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I think the Roku really went in the right direction with it's remote. Since it's RF, you can place the actual Roku box anywhere, even behind the TV and are still able to change channels. No need to maintain a line of sight (and distance) you have to deal with when dealing with IR remotes. The headphone jack built into the remote is pretty neat as well. I don't use it, but it's a superb idea and makes me wonder why nobody came up with it before.
The only reason current remotes need so many buttons is to facilitate changing channels in different ways (dialing in the channel number, paging through lists of shows, etc). Here's the interface for TWC's app, which I think heads in the right direction:
* Show lists - instead of channels, you should just see a list of shows you want to watch, instead. No need to dial in numbers
* in-show channel lists - whenever you're wanting to watch another channel
While I'm not a fan of TWC service in general, I really liked their Roku app and the way it made TV viewing better. We should get rid of the concept of "channels" altogether and focus at the "show" and "genre" level instead.
Of course, by doing so, you make channels fungible. Channels can come and go and you wouldn't know about it. You would only notice a change at the "show" level.
It really doesn't address how new shows get in front of you, either. New shows could easily pop up in a seldom-watched genre and you could end up missing the first couple of seasons before news of it percolated over to you.
IR remotes need to go die somewhere.
I really like your idea, and think that if a change is coming It should definitely be towards this direction. However, god damn is it going to be hard to restructure the concept of TV into this. There is a lot of people that stand to loose a lot of money when and if this would happen.
Thanks for this.