The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.
Review 25 made on Saturday January 4, 2003 at 11:31 PM.
Strengths:
Looks.
Weaknesses:
Everything that everyone else has mentioned. I should have listened to the other reviews. INCREDIBLY SLOW. Screen hard to read.
Review:
Even after having read all of the reviews on this unit I bought the remote at Target for $79, knowing that they would take it back with no problems.
The major annoyance was that the reaction time for any input was so slow that I can't see how they let this thing into production. The second irritation (and one that was not listed in the other reviews) is that, if you are of a certain age, you can't see the damn screen. There is no indicator on the touchscreen as to which device you are operating. I took it back the same day, and like a fool, went to Best Buy to purchase the newer RCA remote the RCU900. Faster, easier to read, but there were so many limitations (e.g. the volume punchthrough will change all devices-you can't choose the TV for some and the receiver for another). I took it back the next day. You would think I would learn. The next step will either be a Pronto or an MX500......
Where to begin? Extremely cheap construction Finicky 'learning' capability Bulky/Unwieldy Crappy customer service Much more unflexible than expected for an LCD Remote
Review:
Bought this model because it was nice looking and relatively cheap for an LCD learning remote. It was a complete waste of time and money.
I had the unit 3 weeks before my son knocked it 1 1/2 feet off the coffee table onto the carpet. Screen shattered; dead. RCA Customer Service response: "That's the way the cookie crumbles - no support". Very interesting to note Jon Nettleton's review below covering not just one but TWO shattered remotes. If you have one of these things, whatever you do BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL with it!! It'll break at the drop of a... (well, you get the point)
Last I heard a 'learning' remote was supposed to be able to learn codes from other remotes. If you stick with it and try a half-dozen times with this one you might get lucky and have the code sink in. Heaven help you if the batteries go out on you though. Also, no matter what I did, it would not pick up functions for my Sony receiver. According to the other reviews here this seems to be a running theme.
Although this thing can fit in one hand, unless you're changing the volume you can't operate it with one hand. The LCD buttons all look the same from a distance, are really too small to access without the stylus, and the choice of labels for programmed buttons mostly sucks. I notice some here have gotten around this by programming 'blank' buttons. I hope their memories are better than mine, and nobody else ever needs to use their remote.
Bottom line - the LCD features result in only a slight enhancement over non-LCD types, and are definitely NOT worth the additional cost or risk involved with the screen shattering.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.
Review 23 made on Sunday November 3, 2002 at 2:22 AM.
Strengths:
RCU1000B Liked the design and the blue backlit display
Weaknesses:
RCU1000B I Hate it!!! It did not recognize my Yamaha component stereo,Tashiba TV, and that was enough for me
Review:
I never got it to work on either component or the TV using the Codes and the learning functions. I really did like the design and wished it would have performed better. Truly I expected better from our RCA Americans.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-2 years.
Review 21 made on Friday August 30, 2002 at 5:16 AM.
Strengths:
handy hard buttons for dvd/vcr control & a friendly "success" message when it learns another remotes function...
Weaknesses:
learning another remotes function & man....is....it.....slow.....
Review:
Right now I have this and the Sony RM-AV3000 in my living room. The RCA is a cool design and I so wanted it to work but it feels like it's on quaaludes. Every time you press a button you.....have......to.....wait.... Also the touchscreen is not very responsive, often you have to give it a couple of pokes before it comes to life.
The worst offense was how it talked to my Sony Vega (or Wega) TV. I programmed a macro to switch the TV into Squeeze mode, where it makes the picture go 16 by 9, and half the time it worked fine. The other half it would not quite cursor down far enough and instead of squeeze mode it would change the language on the TV to Spanish. Not that I have anything against Spanish but this problem was to annoying to live with so I knew I had to give the Sony RM-AV3000 a try.
On the plus side of this remote I really like the hard fast forward, rewind, stop and play buttons. I also think the remote is rather handsome, but oddly enough it is kind of awkward to use. All the hard buttons are so close to it's hind end that you can't one hand them, especially the dvd,vcr controls.
Since I currently have both remotes I did a little remote shoot out, timing the responsiveness of each device.
Changing channels: The RCA changes channels with a slight delay, and it also has a brief pause before you can change the channel again. The Sony bangs em' out as fast as you can hit the button.
Volume: You can't just hold down the RCA volume button and have it go up, you have to keep punching it. And the volume goes up in rather chunky increments. The Sony is very responsive and when you hold it down it just keeps going.
Macros: I actually used a stop watch for this. I programmed a macro to turn on the VCR, Amp and TV in both remotes. The RCA took about 8-9 seconds to fire all three up, The Sony did it in about 3-4 seconds.
So....the RCA is just not quite their yet. Right now it is selling for about $70 bucks at fry's and for what it does that doesn't sound like a bad deal, it controlled all my stuff reasonably well and I could put all the other remotes in a drawer. The problem is that the Sony RM-AV3000, while being roughly twice the price, is actually pleasant to use. I wish I could recommend the RCA RCU1000B -but I just found it frustrating, spend the extra dough and get the Sony.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.
Review 20 made on Friday August 2, 2002 at 11:33 PM.
Strengths:
Good manual, good look and feel, good assortment of dedicated and touchscreen buttons.
Weaknesses:
Failed to maintain IR commands after learning. Could not learn commands for Yamaha receiver
Review:
I am returning this remote after working with it a few weeks. It successfully learned all of my remotes except for the mode buttons of my Yamaha RX-V995 receiver.
I did all of the components by IR because none of the component codes set up all of the buttons for any single component. But the set up was good. I set all of the labels to be learned first. Then I learned each of the remotes for each of the devices.
After learning my Sony TV remote, the set up worked fine initially. But everytime I switched to the DVD or VCR and then back to TV, all of the TV commands were gone. I did this several times, each time clearing the learned TV settings, and each time getting the same results.
Very disappointing. If it weren't for the loss of entered commands and the inability to switch modes on the receiver, I would happily keep this remote.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.
Review 19 made on Thursday August 1, 2002 at 11:45 PM.
Strengths:
Looks cool. Feels nice in my hand. The blue backlight is nifty. It's more fun than any stick remote. The light makes no noise at all. The unit has a very solid, weighty feel to it. I programed 3 out of my 4 components fairly easily.
Weaknesses:
It has to be pretty dark in the room for the backlight to come on or you can just wave your hand in front of it or just put a small sticker over the sensor, so it's on whenever you use the touch pad. I just think of the sensor as a "light" button, that you don't actually have to touch to turn on. I'm having a hard time programing all my Aiwa surround sound features, but I haven't gotten really into the instructions yet. Even if I can't figure it out, at least I only need 2 remotes now, which is fine by me. Would be nice if the backlight was just a tad bit brighter. In total darkness it's bright enough though.
Review:
My TV (Magnavox) and my VCR (Sony) were very Simple to profram, just typed in the 3 digit codes. The same thing for my Aiwa CD/stereo, though you have to enter the CD, tuner and tape player seperate. I bought a touch screen remote because they look way cool and I got tired of having 4 remotes cluttering up my coffee table. I don't like buying over the net, so I paid $100 at Best Buy and I have no intention of returning it. It's a really cool, fun toy. I was thinking of getting the Sony AV3000(???) for $200, but that is a bit out of my price range for something of this nature, so I gave this one a try and I like it. Excellent remote for the price. Best bang for your buck. I've only had this remote for 5 hours.
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