Good Things Come To Those Who Wait (or have patience)

After having an RM-AV2100 since 2000, and a newly designed home theater environment in another room, another universal remote was needed.
My current RM-AV2100 has performed admirably and is NOT being replaced by this new remote commander. To be clear, this is being used in another room's environment.

Instead of all the other past RM-AVs, this RM-AX is programmable also from a PC. (you can still program it without). If you choose not to use a PC, you will not be able to program XPRESS commands which are essentially simple to complex Macros and another feature which is called Air-Slide which I will describe later.

Sony has eventually partially addressed the requests by end-users to illuminate past keys that are not present and the touch-screen. They have taken the individual COMPONENT select keys (i.e. TV, DVD, VCR, etc) and moved them to the touch-screen which has made the remote a little more cumbersome to operate. Let me explain. In the past when you say for example, wanted to turn the TV on then switch over to a Satellite Receiver to select/change channels, all you had to do was press the individual TV-select button, then press the POWER-pad on the touch screen, then press the individual SAT-select button and the touch-screen now had all the commands relevant to the Satellite Receiver on screen.

With the RM-AX4000, it's a bit more involved. The individual component-select buttons are gone. First, you have to press a new button labeled COMPONENT, up on the illuminated touch-screen comes PAGE 1-of with 1 row of four labeled touch-pads for TV, DVD, VCR, MD that you need to first select which component you want to command. If your device (i.e. component) is not on the first screen's page, then you have to touch the screen AGAIN to get it to PAGE to PAGE 2-of, keeping in-mind, 4 possible PAGES could exist making the possibility to control 16 Components. Since your TV is on this row at the bottom of the screen, you press it and the touch-screen now shows you TV commands, next you press the POWER-On pad, then you go back to pressing the COMPONENT button (again) and the Page 1-of comes up and since your SAT component is not on this Page, you have to press the PAGE-pad on the screen to advance to the next selection of 4 devices, and hopefully your SAT is in this row, you press it and your screen now displays the SATellite Receivers commands for your use.

One thing to keep in mind that can aid in this process, a little bit, is thru the GUI PC program, you can label the COMPONENTS-pads, using up to 8-characters each, and they can be customized to which 'PAGE' they can be on.

During programming of the individual COMPONENTS, Sony has enhanced the usual way of either #1, selecting the Manufacturer & a list of codes OR #2, cloning each key, by ADDING A NEW FEATURE which allows the remote to be put into a mode, when all you do is press the POWER button on the remote-to-be-cloned and the PC program deciphers it and AUTOMATICALLY selects the Manufacturer and its specific code-table. I used it to automatically program my JVC VCR & DENON Receiver along with a HUGHES Satellite Receiver.

The base features that allow a preset time for the screen-illumination to remain on and time for complete-commander-shut-off still exist.

An enhanced Fader feature for screen illumination has been added so the screen can fade in & out if desired.

Programming with a PC is accomplished via a provided Mini-USB to USB cable. Its rather short (about 1 meter).
The PC program is called the AX REMOTE EDITOR and with some time, is pretty easy to operate.
For those that have already had to return their remote because they couldn't figure out how to operate it, I advise, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS or use the HELP via F1. I was able to operate it proficiently within an hour and only had one thing I couldn't figure out that wouldn't seem to work. After going to Sony's website on-line help, I found out that a change had been made to the REC (record button). To make it respond, you now have to press it for MORE than 1-second for it to send the command. Sony did this to alleviate accidental activation of the Record function for a component.

Flexibility within the program allows Aliases to be assigned to a button. Let me explain. It's almost like a mini-macro for any button. Say you two Amps by different manufactures like Denon & Yamaha for this purpose front-amp and rear-amp. You can have the Volume-Up button send out a Volume-Up command for the Denon then send out the Volume-Up for the Yamaha all with one press. The possibilities are endless.

Now for some of its NEAT features....

Air-Slide, which is only programmable via the PC program, allows you to 'slide' your finger in different movements that are re-interpreted into a specific command(s). You can have it say Turn-On TV by 'Sliding' your finger from the left-top-corner to the right-top-corner or have it do a Channel-Up by 'Sliding' your finger from the lower-left-corner to the upper-left-corner. Again, the possibilities are endless.

There are 8-Banks of timers that can be set to respond at any-time on any-day to any-set-of-commands.

Did I forget to mention that the remote has a very accurate Time/Day-of-Week Clock that is always on-screen!

Overall, if you like the idea of being able to program a universal illuminated touch-screen remote via a PC thus allowing 'labels' for components to not just say RCVR but really say DENON, flexibility of key(s) command assignment, and doesn't mind the additional component-selection-cumbersome-process, then this may be your ticket for the 'average' home audiophile.