Customer Rating: 
Summary: Don't understand some complaints
Comment: I don't understand some of the complaints about this remote. All I can assume is that some of the other buyers didn't read the instructions. First, "punch through", the earlier remotes didn't have this feature. The new ones do. You can punch through the audio from any device to all other devices. Second, the three macros are somewhat limited but they serve their purpose. For example, I can switch from cable to DVD and back.
The construction is a little flimsy but there is a lifetime warranty. SAVE your receipt! Call Philips and they will replace it once. I'm pretty hard on the remote and use it a lot so I only get about a year or two before I call Philips. This means I have to buy a new one every two to four years. For 13 bucks, big deal.
When the last remote went I decided I wanted one of the killer remotes. I forget exactly which one but it cost about 200.It had an LCD screen, USB cable to the computer, web connect, all the goodies. Maybe I'm just used to the Philips but I HATED it! I never got it to work with as many devices as the Philips in spite of the web connection, it never felt comfortable in my hand and I returned it after a week or so.
As for the learning feature I never used it much but it always worked for me. If I really got into it I suppose there would be some keys that wouldn't transfer. But I've never seen any universal remote that would be 100% compatible with the remote that came with the device so I don't see this as a big negative.
As with any new device there is a learning curve but it's not too bad. If you want a good remote, cheap or not, this one can't be beat. 5 stars!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good learning remote, no audio pass-through
Comment: I've had this Philips Universal Remote for nearly a year now and am happy with it overall. In my house, this remote controls a Toshiba television, a Time Warner cable box, a Yamaha receiver, a Panasonic DVD player and a Toshiba VCR. The codes provided in the manual were enough to get the basics of all my equipment working. And for any feature that wasn't working immediately, the Philips remote was usually able to learn it. In fact, the Philips was able to learn 99% of the functions of all my devices. I did spend a lot of time programming the remote initially, but have not altered the settings since.
However, there are some flaws with the remote. The biggest problem is the lack of audio pass-through. As others have mentioned, if you program the Philips to control an A/V receiver, the volume buttons only work in "Audio mode". So let's say you've just changed the channel on your cable box, and the volume is now too loud. In order to turn down the sound, you have to hit the Audio button, adjust the volume, then hit the Cable button again. This was annoying at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
Another minor problem is with the macros. While I love this feature, there are only three macros, and each one is limited to nine keystrokes.
Nevertheless, this Philips remote is a great value for the price.
Customer Rating:
Summary: universal remote
Comment: This is the best universal remote I have ever had and the price was really good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Short life of the ON button
Comment: I've had 2 phillips universal remotes, 6 and 8 devices (this one). In both cases the ON button stopped working after one year or so. The good thing is it has almost all the right buttons and there's no need to re-program. I agree with the issue that it is SLOW, specially for the learned buttons. Not bad but this time I will replace it with a different brand.
Customer Rating:
Summary: 8 years... WOW!!!
Comment: I bought this remote about 8 years ago. It has worked for everything! Magnavox receiver, Kenwood amp, Replay DVR, Sanyo television, Daewoo television, and others. It didn't have a code for my Digix DVD player, but the programming modes were easy to use and versitile, and I was able to program it for that as well... no problem. The lack of a "punch through" feature for audio is a negative, but definitely not something I'd complain about. It's easy enough to hit "audio," change volume or settings, then go back to my main device. Also, there IS punch through for television audio to the DVR mode. In recent weeks, the "on" button finally wore out, but given how old it is, that's not something to complain about either. I liked it enough that I'm getting a new one identical to the old!
Summary: Don't understand some complaints
Comment: I don't understand some of the complaints about this remote. All I can assume is that some of the other buyers didn't read the instructions. First, "punch through", the earlier remotes didn't have this feature. The new ones do. You can punch through the audio from any device to all other devices. Second, the three macros are somewhat limited but they serve their purpose. For example, I can switch from cable to DVD and back.
The construction is a little flimsy but there is a lifetime warranty. SAVE your receipt! Call Philips and they will replace it once. I'm pretty hard on the remote and use it a lot so I only get about a year or two before I call Philips. This means I have to buy a new one every two to four years. For 13 bucks, big deal.
When the last remote went I decided I wanted one of the killer remotes. I forget exactly which one but it cost about 200.It had an LCD screen, USB cable to the computer, web connect, all the goodies. Maybe I'm just used to the Philips but I HATED it! I never got it to work with as many devices as the Philips in spite of the web connection, it never felt comfortable in my hand and I returned it after a week or so.
As for the learning feature I never used it much but it always worked for me. If I really got into it I suppose there would be some keys that wouldn't transfer. But I've never seen any universal remote that would be 100% compatible with the remote that came with the device so I don't see this as a big negative.
As with any new device there is a learning curve but it's not too bad. If you want a good remote, cheap or not, this one can't be beat. 5 stars!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good learning remote, no audio pass-through
Comment: I've had this Philips Universal Remote for nearly a year now and am happy with it overall. In my house, this remote controls a Toshiba television, a Time Warner cable box, a Yamaha receiver, a Panasonic DVD player and a Toshiba VCR. The codes provided in the manual were enough to get the basics of all my equipment working. And for any feature that wasn't working immediately, the Philips remote was usually able to learn it. In fact, the Philips was able to learn 99% of the functions of all my devices. I did spend a lot of time programming the remote initially, but have not altered the settings since.
However, there are some flaws with the remote. The biggest problem is the lack of audio pass-through. As others have mentioned, if you program the Philips to control an A/V receiver, the volume buttons only work in "Audio mode". So let's say you've just changed the channel on your cable box, and the volume is now too loud. In order to turn down the sound, you have to hit the Audio button, adjust the volume, then hit the Cable button again. This was annoying at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
Another minor problem is with the macros. While I love this feature, there are only three macros, and each one is limited to nine keystrokes.
Nevertheless, this Philips remote is a great value for the price.
Customer Rating:
Summary: universal remote
Comment: This is the best universal remote I have ever had and the price was really good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Short life of the ON button
Comment: I've had 2 phillips universal remotes, 6 and 8 devices (this one). In both cases the ON button stopped working after one year or so. The good thing is it has almost all the right buttons and there's no need to re-program. I agree with the issue that it is SLOW, specially for the learned buttons. Not bad but this time I will replace it with a different brand.
Customer Rating:
Summary: 8 years... WOW!!!
Comment: I bought this remote about 8 years ago. It has worked for everything! Magnavox receiver, Kenwood amp, Replay DVR, Sanyo television, Daewoo television, and others. It didn't have a code for my Digix DVD player, but the programming modes were easy to use and versitile, and I was able to program it for that as well... no problem. The lack of a "punch through" feature for audio is a negative, but definitely not something I'd complain about. It's easy enough to hit "audio," change volume or settings, then go back to my main device. Also, there IS punch through for television audio to the DVR mode. In recent weeks, the "on" button finally wore out, but given how old it is, that's not something to complain about either. I liked it enough that I'm getting a new one identical to the old!
Philips PMDVR8 8-Device DVR and Audio Specialty Universal Remote Control Reviews: Page 2 of 9
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