DirecTV Remote Control

DirecTV Remote Control is a simple and intuitive piece of software designed to provide you with the ability of controlling one or more DVR devices from your computer, allowing you to perform a wide range of actions without having to use the physical remote control.

The utility is fairly easy to understand and handle, but keep in mind that you need to have Yahoo! Widget Engine on your system, otherwise DirecTV Remote Control will not be able to function.

The main interface reproduces the image of an actual remote control, allowing you to select the DVR that you want to use, supporting up to eight different devices, as well as access, edit and create 'Macros', which are then listed on the left side of the virtual remote.

Right-clicking on DirecTV Remote Control will reveal a menu where you can adjust the 'Widget Preferences', as well as enter the targeted DVR IP addresses and start creating your macros.

In order to get started, you can access the 'Widget Preferences' and go the 'IP 1' or 'IP 2' tabs, where you can setup the IP addresses and names of up to four DVRs in each. The name you input will be displayed in the main interface when selecting the device you want to control.

The 'General' section enables you to display the 'Full Size Remote', whether to 'Speak Macro Text', 'Speak Key Name' or 'Speak Title'. The rest of the tabs, named 'Macros', allow you to input the preferred label, then enter the actions you want the 'Macro' to perform, one after the other, with spaces between them.

The supported actions are poweroff, format, replay, stop, advance, rewind, forward, pause, record, up, down, left, right, back, info, menu, and several others. However, keep in mind that DirecTV Remote Control is only able to execute certain actions that are transmitted through the network, so turning the volume up or down, that is conveyed through IR signal, is not supported.

To sum it up, DirecTV Remote Control is a handy and user-friendly widget that enables you to control multiple DVR devices in your network and create various Macros to have them execute several actions, without needing to move from in front of your PC.