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You're watching a video with a bunch of friends and someone needs to use the bathroom. Being a good host, you pause the movie, but this causes the cable channel on the VCR to come through LOUD and clear on the home theater speakers (with that sub-woofer you've cranked to the max to impress your friends). You scramble to turn down the volume, but can't find the friggin' stereo remote! Your guests are now cringing like parents at a rock concert. After you unearth the remote and mute the deafening rattle, you and your guests decide to play a little MST3K: The Home Game (a.k.a. channel surfing). But for that, you need the TV remote to switch from video to TV. ARGH!
It's times like this that make you feel like an idiot for your reliance on electronic gizmos. Well, I can't speak for you, but I find the multi-remote experience a prime example of clueless design. If TVs, VCRs and stereo systems are meant to work together (which they are), there should be a way to control all of them from one remote. Enter the universal remote.
Years ago, I bought such a unit (out of an ad in TV Guide, no less!). It was a start, but it had its drawbacks, the main one being that it frequently needed to be reprogrammed. The process was somewhat convoluted, and after a while, I gave up and went back to the old remotes. But that was in a two remote world. It was when we got our Sony home theater system that things went from goofy to ridiculous. So, imagine my interest when I saw the Home Theater Master SL-8000 (say that 50 times) advertised in a magazine. This baby looked like it had everything and then some.
The unit does have impressive features. In a form factor that's the same as my Zenith TV remote, the SL-8000 has the controls for up to eight stereos, TVs, VCRs, set-top boxes, satellite receivers, DVD and laser disc players. It can even be programmed to operate room lights and other switches (if your home theater unit has this fancy feature). Since I only have a TV, VCR and a stereo, I can only speak to how the SL-8000 performs with these components.
This feature is used to program the remote control for two or more TVs, VCRs, etc., or to program a device into a mode with a different Device Button name. You can store the three-digit Set-Up Code number for any device into any other unused Device Button.
If you had a hard time following that, you'll likely struggle with programming this remote. The programming procedure is actually more straightforward than it appears on first read. Once you've found the three-digit code for the device you're programming in the code tables provided, you press two buttons simultaneously (the mute button plus the button for the device you're programming), enter the three-digit code and press the device button again to store the code. The problem (besides a poorly written manual) is that you have only 20 seconds from the time you press the mute+device buttons to the time you re-press the device button to accept the correct code (signaled by the device turning itself off). The first few times you do it, it's hard to balance the manual on your lap so that you can read the Code Table while turning back to the instructions and punching the correct buttons...all in 20 seconds. And some devices have long lists of set-up codes to try before you hit on the correct one for the device you're programming. You have to run through all of them until you find the correct one for your device. There's also an auto-search method for devices not listed in the Code Table.
A series of advanced features lets you program macros with up to 10 different steps triggered by one button push (e.g. turn on TV, turn on VCR, turn on stereo). There are 5 buttons for storing macros. You can also use the memory buttons to store favorite channels in the TV mode. The process for creating macros is somewhat convoluted. There is one example given in the manual. With a procedure this complicated, it would have been a good idea to have many common macros listed step-by-step in the manual, or in a separate booklet, or on a website.
So far, I've had no problem with the unit forgetting the programmed codes like my old universal remote. It does say in the manual that you should keep a set of batteries nearby and be ready to change them as soon as you see the low battery message. You have only 10 minutes to switch batteries before you lose all of your programming. (At a hundreds bucks, would it have killed them to add a back-up battery?)
The layout of the buttons on the unit is OK, but not ideal. The center navigation buttons are mainly assigned to reverse, forward, pause and stop (in VCR, tape and CD modes). Since I assume that TV watching is the most common activity with the remote, it would have made more sense to me to put the prev/next channel and volume up/down buttons here as well (instead of the upper right corner). The action on the buttons is also poor. For a compulsive channel surfer, having to really mash the keys (and sometimes re-enter the selection) just doesn't cut it.
One premium feature on the unit is an LCD screen that tells you what mode you're in and provides information and prompts during some aspects of programming. Again, for such an expensive unit, it would have been nice to have boosted the "intelligence" with more prompts and information. Like, why can't common macros be stored in the remote's microprocessor and simply selected from a menu on the display? And, why can't the button functions be stored in memory so that you can be told what a button does, in a given mode, without having to reach for the manual? Another nice feature is a back-lit display which illuminates all of the buttons for 5 seconds after pressing the "Light" button. This is great for seeing what you're doing if you're tubing with the lights off (a common occurrence with a home theater system).
- Gareth Branwyn [9/27/97]
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