1) Do you find you use your remote for basic operations but still reach for the native remote for extended functions? (It would seem that you would end up with either a lot of buttons or deep menus to search through to find the reverse 3:2 pull down setting for your DVD)
You really must think about your personal usage of the remotes in use. A universal remote is meant to simplify usage, and a great deal of this usage is to eliminate redundant buttons that simply aren't used by 99% of people. If you enable/disable 3/2 pulldown, then you can put that up front and center on a good remote like the MX-850, or Harmony remotes.
2) How simple or elaborate are the macros capabilities of your remote and do you use them? Is a simple and reliable "Watch a Movie" macro such as this really possible?
- Power on TV
- Set video source to DVD
- Set wide mode to Zoom
- Set picture to Progressive
- Set Speakers to off
- Set Audio Output to fixed
- Turn off CC
- Power on Receiver
- Set volume to -25 db
- Set Receiver source to DVD
- Turn off Tape Monitor
- Set decoding to Auto sense
- Set Sound Field to Move Spectacle
- Set display to dim
- Power on DVD
- Open DVD tray
- On remote display (or have direct access to) basic DVD controls for: Menu / Play / Pause / Stop / FF / Rew / Volume up / Volume Dn / Mute
This list is not beyond most remotes, but it is beyond most manufacturers to produce products that can properly do what you listed. Functions which require you to go ten levels deep into the system to get those functions to work is pointless.
Very careful system engineering from the start is a key factor in ensuring that the capabilities you are looking for are available and the more complex you want your macros to be, the better the remote needs to be to handle it. There are remotes that can do what you want.
With most all the functions above set by a toggle or cycle rather than being explicitly set (eg: TV sound cycles through Stereo / SAP / Mono) it would seem difficult to start from a 'known state' unless you exclusively used one remote and it was able to keep track internally. So can these macros be coded to work just as well if you were previously watching TV, listening to a CD or playing a video game?
Not typically. But, certain products, like Sony televisions, Denon DVD players and receivers, often have discrete IR commands for a great number of functions and allow menus to be brought up in a known state. Press menu, press 3 to select the sound sub-menu, press 1 to get stereo, press exit. It is reliable, but cumbersome. Products that you are considerng purchase of should first be checked at
www.remotecentral.com for functionality.
3) If someone uses a native remote for some quick function does the universal remote "lose track" of the current state of each device causing macros to misbehave?
A proper remote will never track states. It will force states. That is, when you want wide-zoom mode, it will send the display to wide-zoom mode every time you select that setup. If it is already in wide-zoom mode, then it will send it to that state again.
4) Was it worth it - How much time did you invest in setting up the remote in order to avoid 3 minutes of remote juggling and button pushing everytime you go to use your entertainment center?
Well, now you are getting into a different scenario. Universal remotes aren't for
you. They are for everyone else in the world. I could run my system with 20 remotes, but my wife would kill me. Instead, she presses the button that says "CABLE" on the remote.
Keep in mind I use Crestron and am a Crestron programmer by trade, so my 'universal remote' is a lot more than the average universal remote. I control gear via RS-232 (serial) whenever possible and I'm pretty anal about going after product with serial control and discrete IR commands. I have spent days... if not weeks programming and tinkering with the control system in my home, but I also distribute HD video to four separate HD displays, share half a dozen HD components, and distribute audio to a dozen different rooms, controlling lights, shades, fireplace, etc.
The remote is one touch simple for my wife to use... moreso, my 3 year old knows how to use it and can turn on XM radio in any room of our home, and turn it off - and has been able to for about a year.
Worth it? Absolutely! We have almost no issues at all, and when we do, I fix them in programming so we don't have those issues again.
