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The following page was printed from RemoteCentral.com:
User reviews for the Sony RM-VL1000 from Sony Electronics. |
| Ratings | Reviews | MSRP (USD) |
Average: 3.36/5.00 Median: 4.00/5.00 | 45 | $79 |
Lots of capabilities at an economical price: the RM-VL1000 features control of 12 devices with 47 commands each, 24 macros, 12 timers, full learning, custom LCD-labeled buttons, a 5-way menu joystick and much more!
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Navigation: [ < Previous|Next > ] Now viewing user reviews page 3 of 7 for the Sony RM-VL1000 remote.
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Written by Michael Gillgannon from Saskakatchewan, Canada. The reviewer has used this remote control for 6-12 months. |
Review 30 made on Wednesday September 3, 2003 at 4:26 PM. |
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Review: | My main point of comparison is with the VL-900, a remote I'm quite fond of but which lacks some features. No timer, for instance, and only three macros. And also I was running out of buttons, especially when using my Panasonic DVD recorder. I assigned some buttons to an unused device key but it was getting hard to remember which button did what to whom. The VL-1000 solves that problem nicely with its 12 labelled keys. To be more precise, there are four buttons and an lcd screen that scrolls keys 5-8 and 9-12 into place. It's a tidy solution to what would be a serious real estate problem. A two-handed remote would be a bit much. The macro and timer functions along with the device selections, also scroll into place. The obvious tradeoff here is more functionality at the expense of more button presses.
I needed the timer to change channels for recording at odd hours from one of the set-top boxes. (I have two -- one for recording and one for viewing. No TIVO here, but even TIVO won't let you watch something live and record something else, as I understand it. So two boxes seems to allow the ultimate in flexibility.) The two STBs respond to the same IR signals, so getting around that proved to be a challenge. But that's another story.
I've seen a lot of complaints about how the buttons up-top don't align with their labels. That's true, but I've never seen it as a problem. Inputting characters for the labels is a pain and Sony could have made it a lot more bearable by dropping the lower case character set along with most of the symbols they threw in for no apparent reason.
This unit is definitely underpowered compared with the VL-900. It only uses two double-A's vs. four, so I suspect that's the reason. Battery life is good though. The learning function works well. It hasn't balked at any signal I've thrown its way. Here's one oddity: it has a clock where you set the time and day of the week AND standard time or daylight time. What's up with that? Since it doesn't keep track of the date or month or year, what difference does it make? Also, just to point out how verbose the manual is, it takes five pages to tell us how to set the clock!
In short, this remote does everything I want it to do. I think the three-star rating it's garnered so far is too low. |
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Written by James B from Alaska, USA. The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months. |
Review 28 made on Monday June 23, 2003 at 11:10 PM. |
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Review: | Hello, I was excited to get this remote. I was growing weary of finding three separate remotes to start a movie in surround sound each time my family wanted to watch one. I have the following hodgepodge of components: General Instruments Digital Cable Box, JVC HI-FI VCR, Panasonic Progressive Scan DVD Player, Panasonic 47" Widescreen HDTV with Twin Tuner PIP, and a Sony STR-DE 985 Receiver. The remote ran all of the components flawlessly except for the Sony Receiver. It would not even turn it on. Yes, I could program it manually, but it's the principle of the matter. The heart and soul of my entertainment system which is a Sony receiver could not be controlled by a Sony universal remote. This was complete screw up on Sony's part in my own humble opinion. I will see if Sony will offer a firmware update, but given Sony's track record for customer service lately, I seriously doubt it. I'm happy I bought it from a local retailer, so I can return it ASAP. I can honestly say it's a good remote if you do not own a newer model Sony A/V receiver. |
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Written by Steve Schmidt from New Haven, CT. The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months. |
Review 27 made on Monday March 24, 2003 at 8:21 PM. |
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Review: | I have been buying about one so-called "universal" remote per year for the last four or five years because each time I buy a new AV component, my existing remote cannot be upgraded to control my new device. This time the catalyst for my purchase of another universal remote was the addition to my system of a Sony SVR-3000 digital video recorder (TiVo, hooray!!). I bought the RM-VL1000 because of a comment on this forum stating that the remote controls the Sony SVR-3000 right out of the box!!
Bingo!! It does!! It also, with codes contained in the Owner's Manual, controls my JVC XV-523 DVD Player and my Mitsubishi CS36609 Television. Unfortunately, or so it seemed, the manual contained no code for my Mitsubishi M-VR600 AV receiver. Uh oh.
Uh oh, nothing. After five minutes decoding the manual and ten minutes more teaching the Mitsu receiver codes to the RM-VL1000 (hard buttons, by the way) I was in business.
Did I mention macros? You can have many macros--I set up a few which I use to switch between components. That is, change the TV input from receiver to DVD (you can program in multiple pushes of the same button) and turn on and open the DVD player and set the remote to control the DVD. Things like that.
The most tedious part of the setup is relabelling the buttons. The LCD (there is now a clear plastic shield, easily cleaned over the LCD) backlight, even at its longest setting, does not stay on long enough to accomplish the relabelling (but plenty long enough for most other purposes), so I wound up sitting at my desk with the remote under the desk lamp in order to be able to see the unlit LCD well enough to complete inputting the letters for the relabelling. A minor inconvenience.(And one cannot simply "erase" a label, (although one can easily clear existing macros) it is necessary to change each letter position individually and linearly. Also, macros cannot be edited. If a mistake is made in an entry sequence one must clear the entire sequence and begin again. That makes it a good idea to clearly think through and write down the macro prior to entry.
As others have commented, the balance of the remote makes using the buttons below the joystick a bit unwieldy(speaking of the joystick, I did not find the joystick particularly flimsy, but there is a bit of a learning curve to its fluent use) and the buttons below the joystick are the channel and volume buttons which some people, like me, use a lot.
The bottom line is that I was able, within two hours of arriving home with the remote, to remove the batteries from all my other remotes and put them away. I have heard this unit referred to as a "poor man's MX5000". So far I see no need to spend the extra money on the MX5000, I am extremely pleased with my RM-VL1000. |
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Navigation: [ < Previous|Next > ] Now viewing user reviews page 3 of 7 for the Sony RM-VL1000 remote.
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