My review of the OSMC remote for Raspberry Pi:
The remote came through the post today, it included an IR receiver that plugs into the GPIO pins and batteries for the remote. The instructions for setting it up were clear and it took no more than a minute.
The remote itself is a nice size that rests in your hand comfortably, with easy access to buttons. Since there are only the buttons you actually need for OSMC it’s easily to remember the position of the buttons and use the remote without looking. The buttons themselves have a nice click to them with quite short travel but with enough resistance to prevent accidental clicking. It’s clear that Sam has put a lot of effort into the feel of the buttons.
The remote is extremely responsive on my Raspberry Pi 2, with no visible lag no matter what is running in the background on the pi. It is noticeably more responsive that the MCE remote with USB IR receiver I used to have.
The IR receiver is very sensitive and will pick up the signal of the remote without line of sight.
I would highly recommend this remote.
Thanks for the positive review - I’ve been using an OSMC remote (pre-release sample) with a GPIO IR receiver (TSOP38238 - similar but slightly different than the one Sam is shipping) on my Pi 2 for a few months and I like it a lot. I actually have the receiver just inside the case on mine as I have a clear case and it is still super sensitive - pointing it almost anywhere in the room will work.
On a Pi 1 / 2 I actually think a GPIO IR receiver makes more sense than a USB receiver - not only is it cheaper and simpler, and saves a USB port, it has the added advantage that you can learn almost any remote using irrecord, whereas many USB receivers only work with the one model of remote they come with.
So for example if you had a spare remote for a device you no longer own you could learn the buttons on that remote using irrecord to create a new lircd.conf, and then combine the two lircd.conf’s together (the osmc one and your custom one) and have two completely different models of remote controlling the Pi at once! 
I’m not sure that many people are aware that you can just join multiple lircd.conf files together in a text editor to have as many different remotes active at once as you like…
Hi aem
I’m glad you got your remote so quickly. I’ve only managed to get the initial batch out on Friday, so Royal Mail must have treated you well!
We are looking at a little block that sits on top of the Pi and removes the need for any ribbons or wiring to make it even easier in the future.
Anyway, glad it reached you fine and if you have any queries let me know.
Sam
I seem to have run into a bug with the remote. When I haven’t been on the pi for a while and the TV is off, if I turn on the TV and then try to use the remote nothing will happen for the first 15s or so, then it applies all the buttons I pressed during the first ~15s and then operates normally from then on.
I have no other usb IR receivers plugged in and I have CEC turned off on both the pi and the TV. Clean install RC3 with deluge and pyLoad running in background, nothing else. Distance to the receiver has no affect.
Not sure what else to do. I really like this remote but it shouldn’t be doing this 
I have a clean RC3 with no background services and do not get this. If you can replicate this quite quickly, can you try leaving off pyLoad and Deluge and seeing if you can replicate the issue when these services are disabled?
Sam
Will try it now…
Also when the issue happens, what happens if you try to navigate using the keys on a USB keyboard ?
I’ve never seen this happen with my remote by the way, but I don’t use pyload or deluge.
I pkilled pyLoad and Deluge.
The delay is still there.
USB keyboard works fine.
Thanks for the support.
Edit: I installed crontab from the app store, do you think that could affect things??
You’re saying this only happens when you turn your TV back on ?
Yes and no. I have only noticed it when I don’t touch the pi for 15 minutes or so. I usually turn off the TV if I’m not using the pi, so when I go to check I’m turning on the TV.
I could leave the TV on and try but with CEC disabled it shouldn’t make any difference I don’t think?
hi everyone
my osmc remote turned up today but without any instructions. I’m loving the feel of the remote but haven’t a clue how to connect up the gpio kit. I’ve just got a sealy bag with the IR remote and a small wire… help !!