AUTOMATED PAIRING OF REMOTE DEVICES WITH COMPRESSED IDENTIFIERS

In embodiments, apparatuses, methods and storage media are described that are associated with remote control of media devices. A remote control and a content player may be configured to facilitate a secured pairing process. The remote control may be configured to send non-secured signals (such as through an IR transmitter) as well as send and receive secured signals (such as via an RF transceiver). The remote control may non-securely broadcast an uncompressed identifier of itself. Then, in response to being turned on or asked to pair, the remote control may send a pairing request to the player that includes a compressed identifier. The player may then identify the remote control based on the compressed identifier and the previously-broadcast uncompressed identifier and the remote control and player may then perform a pairing process without requiring additional action on the part of a user. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.