So close, and yet.....
Written: Jan 03 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good overall case design, buttons can be relabeled or left blank.
Cons: Very slow to send signals, touchscreen not responsive.
The Bottom Line: The low price and traditional rectangular design made me buy it, and its slow speed, unresponsiveness and ultimate total failure/crash made me return it.
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| earlyadopter's Full Review: RCA RCU1000B LCD Touchscreen Remote Control |
I decided on the RCA 1000B without doing any research other than reading it's box and those of two other Sony learning remotes at my local big box store. Both Sonys were more expensive and I liked the rectangular shape of the RCA, even if it was oversized.
Right out of the box everything was OK. The instruction manual is short but not well-written, leading to some guessing on my part where programming was concerned. Still, the unit itself is pretty intuitive and after relabeling and learning one button I no longer needed the manual.
The buttons can be relabeled, but users may only choose from one of three pre-screened labels or simply leave the open, empty frame. You may not put whatever text you want inside a button.
After programming I was pretty jazzed and ready to start using this remote. I immediately noticed the main downside of this unit: speed.
I suppose I never thought about remote speed before; you pushed the channel up button and the channel changes. Not so on the RCA 1000B. Instead, its as if there is a delay built in, or perhaps it just takes a while to send the code. Either way, unless you want to spend two to three seconds on each channel it is really annoying.
At first glance, two to three seconds doesn't seem bad, but what about when you are going from channel 25 to 28 and don't care about checking out 26 and 27? Yes, you could use the keypad, but most people I know just hit the up button twice.
Also, the touchscreen keypad seemed unresponsive and sluggish. As a longtime Palm-user I am accustomed to th good and bad points of touchscreens. I have used four different palm-type devices, all by different manufacturers, and have never come across a screen as slow as this one. It sometimes must be tapped HARD to even come on, and then is very picky about which button you'd like to activate.
I finally had enough and decided to purchase another remote through an online vendor. Since I would have to wait for ground shipping, I was going to keep the RCA until my new one came in and then return it (even with its slooow speed it was better than juggling five remotes). Perhaps it sensed my dissatisfaction, because the very evening I had bought the new one the RCA completely locked up, with all buttons lit on all labels (similar to the way all your dashboard warning lights come on when you start your car). It refused to send any codes or change devices.
At that point it went back in the box and back to the store the next day.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
earlyadopter
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Location: Florida
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Music Educator and Conductor; Technology specialist and general "gadget guy."
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