I finally, after maybe 8 tries, got a single remote that does both the VCR and the TV.
I don’t know why they say they replace a remote if they won’t do one of the main things, like fast forward, or bring up the menu.
So this current one manages to do everything, but not on one button. On a combo of 2 or 3 buttons. On my original VCR remote was a single push of the record button, twice for 1/2 hour, 3 times for 1 hour, 4 times for 2 hours.
With the Universal, that’s now 8 button pushes to record a movie. But after several months it seems normal.
Still wishing for one that will do the DVD as well.
VCR, TV, and Stereo, all of which were different brands, and which were the only three things that used remotes when I could find the remote.
The VCR was fussy though, it only worked with its own brand’s, ever so slightly more expensive universal remote. The other two would work with anything.
I’ve gotten three of four (TV, VCR and Cable) all to work with my universal remote from Comcast, but the DVD/Sound System is the pisser. It’s the one I most need, as the actual remote for it is shedding buttons and half the functions don’t work on it, but a new remote is $100, and it seems that no universal will work with it. I could get a programmable remote, but since the original has buttons I want that don’t work (like “Subtitle”), those wouldn’t program over anyway.
I have a Logitech Harmony 688 and I love it to death. It’s incredibly easy to program using a USB cable and web interface, they have every device known to man in their database, and you can program it to do amazing things. It keeps track of the state of all your devices, so you can hit “Watch TV” and it will know to turn on the TV, switch over to the Video1 input, turn on your audio receiver, switch to the aux audio input and turn off your CD player.
It’s expensive, but totally worth it. Mrs. Giraffe adores it as well.
I have gotten my TV, and my Comcast box working on my Cable remote, as well as my XBox’s DVD player functions. If I had an actual DVD player, i think I could set the DVD button as that, and use the aux button as the stereo. That would be cool.
I had one that replaced my TV remote when it died. It was only about $20, but I could control my receiver, TV, cable box, VCR and DVD(with mixed results). Don’t remember the brand, as I gave it away with the TV.
I have a Logitech Harmony 550 which I paid an enormous amount of money for but I’m not totally satisfied with. It was ‘instantly’ programmable from the web site with every device I have (including my Samsung HiDef receiver which I didn’t expect). However, it is a bit dumb. When ‘Watch(ing) a DVD’, it will not switch the input on the A/V receiver to the correct one. When ‘Watch(ing) TV’ it will not switch to the correct input. I believe that the problem is that it sends signals out too fast. When many devices startup they go through a certain processes and are not ready to receive more input yet.
Because of this, my expensive remote control requires one additional remote control per programmed function.
You can fix that. I had the exact same problem with our TV, which takes a long time to start up and then needs the signals to switch inputs sent fairly slowly.
Go to the Logitech Harmony website, click on “More Options” next to the device in question, then click on “Adjust the delays (speed settings)”. Increase the values until it works.
If that doesn’t work, call customer support. They’re really good. Very patient and willing to help.
I’m pretty happy with my Harmony too, a 676, although recently I’m perturbed that every time I hit the Guide button it cycles forth one, and sometimes two, preset prefs. Other than that, one button setups for TV, DVD, Music, etc has been flawless.
I’ve never gotten the “Mute” button to work with my wife. Or the “Reverse” button. Or the “On Demand” button. Or, well, any of them. Pah! Universal remote, indeed.
Another vote for the Logitech Harmony: I have the 880 model and I love it. It ran my TV, VCR, DVD player, and stereo perfectly, and when I got TiVo last fall I had no trouble adding that to the mix and removing the VCR.
I have one of the Sony “brick” remotes - the 3100, I believe. This is the second one I’ve had.
The first one (the model number escapes me) ran EVERYTHING (everything being the receiver, the television, the DVR, the DVD, the CD/CDR, the VCR, and the dual well cassette deck). But, I spent a great deal of time programming it - it didn’t know the extra functions on the Phillips CD/CDR machine, for instance. When I upgraded, I haven’t had the time (and perhaps the brainpower) to make it all work again.
About to upgrade to the Harman Kardon (I know it’s a Logitech - it’s just prettier IMHO). I’m hoping the web interface will make it easier to set up.
I bought a Philips Universal Remote when certain buttons on the remote for my combination VCR/DVD player stopped working. (I could watch DVDs and videotapes without a problem and do one-touch recording, but I couldn’t access the setup menu or the timer-record function.)
It was very difficult to get the remote programmed. The TV wasn’t too hard to set up, but device wouldn’t recognize the VCR/DVD player as a single device. In the end I had to program the VCR under the “VCR/DVD” button and program the DVD player under the “SAT/CBL” button. I still can’t access DVD menu features with this remote. It’s main purpose is for programming the VCR. Otherwise, I stick with the separate TV and VCR/DVD remotes.
The great thing about the Harmony is that it really is easy to program - you can do the buttons one by one, decide what ones you really want on that little screen, etc. For example, for the DVD player I want to be able to change the TV aspect, the audio, the subtitles, etc, and those things don’t necessarily have great buttons for them on the remote - instead of trying to remember that “c” is “subtitle”, I just have it on the screen. If I want the full range of the TV’s setup, I can just hit “TV” as a device, not an action, and mess with it there. Once you get started it’s quite intuitive - the only thing mine can’t do is actually turn my game systems on.
It also has a great help menu - if the table in the way kept it from turning on the cable box, for example, I push “help” and it’s context sensitive - it knew I was trying to watch TV, and it says “Is the TV on?” Yes. “Is the DVR on?” No. Click. “Now is the DVR on?” Yep. “Did that solve your problem?” Indeed it did - then it goes back to the regular menu. Simple and intuitive. I haven’t had to pick up the actual device remotes since the first day I was working out the kinks in the Harmony.