The best REMOTE for E* equipment!!

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JoeSp

JoeSp

Supporting Founder
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Oct 11, 2003
2,284
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I purchased the new Universal Remote URC-200 Automator. This is a wonderful remote. Very easy to use and very easy to program. My wife even loves it. You have a LCD screen with 5 hard buttons that you can program macros into. It took me all of 4 hours to not only program in all of my equipment but also to completely customize all the screens and buttons.

This unit is an IR unit but you can buy a radio transmitter for it to make it a RF unit with a 100 foot range. I do not have the need for that. I have the following quipment, Denon Amp, Pioneer Elite 630 HD monitor, Samsung 931HD dvd player and an E* 811 sat/OTA digital receiver. This remote easily contols them all.

One feature that I really like is the Favorite Channels button. Press this and it automatically goes to the unit that controls your channels (for me the 811) and then shows five channels on the LCD screen. There are 8 screens for a total of 40 Fav Channels. Put my wife's on the back 3 and mine on the first 5. The 'ON' button turns everything on and the 'OFF' button turns everything off.

Showed my wife the 'On' , 'OFF' and 'FAV' buttons and she took to it like she had been using it for years. She can't even use her 301 E* remote very well but she used the 'Automator' like she knew what she was doing and she really liked being able to view the channels she really likes without searching for them.

As with any remote there is a toggle in the middle. On top of the toggle is the sat buttons on to the bottom of the toggle are the transport buttons for a dvd, vcr or other recording device. I was even able to teach the buttons at the bottom of the remote (* and #) to do what the 811 does. I use the # for the 811 menu button. Pretty neat stuff!!

Take my adice and look one of these up if you are looking to replace your remote or you want a new Home Theater Remote -- you will not be sorry!! :)
 
DVDDAD said:
Could you post a link? I did a google search and couldn't find it. Did you spell it correctly? Is the model number you posted correct? Thanks.
Click to expand...
try the search using URC rather than UMC. The rest is correct. :yes:)
 
Sorry about the model mix-up. I have since corrected. The following is the site for the URC-200 'AUTOMATOR'.

http://www.universalremote.com/urc/main.html

The following is a review by C'NET.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Universal_Remote_URC_200_Automator/4505-7900_7-30825066-2.html?tag=glance

In the article they state that there are no hard macro buttons. I believe that they are talking about no hard buttons specifically for macros. You can set up the 'ON' , 'OFF' and the five LCD hard buttons with macros. That was plenty for me.

Example, under my E* button I have the following, page-up, page down, and movie. I have used a macro to switch everything over to the DVD for watching a movie. Turns the right things on and selects the correct settings and turns the right things off. Under the DVD I use on three buttons--'Aspect' , TV , OFF. Press TV and turns everything on for E* and turns off DVD. Press OFF and it turns everything off.

So I am not sure that you would need seperate macro only buttons--but then this remote does everything that I want it to do. I hope that this helps.
 
Nice remote. Too bad there are none on the market that actually do RF to the unit being controlled. (What I am looking for :( )

All of the 'RF' ones just mean that they have RF from the remote to the IR repeater base.

Doesn't help us 921/522 owners.

Other than that, I would buy an 'AUTOMATER' in a microsecond. It looks like a well thought out unit.
 
That sounds like a nice remote. However I have found the Harmony 688 to be the best
for my set up. Has a USB connection to their Web Site where you can do any function
you desire. It actually programmed by DVI switcher for me. The file is saved on their site so if you loose or destroy the remote, you simply replace and download the info to
the new remote.The remote has five activity keys. I use three: Watch TV, Listen to music(DVD) and Watch a DVD. It automatically turns on and off compontes for those functions and has one off button to shut down the whole system.
 
I have the Harmony 659 and I love it.
It works great with my complete system setup.
My wife loves it also. No more pushing 3 power on buttons, one touch does it all.
I use the LCD screen options for the PIP and PIP Swap.
Works great. I would recommend it.
It's not for the novice, though.
 
Mark_AR said:
Nice remote. Too bad there are none on the market that actually do RF to the unit being controlled. (What I am looking for :( )

All of the 'RF' ones just mean that they have RF from the remote to the IR repeater base.

Doesn't help us 921/522 owners.

Other than that, I would buy an 'AUTOMATER' in a microsecond. It looks like a well thought out unit.
Click to expand...
I don't understand the problem - except maybe for 522 TV2.

522 TV1 and 921 both accept IR or UHFPro commands.

I can control my 921 using my old 501 remote. I use an IR repeater from another room with the 501 remote to the 921, but it also works 'directly' (of course).
 
As I stated earlier, the 'ON' and 'Off" buttons on the URC-200 are macro friendly. It did not take but 5 minutes for me to program the 'ON' and 'OFF' to turn everything on and everything off with one press of the chosen function. And I did not have to go online in order to get the remote to do that.

I looked at the Harmony 688 but the C'Net reviewer had trouble getting the Harmony site to come up at first. They ended up having to call customer support to get their remote setup. Also, once you set a macro you cannot change it. You have to get rid of it and if the site is down or busy then you are out of luck.

I prefer to do my own macros without the interferance of having to log onto a site or plug it into my computer. That is why I stated that the URC-200 was very easy to program. You can setup your macros with just the remote and the remote of the unit(s) you are entering. To me that makes it very easy and I can change a macro to do something else or add something to the macro while watching tv--it is not that hard to do. Heck, I customized the Favorites Button and entered in all my Fav Channels (40) while watching a movie on TNTHD. I used the Fav channels to move between OTA digital and E* channels seemlessly. Both ways! You can not do that on the Harmony remotes!

I can see that for those individuals who don't want to write a macro the Harmony remotes is the answer. Their setup online is unique and works well when you can get online. But since they only offer support of remotes that have been uploaded by users, any new product is going to rely on someone to teach their Harmony with the correct inputs. If they make a mistake you will download that same mistake with no way to fix it without dumping out the info and teaching your own remote. Then you are right back where you were before you downloaded the mess. The Harmony folks require you to use their site in order to setup their remotes and use macros. It is nice but it is also slow. Excruatingly slow with dial-up to use.

My wife did like the Harmony 688 but the buttons on the URC-200 are placed better -- especially the transport buttons (for DVD, VCR, etc). The Harmony 688 is smaller then the URC-200 (not by much) and while pricing I could only find the Harmony at $147.00. I got the URC-200 for $129.00. I saved money and my wife likes the remote.

And if we really get to the nitty gritty -- it is whether our wives like the remote or not as to if we are really going to be happy with it. Heck we are guys -- we live for remotes, programmable remotes, remotes with lots of buttons, big remotes with lights!! But in the end it is our wives who really count and they are only interested in two buttons -- turning everthing on and turning everything off. Both the Harmony 688 and URC-200 do that. So lets all be happy and enjoy our toys -- with our wives permission of course. :D
 
I really like my Phillips ProntoPro. Being able to design your own color screens (and saving them to your drive or CD), having macros and 4 programmable hard-buttons is a dream for my home theater and it runs the 811 via IR just fine.

The URC-200 looks like a terrific remote also, but I really like my ProntoPro. I'm not married, but I like having one remote that works everything. :D
 
To each his own.
I have never had a problem with the Harmony website.
I have called their tech support and they are very quick and can program any 'macro' for me. I prefer not to do macros. That is what I like about the Harmony. I think it's easier to setup.
When I got my new 721, I just added it and all the codes were there and worked perfectly. Took about 3 minutes total.
You can setup the Harmony to switch between OTA and Dish channels.
I personally don't like the 688, because of the button setup. I prefer the 659 and got it for $129.00 online. I tmay be cheaper now.
 
I've had good luck with the RadioShack JP1 remotes. You can customize/upgrade the heck out of them configuring them exactly how you want them...not how the factory would think you want them.
 
I would check out the Home Theater Master MX-500. For about the same price, it has more functionality than the URC-200. It is easy to program using just the remote, but if you want to use your computer the IR-clone works great. I have a 508 and 921 and it functions great with them.
 
cnacht said:
I would check out the Home Theater Master MX-500. For about the same price, it has more functionality than the URC-200. It is easy to program using just the remote, but if you want to use your computer the IR-clone works great. I have a 508 and 921 and it functions great with them.
Click to expand...

I'll second the HTM recommendation. Build quality is far better than the Harmony line.

FYI - URC is the also the manufacturer of the Home Theater Master remotes.

NightRyder
 
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Will 522 remote work for 721?

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Optical Cable splitter?

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