Hi All,

Thanks in advance. I`m looking for a good universal remote to control these following systems.

Receiver: Integra DTR-7.8
Projector: Sony VPL-VW60
Blu-Ray player: Panasonic BD-30 (will soon get BD-35)
DVD Player: OPPO HD981
Cable Box: Dual Tuner Comcast. Motorola DCH-3416
Lights: Insteon (I have the IRLinc Receiver using a light remote)

Any suggestions is much appreciated.

Thanks
Sanjay

What is your budget? Have you had a upgraded remote before? Is there anything special that the remote needs to have? Give us these answers and we will try to help.


Thanks
J.Todd

Todd, I'm looking for anything around/less than $300. Never used a UR before. Not looking for anything fancy as long as i'm able to control the above systems with one single remote.

Heh! We hear this exact phrase many times and still some folks end up being VERY unsatisfied and frustrated with the results. This is because even though all devices can be controlled, it is not without a good deal of thinking and many many button presses being required of the end user just to get the system up and running.

If you are prepared to select the remote mode (telling the remote which piece of equipment you want to operate,) power up your devices individually, select inputs individually, and so on with several buttons, every time, and just to get some picture and sound, you may be able to get by surprisingly cheap with a basic remote that learns...like this one:
[Link: remotecentral.com]

If you are expecting anyone else in your family to operate this system, believe it or not, sometimes you're just better off using separate remotes. It simply takes too much thinking and button pushing on the part of the user to have it be a pleasant experience.

If you want automation you need to spend more like $300 but then you have to decide if you are willing to take on the programming yourself (without any programming experience) you might try a Harmony series remote made by Logitech. They use a wizard based programming.

Performance and "user friendliness" wise, the only way to go is to spend @$500 and get an professionally programmed entry level [open architecture]remote from URC or RTI. It is possible that you could program one of these yourself but be ready to spend lots of time with the learning curve.

Good luck to ya.

Thank you Freddy, that makes lotta sense. I`ll then look for something economical. my only concern is, does those remotes control all my systems mentioned above.

Again, for $20 you can get a remote that will control all of your listed equipment. You can "learn" any of the buttons from your factory remotes into it (and this will address your minimum requirement.)
HOWEVER, if you want any kind of automation, you are really willing to spend $300 and teach yourself to program, you should look at either the Universal Remote Control MX-850 or the MX-900. If you don't have alot of time or confidence in doing this and still want a halfway decent remote, then you can go with something like a Harmony 880 although you might have to get creative in order to integrate the lights. Good luck.

as long as your devices are currently controled by regular IR remotes, then any UR will do you fine, so long as it at least has learning capability.

on your budget i would look at the MX-810, or even check out the new MX-450. if you want to expand your budget then look at the MX-880 or 980.

the 880/980 route will require some intricate programming as mentioned, but nothing TOO complicated if you're up to the task!

being you're asking in the URC section i'll keep the specific suggestions to URC products. otherwise as mentioned above harmony may have some products that would work for you, and they are relatively simple to program. however they have poor build quality and can be quite limited in customization compared with an MX-880 or 980. the nice thing about harmony is they are quite family friendly in that it "remembers" what inputs you are on etc so it keeps everything in sync, and has a HELP button that will guide a user through getting things back on track if they do get out of sync.