Hey all. Great forum. Does any one know the 'VCR Commander' code for the 650H? I'm on Rogers Cable using a Pace 551 HD cable box and an IR Blaster

Hey guys. This was about the best thread that was most recently active that I thought would be good to bump, because all the title consisted of was the model number (rather than start yet another thread).

Just wanted to let anyone know who's interested that there's a used, Canadian Pioneer DVR-650H-K available on ebay, and it appears to be in good condition. It's currently at right around $200.00.

That Pio 650 on eBay could be a great deal if it doesn't shoot off into the stratosphere but closes in the vicinity of $300-400. Any more than that, you'd better be pretty damn sure nothing but a Pioneer will do, and you can't live with a $269 Magnavox 513 instead. :D

Re the original question that started this thread: Pioneer DVD recorders use the same remote codes as Pioneer VCRs. The catch is Pioneer VCRs were barely distributed in North America at all, with the last model at least 20 years ago, so Canadian and USA cable/satellite providers have little incentive to include those codes in their products. If your goal is to have an IR system in the decoder box operate the recorder in timer mode, forget it: no decoder boxes contain the arcane Pioneer VCR remote codes. However, if you just want to operate the decoder box and Pio recorder using a single unified remote, you should be able to do that with many inexpensive universal remotes by programming the cable box and recorder commands into the remote. Universal remotes usually don't have buttons or codes for every single feature of a DVD recorder, but they do have the most-used buttons programmed. Some, like the $30 Sonys, can "learn" additional commands from the original Pioneer remote, and high-end universals like the Harmony can be programmed from the mfr website.