SofaBaton U2 Universal Remote (with Backlight), All-in-One Smart Universal Remote Control with Customized APP for TV/Soundbar/DVD/Blu-ray/Projector and More, Macro Buttons & Extended Infrared Range

At last, my quest for a universal backlit remote that will work with my new Hisense 43" Fire TV is over! I picked up the new TV for my guest room during a Black Friday sale but with low light one needs a flashlight to see the remote buttons. I guess that's what you get for a cheap, no-frills TV, but I've had enough experience with third-party universal remotes to foolishly think, "no big deal - I can always pick up an inexpensive backlit multi-device remote to operate the TV, soundbar, and onn Android box." Boy, was I wrong! The first two remotes I tried, even though they said were compatible with Hisense TV, weren't, at least with my particular model. While it's not stated anywhere I could find, and I did spend a fair amount of time searching, apparently this particular TV, and possibly other Fire TVs as well, uses Bluetooth rather than IR or RF bands for the remote. I discovered this only after purchasing my SofaBaton U2 backlit remote and finding that like the previous models I'd tried, I could not set it up with IR, but switching over to the Bluetooth instructions where the remote actually communicates directly with the TV to get the proper device profile had me up and running with nearly all TV functions in a matter of minutes. From there, adding my older IR-based LG soundbar took another few minutes as the SofaBaton U2 already had a code set for that particular device, and reassigning the volume and mute buttons to use the soundbar functions regardless of source was pretty straightforward. Lastly, while it took a few tries, I was able to set up a macro to the very top button to turn on/off both TV and soundbar with one button. I now have a backlit remote that operates both the Hisense FIre TV and LG soundbar flawlessly. I have yet to add my onn Android TV box (much faster and more customizable than the Fire TV interface) but suspect that should be fairly easy now that I am more familiar with the U2 process. Everything is working together now and original remotes have now taken up residence in a nightstand drawer. The only thing I didn't like about programming the U2 in Bluetooth mode is that you need to keep switching the U2 back and forth between the Android phone app and the TV during the setup, which did cause some delays and confusion about which device the U2 was connected to at any given time. Also, apparently with Bluetooth one cannot use the learn function to copy a particular button from the original remote to the U2. I had wanted to add the TV button from the original remote to one of the colored buttons but was unable to do that because I could not locate that button in the original remote codes that were downloaded from the TV and could not learn it from the original remote. That said, there is a workaround to access the TV Guide from the Home screen, and from there select a specific channel, requiring additional button pushes and scrolling. Other than that, I found the U2 to be superior, in many ways to my two Harmony remotes which get little use since my home theater system runs mostly off the Samsung remote that came with the TV using HDMI eARC control. In short, the SofaBaton U2 offers both IR and Bluetooth control options, which make it more compatible, especially with newer devices, and once you figure out the connection, it's even faster setup than using a preset device profile since it gets all the commands directly from the device being controlled. I found the backlight buttons and LCD panel to be bright enough to see easily in a darkened room. I will be testing the onn Android box in a few days and update this review accordingly. Also contemplating adding a mini PC to the mix, which should be pretty simple and only requires changing the TV's HDMI input, but not sure at this point if I can directly choose a particular input or just have to rely on turning the PC on to switch the TV input as it does with the onn Android box. Overall I recommend the Sofa Baton U2 because of its enhanced compatibility over IR only remotes, relative ease of setup, customization options including macros, solid feel and good backlighting.

I bought this after finding that Logitech stopped making their stellar remote. I’ve only had it for a day and have found that it’s not as good as the Logitech, but it works if you mess with it enough. My video/audio setup is simple: Sony Bravia 3, Sony UBP-700 Bluray player, AppleTv 4k settop box. The remote is of good quality. Nice display and roll wheel lets you pick what device you want to control. The keys are backlit and light up when you grab the remote. It’s big enough not to get lost and feels good in hand. Getting the remote to see the individual parts is fairly easy; use the phone app to add devices to the remote. The app does the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, that’s when things get a bit tricky. My AppleTV is plugged into the earc hdmi port on the TV, the Bluray is on a standard hdmi port. I don’t have speakers set up yet. Turning on the tv defaults to whichever input you last used, so if you were watching Bluray and now want to watch something on AppleTV you have to jump through a few hoops. The easiest way is to turn on the tv, switch inputs, and either turn off or ignore the device you were using before. The Logitech remote would switch off the current device, switch on the one you want to now use, then switch the inputs to the tv. This remote is not so smart. My tv is not connected to wifi, neither is the Bluray Player (I recommend that you do the same if you value privacy), the only device connected for streaming in the AppleTV. AppleTV is a bit strange because it is still “on” even when it’s off. The hdmi port is still active and the box is in a kinda suspended state. Because of that the earc port on the tv senses it and wants to default to it if i want to switch to Bluray. So, I turn on the tv, switch inputs to bluray. The TV senses the active earc port and switches back to AppleTV. I switch back to bluray and ignore the AppleTV. Not elegant, but it works. Turning stuff off is a pain too. You can’t use the power button to turn off AppleTV, if you are watching AppleTV you quick-tap the remote power button and that turns the tv and AppleTV off. A long press (2. -3 seconds) brings up a tv reset dialogue. Weird! While in AppleTV, if you want to go to the AppleTV Home Screen a long press (2-3 seconds) on the back-arrow button does the trick. None of this is explained anywhere, and none of it is logical. The SofaBaton remote does allow programming so you can get it to do what you want. I haven’t gotten that far into it yet. The remote will also learn from the original remote. That process is easy. You can also easily program or reassign buttons to act however you want. I had to do that the get the Bluray player to open and close the drawer. In all, it’s a decent remote. Not stellar. Be prepared to mess with it. Update: I’ve had it for a few days now and have added the Ugreen 3 port HDMI switcher to the mix. I got the this switcher because it can be remotely controlled. My arrangement now is this: the AppleTV and the Sony UBP-700 Bluray player are on post 1 and 2 of the switcher. The output of the switcher goes to a standard HDMI port of the TV ( not the earc port). I add the IR sensor to the switcher too. And I’ve added the switcher to the remote. Now things work better. Turning on either the Bluray Player or AppleTV will turn on that device and the TV ( the HDMI port on the tv has CEC enabled which turns on or off the device connected to it). If I want to switch devices I simply scroll down to the switch on the remote, select the device ( I have buttons 1 and 2 reprogrammed to to ugreen switch 1and 2 buttons respectively), scroll to the device I’ve selected on the switch and power it on. I can then select the previous device and power it off. I can then turn off everything by powering off the tv. This is not elegant, but it achieves the goal of reducing the number of remotes you have to deal with. There’s macros you can set up too. I haven’t gotten that far into it yet and may leave it as is because it works.

This device is only for very simple switching applications the micros function on the U2 is horrible! And this is why I primarily purchased the Sofabaton U2. My Harmony 950 remote is unfortunately dead after years of use but when it worked it was awesome! I read on line that the entry level Sofabaton had micros that could function like an activity..A set of commands saved through the remote sent to video devices in a certain order so watch a blu ray or 4k movies, play CD's with a single button press like the harmony remote. "Well" that's not happening here! The main issue is that you don't have an activity setting like you do with the Harmony 950 I think the Sofabaton's X1 ($200.00 ) has it. This enables you to turn off devices when NOT IN USE! You'll find that not only does the remote software gets confused with just turning on and off certain devices you'll be pulling out your hair trying to figure how to fix this online! You cannot switch from one micros command to another without the TV turning off and there is NO REMEDY for this because as I stated earlier there is NO ending programmable activity on the U2. Needless to say I am returning this after spending 7 hours troubleshooting the device in my Home Theater I don't even know if I will try the X1 or S after this I think Ill just wait until some other manufacturer come out with something better.