The RR990 is housed in a 7 1/8" x 3 1/4" x 1 1/8" (180mm x 82mm x 28mm) black plastic case, about the size of a narrow Newton, and weighs 2 ounces (250 grams). The front sports a nifty LCD touchpad display. The display screen is divided into three sections. The top row of "buttons" contain status indicators ("OK", "Error," etc.) and control functions ("Reset," "Delete," "Macro," etc.). The main center section houses the controls (numeric keypad, channel up/down, scan) for the various components you want to control, and the bottom section is where you select components (TV, VCR, CD, AMP, etc.). You can control up to 8 different devices.

One of the coolest things about the RR990 is that it's a learning remote. No more going through long lists of control codes trying to find the ones for your components. To "teach" the RR990, all you do is select the component you want to program (say your TV) at the bottom of the LCD screen, press the "Learn" button and then aim the infrared emitter end of the old remote towards the "receptor end" of the RR990 (located at the bottom). You then press each button on the RR990 that you wish to program and the corresponding button on the old remote. You do this until you've transferred all of the button codes from the old remote to the RR990. This might seem like a lot of work (you need to do this for each component you want to program), but once you get the hang of it, it moves along pretty fast and it's even kinda fun. And the good news is that you only have to do this once. The RR990 has a back-up battery that will hold all of your programming (for up to three years!), even if the main batteries (4 AAAs) are dead or removed. Other remotes need to have the batteries changed immediately or you lose all of your programming.

The RR990 can be operated in two modes, a basic mode that displays only the most common functions for the selected component (channel up/down, volume, numeric keypad, etc.), and a complete mode that displays every button available for that component. When you switch from one component to another, the buttons change to only those relevant for the component you've selected. The unit has a backlight that is triggered whenever you press the screen if the room is dark. It stays on for about 15 seconds before dimming back down. A quiet little "beep" can be turned on (or off) that sounds whenever you depress a button. The RR990 allows you to easily create macros for performing up to 10 functions with the press of a single button (e.g. turn on TV, turn on VCR, select VCR as input to TV, turn on stereo, select TV audio, play VCR). There's also spaces for programming two custom components and you can customize existing components by removing any buttons that you don't want displayed.

My only big criticism of the RR990 centers around customization. It's great that you can remove buttons, but it would be nice if you could change the names of buttons, too. There were several functions on my original remotes that I had to assign to buttons that had names or symbols that did not correspond to the functions that I assigned to them. That means that I have to remember and teach (and remind) everyone else in the house what they are. It would be so cool to be able to enter in a label or icon for custom buttons, or choose from a list of same. I'll have to make a little correspondence chart and tape it to the underside of the remote. I'm also finding the touch screen a little hard to get used to, but then, I found the SL-8000 hard too when I first started using it, and now it's become second nature. In the meantime, the beep option provides useful feedback on whether I've pressed the right button or not.

Two hundred dollars still seems like way too much money to spend on a remote control, but, if you're a home theater aficionado, or need to program and operate a number of different infrared-controlled devices, you might want to consider the RR990. Other home theater remotes with its high-end features cost from $250 to several thousand dollars.

- Gareth Branwyn [1/2/98]