Sony RM-VLZ620 for Sage

[anotherhaus]

Thought I'd mention that I picked up a Sony RM-VLZ620 remote for use with my Sage server (with USB-UIRT as well as an FLIRC for the wake-from-sleep ability), and codes 00000 for TV and 42443 for CBL work well, enabling almost all the buttons to be mapped to key commands in FLIRC and/or macros in EventGhost. Just leaving the remote on CBL, the volume and power use the TV pass-through, which I programmed to tell the USB-UIRT to change the amp volume and a macro to wake the PC and turn the TV/Amp on and off as needed from the power button.

The Sony is a pretty good remote, with 3 LEDs instead of the single LED in the Inteset 422-3 I tried earlier but wasn't cutting it (not to mention a poor button layout for use with Sage, because the directional arrows aren't within immediate reach). I can point it pretty much anywhere, including the back of the room on the wall opposite the TV and it still works.

[KeithAbbott]

I've been using this remote for about eight years now, my only real complaint is they only last 18-24 months, then some of the keys become unreliable (e.g. volume up/down). I picked up a supply of them awhile back from Best Buy for around $15 apiece.

The best part is, I have one of these remotes for each TV in the house, which means that I have the same user interface at each television no matter what brand the television is.

[DaveS]

I've been trying remotes to control my HD-300 but i cant find one that works as good as the Sage remote. It seems that if I press that skip forward or back button once the result is several skips. I think it has something to do with the RC5 protocol and having to teach the universal remote one button at a time from the Sage remote. How does this remote work for you? Does it respond as well as the Sage remote? If so, is there some trick to programming it to make it so?

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by DaveS

I've been trying remotes to control my HD-300 but i cant find one that works as good as the Sage remote. It seems that if I press that skip forward or back button once the result is several skips. I think it has something to do with the RC5 protocol and having to teach the universal remote one button at a time from the Sage remote. How does this remote work for you? Does it respond as well as the Sage remote? If so, is there some trick to programming it to make it so?

I haven't run into that behavior, what I have run into is when you press the same button multiple times in rapid succession, the remote tries to help by adding some additional button presses. So if I want to playback a recorded show that is two shows above the currently selected show, I press the up button twice, but if I press the button too quickly it winds up selecting the show that is three shows above. Then I have to press the down button once to get to the show I want to watch. That behavior seems to occur using pre-programmed codes in the remote, I don't see the problem as much/at all using learned codes.