Good Cheap Remote

Only a few minutes remained before blastoff, and the man was taking careful inventory of his situation and environment. There could be no mistakes.
Electricity on? Check
Batteries in the mouse? Check
Tootsie roll pops within reach? Check
Swivel chair in position? Check
Evie and Piper lying close by? Check
Computer on? Check
Comcast Cable in service? Check
Pen and notepaper nearby? Check
Television model number found? Check
Mr. Potato Heads aligned? Check

The conditions optimal, his plan rehearsed, his target in focus, the man leaned back in his padded armchair as his fingers touched the keyboard controls. Lights flashed, fonts and figures appeared on the monitor before him as the man launched himself into cyberspace on a cursory exploratory trek seeking prices for brand replacement remote controls.
Avoiding treacherous pop-ups, Googled asteroids and painful hemorrhoids, he sought his target several light beers beyond the former planet Pluto.

The savvy cybernaut was pricing Sharp brand remote controls to replace one that had mysteriously disappeared after a visit from his daughter. An exact duplicate would cost him 28 dollars plus shipping charges. It would have the Sharp logo on it, would have no learning curve, and would work right out of the box after installation of batteries.
Yet, he thought he could do better than this one-dimensional device. He wanted more dimensions, more control, less money spent. Somewhere in the universe he’d find the ideal universal remote
. Thus he resolved to purchase a much less expensive, four-dimensional Philips PM435S controller upon return to his world from cyberspace. He’d eschew the comfort of brand name familiarity for the excitement of a remote controller, new, different, much cheaper, and with lots more buttons to play.

Features ‘N Stuff

The Philips PM435S is made of genuine, hard plastic, black on the back and silver on top. Its Sweet Tart sized buttons are blue as are 13 other frequently used controls. Twenty-two additional buttons are milky clear in appearance. Some are starkly bare; some have imprints on them; all are smallish.

The controller is almost 7 and half inches long, 2 ½ inches wide at the top, and 1 ¾ inches wide at the tapering bottom. It’s a featherweight 3.2 ounces.

This controller can operate most, but not all, brands of infrared controlled video equipment and controls most common features. It may be used to operate a television, DVD, VCR, or satellite/cable functions. High school students might find this device useful because the owner’s guide mentions SAT functions.

It even operates such uncommon brands as: Abex, Axion, Changhong, Dumont, Dimensia, Harvard, Kawasho, Luce, Pilot, Montgomery Ward, Runco, and others.

Some of the button functions included are:
Power
Code search
TV, VCR, DVD, SAT/CBL selection
Menu
Guide – displays on-screen programming guide
Volume up down and navigation buttons
PIP control
Previous channel
Closed Caption/CVD subtitles toggle
DVD track selection
Record, play, stop, rewind, FF, pause
Sleep
Mute
Toggle – swaps TV PIP screens
OK – Makes you feel OK when pressed
Channel up down
Quit – to exit menu functions
Info/select – displays/selects on-screen channel information, etc.
TV/VCR//Input
Numbers
Red indicator – Lights when any button is pressed for verification. Looks neat too.
Battery saver – Remote automatically turns itself off if buttons are depressed for more than thirty seconds, like when stuffed between sofa cushions. That would depress me too!

Code Saver – You have ten minutes to change batteries in your remote before losing programmed codes. Ten minutes allows you five minutes for each of the two AAA battery installations. That should be enough time. I got mine in with minutes to spare.


My experience
After installing the two AAA batteries flawlessly, it was time to program the controller, an easy task using the direct code entry method. I pressed the code search button until the red indicator stayed on, pressed the TV button on the controller, and punched in the first four-digit code for Sharp controllers. It worked! I got lucky on that one because there are eleven codes for Sharp. Programming our Sony VCR was just as easy. We’re one of the few families in the country without a DVD player, so I had none to program.

The other programming method, code search, requires to user to turn on the TV, press and hold the Code Search button until the light stays on. Then press the channel up button repeatedly (up to 300 times) until the channel changes.

For the most part the controller’s buttons are nicely sized and easy to identify. A couple of the smaller, clear buttons have small text on or above them.

The black back doesn’t show fingerprints, and the indentation on the back for the user’s finger is comfortable and ergonomic. Overall we like the controller’s color scheme and design.

We like that our new controller has buttons for functions like closed caption, quit, and sleep timer that were only accessible via the menu on the original remote.

I occasionally press the wrong button in the dark because the buttons don’t illuminate.
This is a pain because then the controller won’t turn off the TV until I repress that unintended button.



Conclusion and recommendation

We are very pleased with our inexpensive Philips PM435S remote control unit., and actually like it better than the Sharp controller it has replaced.

Several months ago I bought a Philips PM3S for about the same price as the one being reviewed here. The PM 435S has features I’ll probably never use, but is the better choice because of its larger buttons and superior design. At ten bucks it’s a bargain.


Note The mute button unfortunately does not work on Mrs. Spudman. I’ve almost worn out the button trying.

I hope you found this review helpful.