I bought my 620 from ABT, the day they had it available in April. It works great and performs all functions. Made in Indonesia.

Just a quick update, I returned the 620 to Best Buy and purchased URC WR7 and it works great, I did have to manually program control of the VCR and a few other buttons from my television but it took the programming with no trouble so it was definitely Sony's 620 and not my remotes (as Sony hinted at several times while speaking with them). Good luck!

The RM-VLZ620 succeeded in all aspects of programming which I attempted This included teaching it commands from an ancient remote for an original, still functioning 29 year old RCA (Hitachi) three gun front projection set.  

Over the years I had become concerned that if my original remote for the above ever failed (as they were unavailable) from hard use by two boys I would be SOL. Any learning remote I researched was way too expensive hence I did nothing until I checked once more and the Sony RM-VL700S was available for a very reasonable price. I easily taught the RCA remote to it and ten years later was able to do so as easily with the RM-VLZ620.  

I also tested code entry on a Sharp LC52E77UN and a Yamaha YAZ71 sound bar. Both worked perfectly and the feature where the remote controls the audio component volume in lieu of the TV did also.

I actually purchased this (Amazon) for my age 86 mother-in-law for a Sharp LC46E810UN, a Sony HT-CT350 sound bar, Sony DVD/VCR and Scientific Atlanta 8300 DVR cable box. The after market remote the cable company provided was completely unintuitive and did not control the Sony Sound Bar volume. The TV has NetFlix built in and that of course required the Sharp remote. Having to use the Sony SLVD360P remote completely ticked everyone off!!!  

I plan to set up all the above this weekend and will report back......

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I just got a VLX620. I like the button layout better than the VL610 it replaced. One problem, I can't get the 620 to learn the Sony "system off" discrete code. It seems it won't learn. Any thoughts/ideas? I did program the individual component's discrete off into one system control button, but I was looking for a single/simple solution.

Thanks.

Where are you getting the "System Off" discrete from? If another Sony remote, note that that is a macro button. It first sends a "System Off" code (not all Sony components respond to this) followed by a wide range of individual Power Off codes.

Essentially, it's impossible to learn the entire macro, and can be a bit tricky to learn just the first command.

Just thought I'd chime in here and say that it seems that, when learning commands from other remotes, I've had the best luck by holding the donor remote's button down for as long as it takes for the sony to flash 3 times. The manual does not tell you to do this, but it seems to 'learn' best by doing it this way. I've had some buttons that I didn't do this way work sometimes, but not all the time.

Also, I was able to program two sequences onto a single key, just as you could with the older sonys (like the 600), by quickly pressing the buttons on the donor remote(s) one right after the other. It took several times to get it to take both commands, but it's worth it to be able to fit [power on/off] and [tv input 'x'] onto one button. The device-specific a,b,c,d buttons work great for this.

I'm still not sure on the button layout. There are some things I really like, but one thing I don't is the transport (vcr) buttons are too far away from the volume/channel buttons. I thought the 600 had these buttons a little too spread out, but the 620 is definitely worse in this respect.

At first, I thought I'd be returning this remote, but I've decided to take some time to get used to the new layout and I haven't any show-stoppers so far...

I had the same proble and found a fix. I had 4 of these remotes and tried 2 others in separate stores before sending them all back in to Sony. When they sent new ones back, I still had this issue. The only common trait between all the remotes and occurances was the use of rechargable batteries. I had always used new or fully recharged batteries but as soon as I tried non rechargeable ones- the problem went away. I was able to duplicate the problem every time I placed rechargable batteries back in the remote. I have discovered the remotes will learn on non rechargable batteries and then you can operate them on rechargable batteries. This only applies to the RM-VLZ620. After correcting this- it is a wonderful remote. I reported this to Sony. Rechargeable batteries only yield 1.2 volts and non rechargable one provide the full 1.5 volts, which must make a difference to this remote's learning proccess.

I have NEVER used rechargable batteries in any remote, but I had 620 from best buy that learned without any troubles, but the one from amazon wouldn't learn at all, because it didn't allow you to finish the procedure. It never got to the part where can see command to learn. There are just some lemons out there.

I had the same problem as maxp with my Sony RM-VLZ620: Going through the sequence to enter learning mode, after I press the first button I'm trying to teach, the Set light flashes multiple times briefly, and it cancels out of learning mode. The fix posted by IndyUser worked for me; the problem went away when I switched from rechargeable batteries to plain old alkalines. So apparently the learning function is super-sensitive to the voltage. Maybe because it's so borderline, there are some units that won't work no matter what batteries you put in them.

As IndyUser noted, once all the programming is done you can switch back to rechargeable batteries. (Now if only it were not so $%#& hard to get the batteries out...)

Thanks so much for the info!

I've had a VL600 for over ten years without one hiccup. We just recently bought a 620 and it works flawlessly. i don't think it's fair to blame Sony, any number of things could have happened to a particular unit between leaving the factory and arriving in your hand!

We have an RM-VL600, but see from the review that 610 has better, 'less twistable', build than that, and more of a clicking sensation when pressing the buttons.

I gather the buttons on Z620 are a little larger but how do they feel cf. 610, and how does the Z620 compare to 610 with regard to build quality, please?

The build quality of the 620 seems fine to me. Not overly twisty, rubber side grips, buttons I think are actually better than the 610. Battery compartment on my sample is a bit loose, probably could use a piece of foam.

Programming of the 620 is veeeeery different, a definite downgrade, but physically it seems fine to me.

hi, I currently have the 610, working fine for all equipment... all buttons programmable, perfect! Now I got a new cable box Pace DCR7111...(same as a Phillips I understand), which works with 'toggle-bits' ...(?) if I understand correctly..... I can't get to program these codes on my 610.... The code book has pace and phillips in there, but they won't work... So I wonder if the 620, now with 5 digit codes in the book, would have the correct code for a PACE DCR7111 to work...(same remote as Philips DCR-8111 I read...) Or does anybody know if the 620 will manually learn these 'toggle-bit'-codes? I would love to stay with the 610, and rather switch to a 620, then to a logitech or else....
thanks,
Wil

Did you try learning the codes on your existing remote? If there's a toggle bit problem they will work, but only once in a row (for example, you could press 1-2-3 without issue, but 1-2-2 would only come up as 1-2).