Beauty is only skin deep
Written: Jan 04 '04 (Updated Jan 04 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very 'cool' looking, comfortable to hold, Home Theater mode
Cons: Motion detector, battery life, non-tactile buttons
The Bottom Line: Cool remote at first glance and in theory. In reality, not so great. Nice for initial wow factor for your guests, but that's about it.
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| flux73's Full Review: One For All Kameleon URC-9960 LCD Touchscreen Remo... |
When I first saw the remote, my eyes opened up wide. There's no doubt about it - this is one slick looking remote control. Here are the features:
Suede like material on the back with an ergonomic design and balanced weight that makes the remote comfortable to hold. Don't laugh - God is in the details.
Variable button layout - the buttons that appear change depending on what mode (DVD, TV, PVR, etc.) you're in.
Motion detector - Seems like a 'wow' feature (at first). The remote has a blank dark blue face until you pick it up and then the buttons light up.
Home Theater mode - Controls more than one component without having to switch modes. This is actually a very neat 'feature' that SHOULD be standard on all universal remotes.
Programmability - guess this isn't really a feature since all universal remotes will have this. This one's fairly easy to use. However, there's a caveat (I'll talk about the downsides below).
Programmable via phone - Some tone over the phone can give the remote the appropriate codes to certain components that may have come out that are NOT on the code list. Haven't tried this feature yet, but I hear it works fine.
Has a PVR mode - this is actually a rather rare feature on universal remotes as far as I've seen. Really quite surprising given how many Tivos and ReplayTVs are out there now.
Pretty decent feature list, right? Plus, it's pretty to look at. You'd think it would be a no-brainer, but like many other pretty things in life, when you look closer, it's less appealing...
The motion detector is too sensitive. If you even bump the coffee table, it turns on. And also, if I'm feeling particulary lazy, I just want to dump the remote next to me on the couch. With the motion detector, you can't do that unless you don't mind draining the batteries in one day and you don't mind a bright blue light coming on in the middle of a movie. In addition to being too sensitive, it turns off too quickly. Sometimes you're trying to figure out if you're going to stay on a particular channel or not and it turns off. Then you have to give it quick shake to turn it back on again. Ironically, it actually seems to be LESS sensitive when this happens. Then there are the times that you bump the coffee table and it simply stays on and doesn't shut off at all until you shake the remote to 'untrigger' whatever they use for a motion sensor inside the remote. Very annoying. At the very least, they should have had an adjustable delay time. But I'd rather they put a discreet button on the side that lets you turn it on/off, or at least lets you overide the motion sensor. It's a crappy feature in reality that probably added unnecessary cost to the remote's production.
The programmability is fairly easy to use. But the annoying thing is that the motion sensor power on/off still operates while you're programming, so if you're too slow to figure out which code you want, it shuts off and you have to re-enter the programming mode by entering a sequence of several buttons. This was extraordinarly aggravating.
Lots of buttons that were 'missing'. For example, it has a PVR mode, but it has no thumbs up/down buttons that are on every Tivo. Since Tivo is the most popular PVR out there, shouldn't these be included??? I hate mapping functions onto buttons that don't have the appropriate labels and unfortunately, on this remote the labels are there whether you like em or not. Another annoying example is that I have an Onkyo receiver that has two separate buttons for 'On' and 'Off'. It's not the only stereo manufacturer that designs it this way. Yet, this remote has ONE power button, which you either have to map to 'On' or 'Off'. The other function needs to be mapped to a different button somewhere else on the remote.
Another thing that SHOULD have been added is the ability to add or delete buttons on a layout.
Takes 4 AAA batteries which run out fairly quickly especially if you're used to only changing a remote's batteries once every couple of year. Expect to change these at least once every 2 months. It seems like some get even less mileage out of it.
I didn't think I would mind the lack of tactility. But I do. I didn't realize how much I counted on touch to feel my way around on a remote. It's almost more important than backlighting (unless all the buttons are the same shape and are laid out equally).
Summary: I paid $79 at Circuit City (after I price-matched with BestBuy). It was an impulse buy and I should have returned it. But I kept hoping that the remote would grow on me and that I wouldn't find it's annoying features so annoying after awhile. But they kept getting more annoying. I'd rather deal with the 4 separate remotes I have now than use this remote. It's actually not THAT bad. But it's too much of an adjustment for me to make. C'est la vie...
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
flux73
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Location: Portland, OR
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 9 members
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