User reviews for the Home Theater Master SL-9000 from Universal Remote Control Inc. Ratings Reviews MSRP (USD) Average: 4.09/5.00 Median: 4.17/5.00 18 $129 The SL-9000 is a powerful learning and pre-programmed remote control with real hard buttons, an LCD display screen, backlighting and macros. Message Forum Our Review Clicker Picker Specifications Add Your Review

Written by Keith Aderman from San Diego, California. The reviewer has used this remote control for more than two years.

Review 11 made on Tuesday October 1, 2002 at 2:27 AM. Strengths: Easy to program. Lots of hard buttons. Mostly Logical key placement. Not very expensive. Light feature. Weaknesses: No curser controls unless you use transport buttons. Some reliability problems. Short battery life. Won't learn many products. Review: I am a custom installer and sell about 3 or 4 of these remotes a week. Generally, they work well and make sense to the client. Programming is easy, as long as it works--- you can't always count on that. There are many products that it just won't learn, even though some of the commands for the same products are in the pre-programmed data base. For instance, NAD receivers. Some of the commands are already programmed in but you cannot teach any new NAD commands. There are several other products with the same problem. The biggest problem with the remote is the lack of cursers for DVD, TIVO, VCR, etc.-- anything needing both transport and curser control. This was a great remote before DVD and TIVO was popular, but it is time for an updated version. Give us a logical, hard-button remote similar to this one with both cursers and transport controls! While they're at it, add additional marco ability to the function buttons. Loose the duplication of inputs at the bottom of the remote-- it just confuses people. There are so many functions that are needed on the lower buttons, so why waste the labeling with redundant features. Upgrade it's ability to learn. URC, Inc. has gotten their milage out of this model, now give us a newer, improved model at the same price with a lot of the good features of this remote. It just needs a little work. Generally though, I like it and own one myself. You can keep your soft-button remotes! I don't want to put on my bifocals and change menus numerous times just to operate my system. I can memorize a few buttons instead and keep my eyes on the TV screen instead. Before anyone finalizes the design of a remote control, they should run it by us custom installers first. We are in the trenches and know what customers need and want. I only hope that next time URC will run the new version (if they ever come up with one) by us before building a million of them. Quality: Features: Value:

Written by jay kaufman from san diego, ca. The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-2 years.

Review 10 made on Tuesday July 23, 2002 at 11:43 PM. Strengths: lots of features, elegant looking, handles 8 devices Weaknesses: pain to program, frequently takes many tries and even when it says 'good' it doesn't always work. Simply fails to learn from 2 of my remotes and defeats purpose of remote. Review: Got me addicted to a learning remote, now to find one that works with all devices. Quality: Features: Value:

Written by Paul Matthews from Danbury, CT. The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-2 years.

Review 9 made on Tuesday January 29, 2002 at 11:41 AM. Strengths: Learning on every button joining two or three IR command on one button (not a macro) like TV input and reciever input on the device button lots of macro buttons but I don't use them. I don't have to. Weaknesses: No seperate play stop ff rw buttons same as up dn lft rgt. I put play pause ff rw stop on the mcaro buttons down bottom since i don't use macros so its perfect for me. I just wish the macro buttons came labled PLAY STOP etc Review: I totally love this remote. I've sold dozens of people on them and if programmed correctly it can replace every remote and automated the power on, input switching sequences of your A/V system. Quality: Features: Value:

Written by Alan Mower from Richmond, Calif.. The reviewer has used this remote control for more than two years.

Review 8 made on Friday August 10, 2001 at 4:33 PM. Strengths: Ergonomically very good; a one handed remote. Backlighting is very good. A very good value at $140. Buy from a store that will let you try it for several weeks, allowing you to return for a refund if you don't like it. Good customer service department. Weaknesses: It handles all the functions that I through at it with the exeption of DVD functions. I wish it had a resume button, a feature of my DVD that I use a lot. I will have to program another button and remember where it is stored. Review: For my video and audeo gear, the preprogramed codes only worked with my Toshiba VCR and HDTV. All the rest I had to program in the "learn" mode. They worked but it was time consuming. Remote worked great until I upgrade AV processor from a Adcom surround to a Rotel digital surround. I then experienced a host of problems; the "mute" feature would dissappear when I added "DVD" switchover in the top rows of keys. I lost "Volume up and down" when I added "CD" switchover in the top row of keys; then lost "CD" and "DVD" switchover when I reprogrammed the "Volume" and "Mute" buttons. The manuel was of no use, so I bit the bullet and dialed the long distance (at my expense) telephone number. The receptionest gave me their 800 number (none listed in the manuel) and felt much better calling them. The tech worked with me through 3 fixes, the last being to erase the entire remote and start over. This fixed the problem but he acknowleded that if this didn't fix, I could ship the remote back to them and they would fix it. Very good tech support. I recentely test drove the Phillips Pronto remote and returned it. preferring (mainly for ergonomic reasons) the Home Theater Master. Quality: Features: Value:

Written by Jeff from Fort Worth, TX. The reviewer has used this remote control for more than two years.

Review 7 made on Friday August 10, 2001 at 3:11 PM. Strengths: battery life, backlight, form factor, easy to program Weaknesses: No user entered LCD labals available, lack of transport controls - read review for easy way to get around this. Review: I love this remote! I have had it for about two years and it has performed outstanding. I control a TiVO/DSS combo box, DVD, VCR, and Dolby Digital Reciever and of course my TV. It controls all of these devices with no problems along with all of the secondary controls that many times must be left off universal remotes. Everyone complains about the problem of transport control (i.e. FF, REWD, PAUSE) beause the typical place to have them is the four buttons that circle around the select button, but these buttons are typically reserved for use on the DVD menu screen. I found a great way to fix this! I programmed another device button (VCR2) to handle all of my transport functionality for my DVD. So when I am using the DVD Menu I leave the remote set to DVD. Once the movie is playing I switch to VCR2 and use the same four buttons around the select button to handle the transport functionality. Since I only have 5 devices, I programmed two more devices into my remote, one for transport control of my DVD and one for transport control of my TiVO. This has solved the one major flaw with this remote for me. Quality: Features: Value:

Written by Dean Mevis from San Diego. The reviewer has used this remote control for 6-12 months.

Review 6 made on Friday February 23, 2001 at 5:55 PM. Strengths: Lots of buttons! Long battery life. Comfortable in the hand. Works great except as below. Weaknesses: Not worth a damn to control your DVD. Why can't these morons adds some more buttons for transport control on DVD's? Review: With the exception of controlling my DVD, this has been a GREAT remote. It either already knew, or was capable of learning, all of the functions of all of my equipment. It operated my DVD but really needs 2 more buttons. Somehow, this remote just disappeared, so I am now looking for a new remote... one that handles DVD's. Quality: Features: Value:

Written by David Stallings from New Jersey. The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-2 years.

Review 5 made on Monday February 12, 2001 at 7:19 PM. Strengths: Transmits a long way and works with all my devices. Weaknesses: Buttons are tough to see in dark, hard to remember what buttons do (ever tried memorizing five remotes?), eats batteries like mad (get alkaline rechageables-you will need it) Review: We use it a lot, but it has not replaced all the remotes around the place. I am now looking for another remote. Quality: Features: Value:

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