Sony RM-VL600 8-Device Universal Learning Remote Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought three of these for my home last week to replace a pile of remotes in my living room, den and bedroom. For each room, I needed at least some of the buttons on each of the remotes to do this or that. No more, thanks to the "learning" function. You start out, of course, by putting in the code for each device as found in the table in the back of the manual. Under Satellite, DirecTV codes were listed but not my DishTV device. No problem. The "search for correct code" function found it after just a few keystrokes.Now, after that, some of the functions were missing. For instance, after coding in my DVD device, the Sony600 remote did not seem to have a button that would open/close the DVD tray door ... even though the original DVD remote did. No problem. This Sony600 easily "learns" what your original remote buttons do. The Sony600's DVD "exit" button didn't do anything, so I taught it to do what my original remote's "open/close" button did. How? Basically you just point the two remotes head-to-head, push the Sony600's "learn" button, push the button on the Sony600 that you want "to learn," then push the button on the original remote that you want "to be learned." Ta-da! Save the "learning" and you are done. I was able to transfer EVERY function from ALL my other remotes onto my Sony600 ... I now have one remote (in each room) that will do EVERYTHING ALL the other remotes did.AND the range is much better than the old remotes as well.Plus you can train the Sony600 to record and replay a sequence of keystrokes you make on the Sony600 ... it will replay the sequence with a one button touch (the A-B-C-D buttons at bottom are for that). I trained it to do several of these "macros" as well. For instance, I have some wireless headphones attached to the TV ... to make them work, I have to go into the TV's menu and work my way over to the place where I redirect the audio output and such. Turned on the Sony600 "learn" mode, then just performed all the required kestrokes .... TV, menu, down, left, left, enter and so on ... then saved it to the button at the bottom. It's just that simple.All that for under $25. This is an excellent investment, run out and get one today !!
[Update: August, 2010] I just bought another one of these (to replace one that I broke) from Amazon. I was shipped a black one. It used to ship in silver. There are some silver ones hanging on the shelves at BustBuy, etc. Personally, I like the black look better except the blue buttons would have looked better in black as well. Anyway, other than the color scheme, it's the exact same device, whether you see it in black or in silver.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Sony RM-VL600 8-Device Universal Learning Remote

Controls UP TO 8 A/V-COMPATIBLE COMPONENTS EASY OPERATION OF ON-SCREEN MENU FOR DVD & VCR COMPATIBLE WITH MOST MAJOR BRANDS COMFORTABLE ERGONOMIC DESIGN 1-TOUCH SYSTEM CONTROL WITH 12 MACRO FUNCTIONS PRE-PROGRAMMED CODES ARE COMPATIBLE WITH MOST BRANDS LEARNING FUNCTION FOR PROGRAMMING FROM OTHER REMOTES REQUIRES 2 AA BATTERIES

Click here for more information about Sony RM-VL600 8-Device Universal Learning Remote