Using the Vizio Co-Star Remote with my TV Connected PC?

August 6, 2013 5:17 PM

Hive mind, I beseech thee: Please assist me in using my Vizio Co-Star Remote (I don't care about the Co-Star itself) with my PC via Bluetooth.

OK, long story short, I don't care for the Vizio Co-Star. It's a decent device, but it's not what I wanted (no fault to Vizio, it's a great device for the price, I'm just learning what I'm looking for)

However, my new PC hooked up seems to work great! However, I'm not too fond of the control setup (I'm juggling a remote for the tv, a wireless mouse, and a keyboard). But I have this GREAT remote from the Co-Star, that does Infrared & Bluetooth (from what I understand). Sounds (close enough to) perfect! But I can't figure how to hook it up to my PC. If there's a way to get the Wii remote to hook up to a PC, I've GOT to assume SOMEONE's figured this out, right? Do you know?

posted by TrueVox to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

it appears that the unit has bluetooth(possibly for streaming audio from smartphones and such?) but not the remote. I may be misreading the page, but that was my takeaway. It might communicate with the box via bluetooth, but i would wager on it being some irritating proprietary stuff over bluetooth like the PS3 controllers and several other popular electronic devices remotes.

The wii remote was figured out by lots of smart people who really wanted to use the motion controls, and spent countless hours(which probably added up to a LOT between tens or even hundreds of people) developing stuff and figuring it all out. Same with the people who got the PS3 controller working with PCs.

Unless somewhere on their site they have PC drivers, or when you pair it you can instantly use the trackpad and clicker to move your mouse around... you're probably hosed.

I did a bit of googling and found some xbmc community threads, reviews, etc and the thing seems fairly locked down besides the ability to install apps from the google play store.

And this is coming from a guy whose spent a bunch of time trying to get a good setup for this kind of stuff. The best solution i've ever found was tv remote + smartphone "trackpad" app(like this, or the VNC based ones that use apple remote desktop or any vnc app). I've never really gotten anything else including a few thrift store remotes quite similar to the one you have there to ever work quite right.
posted by emptythought at 9:15 PM on August 6, 2013

Response by poster: Ah. Well. That is full of sadness. Thanks for trying though.
posted by TrueVox at 4:17 AM on August 7, 2013

Response by poster: Well, not to morph the question, but if any one else wants to offer their solution to the problem of PC & TV control, I'd be interested to hear it, even if my ideal solution isn't an option.
posted by TrueVox at 4:29 AM on August 7, 2013