http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/24/control-your-playstation-3-with-ir/

Has anyone sucessfully be able to use this work around to get a PS3 to work with IR?

Do you know if those universal PS2 remotes and IR receiver(controller interface) on ebay will work for this?

Is there another more stable option?

Please let me know

Thanks for your help.

That hack is really no longer necessary. Nyko makes a product that sells for $19 called the Bluwave remote which does the same and more as that hack and is a much cleaner solution. It includes the remote and a USB dongle and I have personally confirmed it's usefulness by teaching the commands to Logitech Harmony, RTI and Nevo remotes.

To update: Schmartz upcoming product apparently supports on/off as well.

http://www.schmartz.com/product.sc?categoryId=1&productId=4

I'm really looking forward to that Schmartz solution because I'm a control freak and it kills me that I can't control EVERY aspect of my PS3. But, at $50, vs. less than $20 for other solutions these are the things you'll want to consider:

Power On is not really a problem for most since putting in the Blu-ray Disc starts the PS3 automatically. Power Off is nice but if you leave your PS3 on for charging the sixaxis controllers or for folding@home this is not necessary either. So is it really worth the $30+ to have the on/off commands?

Another consideration is whether or not the on/off that the Schmartz remote offers are discrete commands or a Power Toggle. Don't get me wrong... a Power Toggle is still better than no power at all but without discrete commands I'm not sure if this is the perfect solution that installers are looking for. Just food for thought...

Looks like it's just a power toggle, but it's still an ingenious solution. I could use it with variables in my MX-980 to get discrete-type results. I just use the PS3 for BD playback, so it's not an issue for me as I have to go to the player to load and unload the disk anyway.

Nyko makes a product that sells for $19 called the Bluwave remote ... I have personally confirmed it's usefulness by teaching the commands to Logitech Harmony

There isn't even a need to teach the commands to the Harmony. Logitech has it in their database. I just picked one up this past weekend.

Which one of the 2 solutions is best for trying to use a universal remote?

Does the Schmartz.com. have a remote or how would you teach your universal remote the codes for the decide?

I heard there are issues with the nyko product because of proprietary IR codes which are hard for universal remote to learn. Does anyone know if that is true?
(P.S. I am getting an MX-3000 Universal Remote control)

Thanks.

Will the nyko work with anything but a "learning" capable remote? Anyone know? Like could I punch in a code for a sony dvd player or blu-ray player on my standard universal remote and get most of the functions like play, pause, stop etc.

Will the nyko work with anything but a "learning" capable remote? Anyone know? Like could I punch in a code for a sony dvd player or blu-ray player on my standard universal remote and get most of the functions like play, pause, stop etc.

I don't know for certain, but I would doubt that it's using standard Sony IR codes. When I added it as a device to my Harmony 880 I had to select the Nyko Bluwave as the device, not a Sony device.

To update: Schmartz upcoming product apparently supports on/off as well.

http://www.schmartz.com/product.sc?categoryId=1&productId=4

Sounds nice, but fifty bucks, Jesus. :eek:

Sounds nice, but fifty bucks, Jesus. :eek:
Maybe you can get Him to pay for the $35 version?

Someone at Sony should die in a fire for excluding IR from this product.

A x360 / hddvd fanboy, after CES I decided BD won, and started researching players... the PS3 looks perfect until this. WTF?

Yes, I get it, you can't make this thing TOO appealing or nobody would buy the crappy, crippled BD standalone units, but come on, what the deuce?

The ironic part is that I was reading a gadget site and they mentioned the new Harmony One's lack of Bluetooth, and I said "who the hell uses BT in home theatre?" Now I know.

....

Power On is not really a problem for most since putting in the Blu-ray Disc starts the PS3 automatically. Power Off is nice but if you leave your PS3 on for charging the sixaxis controllers or for folding@home this is not necessary either. So is it really worth the $30+ to have the on/off commands?

Another consideration is whether or not the on/off that the Schmartz remote offers are discrete commands or a Power Toggle. Don't get me wrong... a Power Toggle is still better than no power at all but without discrete commands I'm not sure if this is the perfect solution that installers are looking for. Just food for thought...

You are looking at the wrong model at the Schwartz site... the unit with Pwr On/Off is $50. The basic is $35. (Free Shipping) IIRC correctly, the Pwr ON/OFF IR commands are discretes and not a toggle.

One problem with the Nyko is that it seems to like to steal the #1 controller slot even when the unit is turned on with the game controller. This means that some games end up getting controlled by the Nyko and not the sixaxis.

If there's a way to change this, I don't know what it would be short of removing the dongle before playing games.

One problem with the Nyko is that it seems to like to steal the #1 controller slot even when the unit is turned on with the game controller. This means that some games end up getting controlled by the Nyko and not the sixaxis.

If there's a way to change this, I don't know what it would be short of removing the dongle before playing games.

You hit the Home key in the game and choose Change Controller.

One thing to consider is the cost of the PS3 + the 50 for the remote. It still might verywell be cheaper than the cost of a standalone player with all the features that you want.

I had ruled out the PS3, but the $399 for a PS3 40gig and the $50 for this is still cheaper than most BD players that do internal decoding.

You hit the Home key in the game and choose Change Controller.

Thanks. I'll try that.

Would any USB IR receiver work? I'd like one on a cord that I could put in a better line of sight position.

...

Does the Schmartz.com. have a remote or how would you teach your universal remote the codes for the decide? ...

I just added the PS3 device to my Harmony 890 PRO and ignored the warning that the Harmony would not control the PS3 properly. (Msg intended for thee world of folks that don't know about these dongles.)

It works just like that. (I did customize a few buttons, but never had to learn any IR commands

...
I had ruled out the PS3, but the $399 for a PS3 40gig and the $50 for this is still cheaper than most BD players that do internal decoding.
Before considering any other BD player consider the following:

"New Blu-ray 2.0 spec makes PS3 the most future-proof player"

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080118-new-nlu-ray-2-0-spec-makes-ps3-the-most-future-proof-player.html

I bought the schmartz IR on/off solution. Works well with my harmony one. fast forwards, rewinds, everything.. pretty nice. Only downfall is for the ON/OFF one you you actually have to put a copper type sticker on the power button.. but other than that everything works great