Some other reviews criticised battery life (use decent NiMh rechargeables) and having to 'shake' it to wake it up (you only have to look at it for this thing to wake up so this isn't a problem - I've yet to miss anything in FF mode except when I haven't been paying attention, and that happened with the original remote as well).

The PVR functionality is excellent - at last something to control my Tivo properly.

Basically it looks cool, works properly and is a fraction of the cost of other products with this level of functionality. Get some rechargeable batteries and give it a couple of weeks to adjust to using a multi device remote and you won't look back!


Wake up!!!!!   August 10, 2003
 10 out of 12 found this review helpful

Strengths:
High cool factor with the digital ink display; good signal strength; feels good in the hand; displays current device with key animation; support for PVRs with dedicated device button; dedicated macro buttons.

Weaknesses:
Needs to be moved/shaken to activate the key display before you can press any buttons; lack of real buttons; position of VCR buttons at bottom makes them very difficult to use with one hand.

I've owned it for 24 hours now and will likely return it. I'll admit I was taken with the cool factor but that it ultimately spelled its demise. I was also sold on the dedicated PVR device feature.

The biggest problem is that the display is not active all the time so you need to shake the thing to wake it up before it will show you the button display and respond to button presses. This was the deal breaker for me.

I often use my remote to watch PVR content and use the VCR buttons to scan/skip around content. With this remote, I might trigger a fast forward operation, the display goes to sleep, I find the spot I want to begin play at, I need to shake the thing to wake it up, slight delay, spot missed, flurry of button presses to finally stop the fast forward. Not good.

It's the same with channel surfing. You have to wake it up every time you want to press a button unless it's within the eight seconds (or so) of awake time. Argh!

As for general usability: it provides much of the same capabilities of other remotes from this (UEI) company's line of remotes. Learning from other remotes was no problem.

I especially liked the fact that there's a dedicated PVR device button but it's really no different than using an AUX1 device button to control the PVR, it's just labelled correctly.

So, buyer beware. If you aren't an intensive remote user and you like cool looking gadgets, then this might work for you. Otherwise, it's a pain to have to wake the thing up every time to press a button. Ugh.


This product made my day and my wife even likes it......   August 20, 2003
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

I have had remotes from this company before and they have worked fairly well with my mostly Sony system and my Comcast Motorola Digital cable box. This remote however is 10x better.
.
One of the better points about this remote is a home theater setting which allows you to set the default system for volume, another for channel, and even another for play/ff/rev. In home theater mode my sound is handled by the reciever, my channel by the cable box, and I still have full Guide functions on cable.

There is a PVR sub menu for tivo type systems but I have not used it. This remote worked great with my system and I would have given it a 5 if the sony reciever had a little better coverage of the functions on it. I pointed the old remote at this one for one or two functions I was not getting but even that went well.

You will have to work through the manaual a bit to set everything. I gave myself 2 hours and that included most of the programming.