The reviewer has used this remote control for more than two years.
Review 27 made on Wednesday August 1, 2012 at 6:13 PM.
Also owned:
Harmony, AR Xsight, Marantz RC2000, EUI
Strengths:
How good is this remote? It's now 2012, pretty near the end of the world, and I'm STILL using it. All those other remotes do the job, but none had the look and feel of this one. Without JP1, it wouldn't have enough memory. With JP1, just barely. Over the years, I've even bought spares to cannibalize parts. Maybe the finest product Rat Shack ever offered...
Weaknesses:
Limited memory. Contacts under rubber buttons eventually wear out. If you try to open the case without removing two screws in the battery compartment, you can really mess up the looks. Otherwise, getting inside to clean the contacts is straightforward.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.
Review 26 made on Sunday January 16, 2005 at 8:12 PM.
Review:
Just purchased it. Set the code for my Samsung TV, first code profided can turn off the TV. But after that the commands are lagging.. need to push more than once to register to TV. Searching for codes doesnt work. Stop trying to further program. Maybe mine is defect. Will return tomorrow.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.
Review 25 made on Sunday January 9, 2005 at 8:27 PM.
Strengths:
Seems sturdy
Weaknesses:
Small list of codes, small memory
Review:
I bought this to replace my 4 year old One-For-All Cinema 7, which is on life support. I loved the Cinema 7, it is small, easy to use, and between the learning function and the advanced codes, it can be programmed to do anything. With the 15-2116, I thought I was getting a newer version of the Cinema 7. Wrong. This thing has a surprisingly small list of devices that it supports. My 4 year old Cinema 7 supported my brand new Onkyo receiver, but the 15-2116 doesn't. One-For-All devices have notoriously small memory, so learning all the codes for an unsupported device is a non-starter.
If all of your devices are supported, I think this might be nice, although it is a bit big and clunky. But check the device list first.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 6-12 months.
Review 24 made on Saturday November 13, 2004 at 2:53 PM.
Strengths:
Great Feel. easy to use for basic functions macros
Weaknesses:
small memory
Review:
I got this remote because my receiver's universal remote just sucked. everything was just too complex. This definitely simplified things. I have a receiver, dvd player, cd player, tv, and vcr. Everything was able to be done using the given codes. The feel is great. Because I don't have a cable/sattelite receiver, nor PIP, the sucky little buttons near the volume and channel adj were not needed.
One downside is the lack of memory. I tried to program the Xbox dvd remote to this, and I couldn't get all the buttons programmed onto it...so I gave up, and am just using a regular dvd player that was preprogrammed.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.
Review 23 made on Monday May 17, 2004 at 3:09 PM.
Strengths:
Price?
Weaknesses:
The worst code list I have ever seen and the smallest memorey I have ever seen in a "learning remote"
Review:
If you were lucky or unlucky enough to have the exact models of eqpt. that this thing had codes for, it might be OK. But then you gear would have to be 10 years old. OK so then I go the "learning" route. After programming about a dozen keys, MEMORY FULL and back to Rat Shack it went. Save yourself the grief, spend the money for the MX500 and do this right.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 3-6 months.
Review 22 made on Sunday April 4, 2004 at 8:47 PM.
Strengths:
Handles everything Great backlight Cheap
Weaknesses:
Complex poor layout.
Review:
I bought this remote when my Dish remote couldn't handle my television and a cheaper remote didn't have punch-throughs and lacked some commands. This is a tertiery remote, needing only to control a television and dish receiver, so a full-featured pup seemed overkill.
This seemed perfect. It has a huge database, supports learning (which I wound up not needing due to the database), has a great backlight and I could combine the devices into one.
But... after several months I decided it had to go. The whine on backlight doesn't bother me, but the button layout is incredibly bad. You can't imagine. Tiny buttons arranged in grids. The LCD displays the time and device, but that's it.
After months, I still had to look at it every time to figure out where the Guide button, Mute button etc. are. It doesn't have more buttons than most, it just seems to because of a lousy layout. The build quality and feel are great, but the layout is a killer.
Bottom line: It does the job, almost any job really, but there might be better choices for usability. Power-for-dollar it's unbeatable though.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.
Review 21 made on Friday February 27, 2004 at 3:28 PM.
Strengths:
Program codes for all my devices. Learning and macro capabilities. Great backlighting. Cheap. My family can actually use it. Good feel.
Weaknesses:
No dedicated macro buttons. When you assign a macro to a button, it is assigned to that button for all modes (TV, VCR, etc).
Review:
When the "Universal Remote" that came with my new receiver for the den could not be programmed for anything but the unit itself, I did not want to spend $100 for another MX-500. I decided to try this over the Sonys since it was in stock at the local RS, it was cheap ($31.99), and what the heck, they would take it back if I didn’t like it.
The codes worked for all of my units (Panasonic, JVC, Sony). I programmed a few keys so that volume and mute on the receiver would work when in VCR or CD mode and so on. And I programmed a TV, VCR, Receiver system on and CD, Receiver system on and assigned them to the PIP and Freeze buttons.
My wife and daughter hate the MX-500. After a year, they still do not get the Main/Device sequence requirement. They can’t learn the Main – Hold down device button for device appropriate system on. In contrast, my daughter loves the 15-2116 the way I have programmed it and my wife can at least use it. We have put away the other four remotes.
Others have found that if the code for one of your devices does not work, there will not be enough memory in the unit to learn all the buttons. I did not run into that problem, since the codes worked for me.
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