WSJ Reviews High End Universal Remotes

An anonymous reader writes "Walt Mossberg is at it again - this time comparing the Philips Pronto and the Harmony SST-768. These remotes have both been featured on Slashdot before."

Comments

Just use the palm piolet

[electro_mike]

Anyone willing to spend that amount of money on a remote should just go get a PPC or Palm and get a program like omniremote and they can program it to do their bidding just the same as the high end universal's

jp1 programming rocks

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't need a high end universal remote unless you are obsessed with touchscreen remotes.

Check out www.hifi-remote.com and the jp1 programming group on groups.yahoo.com for info on how to totally program radio shack and OneforAll remotes. Macros on devices buttons, new devices,... you name it.

Re:jp1 programming rocks

[crow]

Absolutely!

I bought a $29.95 remote at Radio shack, along with a DB25 connector, cut apart an old IDE cable and soldered it to the DB25, and now I can program every button to do exactly what I want it to. (I think that there are people who will sell pre-made cables for a reasonable fee if you ask nicely.) Like most universal remotes, it comes pre-programmed with device code for most common brands, but you can't program every key to do exactly what you want it to in each of the modes; that is, until you hook up the JP1 cable.

Now when I copy shows from my ReplayTV to VHS (usually for a friend), the Replay Quick Skip button is active in VCR mode, so I can pause the VCR, skip the commercials, and unpause, all without changing modes on the remote.

Oh, and I can download the settings from the remote and archive them in case it ever breaks.

Now here's a remote

[WankersRevenge]

These remotes might be "all that", but nothing beats this one in terms of features and ease of use.

anyone else having problems connecting to Slashdot today?

Unfair comparison.

[juuri]

These remotes are targetted at different crowds. I used to use a pronto (until it broke from one too many falls and required $150 fee to fix). The pronto makes no excuses about being created for the high end tech/theater crowd. The remote is complex, can be tedious to setup but has some awesome high end features.

Pronto's strength is in its ability to create complex macros. For example at my old apartment which had X-10 I had rwo of the following one button macros configured:

[DVD] - Switched to TV to component input. Switched received to DVD audio. Switched TVs aspect ratio. Powered up and issued a play command to the DVD. Dimmed the lights to 50% through the pc-x10 receiver.
[SLEEP] - Switched tv off. Changed cable to classical radio. Turned off lights. Turned volume on received all the way down the up two notches. Slept for 60 minutes, turned receiver off.

Now, that, is an awesome remote.

Features I would like to see

[dmuth]

I would like to see a remote control that can turn down the volume of, pause, and ESPECIALLY rewind my boss. :-)

proud pronto owner

[coaxial]

I own the first generation pronto (the midnight sea foam green one, not the new silver one with the color display). It is without a doubt my favorite piece of home electronics. It solves my problem of 5 different remotes beautifully. I put it into DVD mode and press a button marked "on" and my television turns on and selects svideo input, the dvd player turns on, the receiver turns on, and selects dvd mode. One button does it all. It truly is a sight to behold.

It came with a real screen editor. I can draw buttons, assign single functions or macros to buttons, use timers. I was afraid that the editor wouldn't be up to par, but it was exactly what I wanted.

Now there's alot of people saying "use a palmpilot" but they don't know what they're talking about. The palmpilot and the like's IR transmitter simply isn't powerful enough to work as remote control. Think about it. If it says it can send files from up to a meter away, what makes you think that it's going to be able to control your television at 4 meters?

Only works from 3 feet away.

[bburdette]

Last time I tried this was with a palm III. It only worked when I was close enough to push the TV buttons myself. Kind of defeats the purpose! I think there are some palm models that have greater range, but most don't.

Re:Only works from 3 feet away.

[drinkypoo]

Pacific Neotek, maker(s) of the OmniRemote software, also sell two pieces of hardware designed to enhance the palm's IR. There is a serial dongle (for palms with the old connector) and there is a handspring module. The handspring module features 450kHz IR (for controlling new and expensive devices such as those from Bang & Olafsen) and X10 radio control. Both of these devices have much greater range than any built-in Palm IR.

JP1

[msheppard]

Radio shack (et.al.) have many universal remotes with the JP1 interface. You have to build your own cable (any day I solder is a good day) and then you can program any key to send any IR signal. It's pretty slick once you get it working. You gotta be able to edit Excel spreadsheets of the command arrays &c.&c, but in the end you can make the remote do anything.

M@

Backwards

[DumbSwede]

The idea of programming universal remotes has always seemed backwards to me. Why not have your TV/VCR/DVD/Stereo program your remote for you instead (one button triggers a training mode)? Granted companies would have to agree to some remote standard language, but with 2-way communication between remote and home appliance, there are probably lots of interactive features just waiting to be invented. It opens the field to including remote operation to devices not normally set to have remotes (since they wouldn't actually have to bundle a remote). A really robust standard would separate buying appliances and the remotes that control them.

While we're at it, how about a capacitor or something to hold a remote's programming long enough to change the battery?

How about having the TV warn me when my remote's batteries are getting low?

Remote finder (this one has already been done), have the remote beep.

Why do most Universal remotes only have 3-6 devices? Why not 10 or 20, say by hitting a number button after a device button? It's certainly not for lack of memory.

Mostly I want my universal remote to always be able to get to the Menu/Programming/Timer operations. With a trainable remote this should be no problem. Why so many devices and universal remotes are incompatible at this level is beyond me.

While these Uber remotes no doubt address these last 2 points, they seem vast overkill for something that should be simple and flexible, but instead is stupid and obtuse.

Just another toy -for the dog

[Denver_80203]

My dog has eaten, batteries and all, 4 remote controls. I just bought a new Yamaha reciever and within 3 days it had been consumed. I've been finding little rubber numbers in the yard.