Hi,

I'm looking for an easy to operate remote for my elderly aunt. She recently entered a nursing home. One of the few pleasures remaining to her is watching TV. There's a TV in the common lounge but she wants a TV in her room so she can control the programming.

I've bought her a Sony Bravia 40" LCD and plan to hook it up to a digital cable box with HD.

Unfortunately she has suffered a decline in her mental abilities (she's 90 years old) and can't operate anything complicated.

I've been looking for something really simple and came across the MX-1000 which to my mind has a very simple and elegant interface.

Here's what I have in mind
- one power button to turn on both TV and cable box
- punch through of both channel and volume selectors to the cable box
- program her favorite shows by name into the touchscreen for automatic channel selection
- a 'Guide' button on the touchscreen

I have an MX-500 for my personal home theater and I know I could do all this on an MX-500, but I'm afraid all the buttons would overwhelm her.

So the MX-1000 looks like a good fit, and the review on remote central is fairly positive.

But no one seems to carry it. The MX-1000 is still listed on the manufacturers website but I've checked all the usual online retailers and searched eBay without success.

I'm wondering what the problem is. Has it been discontinued? Is it unreliable or buggy?

Does anyone know where I can buy one? Or is there something similar available from another manufacturer (a small number of easy to operate hard buttons and a programmable interface)?

Many thanks for any suggestions

The MX-1000 was discontinued many years ago. It would be difficult to find, although I'm sure there are some people out there that have one they'd like to get rid of. The issue with the MX-1000 is that it was very limited in programming by its memory allocation. It was originally designed for programming to be done on the remote itself and the software was an add-on. If you want to go with a touchscreen, you might want to look at the Philips Pronto TSU-3500 (which is currently priced pretty well). You could also look at the TX-1000, but it's meant to be placed on a tabletop (not handheld) and is probably overkill for two components.

My mother uses a cheap, big button Sony remote (RM-E22) that just controls a TV and cable box. It can do what you want without the "favorite channels" ability.

Mike
www.SurfRemoteControl.com

Mike's probably talking about the RM-EZ2, in case you go Googling. :-)

You might consider something with RF so she does not have to point remote at TV. She can look at remote face and push buttons regardless of where remote is pointed.

Mike, Daniel & James,

Thanks for your replies. I'm disappointed to hear the MX-1000 is discontinued. The Pronto looks interesting, but I'm concerned that the hard buttons are not intuitive. The EZ2 has a very simple interface, but I think it requires her to differentiate between controlling the TV and controlling the cable box. It also lacks a simple way to select favorite channels.

I think I'm going to go with the MX-500. I can program the power on and power off to control both devices, punch through the volume and channel buttons to the cable box, and put 10 favorite channels on the LCD display next to hard buttons. I'll tell her to ignore the 'extra' buttons at the bottom of the remote.

Hope it works!

Again, thanks for the replies.

It might be a bit too simple, but you might want to check out Weemote Sr.

Did you consider the MX-3000 for this purpose. Although it's a higher-end remote, the minimal set of hard buttons and programmable touch screen seem very well suited to your needs.

Second the MX-3000 if it's not too pricey.

You could easily eliminate all buttons but the necessary ones, making it extremely easy for anyone to use.

Give me a break, she's 90 years old, you want her lug around a brick like the mx3000!!!

Get a remote like the sony vl710, refurb on-line for under $10. Its a 5 device remote, program each device the same, so it doesn't matter what device she accidentally pressed, it will work exactly the same.

It is pretty expensive for the purpose. I'll keep it in mind if the MX-500 doesn't work out for her.

Great idea to program each device the same. Thanks a lot!

photo of the vl710:

[Link: remotecentral.com]

Dan:

Drop me an email and I'll see if I can locate a 1000 for you in our warehouse. No guarantees, but there's always a chance.

Thanks,
Dale

Edmund's nailed it on the head. Something like that will work nicely.

Disregard my MX-3000 comment.

We have an MX-1000 still. (not my fault)