Not all, but the vast majority of television remote controls have four buttons that are distinguished by their peculiar colors: red, green, yellow and blue. What many people don’t know, and may have wondered, is what are they for and how do they work? Quick answer: it depends on the device.
Let’s start at the beginning. The origin of these buttons is not exactly documented, but according to testimonies collected from Reddit, they were developed from the Blu-ray era. However, there were those who said that we actually have to go back to the 70s. The reason: the introduction of teletext.
This concept refers to text on television. Almost 40 years ago, John Adams, a Philips designer, introduced this service on the British channel BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). Viewers could access additional content during the transmission of programs such as news, weather, sports results and even the programming itself.
Its characteristics consisted of a very simple interface: plain text, rudimentary graphics, no animations. Although it managed to stay relevant for several years, with the massive arrival of the internet, many of its functions became obsolete. As technology advanced, it gave way to a new form of interaction: HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV).
This innovation merged the traditional television signal with internet access, allowing for a more dynamic experience. In this way, the classic colored buttons on the remote control began to have personalized functions, which varied according to the channel or the device used.
With technological evolution, HbbTV gave users the opportunity to activate applications, activate subtitles, change languages and even switch from HD to basic broadcast. It is worth mentioning that in some countries it has disappeared, but in others there is still an adapted version, or it is preserved as an accessibility service.
As mentioned above, its usefulness will depend on the brand. For example, when reviewing the official documentation for Philips TV, you can find a specific section that details the purpose of two of these enigmatic buttons. The yellow one is for selecting favorite channels, while the green one is for reviewing the list of those selected channels. The case of Sony is different:
- Yellow button – Input mode: used to alternate between lowercase and uppercase letters.
- Blue button – ABC: used to delete entered letters, numbers or symbols.
- Red button – A/a: changes the writing language between English, French and Spanish.
- Green button – Backspace: allows you to change the type of character between letters, numbers or symbols.
Audio and video games
As a curiosity, their use is not limited to televisions. In fact, Bose has a “Universal Control”, which can be linked to the Bose Soundbar, Bose Soundbar 500 and Bose Smart Soundbar 700 and also has these buttons. According to its user manual: “they correspond to the color-coded function buttons for cable/satellite”.
On the other hand, several people have commented on Quora that when they synchronized their TV remote control with their Xbox One or Xbox 360 consoles, the buttons matched the YBAX layout of the Xbox controller. Curiously, the colors also match: yellow, red, green and blue. Basically, it can be said that if you lose control of your console, there is a possibility of using your TV remote to play.
