iRule or Roomie vs Touchsquid

My setup is fairly similar to yours, with the exception of a Pioneer 1222k in place of the Denon. I did a comparison of irule on the ipad and TS on my Nexus 7, both using the Global Cache IP2IR. I ended up going with "The Squid" pro version. I just liked the ease of setup and their customer support is top notch. Even though you'd require something like the Ip2ir to use irule, I'd recommend demoing both products without it and see which suits you better from a programming perspective. If you find you like irule better, the cost of the interface device isn't so much that it outweighs the benefit of having something that works for you. In addition, you might like not having to depend on line of sight for your remote and that could also justify the cost. For a fair comparison, I'd use the pro version of TS. They'll give you a refund within two weeks if you don't like it. I had limited success with the demo version and also you gain macros with the pro version. Without the macros, I don't think I'd care much for TS.

Sent from my Nexus 7

When I emailed squids customer support asking about a demo of the pro, they said they'd refund the purchase price within two weeks if I didn't like it.

I just reread your reply in post 4. By ip control on the display and blu-ray player, are you referring to the ability to control them via Sony's Media Remote app? If so, I I believe the app uses proprietary codes and/or control channel. I'm able to use it on my blu-ray (same model as yours) and my hx850. However, irule (or touchsquid) wouldn't have access the devices in the same manner. That's why you would need something like the IP2IR to convert irule's commands to a standard ir signal that device's sensor can pick up.

The IP codes for your devices are readily available and are in the iRule and Roomie Remote databases. Since you already own both an iPad and the Nexus I would probably lean towards iRule since it can run equally as well on iOS and Android. The iRule Builder Basic lets you run on 3 devices (Pro=5) and you can even add more beyond that and I think the best set-up is to have the remote on every device in your home. If your house is anything like mine the tablets/phones/ipods never actually stay where they're supposed to.

If what remoteshoppe says is the case, then I've misinformed you. Apologies. I also attempted direct ip control of my devices without success when I trialed irule, so I assumed that Sony's app was proprietary.

iRule is the most flexible.

Roomie is sort of like a Harmony remote for IOS, it's not very flexible or configurable, but easy to set up / use for basic control tasks of equipment.
Touchsquid even less configurable, but if all you need is an IR remote and have a rather basic AV setup, not bad.

As for DemoPad vs. iRule, here are a few of the primary differences:
- iRule is cloud-based and uses a web-based configuration tool (iRule Builder), so there is no software to install or files to lose, and you can use a Mac, Windows machine, Linux, etc. DemoPad design software requires a PC (or PC emulator).

- iRule includes a large graphics library in three different themes; DemoPad's $40 offering includes basic graphics, so you'll probably want the Graphics Pack for another $30.

- iRule is developed for iOS and Android; DemoPad is iOS-only. There are some great Android devices that are cheap enough to be deployed as a dedicated remote. The Google Nexus 7 comes to mind. If you need remotes in several rooms, do you really want to pop $500 for an ipad / ipad mini in each room that is used solely as a system remote? Or, how about less than $100 for a decent Android tablet? Having both platform options with iRule is a huge bonus, regardless of what the Demopad folks will tell you.

- iRule Pro is $100; DemoPad w/Pro Graphics set is $70 (with Pro graphics)

- iRule has iTunes Module and the soon-to-be-released Sonos Module. These are the first of many more modules. Demopad does not have preconfigured modules.

- Gestures. Like being able to use your remote without looking? With iRule, you can define a page/panel in the remote where the user can swipe up and down to turn the volume up and down, left and right to fast-forward and rewind, and tap to play/pause toggle. No gestures in Demopad

- Free trial period of the iRule builder app.

- iRule is developed in the US; DemoPad is from the UK