Pros: Nice feel, Good display. Great IR range. Lots of flexibility. Learning.
Cons: Programming Macros needs patience/planning, standard templates usually need some reorganizing.
The Bottom Line: At C$100 more than basic learning remotes, the extra power of the macros, the extensive learning capability, and the excellent design make this a worthwhile expense for the technophobe.
kcowan's Full Review: Universal Remote Control SL-9000 LCD Remote Contro...
This remote has been reviewed a lot and the reviews are very good. So why am I making another review. Well, in spite of all these reviews, I was unable to find it available from a local merchant so I had to buy it on-line. This meant that I was making a "leap of faith" because it was going to cost me to return it. So what was missing in the reviews? That is what I will focus on here. But first let me establish my environment and experience so you will know where I am coming from.
Background
I am technically capable, with an engineering background and have spent my career in computer and services sales and management. But I have a limited tolerance for detail and I like to get consumer products that just work. We have a very basic entertainment setup. Started with a Toshiba TV that had two tuners and picture-in-picture. Also had a Panasonic VCR that had automatic Commercial Advance. The PIP caused some complexity in its remote but the function is great for sports on Sundays. My wife never used the advanced functions and left VCR programming to me.
When our cable universe grew beyond 60 channels, we decided to opt for their digital service and this came with a Motorola Converter box and a Millenium4 universal remote control. This remote was fine for basic channel surfing and watching VHS tapes. We liked the digital service because of the on-line guide as we were never big TV Guide fans. (Unlike our TV and VCR remotes, the Millenium4 has no lighted keys for use in a darkened room.)
Unfortunately, the Millenium4 handled all the basic functions but not PIP or VCR programming so we still had to keep the other two remotes around for these special uses. Then when we wanted to add the DVD player, we were limited by the space in our wall unit and decided to replace the Panasonic VCR with a combination Panasonic DVD/VCR unit. We moved the old VCR to the bedroom and this allowed us to record in there and play them in the living room using the automatic Commercial Advance. (Once you have had it, you can't live without it!)
Finally our home theater system CD Jukebox (50 CDs) gave up. We decided to leap into the digital age with an Archos PVR/Jukebox (80gb). Now the fun began. We now had three playback devices and only two Video inputs on the TV. We could have replaced the TV, but because the TV had two tuners, we were able to play the VCR into Ant2 on Ch3. But only the TV remote would allow switching between Ant1 and Ant2. This created the need for two remotes to play a VHS tape and two different remotes to play the PVR (even just for music).
What made matters worse was that we do home swapping and our entertainment setup was now beyond the capability of the average user. Our housekeeper had already confirmed that (having gone without TV for two days while cat-sitting for us). People would satisfy themselves with just watching digital cable and playing one of the forty digital music channels. We made an abortive attempt to acquire a universal remote before our two month vacation to Mexico but concluded that it would take too long and cost too much to do so in a hurry.
There was another problem. The remote control for the Archos (our PVR and jukebox) is very direction sensitive. This was also true for the other remotes but we seem to want to change music more often than TV programs. So I took up the challenge again of finding a universal remote control. I already knew that none of the local retailers would have anything suitable and I resolved to seek out a suitable solution on-line. I started at Google with "universal remote control" and ended up at RemoteCentral.com where the MX series seemed to be more user-friendly than the Harmony. I made a quick search of epinions and found over 20 reviews.
I live in Vancouver BC and etronics was the only supplier with a Canadian supply center. (This avoids some sales tax.) It arrived two weeks ago and I am now in a position to share my experiences. What did I not know? I wondered whether the device templates would be suitable, e.g. would PIP functions be handled? Would VCR Commercial Advance be handled? I have a combined VCR/DVD so how would that be handled? The price was $84 but by the time it landed here, it was C$147. I figured that I could teach this puppy everything it needed to know, but the idea of teaching it everything from four remotes was somewhat intimidating.
Luckily all of the four remotes were in the MX-500 inventory of codes and covered all the basic functions needed for use. Just press the function button and presto! you have another remote in your hand. So far, my wife has the universal cable (Millennium4) which does everything she needs for the basic watching of cable TV. So now we each can control what we want. This is already an advantage. To summarize, I needed this remote to handle the following:
TV with PIP (2 tuners)
DVD/VCR with automatic Commercial Advance
Digital Cable Box
Personal Digital Video Recorder and Music Jukebox
Home Theater System
Other possible additions now include Satellite Tivo (for dual use here and in Mexico), DVD-R (networked with WiFi) and X10 light controls now that it can be handled without too much complexity. For the money, this MX-500 is probably the best investment as a percentage of the total investment in gear that I have made. It prolongs the life of effective older components while opening up flexibility for new additions.
MX-500 Review
The design of the joystick surrounded by function buttons is very good. The original VCR has these functions in two separate circles requiring the remote to be shifted to access the other circle. With the MX-500, the two concentric sets are easily accessible with the thumb. The look and feel of this remote is very pleasing. All my existing remotes had a hard matte plastic case with soft plastic buttons. This remote has a soft matte charcoal black finish on its case with 45 smooth hard white (light gray) buttons. The LCD (1.3"x2") has a clear hard plastic cover and five hard buttons along each side. The functions of the hard buttons are redefined on specific screens. For example, each of the ten devices has two pages of function keys that map all their special buttons. This is a similar screen design to most ATMs. I found that the layouts of these templates were not the greatest, and I gradually redefined and moved them so that the most used ones were on the right side starting at the bottom. This made them easy to access with the thumb. This is a tedious process but the nice feature is that the remote is already working while you make these enhancements. You can do it during the commercial while watching TV.
(For a very complete technical description of this remote, please consult http://www.remotecentral.com/mx500)
Any functions can be "learned' very easily simply by putting the two remotes head-to-head and selecting the button to be taught and pressing the desired function on the old remote. This process worked flawlessly for all my remotes and was only required for the few missing codes or for relocating codes to different buttons. The buttons can be relabelled to whatever you like. Much discussion in the forums relates to "discrete" codes for the devices. This relates to the fact that the remote may operate two functions on one button like on/off. What the MX-500 can learn is the specific discrete code for ON from your remote. This is important for macro programs.
The real power and why I bought this remote is the ability to string commands together on one button. The function we needed most was to turn ON the VCR, tune it to its L1 input for digital cable, select the TV to alternate Ant2 then tune in TV channel three. Because we normally did not have the TV remote handy, this was requiring a minimum of two remotes, including one that was usually stashed away. A short device button press switches the remote to the device. Holding the button down transmits the macro. The next major "macro" was to turn on the Archos jukebox, turn on the TV, switch the TV to Video2 then select Resume on the Archos. This is all by pressing and holding "Jukbx" which is what I renamed the Sat device button on the MX-500. (We leave the Home Theater on all the time as it is hidden behind doors and so the remote only works with the doors open. We play everything through its Video input for TV.) We have only begun to scratch the surface and plan other macros like "Movie" and "Sport" to jump right to the section of the digital Guide. We may also program special function keys for our Jukebox for "Jazz" and "Blues" to shuffle play song by genre. The macros can be programmed to the ten device buttons, the three memory buttons, and the power and system off buttons (15 macros total). However you might not want to relabel say the TV device button to remember where the macro is stored. This would effectively reduce the number of macros that can be stored. We use the four unused device buttons. The TV button will switch to the TV functions on the MX-500 whether a macro is stored there or not. Pressing and holding first switches devices and then transmits the macro.
Our VCR remote had two functions on the fast forward button. The first press was normal speed and the second press shifted to high speed. This is useful while skipping over sections of recorded programs on tape. While slow speed will suffice for commercials (15 seconds), high speed scanning is better when skipping a whole recorded program such as when the specific recording is one we have already seen and want to quickly move to the next program. While Index search will move to the next recording, sometimes we have simply recorded two or three programs together like 60 Minutes/Cold Case when they follow each other on one channel. With the MX-500, the high speed skip buttons are on the VCR device function page. This makes sense because they are used much less often than regular speed skips (which are on the outside ring of the joystick control).
The MX-500 also offers the option to use PC software (IRClone, and cable, not supplied) to program the remote. We have not found this necessary but it is nice to know it is available for when our home entertainment setup gets more complex. People often use this feature when the setups include many other devices such as home control, and they want to backup their custom programs on the PC. It avoids the need to learn the existing remote controls as their discrete codes are already available. (If PC programming is important to you now, consider the MX-700 which comes with that as standard along with twenty devices and virtually unlimited macro storage.)
Remember my problem with directional sensitivity? Well the MX-500 is wonderful! It has one of the good old broad range IR transmitters (rather than the dinky little LED) and it will operate effectively anywhere within 45 degrees of the device. This has solved the problem with my Archos but also made other functions like Mute a dream. We do not even need to have the remote in hand. Just punch the button where it sits on the coffee table. It will also bounce off glass effectively expanding its range around pictures/mirrors/windows.
The promotional material talks about 530 buttons, all of which are either preprogrammed by device type or can learn. While this is true, there are several limiting factors. Here are how the buttons are organized:
1. 10 key numeric keypad - best used for exactly that function on each learned remote owing to fixed labels: 100 keys
2. 5 key joystick - similarly pretty standard mapping for each remote: 50 keys
3. 8 key outer ring around joystick with secondary button labels for Guide, Menu, Info and Exit: 80 keys
4. Volume +/-, Channel +/-, Mute and Previous Channel (6 buttons): 60 keys
5. 10 keys for devices in LCD panel, each with 2x10 keys in two subordinate panels: 210 keys
6. Display and Enter buttons that can be assigned to whatever makes sense by device: 20 keys
7. Power ON/OFF, System On/Off - can be assigned macros and also used for device functions: 20 keys
8. M1, M2, M3 cross-device function keys: 3 keys
9. Favorite Channels - 5 pages of 10 channels: 50 keys
There are practical limitations that require some careful design. It makes no sense to put functions that are not intuitive on keys as this will reduce the effectiveness of the remote. We used the Channel +/- keys for Page +/- in the digital cable guide, for example, and moved the CH +/- functions into its LCD functions. This is because we seldom just surf with the channel buttons through the 400 channels. We use the Electronic Guide or the Favorite Channels functions for channel surfing. In the guide, Page +/- is what we use to navigate. The real benefit here is the ability to design the layout of the functions to the way we work and not some design engineer. It is so easy that we are encouraged to make it better. Here are two pictures: one of the MX-500 with the Cable menu showing - http://216.185.68.228/KC/Papers/MX500.jpg and the other showing it along with the set of remote controls that it replaced - http://216.185.68.228/KC/Papers/Remotes.jpg -also showing Cable menu page 1 (of 2). Note that all the remotes but the one for the Archos jukebox (2nd from the right) are universal.
The Favorite Channels function is very nice. Since every device of ours has its own Favorites function and they all work slightly differently, it is nice to just assign the most common 50 channels to the MX-500. By labelling them with Fox, ABCTS for Time Shift, etc. there is no need to remember channel numbers anymore and we can forget about maintaining all the Favorites on each device. It is interesting to realize just how few of the 400 channels we ever use often enough to assign to its own button! Especially when the electronic guide removes much of the need to check in on them.
Update July 20,2005: I have continued to adapt the layouts to our usage and program macros for common sequences. In actual use, the flexibility becomes more valuable as we become more familiar with the power available in this remote. (I notice that the Kameleon has been deep discounted by 80% at our local outlet. I'm not surprised given what this competitor will do!)
Bottom Line
At C$100 more than basic learning remotes, the extra power of the macros, the extensive learning capability, and the excellent design make this a worthwhile expense for the technophobe. The layout of the commonly-used buttons is good, and the need to look at the hard remote buttons is minimal. When looking for more advanced functions, the navigation is easy and the side-mounted light button makes its use in a darkened room quite simple. Its secondary button labels for Guide, Menu, Info and Exit make the replacement of the digital cable remote control complete.
MX500 Universal Remote Control MX-500 with LCD Viewscreen PC Programmable IR/RF Replace up to 40 remote controls "Watch and Listen" Activity Based...More at Compuplus.com
The MX-500 is ergonomically designed and weight balanced to fit comfortably in one hand. The brightly backlit LCD view screen and buttons make navigat...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Controls up to ten devices Preprogrammed for over 1,000 audio/video components Learns up to 530 commands via infrared from device remotes Send out mul...More at Amazon Marketplace
Controls up to ten devices Preprogrammed for over 1,000 audio/video components Learns up to 530 commands via infrared from device remotes Send out mul...More at Amazon
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