# Forum Home Renovation Home Theatres  Remote Control for HTPC

## fredgassit

Hi. 
Thinking of buying an old refurbished ding dong DELL to use as an HTPC. 
What should I use as a remote control? 
Thank you.

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## Jon

What software will you use?
If you use Kodi you can run a remote control app on your phone. 
m my Sk

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## fredgassit

All I'll use it for is to play videos on VLC Media Player or the like -- no Netflix or anything like that.

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## Jon

Do a search for Kodi.  It is free and gives what I think is called a "10 foot interface", a big navigation screen so you can browse your files while sitting on the lounge on the other side of the room.

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## Whitey66

How much are you planning on spending on the HTPC?
The Nvidia Shield is an awesome bit of gear but may be out of your price range?
It is more compact, more user friendly, more powerful, uses less power and no boot up time.

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## fredgassit

Yes. Kodi looks good. 
Plan to spend about $250 and then put a small SSD in it for an instantaneous boot-up time. 
Will use JRiver for audio and speaker equalization, so a Nividia Shield wouldn't be much use to me. 
What I'm really looking for now is a physical device to operate the HTPC from the ol'  armchair. 
Any recommendations? 
Thanks again.

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## Moondog55

The way I understand it is that the new Smart TVs act as the switch so you use the television remote to do all the control work. We of course do not own a new Smart TV

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## fredgassit

Neither do we. 
Thanks for the update Moondog.

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