To control my home theater right out of box?
 

Hello guys,

I'm upgrading my home theater and now I have 9 components in my home theater and 3 are at my bedroom. It wasn't much of an issue to me having 6 remotes in the living room as I have a place to put them, but now I am seriously considering a nice fully functional learning remote. I'm very short of time so I am looking for good deals both on remote control prices and a professional setup fees. I've encountered a store that sells pre-programmed universal remote controls. According to the information on the site, I'll be able to operate my home theater 'right out of the box' as they will customize the chosen remote control for my HT.

The store is here www.remoteinstaller.com

Will you share your experience of buying from the store? What are the shipping terms? Was there a lot of e-mailing? Anything else that is important to know?

Thanks in advance for your ideas/answers.

If you could do this yourself with ease, would you?

The MX-500 is an awesome remote, that you can customize yourself. It costs about $90 - $100 online. Totally worth it.

Or there are several Logitech Harmony remotes that are supposed to be pretty good as well.

Logitech Harmony 659 is $95 at Buy.com

Spend about a half hour on their website entering all the A/V equipment you own and how it interacts. Then it feeds info to the remote via USB. I went from 6-7 remotes to one.

Second the Logitech Harmony recommendation, it so easy its scary. I have previously used Sony remotes and One for all via JP1 connector. Both were very difficult to program with what I wanted to do. The Harmony remotes are easy and perform flawlessly.

Hello guys,

Thanks for your suggestions. I've carefully studied Logitech Harmony remotes. It’s some nice gear! The only missing is the big touch screen. I think I'll choose the TSU-3000. Why doesn't Philips provide internet programming???

I've e-mailed my questions to these guys. If there is something worth spending money, I'll keep you updated.

Hello guys,

Well, everything seems all right. I was confirmed that the remote control will operate my equipment without any problems. There may be a bit of e-mailng if I want anything to be corrected. I ordered the TSU3000 (it retails for $326.99) and should arrive on Thursday programmed for free to control my HT + free 2 macros (I could order 5 for free). When ordering, I had to fill out a simple on-line form and then I received an order confirmation via e-mail within 2 hours. The site provides a no-hassle warranty, so if I don't like anything, I can return the item.