My wife and I are doing a major home remodel and are having a proper TV room built.
We are going to be using a Denon dual zone reciever and have been told by our installer that some universal remotes wont work with them. We are both VERY limited with A/V knowledge and would appreciate advice on what a good remote for us would be. We will have a TV, Reciever, satellite, blue ray and CD changer that will need to be controlled. Any help would be appreciated.

What remote is your installer recommending?

A phillips pronto I believe in the $600 dollar range. Would like to keep to $300 if possible.

Is the price $600 for just the remote or the remote fully programmed? Makes a big difference because sometimes the programming can be a major part of the costs.

When you go with a less expensive remote you get a remote that has more limitations than more expensive and adaptable remotes.

Less expensive remotes are harder to program and use for zone 2 applications. It is kind of frustrating when a customer selects a remote for a lower costs and then complains that using the zone 2 section is a bit hard to understand and use. When thinking about the cost consider the long time value and whether difference spread over years is worth the years of frustration is worth it.

My recommendation for a remote would be the URC MX-880 or the MX-980. With the MRF-260 the costs for the remotes alone would be in the 500-600 range.

Hope this helps,

Dave T.

Thats an easy setup with an MX-450.

Within your price range.

I would not recommend a MX-450 if the customer is going to use a second zone. Since the OP stated in his initial post that he was using a two zone Denon AVR then I thought that he was using second zone.

If there were no second zone then the MX-450 would be a good value for his system.

Dave T.

Just get a second remote for zone 2. Stays in 2nd zone and no looking for remote.