Coming up on Hands on Tech, let's take a look at remapping the media buttons on a TV remote.

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Hello and welcome to Hands on Tech.

I'm Micah Sargent, and we, as always, are answering the questions you have. Yes, the tech questions you have. Today, we are looking at a question that comes from Lance. So Lance writes in and says, as you know, many home theater and gaming gear devices come with remotes in the box.

I wonder if there's a way to fix them based on my needs, not what they want.

In my case, since I already use iHeartRadio, I don't need a Spotify button.

Since I use the Disney Plus with Macs, I don't need that.

I don't need the Netflix app because I don't like Netflix.

So can I change these buttons?

This is essentially what Lance is asking.

So what Lance is talking about here, many of you, I'm sure, have either,

maybe you've stated an Airbnb or you've gone to a hotel or you've purchased a

TV that you pull it out, you pull out the remote, and there are three or four buttons on

there that have a logo. Netflix, Hulu, who knows, Amazon Prime, all these different things. And it's typically that the TV manufacturer

and the company that makes the, that distributes the content that makes these, these streaming

platforms kind of have a deal in place to make it so that that button is being used. It helps to subsidize the cost of the

television. And in doing so, you are sort of locked in to having to have those buttons for that

specific stuff. And in some cases, those streaming services go the way of the do-do,

and suddenly that button is of no use to you anymore. Or, as is the case of Lance, who doesn't

really watch Netflix, even though Netflix is still around, not very useful to Lance. So, can you change the buttons on the remote? I'm going to say this. Technically,

sort of yes, kind of, but ultimately there's no easy or good way to go about fixing this.

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