Hey guys, I got caught up reading the forum and am very impressed; I never knew you could reprogram a one-for all remote with a serial cable heheh.

Anyway, I bought a DVD recorder for my brother a week ago and it was a terrific deal, but it came with no remote. Presumably, the previous owner had tons of these machines and never kept the remotes.. I wonder what happened to them :(

Anyway, as you guys know the DVD recorders are set to DVD-3 by default and the universal remotes I have on hand can't do that. Funny, because it sounds like comcast remotes can! Aint that nice? Dish remotes can't!

From search I saw some recommendations but they're all from a couple of years ago, and those model remotes don't seem as easy to come by anymore. Do you think a Harmony might do the trick? Or perhaps a sony universal remote? (A rm-vz220 is only $8 or so!) Any inexpensive options would be very much welcome, thanks! :D

Harmony will almost certainly work.  A Comcast with a red OK/Select button will work using setup code 21069, and a RCA RCRP05B will work using DVD 1069.
The Comcast is usually available on eBay for about $6, and the RCA in the $15 or so range.

Hey, thanks for that tip! I'll probably be trying one of those comcast remotes - the silver one or the dark grey one? There's 2 with red ok/select buttons.

I just tried a Harmony 200 to see - it MOSTLY works (on DVD-3, yes) but there's no way to get into the system menu with it. ARGH SO CLOSE! Aww :( I'll keep you guys updated :) Thanks!

Either color is OK.  The insides are the same.

Cool, right now I'm still working on the harmony - it turns out it does have full support for dvd3 (but you have to assign one of the buttons to system menu - though it's in the database so you don't need to learn it with the OEM remote!)

Even cooler, is that if you have the overwhelming temptation to switch to DVD1 and try more conventional remotes, customer service can apparently change your profile to DVD1 or DVD2 as well. Oddly, that's not something you can do yourself. :( *sigh*

Also: While DVD1 works with the commandset for most sony DVD players, no sony dvd player (to my knowledge) has the system menu button, and the VCR codes generally don't work - nor do the DVD/VCR combo buttons, so if you get a remote working otherwise it probably won't support the system menu feature unless it also does DVD3 anyway.

That was interesting

The Comcast or RCA remotes can also do DVD1-- use 21033 or DVD 1033.
With either remote, you can manually program any function to buttons of your choosing, using for example these known Sony DVD functions.  Or you could speculatively try any other function number.

DVD2 isn't possible with these remotes unless you get a JP1.3 interface cable.

Thanks a ton 3FG, Logitech emailed me letting me know a tier 2 was on the case and didn't follow up - so I called and in the end they didn't seem able to get it to work on DVD1. Odd.

So I took it back and got the RCA RCRP05BR and as you suggested, code 1033 mostly worked! I ended up having to program the number keys and a few other things.

* Advice for those that are in this pickle in the future:
To program things missing (like the number keys and channel up/down), for each key you do the following (assuming you're already on the device key you want, like DVD):
* Hold setup until the device light flashes twice
* Type 994
* Press setup once
* Type in the EFC code below
* Press the button you want the code to work on.

These are the codes!

channel up: 33948
channel dn: 35740
guide (MENU!): 38044
input: 34972
#0: 50844
#1: 19100
#2: 18076
#3: 18588
#4: 17564
#5: 19356
#6: 18332
#7: 18844
#8: 17820
#9: 51868

A huge thanks again to 3FG ^_^

For others who may go this route:
DVD 1033 is already programmed to send the correct signal for the number buttons, but by default the Channel Lock feature causes the remote to send Cable IR signals instead of the DVD signals.  The channel lock feature can be disabled and/or reconfigured, avoiding the need to enter in EFCs for the number buttons.

haha, thanks for pointing that out :D Wish I had seen that!