The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.
Review 4 made on Tuesday April 3, 2001 at 5:35 AM.
Strengths:
Good learning capability, works with all my equipment, real buttons, backlit lcd, strong IR
Weaknesses:
Only "preprogrammed" for Philips/Marantz, no way to enter discrete codes (only through learning).
Review:
I considered the Sony RM-AV2100, the Marantz RC-1200 and RC2000 MkII. As I prefer real buttons, I excluded the Sony. The Marantz RC2000 MkII only had 4 macro buttons so I chose the RC1200.
First test was: Can it work with all my equipment (I had an old Philips learning remote which couldn't work with some of it). Yes, it works with my:
It even works better than the original remote on the Sagem (stronger IR).
It could learn practically all functions from every remote and you can (if you are fast) even put more than 1 command on a button.
You can select up to 10 commands/functions pr. device through the jog-wheel and rename them - even though you only have 5 char.s for naming - I would have liked 8!
The RC1200 controls up to 11 devices and you can put a 10 command macro on every "device-select" button, which will be executed when you press and hold the button for more than 3 sec. (like on the Sonys) - I like that feature.
I am very satisfied with this remote and can recommend it!
The reviewer has used this remote control for 3-6 months.
Review 3 made on Sunday February 11, 2001 at 8:57 AM.
Strengths:
Can handle all of my equipment Slim figure, fits the hand very well. Easy to program
Weaknesses:
The numeric pad is at the bottom of the remote, which makes it a little difficult to operate them when using only one hand.
Review:
This remote is included together with the Marantz receiver SR-7000. So it can easily control all the features on the receiver. Norman, the "confusing" labels above the numeric keys are for the receiver.
The numbers of programmable keys is enough (except for my VCR which has a lot of features, JVC S-VHS), since you can program up to 33 functions for each device (i.e. 363 different functions + all the macros).
I'm very pleased with this remote, it fulfils all my needs in the TV sofa. I can easily control my receiver, TV, CD, DVD, Digital TV-box, and VCR.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 3-6 months.
Review 2 made on Saturday February 10, 2001 at 11:23 AM.
Strengths:
Slimline. Simple efficient key layout. Elegant overall styling. Flawless learning ability. Flexible set up of keys and macros. Separate light button for screen.
Weaknesses:
Time consuming to set up. Only 5 letters maximum for labels, I would be happy with 6. Small number keys as well as 5 keys above them. No backlight on keys. Confusing labels above number keys. I scratched these off. Cursor/control switching is awkward; I do not use this function.
Review:
The other feature I like about the RC1200 is that the 11 function keys can each hold 10 step macros, as well as a single function. Macro is activated by 3-second press, single function is activated by a simple press.
Also most every key can hold 3, even 4 steps (button presses) up to a collective limit.
The 10 extra functions for each of 11 components accessed via the thumbwheel may not be enough for some, but they were sufficient for my remotes. You can actually program 2 button presses for each of the 10 assigned places or 3 button presses on 6 places. For example, when I have the teletext component activated, I turn the thumbwheel to label "ABC" and with a press of the ENT key the 3 digits for the teletext page are transmitted giving me the ABC television schedule page. (This is like a mini macro)
In reply to the review from Ontario:
In my opinion, when comparing the RC1200 to the RC2000 mkII, I believe the RC1200 has the following advantages:
It is slimline and elegant in design, not top heavy like RC2000 mkII.
It has a simple efficient key layout and overall styling, unlike the RC2000 mkII, which looks like a mini army radio.
The number key layout being 1-5,6-10 instead of standard 3 rows + zero is to me a very good layout which is easier to use without looking than the traditional layout. The buttons are a bit small but are ok.
To me, the plastic wheel is a very good approach to hiding away the secondary functions to an easily accessible place.
All the primary-use functions such as volume, channel, play, stop, ff, rwd, and pause dominate the remotes face, along with the 11 function keys and the number keys. This creates a clean and uncomplicated, uncluttered face. I really like the layout of the cursor keys and the larger channel and volume keys on the sides. The thumb wheel does not look cheap at all and I believe this remote is conceptually designed to be slimline, easy to use (once setup) and in my opinion is very pleasing to the eye. To me, it has an 'elongated' mobile phone appearance.
In Australia the remote is a beige colour body, which to me looks better than the black model in the picture. The remote costs $A280, I got it for $A250 on sale (approx $US135) which I considered reasonable.
My remote is now setup to control TV, AMP, CD, DVD, and VCR. I was able to get all functions of the remotes for the above components programmed into the RC1200.
The best thing about this remote is I was able to use macros to achieve a one-key press to set and start all components required to: 1. Watch TV 2. Play a DVD 3. Play a VCD 4. Play a Video 5. Play a CD 6. Listen to radio 7. Access Teletext 8. Play Karaoke
I also have a one-key press to turn off all associated components for each of the above uses.
The RC1200’s memory only just allowed me to achieve the above functionality and it was a challenge setting it up. The ability to combine 3 even 4 key presses into one key eats up the memory. This ability is not documented in the manual. The actual “remote learning” and macro programming was straight forward after a bit of practice and I got plenty of practice. To achieve the one-key press useability as described above I was constantly reprogramming keys and macros. I think I can credit the relative ease of learning, programming and relabelling of the remote to allowing me to change my mind may times.
I think the RC1200 follows the 80/20 rule i.e. you will use 20% of the keys 80% of the time and so divides the functions between the hard keys and the thumbwheel. I do not think this remote is for everyone, but for the money I spent I think I got exactly what I wanted and am very happy with the control I have over my HT.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.
Review 1 made on Monday January 22, 2001 at 1:38 PM.
Strengths:
Good learning ability.
Weaknesses:
Non-standard numeric button layout. Awkward wheel device for extra features. Not enough hard buttons. Expensive for so few features.
Review:
I bought this remote and returned it within two days.
As noted, the learning ability of the remote is flawless and ran all of my devices.
The main factor in returning this remote was the numeric pad at the bottom of the remote. The numbers are in line 1 -5, 6-10. as opposed the standard 3 rows + zero layout. Anyone who's ever even used a remote control before will find this awkward since you have to keep your eyes on the remote to see what number you are pressing.
I also found the plastic wheel on the remote kind cheap looking. Ant only adds 10 extra functions.
Since there aren't all that many hard keys on the remote (no cursor keys), I found that I did not have enough keys for my DVD player and my Amplifier (without resorting to learning functions on wrongly labelled keys).
Since this isn't exactly Marantz' top of the line remote, perhaps I'm being nit-pickey, but I have used a Sony URC for less than half the price but was more functional, and without that cheap looking wheel.
On the upside, when I returned this remote, I replaced it with a Marantz RC2000, Mk II, which I love and is a very good remote, with absolutely none of the caveats I have about the RC1200.
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