Walter Mitty

I'm looking for the best budget remote control to operate my new Sony A10 TV, Denon AVR2700 receiver, OPPO DVD player, Directivo, and an older Denon CD player. I need to be able to hit one button to turn on the TV, change the input on the AVR to the correct input (basically one touch settings) and control the Directivo. TIA!

Y2K Falcon

My wife showed me a universal remote mentioned in a magazine the other day, and now I fear that my Christmas gift will be a remote control either picked out by a woman, or, even worse, a BB employee.

Walter Mitty

haha...lol

Spiky

Harmony.
Pronto.
Home Theater Master MX series.

One of these will be perfect for you. The Harmony is the most user-friendly when programming. The Pronto is a touchscreen and the most customizable. The HTMs have the best button layout, you'll never even have to look at it to use it.

I could go on and on about why I like which one, and so could others. But frankly, you should go to remotecentral.com and read up on these remotes. Daniel does detailed reviews that cover pretty much any question you can ask. And there's been enough discussion of universal remotes in his forums to bore you to death.

Walter Mitty

thanks Spiky. Well, I don't want just touch screen so I think that takes the Pronto out of the running. The Harmony looks nice but peoples biggest complaints seems to be small buttons which i don't like. My main concern is to hit TV for example and have the receiver switch to the right setting and have it control the tivo. i need all the directivo functions to work as my wife is big on that factory remote!

matome

Home Theater Master MX500. Nice compromise with the LCD/hard buttons (I HATED the touch screen ones, as you have to look at the remote).

Spiky

Actually, I would look for an MX-700 first. They allow macros on every single button and are a bit more friendly. Mike at Surf seems to still have some and he's dropped the price under $200. www.surfaudiovideo.com

Y2K Falcon

Well, the MX-700 seems to be a $180-200 item (plus tax/shipping at many places), while the MX-500 seems to be $80.73 out the door at Amazon...

I personally would hardly consider $80 a "budget remote control", and more than twice that might be stroke-inducing.

Boy, do circuit city's prices on remotes suck. The Logitech H659 is $99 at Amazon, but $149 at CC.

Anyone know the difference between the H659 and the "SST659"? Amazon has both, but the SST version is $10 cheaper.

Deftones

Another vote for the MX-500. It's a great remote. The macros, punchthrough features and the easy of learning/programming make it well worth the money.

Spiky

Ask yourself which part of your system you physically interact with. TV? Nah, never touch it. Receiver? Only through the remote. DVDp? Maybe the Open/Close button. Speakers? Maybe on dusting day. After dropping hundreds or thousands on these pieces of equipment, you never touch them again. Meanwhile, the remote sits in your hand (or damn close) in constant or very frequent use.

Spend something on a remote.

matome

The MX700 is now $140 at Newegg. I just ordered it to upgrade from the MX500, as I now need the extra components (20, twice as many as the MX500) and the PC programming is sweet. Shit, I wish they still offered the Sidekick with it.

Spiky

My first MX-500 cost $160, sweet deal on the 700.

Dead

Maybe it's just me, but when you say "budget remote" I don't think of most of the items others are listing. Instead, I think about things along the line of the $35 remote that I went with, the One for All URC9910. It's a 8-device, learning IR/RF Home Theater Remote...

http://www.ofausa.com/remote.php?type=URC%209910

Slowpc

I was going to get teh mx-700 at work , but still went with the harmony 676 (was 85bucks). I would say any of those would be good. Since you are not using a ton of devices, maybe searching for the walmart edition harmony for a lower price (100 bucks) and get the devices all set up easily.

One downside, the buttons are smaller it seemed in the pictures, and on the xbox 360 edtion.

Mordred

Agreed. Everybody in the family will be happy with the MX-500. It's a good idea to buy some extra batteries though... mine usually die every 3 to 4 months.

TheKobra

I have both the MX-500 and the Harmony 880. Both work great and there is a huge difference in price. The Harmony works like a champ and my wife has no problem using it. The MX-500 is more for me because I set it up the way I like it. All in all you can not go wrong with the MX-500 or just about any Harmony remote. I did have the Pronto a few years back and just hated it. When you have to look at a remote everytime you change the channel...this seems to be a problem.

Spiky

The MX-500 uses AAA batteries. Silly move, they ought to be AA like other remotes in this class. Esp if you use the backlight, they do burn up pretty fast. I got rechargeables, much more cost effective.

Sdallnct

I have that one as well. Actually two. One in the living room and works great as I have my components in a cabinet with solid doors, so the RF is really helpful when just watching TV.

I bought the other one for my media room, just haven't set it up yet. Do to the components in that room, I may have to get the cable to hook up to my computer so I can do some custom stuff on it.

Spiky

If you go the OFA route, and are handy with a PC, you can turn it into a PC-programmable and do far more than you might expect.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jp1/

cpgator

Thanks - just ordered it from Newegg.

Sdallnct

Yea, I'm trying to get into it, but damm, it is a little over my head. It is supposed to be pretty easy, but I'm having a little trouble following it all.

mbs

So did I. Thanks for the heads up, matome. I've been looking to get the MX-700, but was balking at the ~$200 price. I pulled the trigger on $140 and am super excited to get to programming it.

Y2K Falcon

How much ya want for a used MX500.





Do these things come with like a sensor that like you can clap your hands or whistle to locate it? Or should I just get a couple of them and program them the same.

matome

No whistle locators on these guys and my MX500 is going to the bedroom system

If you want to get a feel for the PC program ahead of time you can download the program/instructions/user manual from their website. Remotecentral.com also has lots of preprogrammed user-submitted setups and tips.

Spiky

I find that if I spend over $50 on a remote, I tend to keep track of it pretty well. They aren't exactly small, either. If I bought an MX-3000 ($1000) I'd probably be even more anal.

Now, if you get the MX-500 and want to program that with a PC, it is a little tricky. Someone made a device so there is some PC functionality, but they stopped making it. I don't think many hit the used market, either. IRClone is its name.

I tried to get into jp1 also, but it was pretty intense. I wasn't all that thrilled with the layout of the buttons on any of their remotes, either. The one I still have has such tiny buttons I often have to look at them. Much happier with the MX-500s.