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T.V. and my iPhone MRH magazine help
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Regular poster 451 posts dcforbes Regular poster 451 posts
dcforbes
I'm sitting on my couch watching baseball and wondering "if I can use my iPhone to control my locomotives, why can't I change my tv channel with my iPhone. Is there an ap for channel control?
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Prof_Klyzlr Moderator 8,271 posts
Prof_Klyzlr

Dear DC, If your TV recieves

Dear DC, If your TV recieves and responds to PC network/IP commands, possibly you already can. AFAIK iWhatevers are not equipped with Infra-red transmitters, so they can't simply become "universal remotes". However, is this not better asked on an iWhatever/Apple Fan/techsupport site? Happy Modelling, Aim to Improve, Prof Klyzlr
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murf Active Member 80 posts
murf

The iPhone doesn't emit IR

The iPhone doesn't emit IR signals, but there are hardware/software solutions to do what you want:

I have the Griffin Beacon.  It's a Universal remote that your phone, ipod or ipad can talk to:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TU456ZM/A/Griffin-Beacon-Universal-Remote-Control-System?fnode=MjUxMDA5MjQ

 

Unfortunately it only runs on batteries and runs through them quickly.  You run an app called Dijit on your iOS device and that's pretty easy to setup with your TV/Stereo, etc.  The Apple store has listings for other accessories like this.

Sorry for the non-railroad tangent.

 

- murf

 

 
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joef MRH Founder 18,686 posts
joef

More non-railroad tangent

If you have a media-center PC or a media-center-Mac, then you can use wifi to connect to your "TV device".

Using a computer with wifi hooked to a big screen TV with a smartphone remote is great. You can connect to the internet with your "TV" and watch streaming movies, or watch YouTube videos on your TV - or watch Hulu videos, or watch Amazon Prime videos - or browse the web on your TV. Of course, you can also do traditional stuff like play a DVD or (if you have a Blu-Ray drive in your computer) you can play Blu-Ray movies.

Once you've got an "internet enabled" TV with wifi, you get spoiled really fast - and you can use your smartphone/tablet as a remote. Pretty slick stuff ...

Joe Fugate​
Publisher, Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine

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Read my blog
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dcforbes Regular poster 451 posts
dcforbes

Internet TV

I new model railroad people were the smartest people in the world.  Now if we just ran the country.  What is a good internet TV to get?  My 4 year old son is slowly exiting the destructive phase and we are considering finally upgrading to a flat HD t.v.

Thanks for the info!
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rfbranch Frequent poster 588 posts
rfbranch

Cable provider

To continue the tangent your televijsion provider may have an app for you. as a cable vision subscriber here in the New York area I actually have an app on my iPhone and iPad that allows me to control all my set top boxes. Even cooler, it turns both th phone and the iPad into an extra TV so long as I'm streaming on my home network. Pretty cool!

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~Rich

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Proto-Freelanced Carfloat Operation, Brooklyn, NY c.1974
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