One for All SmartControl URC-7960 Infrared Universal remote control for Speaker(s), Game console, Projector, Sattelite receiver, AV Selector, Amplifier, Digital TV tuner, Plasma / LCD / TV / DVD / audio, Audio/video components > Reviews (2)

Owning a new Freeview HD set top box with a home theatre kit / DVD player and HD TV, I have four remotes, plus a wireless mouse when I connect to my PC, so things had to be made less complicated. I did extensive reasearch before deciding that this remote was the best layout to suit my needs, with an impressive feature list.

Most notable is the ability to learn from your old remote button by button. I found it useful to have the top two bottons turn off the TV and the HD Box from any mode (Usually you have to swap modes from TV to STB and turn off).
Also, the ability to assign "macros" was another reason I was looking forward to this arriving. Basically this lets you program a sequence of commands to one button. My stb has an annoyance where, to access the recording timer menu, you have to scroll though a menu list until you can select and view it (terrible layout I know). I spent about an hour trying to get this programmed, but came to the conclusion that it is actually impossible, as whenever I assign the cursor key once, it presses it 3 times, which was just enough to skip passed the menu item going either up or down. This may seem picky for those who may not bother with this feature, in fact, most wont know about it, as it is not in the instructions supplied, you have to view the PDF online which says "extended features".

These minor quibbles aside, I have found the basic use of this remote a tragedy to use. With the four batteries it takes, it is a lot heavier than any other remote. The big ring of blue light is what drains all this power at every button press, and also serves to get in the way when you try to press the left cursor botton. Where was the focus group when they made it this way? Where were the product testers who should have also spoken up and said; "Actually all these buttons are a bit clumsy and cheap - they need to be pushed in so deep compared to any standard remote that the user will be more stressed out using this than the original" ??

For a company that has specialized in this field for so long, they have got it infuriatingly wrong. For £22 I expected some degree of quality.