Home Theater Master Universal SL-9000 Learning Remote Control with 8 Device LCD

Rating:
Summary: Good, but falls a little short
Review: Over all I found the SL-9000 to be okay, but it fell short in a few areas. As for the good stuff, it did have a large library of function codes to choose from to set up my equipment, it was easy to program, althought they could have used a little bit better examples and more of them in the manual. I was able to effectively use the IR remote out to 40 feet, in bright sunlight. It may work beyond 40 feet, but that is the size of my AV room. The backlight worked very well. I was able to "Teach" it commands for every piece of equipment I had, even units that are ancient! The size and shape was good, althought the balance of the remote was poor.

Now for the downside, the batteries were located at the front end which made it nose heavy. This problem was particularly noticable when you wanted to use a Macro button, and not use both hands.

Ideally I would want the mute button to perform a "Mute Macro", that could silence my TV as well as the Tuner, all in one push of the "Mute" button and not a macro button. Not only can the SL-9000 not do a "mute macro" from the mute button, you can't even program one of the macro buttons to do this function! The reason is a little technical. The tech I spoke with agreed that because in the set up of any macro the "mute" button is used as a substitue for the "power" button, and therefor the SL-9000 can't distinguish between what the programer intends when the mute button is pushed during the set up of the macro, (ie., During the macro setup, is the mute button a mute button or a power button?). You can contact them directly at 800-901-0800.

I would have also wanted to see dedicated buttons for: Input, Cancel, Record, PIP, PIP Channel Up/Down, PIP Source, Audio Input, and Video Input. None of these items have dedicated buttons. Oh sure I can program all these functions into other buttons, but then I have to try and remember that the "Up Triangle Key" is actually the On/Off for the PIP (picture in picture) function, and so on.

I would've liked to see the "Fav" button (surf between your Favorite Programmed Channels) have a more prominante placement and more centrally located instead of this small button way off to the right hand side of the remote. If you are right handed, as I am, your right thumb will be working most of the buttons most of the time. The most frequently used buttons, such as Channel Up/Down, Volume, Fav, Play, Stop, etc., should be larger so that the thumb can distinguish between them and that button should be in a prominant location that's acceptable to Lefties as well as Righties.

I didn't like the way the semi-circular buttons worked. I had to push just a little bit to hard and I had to be almost perfectly centered on the button prior to pushing or it wouldn't work. If you pushed lightly on just a corner of the button, that feature wouldn't work.

I also didn't like the tecture of the finish on the remote. It was a very shiny/high gloss paint. After just a little bit of use, it was much like a New York Central Train Station telephone handset,... greasy, and a thousand finger prints showing all over it. If a lightly tectured mate finish had been used, it wouldn't feel greasy and it sure wouldn't show finger prints.

Over all, if you consider that you can buy a SL-9000 for under $90.00, it may not be a bad bargin. I personally will be giving the MX-500 a try, (made by the same company), even though it cost more money.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but falls a little short
Review: Over all I found the SL-9000 to be okay, but it fell short in a few areas. As for the good stuff, it did have a large library of function codes to choose from to set up my equipment, it was easy to program, althought they could have used a little bit better examples and more of them in the manual. I was able to effectively use the IR remote out to 40 feet, in bright sunlight. It may work beyond 40 feet, but that is the size of my AV room. The backlight worked very well. I was able to "Teach" it commands for every piece of equipment I had, even units that are ancient! The size and shape was good, althought the balance of the remote was poor.

Now for the downside, the batteries were located at the front end which made it nose heavy. This problem was particularly noticable when you wanted to use a Macro button, and not use both hands.

Ideally I would want the mute button to perform a "Mute Macro", that could silence my TV as well as the Tuner, all in one push of the "Mute" button and not a macro button. Not only can the SL-9000 not do a "mute macro" from the mute button, you can't even program one of the macro buttons to do this function! The reason is a little technical. The tech I spoke with agreed that because in the set up of any macro the "mute" button is used as a substitue for the "power" button, and therefor the SL-9000 can't distinguish between what the programer intends when the mute button is pushed during the set up of the macro, (ie., During the macro setup, is the mute button a mute button or a power button?). You can contact them directly at 800-901-0800.

I would have also wanted to see dedicated buttons for: Input, Cancel, Record, PIP, PIP Channel Up/Down, PIP Source, Audio Input, and Video Input. None of these items have dedicated buttons. Oh sure I can program all these functions into other buttons, but then I have to try and remember that the "Up Triangle Key" is actually the On/Off for the PIP (picture in picture) function, and so on.

I would've liked to see the "Fav" button (surf between your Favorite Programmed Channels) have a more prominante placement and more centrally located instead of this small button way off to the right hand side of the remote. If you are right handed, as I am, your right thumb will be working most of the buttons most of the time. The most frequently used buttons, such as Channel Up/Down, Volume, Fav, Play, Stop, etc., should be larger so that the thumb can distinguish between them and that button should be in a prominant location that's acceptable to Lefties as well as Righties.

I didn't like the way the semi-circular buttons worked. I had to push just a little bit to hard and I had to be almost perfectly centered on the button prior to pushing or it wouldn't work. If you pushed lightly on just a corner of the button, that feature wouldn't work.

I also didn't like the tecture of the finish on the remote. It was a very shiny/high gloss paint. After just a little bit of use, it was much like a New York Central Train Station telephone handset,... greasy, and a thousand finger prints showing all over it. If a lightly tectured mate finish had been used, it wouldn't feel greasy and it sure wouldn't show finger prints.

Over all, if you consider that you can buy a SL-9000 for under $90.00, it may not be a bad bargin. I personally will be giving the MX-500 a try, (made by the same company), even though it cost more money.