Well, I have an unconventional answer if you're looking for something other than a Harmony (which are, truly, great remotes). I use a URC 9910 from One For All (made by UEI). You can often find them for around $30 on the internet (I've had good luck getting them REAL cheap--<$10--on Ebay occasionally and I stock up because of how much I love these things).
It has a lot of nice features like a powerful backlight and (I think) well-designed button placement, but what makes the URC 9910 a really interesting beast is three things: learning capabilities, JP1, and its RF extender. ***************** RF EXTENDER The remote has a standard IR emitter but also broadcasts a duplicate signal to an included RF base unit that has an IR emitter in it and even connects to an included cabled IR emitter for more flexibility. I usually position these across the room from my equipment (though you could certainly put it in an equipment cabinet or something) such that I can control my equipment without regard to the orientation of the remote control. This is extremely handy. There are other solutions out there to add this sort of capability but none are so cheap. ****************** Learning capabilities This probably doesn't need much expounding upon, but it's an important feature to mention because it's especially important if you're going to use the next feature... ****************** JP1 programmability This is my favorite feature. It gives the remote near-harmony level capabilities, and far more flexibility than a Harmony. JP1 is an interface built into the remote that allows you to connect the remote to your computer via the parallel port ($5, some instructions from the internet, and a little soldering later and I'd built the cable). This capability is definitely for tinkerers, but the end result is amazing. I can't even begin to address everything that you can program the remote to do, but using software available for free on the internet you can completely remap all buttons, put macros on any buttons, create shifted keys, make things like press-and-hold do something different than just press, create new device codes from your learned keys, and much more. Anyhow, it's really cool stuff that allows me to make things "just so". The one thing that it can't do is maintain any state-awareness (at least, I don't think it can--though there may be an extension in the JP1 community that adds this feature, I'm always surprised by what's out there). So it's not as capable as a Harmony in that respect. But the design of my equipment and the flexibility of the remote is such that I'm able to program macros to work in any state, thus giving me harmony-like functionality (I've programmed it so that you just press and hold any device button and the system configures itself to use that device). And with the RF-extender macros rarely fail. It's also nice because I can save multiple different remote configurations for myself and others (I've set these up for several people now) and by just connecting the remote to my computer can dump any configuration onto any remote in a heartbeat. It's great for backing up your settings. Out-of-the box using its built-in macro, learning, and programming functions it's an excellent remote that's fairly accessible to the masses--and a GREAT value. But if you're a tinkerer willing to mess with JP1 then this can really be a giant-killer. -- azinck3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ azinck3's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3967 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=26108 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
