Mialulu
Member
Cord Cutters ran a piece recommending three Roku remote accessories and reading it mostly made me notice how much of this category exists to patch things the TV standard already covers. The three picks are an EZclicker oversized remote for Roku TVs, the Sideclick clip-on that bolts extra buttons onto the remote you already have, and a voice-enabled pro remote.
The Sideclick is the one that gives me pause. What it adds is TV power, volume and input switching, which is exactly the job HDMI-CEC has had for years. When CEC behaves, the Roku remote already handles power and volume, and switching sources is a menu away. When it does not behave, it is usually because the TV maker shipped it half-implemented under some in-house marketing name and buried the toggle three menus deep. Buying a plastic sidecar to route around a broken handshake is a perfectly fair fix, but it is a fix for the television, not for Roku.
The oversized remote is the one I would actually recommend, though not for the reason the article gives. Big buttons get sold as an accessibility item for older relatives, and they are that, but the real win is that anyone can find pause without looking down and losing the scene. I set one up for my mother-in-law and the phone calls stopped, which is worth more to me than any picture setting I have ever touched.
The gap none of the three fill is the one I hit weekly: no way to jump straight to a named input from the remote. Has anyone got CEC actually behaving across a Roku, a soundbar and a console at the same time, or have we all quietly accepted the sidecar?
The Sideclick is the one that gives me pause. What it adds is TV power, volume and input switching, which is exactly the job HDMI-CEC has had for years. When CEC behaves, the Roku remote already handles power and volume, and switching sources is a menu away. When it does not behave, it is usually because the TV maker shipped it half-implemented under some in-house marketing name and buried the toggle three menus deep. Buying a plastic sidecar to route around a broken handshake is a perfectly fair fix, but it is a fix for the television, not for Roku.
The oversized remote is the one I would actually recommend, though not for the reason the article gives. Big buttons get sold as an accessibility item for older relatives, and they are that, but the real win is that anyone can find pause without looking down and losing the scene. I set one up for my mother-in-law and the phone calls stopped, which is worth more to me than any picture setting I have ever touched.
The gap none of the three fill is the one I hit weekly: no way to jump straight to a named input from the remote. Has anyone got CEC actually behaving across a Roku, a soundbar and a console at the same time, or have we all quietly accepted the sidecar?
