On November 2, 2006 at 17:16, datbeme said...
It's easy to get caught up into thinking you need more,
but I recommend trying the Universal R5 or R7 ($29 and
$39). They should do just about everything a grandfather-in-law...or
a babysitter...or most spouses would want. They don't
have a lot of clutter, and they have a well-designed layout
for TiVos and cable boxes. Depending on your equipment,
you may need another remote that can teach it some discrete
codes; but if you can do that, it does a good job of executing
macros to change inputs, etc.
But I must warn you: they can be a bit finicky to program,
and I've returned a couple due to erratic behavior. I
purchased both an R5 and an R7 with the plan to return
one or the other. In my 30 day return period, the R5
inexplicably refused to work on two different occasions,
and the same thing happened once with the R7. To be safe,
I ended up returning both, and I picked up another R7.
I just got it all set up, and it has frozen up 3 times
in the last two nights (device button stays lit as if
it jammed up sending a signal). Removing and reinserting
the batteries takes care of it, but needless to say, it's
going back. I like it well enough to try another one,
but I'd rather not have to go through the effort to program
another one.
The URC has cheaper version of the R5 & R7, its FX1.