Rating: 
Summary: A great remote
Review: I can echo the previous reviews, along with this addition..If you have a Sony TV (and maybe other brands), this remote has the "discrete" commands for inputs built in. That is, you can go directly to VIDEO 4 input by holding down TV/VIDEO and pressing "4". This is very handy for setting up a macro to change a receiver input and a TV input at the same time. Good job, Sony!
Rating:
Summary: Just Bought My Second One
Review: I got this model a few years ago at a retail electronics store for about the retail price. The learning curve was small and it was practically effortless to get going with it and to use it for a good long time. I never taught it my ReplayTV commands, though, because it was kind of an intimidating project. Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) have introduced new buttons that never existed before, like the 30-second skip and the 8-second instant replay. Also the channel guide and the guide to recorded programs. The point is that there's a lot of mapping that has to be done between that particular remote and the universal. This is not the fault of Sony, although they might soon consider putting these new features into this line of remotes. Anyway, I'm getting to a point... the point is that our first one broke. It was physically damaged through no fault of the manufacturer... things happen. So I started living without it, since we had a relatively new DVD player and still had that remote, and we still had the TV remote, and we had never stopped using the ReplayTV remote. But the ReplayTV remote is pretty cheap and the "select" button, which is absolutely critical, is becoming more difficult to use. I decided last week that I would get a new RM-VL900 and I did. As soon as I had it, I put in the pre-programmed TV and DVD player and immediately set out to teach it my ReplayTV commands. Now I've got everything in and I'm ready to stop using all other remotes and use those batteries for something else. This is a highly recommended remote. If you believe nobody else, believe the guy who bought it twice.
Rating:
Summary: Just Bought My Second One
Review: I got this model a few years ago at a retail electronics store for about the retail price. The learning curve was small and it was practically effortless to get going with it and to use it for a good long time. I never taught it my ReplayTV commands, though, because it was kind of an intimidating project. Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) have introduced new buttons that never existed before, like the 30-second skip and the 8-second instant replay. Also the channel guide and the guide to recorded programs. The point is that there's a lot of mapping that has to be done between that particular remote and the universal. This is not the fault of Sony, although they might soon consider putting these new features into this line of remotes. Anyway, I'm getting to a point... the point is that our first one broke. It was physically damaged through no fault of the manufacturer... things happen. So I started living without it, since we had a relatively new DVD player and still had that remote, and we still had the TV remote, and we had never stopped using the ReplayTV remote. But the ReplayTV remote is pretty cheap and the "select" button, which is absolutely critical, is becoming more difficult to use. I decided last week that I would get a new RM-VL900 and I did. As soon as I had it, I put in the pre-programmed TV and DVD player and immediately set out to teach it my ReplayTV commands. Now I've got everything in and I'm ready to stop using all other remotes and use those batteries for something else. This is a highly recommended remote. If you believe nobody else, believe the guy who bought it twice.
Rating:
Summary: Great remote - very flexible
Review: I got this remote for Christmas and have spent the last couple of days playing with it. It's great! It is controlling a Yamaha Reciever and CD, Toshiba DVD, Zenith TV, and Panasonic VCR, without a problem. There are a few commands that I had to reprogram from the old remote, but it had no trouble learning them and everything I want to do works great. Having the separate 4 way control, volume, channel, and play, stop, etc buttons is key for working the DVD player (although I did have to program each of the direction controls from the Toshiba remote (which is horrible)). The Macro buttons are easy to program, but you'll want to think about what order to program commands into them so that you are left with the right control set at the end. The only complaint I have with the remote, and it is minor, is that it is not really a lighted remote. The only keys that light are the ones at the top indicating which piece is being controlled lights. The glow in the Dark keys seem a little dim, too, but the layout of the remote and big buttons make it pretty easy to operate, even if you can't see it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not perfect, but this is the one to get.
Review: I looked at a lot of universal remote controls before picking this one, and I still say that this is the one to get. Real simple reason: it works the way it is supposed to, and it is easy to program. Also, since it doesn't have the LCD panel to drain the batteries, the batteries last for a very long time. The only real flaw this little gizmo has, in common with about every other universal remote that I looked at, is that on your DVD players there are one or two functions that aren't available on this machine without custom programming, which I am mostly too lazy to do. This is probably inherent--no "universal" remote can do it all. Nevertheless, this one lets me control my cable box, DVD player, and big-screen TV well enough that I have stowed away the three remotes that these devices came with, and I just use the Sony. That is what I bought it for, and that is what it does. Physically, I like the unit. I've had it about 8 months and it has held up nicely, despite a fair amount of abuse from my 4 year old, and indeed all of us. It is a workhorse. The best part is that it is simple to set up and it just works, without hassle.
Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but this is the one to get.
Review: I looked at a lot of universal remote controls before picking this one, and I still say that this is the one to get. Real simple reason: it works the way it is supposed to, and it is easy to program. Also, since it doesn't have the LCD panel to drain the batteries, the batteries last for a very long time. The only real flaw this little gizmo has, in common with about every other universal remote that I looked at, is that on your DVD players there are one or two functions that aren't available on this machine without custom programming, which I am mostly too lazy to do. This is probably inherent--no "universal" remote can do it all. Nevertheless, this one lets me control my cable box, DVD player, and big-screen TV well enough that I have stowed away the three remotes that these devices came with, and I just use the Sony. That is what I bought it for, and that is what it does. Physically, I like the unit. I've had it about 8 months and it has held up nicely, despite a fair amount of abuse from my 4 year old, and indeed all of us. It is a workhorse. The best part is that it is simple to set up and it just works, without hassle.
Rating:
Summary: Takes the place of all your remotes
Review: I was tired of having several remotes, and although some remotes can operate other electronics, this one seems to be able to handle all if not most of them. It even has a learning feature that can "learn" funtions from other remotes. I could not get it to operate my cable box by entering the code(s) suggested, so I used the learing function and it works the box perfectly. Now I use just one remote.
Rating:
Summary: Great Remote Control - From Brazil
Review: I'm from Brasil and bougth this RCU. I have internationals devices and others, like sattelite decoder 'Gradiente', dvd player 'Philco', reciever 'Sony', TV 'JVC' and a Video RCA.
The Sony RMVL 900 control everything!
The DVD and Sattelite decoder were not in the manual list's, however, the learning function makes the RCU control all devices.
Rating:
Summary: Almost the perfect remote
Review: I've had mine for almost a year now. I have a fairly complicated AV setup many different brands of products. The RM-VL900 easily replaces all of my other remotes. The remote itself has 3 macro buttons at the top. These buttons will perform up to 16 commands. Use these for turning on or off all of your components at once with the touch of 1 button. The 8 component selection buttons below also double as macro buttons. Press them to change components, press and hold for 2 seconds to perform a macro. This is a great feature when switching your AV system from one component to another requires multiple commands. These macro buttons not only make it more convenient for you, but also make complicated AV setups much more accessable to non-technical people. Any function that the remote can perform can be included in a macro, including learned functions. The rest of the buttons on the remote are your standard fare of VCR, DBS, and TV control type buttons. Every button is programmable/learning. You can look for your remote on the list of provided codes, or just program all the buttons yourself using the learning feature and the old remote. You are not limited to traditional layouts and can program any button to perform any function you want. You can even mix remotes under a single component. Use the DBS component mode to change channels on both the VCR and the DBS system without have to switch the remotes component mode if you want. Nice. The button themselves are well laid out. You have big channel and volume buttons on the bottom. The volume buttons can be set to change the volume on your TV or reciever no matter what component is selected on the remote. The other buttons have different shapes and sizes and are laid out in such a way that you can quickly learn to find your way around the remote without having to look at it. Try that with one of those fancy LCD remotes. The only 2 minor drawbacks with the remote are that only the component select buttons are actually lit. The others are glow in the dark. This isn't a huge drawback because they glow fairly well, and after you get used to the remote, probably won't be looking at it anyway. The other drawback is that programming it is a little complex, and the manual isn't the clearest. Given all the functionality of the remote, I doubt they could have made the programming much easier, but they certainly could have made the manual a little clearer. The manual, while not clear, is comprehensive. Spend a few extra minutes with the manual and I think most people will be able to figure it out. This remote doesn't just replace other remotes, it makes using your entire AV Theater setup much easier to use. There's not much more I can say about it, it's just a few backlit buttons away from perfection.
Rating:
Summary: Best universal you can get for the price
Review: I've had this remote for 2 years and haven't had a single problem. It's very easy to program and you can learn functions on nearly every button. I'm only giving it 4 stars because my only complaint is that it's heavier (with 4 AA batts) and larger than most remotes. But it's still easy to operate one handed and without looking at the buttons. And because the battery cover is so large that it would flex and creak a little if i squeezed the remote a little, so I put some packing foam under the cover to hold it tight. These little things are far overshadowed by how well this remote operates. It runs two of my tivos (with all buttons programmed), vcr, dvd, receiver, sima a/v switch, and my TV without problems. And Sony really thought out the programming portion of this remote. It only took me about 3 minutes to learn every tivo button onto it, because unlike some other remotes, you only have to hit the "go into learn mode" sequence once, then it's just matter of hitting every key you want to learn. The guy that had two remotes that went bad in 6 months, all I can say is I know three other people that bought the remote when I did, one of them did have problems with the buttons after about a year, but the replacement has been working fine ever since. Mine on the other hand hasn't had any problems, and I've dropped it off my desk many times, stepped on it accidentally, dropped it between the bed and the wall, you name it, and it still works great.
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