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The face of the remote is completely flat, finished in matte black plastic. The left and right sides are at a perfectly straight 90 degree angle to the front, which would normally make for a sharp or at least uncomfortable profile... but in this case the sides have been uniquely constructed of soft grey rubber. That not only makes the ZR800D more comfortable to hold, but has the added benefit of concealing any potentially rough joints between case moulds. The rubber may even offer some added level of durability and shock absorption. A long, shallow indentation in the rubber runs the length of the remote and provides a convenient place for fingers to grip.
The top and bottom edges of the ZR800D curve around smoothly to the back, which has been left generally flat save for two features, the battery compartment at the bottom, and an indentation in the top that provides yet another place for fingers. The business end of the remote sports two LEDs covered by a lightly tinted plastic shield.
Near the top of the remote is the clicker’s most prominent feature, a small LCD display. The screen measures 1.26” wide and 0.54” high (3.2cm by 1.4cm), with a 1.34” diagonal (3.4cm). It features 10 segmented alphanumeric characters on the top row, plus a 5-digit clock and/or numeric region below. Symbols for signal transmission and low battery level fill in the extra space on either side. The screen is backlit with a lone dim blue LED that automatically activates for about 1.5 seconds every time a button is pressed. The LCD itself is always active and never powers off.
Enough for everyone!
The ZR800D certainly doesn’t shortchange owners on potential places to push, with a total of 53 buttons in various shapes. Beginning just below the LCD screen are teardrop-shaped [Power] and [All Off] buttons on the outer edges, with a small [Set] button between for accessing the remote’s main programming menu.
Directly below this is a three-by-three grid of identical buttons. Eight of these are for devices – [TV], [DVD], [Screen], [VCR], [Proj], [Sat], [Aux1] and [Aux2] – while the ninth, [Learn], is used for quick access to the remote’s learning feature. Considering that this is a newly released remote, I was surprised to see the inclusion of a dedicated [VCR] button while omitting other modern home theater devices such as DVRs and media players. And who has a projector without also having some sort of amplifier? Each of the eight device buttons are accompanied by individual LEDs located behind the semi-transparent keys, which flash whenever a command for that device is transmitted.
Located next on the remote are a pair of round [Channel] and [Volume] toggles (in reverse of the normal arrangement that puts [Volume] on the left), along with small [Display] and [Mute] keys between. Below is a 5-way menu cursor control made up of five large buttons (additional labels for Elite Screens’ products indicate “screen up/down” and “stop” functions on three of those keys). Beneath the cursor pad are four keys in a horizontal row: [Menu], [Show View], [Macro] and [Exit]. This is followed by a traditional 10-key numeric keypad, with complementary keys for [Enter] and [AV] (better known as “input”).
Continuing even further down – the ZR800D really does have a lot of keys – is a section with eight identical buttons marked simply by alphabetical labels from [A] through [H]. Finally, right at the bottom of the remote, is a standard 6-way transport cluster including [Record]. This is not an old-fashioned “safety” record button that requires a long hold or two-key combination.
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