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Recommendations for a Universal Remote?
cpritchett asks: "I'm starting to work on my home theater system, but am wondering what to do in the way of a universal remote. Yes, touchscreen remotes and ones that give you TV listings may be nice, but they are also pricey and the touchscreen doesn't offer the nice, familiar, tactile feel of a remote we've all grown to love. So, what's your recommendation for a good universal learning remote for under $50?"
http://www.hometheatermaster.com/htm/products/mx-5 00.html
I've seen this one touted for years on AV and home theatre fora. It's $189 retail but it's been around long enough that you might find it under $50 used.
Alex.
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA005810/remocon/pr emocce.htm
Conservatism: The fear that somewhere, somehow, someone you think is your inferior is being treated as your equal.
You can start your research into JP1 at the Yahoo JP1 Forum.
The Home Theater Master MX-500 is the best universal remote I have EVER used. I never thought I would spend $100 on a remote control, but believe me... it is the only universal about which I have been able to say that I no longer use ANY of my other remotes - TiVo included.
Amazing battery life, great IR output, excellent display, nice combination of hard-buttons and programmable soft-buttons.
I also have a number of friends who have all learned the same thing about the MX-500. Buy it and never worry about remotes again.
I've got a Jensen Universal 5 which has been incredibly useful over the past year or so. You can switch between five peripherals, it supports a ton of different devices/manufacturers, and you can auto-scan if your device isn't officially supported... maybe it is! The buttons are nice and firm and the shape is ergonomically pleasing... the only drawback is that the peripheral-switching buttons have a tendency to fade, but after a year of using the remote you've already memorised which button belongs to the TV, the DVD player, etc. To top it off, it was about $20 CAD! Can't go wrong!
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Following the reviews of Remote Central, I picked up a Sony RM-VL900 a few months ago. Admittedly it may be more than $50 (I got mine for $59.99 at Best Buy) but you should be able to hunt around a get it for close to that price point.
;)
It is truly universal - the codes in the manual covered all of my equipment except for a few buttons on the DVD changer and the Receiver. They were absolute cake to learn with the original remotes, though.
The range is solid for a remote in this price bracket, and it's taken more abuse over the last 4 months than many of my previous original and universal remotes. Dropping, sitting on, stepping on, etc.
I've had a few touch screens in the past and even allowing for their superior flexibility in programming and button labeling, etc etc, this is my favorite of all the universal remotes I've tried. Just can't beat the tactility of the hard buttons, anyway.
Check it out!
"This is Zombo Com, and welcome to you who have come to Zombo Com" - www.zombo.com
You need to think about what you want to be able to accomplish with your universal remote with the equipment you have. Devices like a Tivo have remote features that do not factor into a lot of universal remotes control designs; like a '30 second skip' button in addition to the Fast Forward button. With most universals you would have to make a choice as to which function you will assign to the 'FF' button.
I only have to juggle three components; RCA TV, Panasonic Receiver/DVD/CD/Tuner, and a ReplayTV with my universal remote. After buying and shelving about 5 different universal remote controls I've settled on the RadioShack 5-in-1 Remote. It the only remote that come close to duplicating the special functions of the ReplayTV. The key was having enough generic buttons that can be programs against the 'real' remote or the ability to reprogram the existing button for different functions. The RadioShack was the only remote to offer enough buttons to be satisfactory. It is the remote my wife uses 99% of the time but I still prefer to juggle the Replay and Panasonic remotes to retain full functionality. My conclution about a mixed brand system like I have is that only a programmable remote with the LCD screen would truly replace them all but I do not like them because of the lack of tactile feedback.
I got a one4all non-learning remote from Wal-Mart for about $10 and have been completely satisfied. It comes with a booklet that allows you to easily program it to control a wide variety of common TVs, VCRs, DVDs, etc. It also allows for custom programming of individual buttons, so if you want to build your own keymap if basically allows that. Even better, their email tech support will send you undocumented codes for even more units than are described in the booklet. It includes a couple "macro" buttons that allow you to program a series of other button-presses so that you can, for example, turn on all your equipment with one button. It has a pair of infrared LEDs which it apparently uses to provide a strong signal across a wide angle.
The button layout isn't the most ergonomic, but for $10 I was quite impressed. It worked much better than the other (slightly less-cheap) RCA "universal" remotes that I have tried.
--Chouser
"To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." -LL
i'm happy with my Sony Clie PEG-T665. it's not a universal Remote but rather a PDA that comes with a pretty good set of Universal Remote codes for the included ClieRemote program (creative name i know) driven a really awesome IR port. (for a PDA)
sadly i'm starting to find some newer devices that it doesn't work with - notably all-in-one DVD/Radio/Speaker systems.
there are some good 3rd party Remote programs that work with the Clie (and other Palm OS PDA's but the IR Port on most PDAs suck for long range remote functions) such as OmniRemote (a good program, but you have to teach it everything - it comes with no codes!) or NoviiRemote (a good looking program that i have not used yet - i'm happy with the Clie software)
Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
In case you haven't come across it in all of the time you've spent on Google...you might check out http://www.remotecentral.com.
I bought the Sony VL900 a year or two ago and I've been really happy with it. http://www.remotecentral.com/vl700/index.html
:wq
I used to own a Pronto TSU-2000. I sold it, and bought a Pronto TSU-3000. I've had it for about a year, and it's still not fully configured.
My wife hates touchscreens. So, as a holiday present to the both of us, I bought the Harmony 659. It's got tons of real buttons. In under 30 minutes, I had it controlling EVERYTHING, including some fairly obscure (for remote manufacturers) equipment: My plasma TV, my SliMP3, my Zektor component switcher, etc.
It's activity-based, and configured via a java applet loaded from their website. You tell it the make and model of all your equipment. Then, you tell it what you need set to what to do things like watch tv, listen to music, watch a DVD, and so on (these are all customizeable). When you're done, it downloads everything via this java applet to your remote, using a USB connection.
30 minutes, and I've done with a $150 remote what I've yet to be able to do with a $500 remote.
And my wife LOVES the hard buttons.
.@.
... is found at AVS Forums. Although, to be fair, you may want to try Remote Central for this as well. AVS Forum posters would refer you to there pretty quickly anyway.
All of that said, probably the best remote control is out of your price range -- the MX-500 (or the MX-700, which I have and prefer) is about $100 (the 700 is about $170). It's a button remote w/ a small LCD screen that can be programmed with text entries of what the related LCD buttons do. Most of the remote control buttons are marked though. I've had several universal remotes (Marantz RC-1000, Pronto TSU-1000, and MX-700) and the MX series is by far the best. The MX-700's center joystick is a bit wonky (which my wife dislikes), but it's not bad. I've heard that the MX-500 and MX-800 joystick is better.
For your price range, your best bet is a JP1 compatible remote. I'm not familiar with the range of remotes available, so look at either of the above sites, or the JP1 Home Page.
Sony has always been good in this regard, with the sloped up/down buttons for volume and channel and "sticky feel" (don't know what rubber compound they use, but it's good) buttons.
One thing that might be nice would be remotes that light up the buttons when touched. Some of my remotes have glow-in-the-dark buttons, but that doesn't always help at 3AM after the glow fairies have been asleep for a couple of hours.
Folks setting up a home theater should get these instead of the traditional all-in-one remotes just for the WAF (wife acceptance factor).