One For All Kameleon URC-9960 LCD Touchscreen Remote Control

Pros: Controls up to 8 devices. Easy to program. Upgradeable. Very cool looking.
Cons: Major battery hog. Not quite at configurable as I was hoping.

I'll admit it -- I purchased the One For All Kameleon Remote Control with ulterior motives. We have a unique home theater set-up that includes a DVD recorder, region-free DVD player, VCR, receiver (for our surround-sound system), and the ...

Pros: slick looks, face changes to suit gear, easy to program. Home theater mode kicks ass.
Cons: battery life, battery life, and..... battery life.

------------------------------ ------------------------------ - [UPDATE] It's April 2006, and the touch pad is finally starting to fail. I must press hard to get some keys to send a signal, and it's starting to get tough to use. However, after ...

Pros: Easy to use, upgrades, convenient
Cons: Battery life is short

At the rate we are going, there will be a day where you have a remote for your remotes. How silly can this get? At my old apartment there was a remote for the air conditioner. I do not know about that if you are too lazy to get up and turn the AC ...

Pros: Controls everything; lots of extra features; upgradeable; cool design.
Cons: EATS batteries; must be handled gently; EATS BATTERIES.

I learned a very important lesson this past holiday season. No matter how impossible it seems to find just the right gift for a select few names on my shopping list, the situation can absolutely be made worse by taking my husband shopping with me. After ...

Pros: Very 'cool' looking, comfortable to hold, Home Theater mode
Cons: Motion detector, battery life, non-tactile buttons

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 ...

Pros: Universal remote that actually is universal. It runs everything I've tried it with.
Cons: Absurdly sensitive motion control. Buttons are too small. Configuration not flexible enough.

It looks good but after living with it for several months my entire family is ready to smash this thing into little pieces with a big hammer. It could have been a great universal remote, with features like programmable buttons, macros and a very ...

Pros: keypad lights up by touch. Adjustable brightness. Easy to program. Upgradeable via phoneline.
Cons: None yet after a month.

I previously owned other "One-For-All" brand remotes. On occasion, they would fall short in one fash ...

Pros: Animated icons, changing display for relevant buttons, program-by-phone, motion-sensitive display, thin body.
Cons: Strange programming codes for common functions, brightness adjustments ineffective, eats batteries, not useful for receivers.

This review is for the Radio Shack version of this remote which uses the same technology but looks slightly different. The main difference is that the Radio Shack version is uniformly rectangular and extremely thin. It's so thin that it's roughly the ...

Pros: Programmable; sleek design looks cool.
Cons: It's junk - have gone through 2 in 7 months.

My husband and I have now gone through two URC-9660 remotes (one for all) since last March. This product is awful! We purchased this remote because of its ease of use (especially the device-specific lighted buttons) and because it offered support for ...

Pros: super design, seems very durable, easy programming
Cons: very short battery life

Being an avid gadget fan, I purchased this remote with no hesitation. The setup was easy and I found that the macro capabilities of this remote to be very useful ; with one click I can turn on the TV,sound system,SAT receiver, DVD player and VCR. The ...

Pros: Can actually replace all your remotes, but not without remapping and adding many keys.
Cons: Terrible battery life and no tactile feedback.

I never thought I'd buy this remote because of the price but when it had a $20 rebate, which brought the price down to $69, I thought I'd go for it. Well, after two months, I think I've had enough and it's going away into a drawer. First, even with ...

Pros: Easy to set up and look at.
Cons: Eats batteries, allways turning on.

Bought the remote 3 months ago and really enjoyed it for a while but after a month the shine rubbed off the kameleon. Each time I buy a remote I hope that this one will be the last one, but alas another let down. Out of the box the remote was easy to ...

Pros: Functionality, ease of use, cool looks
Cons: battery life - although a cheap set of rechargables quickly solves that problem.

I'll be brief. Most of the other reviews have covered various issues with this remote. My experience: This was my third attempt at a universal remote. I have a hi-def satellite set-up with a surround sound receiver. Bottom line - this remote ...

Pros: excellent flexibility and coverage of many devices, very easy to use
Cons: poor motion sensor, too many false triggers not enough real triggers

This remote was easy to program and use. We get a lot of company and non-technical visitors could not figure out how to turn on my home theatre system with original or other all in one remotes, yet with this remote I don't even need to teach them ...

Pros: Sleek, strong transmitter, price
Cons: Motion sensor doesn't work, display too dim, displays unused buttons.

This is a peculiar device and may just be what many people have been waiting for, yet I will probably return it for its annoyances. First, let's talk looks. As I'm sure you can tell from the pictures, this is one cool looking remote, let me assure ...

Pros: Nice shiny plastic box with cool graphics.
Cons: Unreliable power hog which can't learn other remotes

Firstly, It is ill conceived to have a remote with a high draw EL panel, which loses programming data once the batteries die. This does not take long by the way. I purchased this remote remote to control my Bose Lifestyle system, which meant I had to ...

Pros: Cool as all heck. Ability to turn off motion sensor!
Cons: None for the new model.

I wanted to get this remote months ago. Reading the reviews on this site SERIOUSLY waned the urge...until I was at my local Best Buy, checking them out when I saw there was a difference in the back of the packages. The new model (URC-9960B01) says on the ...

Pros: Easy to program, easy to see day or night soft buttons. But must be modified!!
Cons: NOT USABLE. $90/year battery cost!! EXTREME battery consumption and subsequent frequent re-programming.

I don't give up easily BUT after trying to live with this remote for more than 3 months now, I've had it. Communicating with Universal Electronics Inc, I was offered a replacement but then was told that the 2 week battery life is not unusual and a ...

Pros: Great Remote,clone of Radio Shack version which is really UEI company remote http://www.uei.com
Cons: Of course it eats battery, MACRO Buttons are not IR learning.

UPDATED TO CORRECT TYPOS I will not go into much description, since many other have perfectly described it. I have the Radio Shack version, which is rectangular and has two less devices. I liked the look of the One For All version and it looked more ...

Pros: Easy to set up, great customer service, throw away all your old remotes!
Cons: Customer service is only open 9-5:30 Eastern time.

I received a Logitech Harmony as a gift and spent about 4 weeks on and off trying to get it to control my pretty basic entertainment center. I never could get it to work because of the way my tv (Vizio) changes inputs. I returned the remote and decided ...

Pros: Easy setup, ease of use and great looks.
Cons: None really.

This is a great remote, but people have issues relating to it that can easily be modified. First of all. This remote is a breeze to set up, easy to use, and the kameleon feature gets high 'cool factor' points. Customer service is very helpful. They ...

Pros: One remote does everything I need. EZ to set up. Good customer service.
Cons: None yet.

I have a Magnavox TV, RCA VCR, Pioneer Receiver and a Memorex DVD player. My wife could only turn on the TV and watch it. If she wanted something taped she asked me to set it up and when she wanted to watch it she asked me to set it up. She only ...

Pros: Great Layout, great quality, great range
Cons: Motion sensor which can be mod'ed

Perfect for an affordable, high quality unit. I control all of my gadgets and no problems for a year now. As for the motion sensor, newer models can be deactivated or older models can be easliy mod'ed to turn it off. Just look up "disable motion sensor on 9960" IT IS GREAT!

Pros: Cool factor, ease of use
Cons: price, price, price

I just bought the Kamelon today at BestBuy. It is pretty easy to setup and use. As mentioned by elbonedaddy in December this remote has been upgraded by the manufacturer. I was skeptical about spending so much money on a remote that had so many bad reviews. You can indeed turn off the motion sensor with this upgraded version; thats what made the sale today.

My first impression of this remote is very good. I will update next month as to how the device and batteries hold up.

Pros: Works with every device I tried it with.
Cons: Battery life SUCKS!!!

Wife got me this bad-boy for Christmas and I thought it was very cool. Spent a couple hours programming it and setting up macros and learning a few keys from other remotes that I could not get to work properly. It all worked great and I was very pleased with the remote. That is.....until about two weeks later when the thing just started flashing on and off, on and off, over and over and over. So we took it back and exchanged it for another one because I thought something was wrong with it. Then I read in the instruction manual that it will do this when the batteries get weak. I could hardly believe that the batteries wouldn't last any longer than 2 weeks. So I got fresh Duracell's and put in the second remote and they lasted ...........two weeks. Ridiculous!!! I'm taking it back and getting one of OFA's other 8 function remotes. I'm not about to keep this damn thing and replace batteries every other week. Just not acceptable.

Pros: Great looking remote control, and very functional
Cons: Battery Life is awful ! Unless you follow above tips.

For those that want to dramatically increase the battery life of their Kameleon Remote Control, check out http://kameleonrc.blogspot.com.

It details how to physically alter your kameleon remote control to disable the vibration sensor, ensuring that the remote control only comes on when a button is pushed !

Pros: Versatility, upgradeability
Cons: battery life

For the most part I love my Kameleon Remote control. It is the only remote I have ever found that works my off brand DVD player and when my Memorex VCR wouldn't work I was able to have it upgraded with a simple phone call. When you push one of the device keys only the controls for that device light up. If you have your original remotes you can program in anything that you want that isn't included easily and there are 4 macros that can send series of keystrokes.

The one bad thing I have found about it is that I have to replace the batteries every 4-6 weeks. There is no warning the batteries are getting week, you just pick it up and find the display flashing non-stop and it will no longer respond to your touch. This is such a hassle I have thought of going back to my multiple remotes, but I'm going to try rechargable batteries first and hope that solves the battery problem.

Pros: Great replacement remote
Cons: Sucks through batteries like a hollywood hooker until I modified it

The first month I had the remote it worked great until I had to replace my first set of batteries, apx 1 month. We'll no big deal at first then the following month, same thing. Still don't think to much about it yet, we'll the third month rolls around and dam I gotta replace the batteries again. I'm like what the hell. I contact customer service and instead of standing behind their product all they could tell me is that it's now out of their 90 day warranty.

If I have any success adding a switch I will upload the photos

UPDATE 4/26/04

ok I was able to modify my kameleon 8in1 controller. I added an on off switch to the bottom of the remote. Works great so far. The only down side is that you have to wait 1-2 sec for the remote to power up.

Drop me a line for step by step photos or if you can host the jpeg files

kwikgamer-remote@yahoo.com

Pros: Cool factor, flexible and intelligently laid out
Cons: Battery life, audible noise in quiet room

I bought this remote probably on the cool factor more than anything else. After 2 frustrating months of eating batteries, I decide to void the warranty and get this thing to work reasonably well. The main problem is the batteries. The inertia sensor is so sensitive, sometimes just talking triggers the unit on. Walking across the room-definitely. Well, this company should have field tested this just a LITTLE bit more.
My final solution was to remove the inertia sensor completely. Pressing any button brings the backlight on. My best measurements and estimates put battery life at about a year with this mod. I don't recommend removing the sensor by every day Joe's. This is a very complicated piece of electronic hardware. You must have decent skills at de-soldering to get the sensor out. It is a small rectangular metal box with two bb's in it. I tried modifing the sensor, but found it was a lot easier just to remove it.
With the mod, I LOVE this thing.
Shame on the company though for not dealing with this immediately. For those with sensitive ears, the unit makes an audible noise when the backlight is on. vaxbrat@yahoo.com.

Pros: Nice design. Easy to use. Cool looking.
Cons: Reliability.

When I first purchased this product I was very pleased. Easy to use...nice interface. I liked everything about it. However, a month later the remote stopped working. I returned to Best Buy who refused to honor the 90-day manufacturer warranty because I was beyond their 30 day purchase return policy. I called OneForAll. They have great customer service and instructed me to return the remote to them. I received a brand new remote about 1 week later. Unfortunately that remote is malfunctioning now. The display won't turn off and it drains the batteries after three days.

Pros: Looks cool, backlit, macros
Cons: Limited learning memory. Sleep/Wake at wrong times. Memory is volatile.

This remote definitely looks cool and goes a long way towards consolidating a pile of remotes, but there are quite a few shortfalls and annoyances.

My top complaint is that it can only learn a maximum of 17-25 buttons for the whole remote. Our off-brand DVD player was not in the code list so I went to program it, but quickly found out I had run out of buttons. This remote is too expensive to have to make due with just some of your buttons.

Another annoyance is how it wakes up and goes to sleep by motion sensitivity. It comes on when you walk by, but falls asleep in your hand!

I going to return this one and try a full-featured learning remote. The Philips PMDVR8 is only like $25 and you can learn all the keys.

Pros: WOW factor; versatility; learning ability; motion sensor; macros
Cons: Flat buttons; Motion sensor

My wife got me this for Christmas and I have to be honest...It was a random circling on a Circuit City ad. I was pretty psyched to get this and as far as a remote, it is definitely cool. Plus, the wow factor is huge for when my friends come over. The only drawback is that it is rather large and the flat button feel is going to take some getting used to. But it is definitely cool and worth the $80. I saw other remotes for $200 (i.e. Harmony) and they look great, and they have buttons, but spending $200 on a remote seems frivolous to me. Ok, ok, so I spent $80 on a remote anyway. A little less frivolous maybe? All in all, I would recommend this remote control.

Pros: Ease of use
Cons: Battery Life

Very easy to use and set up. Set already for my cable box. Biggest disadvantage is the battery life. I have had my One for ALL for 3 months and have had to change the batteries 5 times. The light comes on for the slightest movement in the room even if you just walk by it. It needs an on/off switch!

Pros: Great Looks. Cool factor is high.
Cons: Batteries. Lack of Tivo functionality.

Initially this was a good remote, as far as universal remotes go. The screen is cool to watch, but the slightest vibration causes it to come on which really destroys battery life. We experience slightly more than a week between battery replacements. If you have Tivo or one of the other lesser PVRs, I don't suggest this remote. When skipping commercials, the remote powers off just when you need to hit the play button again. I thought that this could be overcome by skipping commercials at a higher or slower speed, but the variations in commercial strings and length proved me wrong. And there is no list button in the Tivo mode to take you straight to the Now Playing list. The obvious key choices for assigning a learned command can't be used, which means picking another key and sacrificing another feature of Tivo to use that key. Finally, after a couple of weeks, I have already noticed that part of the screen pops when touched, as if the material is deciding that it doesn't like to depress at that location. I am returning this remote primarily for the battery issue, but the other issues sealed the deal.

Pros: Cool looking
Cons: Battery life

Great remote but battery usage is terrible. Breathe in the wrong direction and this thing turns on. I was going through a set of Duracell's every week until I modified it.

This mod is for the more technically competent among you and requires the addition of a capacitor to the motion sensor.

I experimented with a number of cap values and found that a 15nF cap dulled the response enough to prevent most "false" triggers, while still making the unit responsive to deliberate movement.

I soldered the cap between the motion switch's metal body and the lead at the end of the motion switch. It's been a great remote ever since.

Pros: Cool factor, programmable, ergonomic, inexpensive
Cons: Battery life, motion sensor

Short and sweet: not worth it.

As many other reviewers are saying, it is really cool but too sensitive, and burns up the batteries (monthly or less). Also, there is something to be said for having buttons that you can feel. With this remote you must look at it to use it which may not seem like a big deal until you have to start doing it every time...even to turn the volume up/down.

Remake the remote by losing the motion sensor and having a button on the side to turn on/off. This resolves the over sensitivity and part of the battery life problem. While you are re-designing it, include the ability to add or remove buttons for each mode.

I used mine for a couple of months trying to force myself to like it and I have decided to go back to my previous remote (as my wife did within 1 day!)

Pros: looks cool
Cons: constant and continuous battery replacement

the remote is pretty cool to look at for about a day, then on day 2 you'll need to replace the batteries. I'm being a little tough on the poor kameleon... the batteries last exactly 10 days. at this rate I figure you'll spend about $60-80 on the kameleon, and about $140 annually to use it. obviously one-for-all doesn't do much product testing; if they did, they easily would have found this enormous flaw in engineering.