I have a couple of "uncommon" pieces of equipment I want to find a universal remote control for. The television is a Viewsonic VT2430 lcd model, and I also have a Magnavox (Funai/Phillips) "HDD and DVD Player-Recorder" with a digital tuner -- Model MDR513H/F7.

The cable TV signal is split and goes to both the DVR/DVD and to the television. The DVR/DVD player is connected to the TV via HDMI and I can switch back and forth using the TV remote.

I am having a problem figuring out which remote to buy. I want one with learning capabilities as I think that is probably the only way I can capture all the functions from the DVR/DVD remote. It also needs to accept input for Clear QAM digital channels (i.e. 25.1) It also needs to be as inexpensive as possible.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Actually, they are not so uncommon from an IR point fo view.
Remotes made by UEI can control both of these.  
The best fit is to buy a RCA RCRP05B (<$20), and use setup codes TV 2014 or 2087, and Video 0675.
Cheapest is probably to get a Comcast  (frequently $5) or Atlas remote from eBay, and use TV 0054.  (Comcast remotes with a red OK/Select button use 5 digit setup codes: 10054 and 20675).

These remotes can be be customized to send other IR signals.  For example, the Comcast remotes don't have a dash button to allow sending e.g. QAM 25-1.  But that can be added to, say, PIP CH -, which would be easily remembered.  If you go this route, we'll tell you how to customize.

Thanks for the reply. You say the Comcast remotes don't have a dash button - do you know whether the RCRP05B does?

The RCRP05B does have a dash button, located just to the left of the 0 button.  The Comcast remote can be made to work also, and has a button labeled with a dash.  It would take you about a minute to program it to function with QAM signals.

The RCRP05B is a newer remote with many more setup codes than the Comcast.  But it is also more expensive.

I found the RCA remote at KMart (online) for $15 (free shipping) so I went ahead and ordered one. Hopefully, when it gets here, I'll be able to get it all figured out and working. I'm tired of having to find the TV remote to change the volume on a DVD movie I'm watching. Thanks again for your suggestions.

Update ---
I got the remote and am slowly getting it programmed. The controls for the HDD/DVD player recorder are a mess but I am "learning" them from the original remote and that seems to be working. I am having a problem trying to figure out how to get it to switch between the HDD and the DVD. On the OEM remote there is a DVD button and a HDD button and you push whichever one you want to use. Is it possible to use some other buttons (such as PIP and Swap) to put those instructions on? and if so how. Would I just use the learning procedure or is it more complicated than that? Appreciate any helpful advice.

I'm  not sure I understand your last post.  There is no need to learn from the original remote, and I recommend that you remove any functions that you have learned.   You should be able to control most of the DVD/DVR functions using setup code Video 0675.  Have you assigned 0675 to the DVR or DVD button?  

Some functions aren't built in to the remote, and you can program these.  For example, to assign HDD to the PIP  button, first make sure that you have pressed whichever device button has Video 0675 assigned to it.  Then,
1) Press Setup until 2 blinks
2) Enter 994  (2 blinks)
3) Tap (don't hold) Setup 
4) Enter 00129   (taken from the EFC column of the below list)
5) Tap PIP
The remote should blink twice.  Now when PIP is pressed, the DVR should enter HDD mode.  You can see more detail on 9XX instructions here.

In the below list, ignore the column labeled OBC.  I've put that there in case it helps people with other types of remotes.   Button labels are displayed in the 4th coumn for those functions which are already built in.

Thanks for the response. I did assign setup code 0675 to the DVD as it did not work on the DVR button. I removed the channel lock from the Cab/Sat device before I did anything else. The reason I was using the "learning" process was because some of the things were not working, or not working correctly on both the DVD and HDD. For example, Menu and List both work when in DVD mode but not when in HDD mode. Anyway - I cleared all settings this morning and am going to start over using your kindly supplied EFC codes. I'll let you know how it goes.

Okay, that went pretty smoothly! Most things are working with a few exceptions. For the ViewsonicTV, FAV and Guide are not working. Everything else seems fine.

For the DVR/DVD - In addition to FAV and Guide, LAST is not working and EXIT only works in some places. Selection of sub-channels is not working quite right. I enter 5-1 and it goes to CH 1.1. If I enter just 5- it scans to CH 5-1. I tried programming the "dash" key with the code for "dot" as there was no "dash" code on your list. Is there another code I should try?

These are all things I can live with if need be. But the one thing I really want to be able to do is control the TV Aspect while in DVD mode. Is there a way to do this? The ASPECT button works fine in TV mode.

I really appreciate your help. I'm miles ahead of where I would have been doing it on my own.

Let's take the Aspect button first.  Follow these instructions to copy the Aspect signal from the TV device and add it to the DVD device mode.  FYI, Aspect is called Zoom in the below table.

Regarding the dash function, you could also try EFC 00066.  Other than that, I don't have any ideas.  Although I said learning isn't necessary, it may be easiest to simply learn the Dash function.  Or, it is practical to try all 256 possible EFCs from 00000 to 00255.  To do that, you can test an EFC without programming it to a button.  Just Tap Setup and enter the 5 digit EFC.  When you press the 5th digit, the signal will be sent.

For the TV, I assume that you are using TV 2087.  You can modify the TV device mode in the same way as DVD, except make sure that the remote is in TV mode before programming the EFCs.  Below are various Viewsonic EFCs, some of which your TV  may not respond to.  Note that the volume/Ch and arrow keys may have identical signals.  I'm not sure how Favorites work on your TV, and it looks like some TV s have a discrete signal for favs 1-4, while others allow you to add or delete a favorite and then cycle through them.  If you can't get the behavior you want, we can also program the Macro1 or Macro2 buttons on the remote to send a sequnce of channel numbers in response to repeated presses of the button.
Function  EFC  OBC

0	00173	0
1	00205	1
2	00109	2
3	00141	3
4	00045	4
5	00077	5
6	00237	6
7	00013	7
8	00172	8
9	00204	9
enter	00108	10
Dash	00140	11
power	00044	12
mute	00076	13
Exit	00012	15
vol up	00175	16
right arrow	00175	16
vol down	00207	17
left arrow	00207	17
display/info	00111	18
picture	00110	26
up alternate	00046	28
down alternate	00078	29
channel up	00177	32
up arrow	00177	32
channel down	00209	33
down arrow	00209	33
Last	00113	34
mts	00145	35
Sound	00049	36
sleep	00241	38
Source	00176	40
right alternate	00144	43
left alternate	00048	44
menu	00240	46
HDMI	00178	56
AV	00210	57
CC	00050	60
TV	00132	75
menu alternate	00103	82
enter alternate	00007	87
Freese	00070	93
Fav Ch 1	00168	104
Fav Ch 2	00200	105
Fav Ch 3	00104	106
Fav Ch 4	00136	107
YPbCr	00171	112
Power On	00203	113
Power Off	00107	114
Zoom	00043	116
program/guide	00170	120
fav ch	00202	121
fav a/d	00106	122
Wide	00234	126

 

Thanks again for the assistance. I was able to get GUIDE to work in TV mode using the EFC code on the list. I "learned" the DASH button and it is now working correctly. I copied the ASPECT/Zoom button to the DVD and all is now well.

My original remote for the DVR/DVD does not have a LAST button. Same is true of the EXIT button. The only buttons I thought they might be are Repeat and Recall, but those only work inside menus, so I guess I'm out of luck there, but no big deal. I don't use those much anyway.

I think I am all set!!!! Thanks so very much for your help!