11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
Good choice for universal remote
Date of Review: Oct 12, 2006
The Bottom Line: I am happy I bought this remote. I appreciate the technology, although Sony could have done a better job on the instructions, otherwise it would have been 5 stars.
After years of use, one button on my previous Sony universal remote failed, and I went looking for another. Since I liked the Sony remote I had I looked at Sony first. Sony has a remote similar to the one I had, but I noticed the RM-AX1400 and began reading the package. I was taken by its ability to be programmed via PC. I went home to do some research on it. There aren't many online reviews on this item - 2 on the Amazon website. Neither a very glowing review. This remote compares better to higher end remotes $99-$250, than it does to lower end $12-$50. That being the case Best Buy had it on sale for $79. The original price on this remote was $130. Since it was between the price points of higher and lower end remotes I thought I'd give it a try and purchased it.
I won't get into all the features of the unit, only compare my experience setting up my last remote without a PC, and setting this one up with a PC. I will say the remote has all the features of my last Sony remote, plus a few more such as a read out screen, one button set-up for "TV" "Movie" "Music" and "Radio" which are also found on the higher end remotes.
Setting up the remote, as compared to my last remote was much easier. It comes with a USB cable so I loaded the software and connected the remote. I chose the setup wizard first time around. You do have a choice to go directly to the advanced setup however. The wizard asks you what components you are setting up, and to get the original remotes for each. The first step is to point one of the component remotes towards the Sony remote. When you click the power button on the component remote, the Sony remote software will either say it completed the setup, or it does not recognize the component signal. In my case the software recognized all of my components except for my Yamaha receiver. I found this process to be much better than working with component code listings, and pressing sequential buttons for setting up each component.
Afterwards setting up all the components to work together was fairly easy and straight forward. I struggled a bit figuring out how to set-up my Yamaha, but after I figured everything out it turned out to be very simple. I am still learning some of the functions. Other reviews are correct about the instructions that are provided. SONY would have done themselves a favor by providing detailed steps related to each function, such as the "Jump" function. I'm still trying to understand that one. There is a Help menu item that provides detail in a better format than the booklet, but not by much.
In summary, I am very pleased with this remote. I have no issue with the ergonomics of it except for some of the smaller buttons that we use often, such as the "Guide" button used for listing cable shows. The macro setup for "TV" "Movie" "Music" and "Radio" are all that my wife needs to use to switch from one component set up to another. And since most of the remotes features are similar to our last one, if she needs to control just one component she already is familiar with the navigation.
I've connected the remote at least 10 times already to the PC to fine tune it while I'm learning about it. Connecting to the PC is quick, making changes is quick, and downloading the changes to the remote is quick. Way better than making adjustments to my last remote.
