Whoops (I made a mistake)

[Bobvfr]

Bought the wife an Xbox One for Xmas, I went for a white one with Sunset Overdrive, me and the boy stole the game for our Xboxes as the wife wouldn't like it anyway :smile:

The mistake part was this:

The reason for the purchase is to make life easy for the wife, she knows and finds using the Xbox One easy to go from TV, music, OneDrive pictures and stuff, she is already used to it in the front room on my one, she doesn't like talking to it but we have the media remote so one remote control does everything (She likes this).

So I thought, we don't need the Kinect, and a white one will suit the bedroom furniture, it doesn't come with Kinect so we bought it.

My lad went to the shops on Friday and bought the media controller, whoops, we didn't take into account that you either need the Kinect to act as a IR blaster or buy a separate IR blaster with a 3.5 jack plug to actually turn the volume up on the telly etc.

I have checked all the main stores and even Microsoft's online store and you cannot get a Kinect for love or money in the UK at the moment, everywhere is out of stock. And for some unknown reason stand alone IR blasters aren't big in the UK, I will try the Tottenham Court Road (Used to be the tech shopping capital of London) on Monday but I am not holding out much hope.

So it will be a slightly deflated present on Xmas day, luckily the Lumia 830 (Her main present) is all prepped and ready to go :smile:

And I will get a Kinect as soon as they turn up in stock here in the UK after Xmas......

Maybe she wont notice :sweaty:

 

[Laura Knotek]

Good luck! I'd be happy with the 830 all set up and ready to go. Hopefully, she won't be too disappointed waiting for the Kinect or IR blaster.

 

[ncxcstud]

Is there a cragislist equivalent in the UK? That might be your best bet to get a Kinect right now... Or even a local video game store that might sell a used one?

 

[Bobvfr]

To late to get anything delivered, I am working Mon/Tue/Wed but will have a few minutes to have a look in a few shops, if not it's an after Xmas job.

 

[HeyCori]

Oh yeah, the IR blaster is sweet. I walk into the room, "Xbox On." I don't even look for the remote. And navigating between apps is super convenient thanks to Kinect. Once you start using voice commands it's hard to go back.

 

[Bobvfr]

Luckily it was very slack at work today, so I worked very hard to solve my problem, I went in several Hi-Fi shops, several PC shops, PC world, a Game shop, and a Maplin (An electrical hobbiest shop who normally keep just about any gadget and connector you can think of), no one sells an IR blaster and every one is out of stock of Kinect sensors.

At the Maplin I explained exactly what I wanted I had almost given up, so I picked on one last Hi-Fi shop, the man said we don't call them IR blasters over here, it's called an IR repeater or IR extender (But we don't keep them) so with one hour of work left I popped back into Maplin.

I met the same man but luckily the man next to him actually knew what he was talking about so I found a "Remote IR repeater", this is much more than I needed as it came with an IR receiver, a mixing box and luckily the thing I needed an IR Blaster with a 2.5 jack plug, I also bought a 2.5 to 3.5 jack adapter.

When I got home, as a test I stuck the jack and adapter in my lads Xbox One, spent one minute telling the Xbox one the model of the telly and that I am user an IR blaster and it works, I am a little relieved to say the least.


So Xmas is now complete......






Apart from my wife who now as a White Xbox One that will control her telly using the media remote without Kinect and a brand new L830 for her Xmas pressies then said "Don't you want to see my Xmas wish list".

I could be in trouble here :wink:

As I am sure the effort I put into today and the above presents will not be on that list.......