How to Control Your TV or IR Device From Your Mobile Phone

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Nokia 5800 Xpress IR Remote Control Profile

Nokia 5800 Xpress IR Remote Control Profile

With the help of a device called the USB-UIRT, Vectir lets you control your TV, DVD player, Stereo or other IR device from your mobile phone. When the USB-UIRT is plugged into your PC, it can be used to record IR signals from any standard IR remote control. Vectir stores these signals as Send IR commands. The Send IR commands can then be mapped to keys on a mobile phone connected to your PC over Bluetooth or WiFi. In this mode of operation, Vectir works as a Bluetooth to IR or WiFi to IR converter.

Here are some instructions for setting up Vectir to control your TV or IR device with a USB-UIRT.

1. USB-UIRT Preparation
Make sure your USB-UIRT drivers are installed and your USB-UIRT is plugged into an available USB port.

2. Create Remote Profile
In the Vectir PC software, create a new remote profile and name it to match the IR device you wish to control. “TV Remote Control” for example. Download links for the remote profile and profile skin image used in this example are at the end of the post. The remote profile has been designed to fit the display of a Nokia 5800 Xpress but should also fit other Nokia touch screen phones. For all other touch screen phones, resize the background image to fit the screen resolution of your phone. For non touch screen phones, may either design a custom background image or use text labels to indicate which keys will control each IR command.

3. Setup IR Send Command
In the right hand Setup panel, expand Hardware > USB-UIRT > Commands. Drag the item called “Send IR” into the “Key Commands” folder of your IR remote control profile.

The “Send IR Command Setup” dialog will load. Follow the dialog instructions to record an IR signal from your remote control. When a signal has been recorded, the dialog status will change to say “An IR code is available”.

Click the Save button when you are ready. The IR send command will now be stored in the Key Commands folder of your remote profile. Rename the command to match the button that you pressed on your remote control. In the following example, a play button was recorded.

4. Map Phone Event to IR Send Command
If you own a touch screen phone, right click on the IR send command and select “Add Touch Screen Event”. Select the name of the button you wish to control the command and a new event will appear under the command.

If you own a phone with a keypad, connect to Vectir from your phone and load the IR remote control profile. In the Vectir PC software, right click on the IR send command and select “Add Touch Event”. The Event Setup dialog will load. Now press the button on your mobile phone that you would like to control the IR send command. The Event Setup dialog will close and a new event will appear under the IR send command. Rename the event to match the button that you pressed on your phone.

5. Repeat For Remaining Commands
Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all remaining commands that you would like to setup.

6. Test!
You can now load the IR Remote control profile on your mobile phone and start remotely controlling your TV and other IR devices!

Downloads:
Nokia 5800 Xpress IR Remote Control Profile
IR Remote Profile Skin

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One Response to “How to Control Your TV or IR Device From Your Mobile Phone”

  1. Jan Says:

    Dear Vectir staff,
    I was wondering whether there is some available solution for wifi-based remote controlling home theater devices, like AVRs or Bluray players connected to the same home network for Symbian Anna-based Nokia N8…
    I noticed that many electronics brands like Pioneer, Denon, Marantz, Panasonic, LG, etc. support both iOS and Android by various kinds of free-downloadable apps that allow to use phones as wifi-based remote controls…
    especially nice and reliable is Pioneer’s iControlAV2 app for both aforementioned OS…
    it’d be cool if latest Symbian devices was given similar opportunity…
    thanks a lot