05/17/2001

By DOUG BEDELL / The Dallas Morning News

Douglas D. Jones/ Illustrator

The quest for the do-it-all remote control is fraught with peril.

Mesquite resident Pat McGee – no technophobe – says he once spent 10 hours programming his $250 Marantz controller only to find his children had raided the unit for batteries, a simple act that could have erased all his complex work.

"It scared the hell out of me," says Mr. McGee. Thankfully, the Marantz RC2000 saves settings. "I still about had a heart attack," he says.

Today, after untold hours of experimentation, Mr. McGee is finally at peace with the features of his high-end Marantz. It now controls every vital function of his TV, VCR, DVD player, CD deck, CD carousel, home theater receiver, satellite television receiver, cable box and TiVo hard disk video recorder.

But even when programmed correctly, the best of the so-called universal remote controls can prove daunting. In Mr. McGee's house, for example, the teenagers quickly learned to navigate through rows of confusing buttons.

"My mother, on the other hand, would drown herself rather than use it," he says.

The pitfalls of universal remotes are enough to deter even tech-savvy computer engineers such as F. Lee Pyles of Rowlett.

"I think they're kind of a joke, really, but we do live in a remote control world," he says. The best solution to multiple-remote hell, he says, was devised by a friend who simply taped his four most essential remotes around a block of wood.

"He used black electrical tape, and it was the biggest, ugliest mess in the world," Mr. Pyles says. "But, dadgummit, it worked."

For those bent on solutions beyond a wood block and tape, a slew of companies is producing do-it-all remotes ranging in price from $7.99 to more than $400. MSN's eShop currently lists 66 models for sale.

The arrival of the Internet has made finding the right combination of technology and simplicity a lot easier. Entire Web sites, such as RemoteCentral.com, now devote thousands of words to helping users find ways to eliminate controller clutter

The more experienced remote programmers now join novice home theater fans online at AV Science ( www.avsforum.com) and SMR forums ( www.smr-forums.com). Other inventive souls (see www.pacificneotek.com/omnisw.htm) have developed software that can convert any handheld organizer using the Palm operating system into a wireless infrared controller. (Infrared units can be purchased for PalmOS devices that don't have that capability already.)

And there is no rest for the remote weary. Remote controls will undoubtedly continue to reproduce in our homes at a rate that would make bunnies proud. The reason, says home theater expert Nigel Pond of the SMR online magazine, is that electronics manufacturers want you to buy their brands and only their brands.

"It's not going to get easier because they all have separate libraries of codes," Mr. Pond says.

Some day, experts say, remote controls may be voice-activated and simple to use. But for now, Mr. Pond says, the search for the perfect remote can be a solitary, confusing journey into the strange world of soft buttons, macro keys and IR codes.

"It's really a question of how much time you have to spend on programming," Mr. Pond says, "and how much money you're willing to spend along the way."

Remote disorder

"They're an annoyance," Mr. Tonks says. "They take up too much room on the coffee table. Many control another device – but only a little bit of it. You always seem to need urgently the one thing they won't do."

In the 50 years since their wired-tailed ancestors appeared on the electronics scene, remotes have spread faster than fleas. In fact, they now outnumber people in the United States.

The average U.S. home has more than four remote controls, says the Consumer Electronics Association, and they are expanding their spheres of influence daily.

Today, they command fans, living room lighting, synthetic fireplaces, air conditioners, garage doors, and car CD players and passenger video consoles.

Mr. Tonks began his quest for the perfect universal unit in 1998. Now, he says, he has yet another shelf lined with unused universal remotes that were supposed to replace the ones on the shelf above.

But in the process, Mr. Tonks discovered a new profession. Updating, maintaining and writing independent remote reviews for the Web became his new full-time job.

Part of the reason for Web sites such as RemoteCentral.com is that the entire remote control landscape has become more complicated than most home theater enthusiasts ever anticipated.

Fitting every budget

Budget remotes – available for $20 or less – require users to enter codes for each of the components. That means there is a high demand for lists of these all-important numbers in newsgroups and Web message boards.

Low-end units may be all you need for simple systems, but they may be unable to handle Picture in Picture and more convoluted controller chores.

Midrange units – generally priced at $100 or less – usually come with the ability to "learn" codes. Rather than individually entering codes, these units let you aim a working manufacturer's remote at your new universal, which then assigns desired behaviors to one of its own buttons.

Although this process – as in Mr. McGee's case – can take hours to perfect, it allows you to select only functions you use, not the complete list of features embodied in the manufacturer's units.

"Of course, if you don't have an existing manufacturer's remote – or it's not working – learning remotes don't help you," Mr. Tonks says.

One of the most popular mid-range remotes is the $39 Radio Shack 15-1994. In fact, computer programmer Rob Crowe has found it so enticing and flexible, he has devoted an entire Web site ( www.hifi-remote.com) to its glories. This learning remote can operate six pieces of equipment, including DVD players and home automation systems.

Mr. Crowe has expanded on the manufacturer's own manuals to produce detailed instructions that take it far beyond remote controls of triple its price.

He even tells how to construct interface hardware that can be used to program the control via a PC – a feature only available on ultra-chic, high-price remotes.

Evaluating the high end

"If you're pretty sure you're going to get into it and expand the system, it's not that expensive and it is certainly very versatile," says Mr. Pond.

Several companies also sell computer docking stations for remote controls that recharge batteries and allow PC access for programming.

Most will allow programming of macro buttons, which automate common button-pressing sequences. For example, Mr. Pond uses a macro that turns off the television, switches on the DVD player and lowers a projection screen with the press of a single button.

The high-end LCD screens are flashy and cool, but many users find them distracting. A common complaint is that people don't want to look down at the screen every time they change a setting.

Touch-screen displays are now found in top models, including the Philips Pronto, the Take Control TC1000 from Harman Kardon ($349), Sony RM-AV2100 ($179.95), Universal Remote Control's Home Theater Master MX-1000 ($290) and the Marantz RC5000 ($500).

From the looks of user activity at RemoteCentral, the Pronto line has gathered a wide following of geeks who have become enthralled with designing custom button interfaces for the LCD screens.

Pronto, whose $300 Smart Remote Control (SRC-2000) recently won a Consumer Electronics Show award for design and engineering, was one of the first mass-produced controllers to use computer-based software with its products. With the optional $90 docking station and a PC, this remote behaves a lot like a PDA. Users can store their configurations on their hard drives to make changes and tweaks to their interface.

As more people have mastered the esoteric features of the Pronto-Edit design program, they have begun uploading their completed button templates and code bases to Web sites for others to copy.

Each of the multiple screens can be customized. Artwork can be uploaded to the unit. Logos can be stuck on the soft buttons of the LCD so that your children's favorite cable stations, for example, can be isolated for one-click access.

"The majority of people would never need anything like that," says Mr. Tonks. "But this was the first customizable remote on the market, and it continues to be the most popular."

Voice activation?

Ken Askew of San Francisco, a frequent contributor to high-end stereo and entertainment center publications, recalls the introduction six years ago of a Sony prototype remote that was supposed to do it all. It was an egg-shaped orb containing a gyroscope, and users were supposed to handle it like a mouse, navigating through options by tilting it and pressing buttons.

"It was fantastic," Mr. Askew says. "To adjust balance from left to right or front to center in your surround-sound system, you clicked and dragged your 'listening chair' closer to the low-volume speaker from a bird's eye view of your room."

That product disappeared in a heap of technical problems.

For the near term, the most promising innovations may include voice recognition, says Mr. Tonks. New voice-activated universal remotes from companies such as Sonica are now hitting the market. They're fairly cheap (about $40), but they can only control a limited number of components.

"They're really of limited use, I think," Mr. Tonks says. "And I don't think people want to be barking out commands in the middle of watching a program."

Future universal remotes may be able to stream video to the unit's LCD screen. Or maybe a developer will figure out how to display a Picture-In-Picture feed on a remote's own screen, Mr. Tonks says.

"We're in the middle of the convergence of everything, and that goes for remote controls, too," he says.