Hello,

I have been unable to find a remote control that I can program key by key and that doesn't need me to hit "TV" before pressing "Volume +" or to hit "SAT" before pressing "Prog +". I just want a programmable remote control that can control both my TV and my SAT receiver. I don't want the "TV", "DVD", and "SAT" keys on top. If I press "1", it has to send the proper signal to the sat receiver, I shouldn't have to press "SAT" beforehand. Do you know a simple remote control, with no LCD display, that does just that?
Thanks in advance! :)

I don't now of any universal remotes that don't have device mode button.
However, if your main point is to be able to set up the remote so that both the TV and Sat receiver are controlled in the same device mode, then there is a few ways.

1) The simplest way is to use the Volume Punch Through facility. Many universals have this feature. If you enable VPT, and select (once) Sat mode, then all button presses except Vol+/- and Mute will go to the Sat receiver, but the TV volume will be controlled when you press those buttons. Many remotes also have a macro facility that will allow you to put both TV and Sat power commands on one button.

2) If you want to combine more TV or Sat functions onto one button, get a OneForAll brand (or other made by UEI) remote, and use the keymover feature to reassign buttons.

I suspect the Sony RM-VL600 or RM-VLZ620 will work, and I know that e.g. the RCA RCRP05B can do the job.

Thank you. I have not used a universal remote control yet, will I have to press "SAT" prior to any action? (channels and volume)

Yes, once. But if you don't press another device button, it wil stay in SAT mode forever. If you get a RCRP05B, it would also be possible to make every device button (TV, DVR, CBL/SAT. etc. ) to all have the same setup code and device type, so that it would never matter which device button had been pressed. I think, however, that you would soon find that sometimes you'll want to be able to control the TV independently. Think of menus and arrow keys.

What model/brand of TV and Sat receiver do you have? It would be nice to be sure that the remote can control them, and maybe we can tell you.

The best remote ever for use in the situation like what you want, was the Sony Rm-VL710, well discontinued and very hard to find these days.

What made it great was it allowed you to clone a device on the remote to another device on the same remote. With it being a fully learning remote, meaning it had enough memory to teach to every key in evey device without running out of memory.

So you would program a single device with whatever tv commands you need, leaving the other keys in that same device for you sat receiver commands. Once you have that single device as you wish, then you clone it to the other devices on the remote, 5 devices in all. Making every device exactly the same, and making the device buttons useless.

You can do this with any learning remote, a mean fully learning remote. But it will be alot harder, since no other remote I know has a cloning feature like vl710, so each device will have to be programmed individually. Nowadays most fully learning remotes are 8 devices and up.

I have my father setup with two vl710 like this, only for tv and sat receiver. Great remote, even when it was current, it was very hard to come by. :(

Thank you guys. I think I'm gonna buy a Logitech Harmony 300i :)