FLIRC USB Dongle for Media Centre, Raspberry Pi and XBMC

Although I use another wireless keyboard to operate my system outside of my media centre (XBMC), this little beauty is perfect for the day to day running of any media centre and has not been publicised widely enough.I have rarely seen this mentioned on forums for XBMC/Boxee or any of the others but it should be!I run a win7 system with XBMC as a front media centre connected to my TV for watching TV Series/Films and listening to music through a dedicated AV receiver.For the past year or so I have used a few different wireless keyboards, a tablet (running Yatse/XBMC controller over HTPC and unified remote to control windows), however I now use my AV remote (Onkyo) for controlling my TV, Receiver and my XBMC. It works perfectly with no problems as yet (will update if needed).The programming could not be easier. The software is downloaded from the official website and has built in configurations for standard keyboard, XBMC, Boxee, Basic navigation and others. I believe custom ones can be made but have not explored this. However using the keyboard option I was able to programme every single function I need for XBMC simply by pressing the representative 'button' on the software and then pressing the desired button on the remote controller. I was up and running within 3 minutes.I wish I had of known of this little gem when I first began running my media centre as it would have saved me buying a tablet and previous wireless keyboards.I now only need one remote by my side for normal watching (I would guess, and have seen it mentioned on forums that this works with Harmony One and pretty much any other standard remote) and I only need to get out anything else if I want to browse windows (for adding things to the libraries mainly). I use this in conjunction with this woreless keyboard: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005C71L5Y/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for general windows use. Paired together they are everything I need and save a lot of space.All indications say this works with Raspberry Pi, which I would love to move over to next for space saving (and geeky fun) purposes. I currently use an Acer Revo 3600 connected to my AV receiver through HDMI.Unless the FLIRC develops a fault and stops working this item receives a very strong recommendation if you wish to control your media centre using your normal TV/DVD/Uni/AV remote.This underrated item needs more publicity; I didn't even know it existed until one person mentioned it on a forum somewhere and I happen to Google it and couldn't believe how simple the idea was and how I had not yet been aware it existed.Five stars for product, delivery and packaging.

Good product but i see lot of room for improvement, didn't meet my expectations really but for now this is all i could have for my use. So good.

I don't normally bother with product feedback but this is so specialist I thought I should.To set this product up I used a windows 8 machine. I downloaded the software from the Flirc website and then sat baffled for 5 mins as to why it kept saying in the setup software that its disconnected even when I could clearly see in the windows hardware summary screen that it was detected. Basically you need to run the software as administrator. Right click the .exe file and 'Run as administrator'.The setup is easy, select a keyboard button that you want to map and then point your remote (any remote at all) and press the corresponding button and it will learn the IR code and map it to that keyboard press. This is the really clever part, once its set up you can plug it into anything and it will be seen as a keyboard and act in the same way. All of the config is stored in the dongle itself with nothing running on the device/pc its plugged into after its set up.I use it with an Intel NUC running Openelec for XBMC. Its works absolutely flawlessly, the sensor is very sensitive picking up IR commands even with the sensor obscured behind a soundbar. Its also neat looking, most of the windows remotes and IR sensors have large ugly receivers trailing USB cables.Part of the reason I had been putting off shifting from my WDTV to XBMC was the hassle configuring decent controls. This does away with all of that, I can even carry on using my WDTV remote that I am familiar with and really like.In short, it works really well, solves an annoying problem with XBMC and remote controls and looks nice.

I had my eye on this product for a long time but could not justify buying it when I had perfectly fine Logitech IR remote working. So when the battery leaked and destroyed my remote I was in market for new remote. Love the idea that you could use any remote control with FLIRC .Device arrived in plastic packaging and this sure is "frustration free" packaging taken to the extreme. It was not sealed and dongle fell out of it when I picked it up. So since was not sealed I have no way of knowing if this really was new product or refurbished/second hand. There is no instructions or manualsFLIRC dongle itself is solid build. See-through plastic on the FLIRC is not my cup of tea but it doesn't take away from functionality.First thing you need to do is go to FLIRC web site and download software for configuring FLIRC with remote control. While you at it do firmware update on FLIRCAnother thing I would like to mention is if like me you have your minipc media station/server/XBMC attached to back of the TV you will need to purchase USB extension cable to be able to place FLIRC in front of the TV for remote control to work.Software is very simple and easy to use. First I went to configure FLIRC with my old Sony DVD remote and this resulted in FLIRC transmitting same command twice every time. No troubleshooting could fix it.Ok, next I moved to old spare Sky box remote I had. After configuring each button I had left , right up and down, play was working. OK, BACK , PAUSE not working. Nothing. Tried number of times to reconfigured it and same results every time.Next I moved on Hauppauge remote , here FLIRC recognised every press when configuring it but once connected to media PC not a single key press worked.Now I took my LG DVD remote control and configured it with FLIRC. This one WORKED! All key presses worked as they are supposed to except SHUTDOWN did translate into left move. I can live with this..So the bottom line is great concept in theory. In practice its hit and miss and would not recommend this product unless you have lots of unused remote controls around the house.