A 3.5 mm headphone jack for private listening.A rechargeable battery, unfortunately charged via the ancient microUSB standard (a cable is included, but come on).Hands-free "Hey, Roku" commands (which you can enable or disable).In the end, it's not a huge deal, as there are also two programmable buttons you can easily map to apps or common functions to ameliorate this.ĭepending on your Roku device, you could be missing any of the following buttons and features of the Voice Remote Pro: Roku says this change will also be made in future production of the Voice Remote Pro, as the two companies recently agreed to keep this change going forward on all of Roku's remotes. But the Voice Remote Pro is the best iteration the company has released in nearly every way.Ĭompared to the others, the only knock I can give is its inclusion of a Sling TV button, which is sensibly replaced by an Apple TV+ shortcut on Roku's Express 4K+ remote. Roku's remotes all vary slightly from device to device, be it a TV, streaming stick, or otherwise. (Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.) The touchpad now reacts only when I want it to, and it works smoothly for selection or scrubbing through media playback. It's fun to still be able to flick through titles but also click buttons when I want more precision. The mixture of these two is the perfect sweet spot for usability. Whether you have touch control enabled or not, you can use the directional arrows surrounding the enter button to navigate entirely, as early Apple TV adopters used to enjoy. Furthermore, you can disable touch entirely or, like the previous generation, adjust the touch sensitivity as well. That means it's much harder to accidentally swipe the touch controls while reaching for or grasping the remote. Instead of taking up a third of the remote's body, touch sensitivity is confined only to the center button itself, which is also concave. That's largely due to the smaller footprint of the touch area. Thankfully, it's not as touchy (ahem) as before. The new design does incorporate some touch elements introduced in the last Siri Remote, though. The more robust build quality should also fare better if/when drops do occur, especially compared to the aluminum and glass design of the previous generation. The remote has a more satisfying heft in the hand, and it's thick and square enough to avoid feeling like you might drop it when you go to press a button. Roku's remotes never had that sort of overengineering problem-instead, they've suffered from the opposite issue, often feeling hollow and cheap while missing some useful functions on all but the highest-end Roku players.įurther Reading UX rant: The nightmare horrorshow that is the Apple TV remoteĬompared to the first-generation remote's aluminum body, the new Siri remote has been slightly beefed up for a better grip and feel. Apple TV remotes have been the stuff of nightmares since the first and only redesign over a half-decade ago. Both companies are focused on improving usability and adding features via the remote, rather than retooling the streamers themselves.Īpple's new Siri Remote and Roku's Voice Remote Pro are new devices that existing users can buy to make their streaming experiences much less frustrating (in Apple's case) or easier and more feature-rich (in Roku's). It's also why they've made some thoughtful upgrades to their respective streaming devices in the form of redesigned remotes. It's why they recently inked a deal to put an Apple TV+ button on Roku remotes going forward. If they are low, you need to replace them.Apple and Roku know that remotes for streaming devices are important. Using the remote control that came with your TV, check that your TV is currently set for the input mode you are trying to control. Your TV settings may have been accidentally changed.The device you are trying to control may not be programmed into your remote.Be sure you are within 8 meters or 25 feet of the device you want to control. Point the remote directly at the sensor on the device.Open cabinet doors and remove any other obstacles that may be between the remote and the device. Something may be blocking the path to the device you want to control, you may not be pointing at the sensor on the device, or you may be too far away.Check that you're using the remote that was set up for the TV you are trying to control. If you have multiple TVs, you may be using a remote that is programmed for another TV.
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