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Question about the ability of univ. remotes

1083 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by The Robman, May 23, 2007

Matth3w

Discussion Starter · May 20, 2007

Ok, so it is time I get a nice, fully compatible remote control for all the crap I have in my house. I don't want to spend $500 on a remote, but if I can find something decent for one or two hundred I would be satisfied. Especially if they could somehow control lighting. If not, no biggie.

Mainly, it needs to control three things:

- Samsung 46" DLP HL-S4676S TV

- cable box (currently it is TimeWarner, but soon to be Cox when I move to AZ)

- Phillips HTS3555 home theater system

The biggest challenge I see for getting it to work is:

1) the cable box controls for buying movies and navigating the guide and menus...the channels and volume aren't a concern but the buy, exit, catalog, etc buttons are.

2) the Phillips HTS in general. All of sound is hooked up to this, so I need to be able to switch the sound from component, TV, and iPod dock etc. It also has a DVD player so I need all the standard DVD controls to work as well.

3) the source button for the TV

What would you suggest as far as remotes for this setup? If pictures of my remotes would help, I can take some.

Thanks a billion.

Matthew

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1 - 8 of 8 Posts

tokerblue

· #2 · May 20, 2007

This question gets asked a lot. As long as you get a learning universal remote, you won't lose any of the infrared commands from your original remote. Two very popular lines on are the Logitech Harmony and the URC remotes.

My suggestion is to take a quick look at the various reviews on the www.remotecentral.com forum to get a better idea of what is out there.

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Matth3w

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 20, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by tokerblue /forum/post/0

This question gets asked a lot. As long as you get a learning universal remote, you won't lose any of the infrared commands from your original remote. Two very popular lines on are the Logitech Harmony and the URC remotes.

My suggestion is to take a quick look at the various reviews on the forum to get a better idea of what is out there.

I apologize for asking the same type question. Can you explain the "learning" remotes to me? How do they "learn?"

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tokerblue

· #4 · May 21, 2007

Basically, you point the original remote at the universal remote and press the button you want to learn. So if you wanted to teach it the "Buy" button from your original remote, you would just decide what button on the universal remote you would want to assign it to. The problem with the cheaper universals is that they don't have custom LCD screens, so you have to assign it to an unused button and remember that's where you assigned it.

With a Harmony or URC, you could actually type "Buy" and have it appear in the LCD screen.

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Matth3w

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 21, 2007

now if I can only figure this out:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=850125

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CondoDotNet

· #6 · May 22, 2007

The Harmony 890 (under $250) has Z-wave built-in for light control, and you can get a Z-wave lamp controller for around $50.

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greeno

· #7 · May 22, 2007

when researching remotes, don't forget about the one-for-all's. these are very powerful low-cost remotes that have a set of computer-based programming tools (freely available and a dedicated group of experts providing support) that utilize the so-called JP1, JP1.x interface to access the remote. Go here: http://www.hifi-remote.com/ofa/ and down into the forums: http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/ for more details.

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The Robman

· #8 · May 23, 2007

Agreed. A $20 "One For All" remote like the URC-8910 would cover pretty much all of your needs. If you want to control the lighting too, just get an IR543 box ($20 from http://www.homeautomationnet.com ) and regular X10 modules and you'll be all set.

Throw a $15 JP1 cable into the mix and the remote will absolutely control everything that you could possibly want it to.

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