» Philips SRU9600 Universal Remote Control

Philips SRU9600 Universal Remote Control Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Good! Not Perfect but does what I need!
Comment: I was thinking of getting a universal remote to help preserve my original remotes. I didn't want to spend a lot because paying over 50 for a universal remote is just crazy to me. The logitechs were cool but the buttons really sucked and they are expensive. The buttons were small and not really comfortable to use (However I did not checkout the LH 1000 Advanced Universal Remote which has a touch screen). The others including the New Harmony One didn't feel right. No one else see to come close for me, that is except for the Monster series remotes which were awesome but really expensive. I wanted something inexpensive but also something that was kind of cool and high tech.

So after much research I settled on the Philips SRU9600. It was cool with a color LCD and felt substantial and well built. Plus the price was right! (40.00 off of ebay! Including shipping!)

So far the remote works well. It operates all my components (Samsung TV and DVD player, Scientific Atlanta cable box, Toshiba DVDR, and 5.1 Marantz Receiver). The remote however falls short on my receiver not recognizing some key commands even after trying the learning commands. I guess the receiver being over ten years old didn't help, but the remote recognizes the most important functions on my receiver. But that is still enough to subtract a star from this review.

The remote is not perfect but it's cool to look at and it does all I need it to do for all my other components only missing some functions on my Marantz reciever. It's worth the investment, especially if you can find it for 50 and under!

I'm not sure how long batteries last but some reviews have stated that they last a good long time...in some cases I read 2 weeks and longer depending on usage. That's good enough for me, but I would recommend buying rechargeable batteries which are well worth the investment!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: good product
Comment: good product. learns and delivers for the price. i wish the amplifier control had more keys/ options for control of my sony str4300

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Over rated
Comment: This is the 3rd and cheapest universal remote that I bought. My first was a Marantz 1000 which I acquired about 10 years ago. It served me well but died after a few years. The second one is a Sony RM-AV2100 which I still own and use but was planning to retire from my home theater to the family room.

This Philips remote is the most well balanced and best looking of the 3 but also the one with the least amount of programmability.

I first set off to program the remote for the home theater components as it wasn't clear from the included documentation what the device's limitations are. Talking of which, there is barely any documentation. Just a high level overview on a whopping 8 #10 sized pages. The good news is programming this remote is so simple (probably because there is not much to program) that you don't need any elaborated documentation, just a bit of trial and error.

I have no idea how big the on board database is but it does not include laser disk players (probably for good reason) nor does it include much of the commands for my Lexicon pre-amp. That wouldn't have been a problem if I could easily program the commands by reading out the original remote. However the unit does a poor job (at least in comparison with my 2 other remotes) of reading the IR commands from the original remotes. I wasn't able to reproduce any commands for the Lexicon and even for a number of Sony appliances I had to redo the programming sometimes 3 to 5 times.

The second problem I have with programmability is that you cannot add buttons or change the label on the button in a specific mode. For example the key in the left bottom corner of the numeric keypad (which resides on the touch screen) shows '-/--' for certain devices and 'Enter' for others. Now is it my luck (grunt, grunt) that this just maps the opposite from what it needs to be for my hardware. On my Sony remote which uses a similar touch screen concept as this remote, I can just programmatically configure which of the labels under that button I want to use when I reprogram the IR code. Not so with this Philips remote. The same goes with the titles of devices and macro's (what they call activities). You use what is provided or otherwise tough luck!

The other problem is that you can only have 1 of each of the categories. So if you happen to have 2 DVD players than you'll have to buy a second remote 8-/. Unlike other universal remotes you can not just map another DVD player under another menu that you are not using.

So at this point I really gave up trying to program this remote for my home theater. There is no way I can make this thing do all the stuff that I need (including projector and AC control).

So guess who is now in the family room: Just out of curiosity I start programming this remote for my family room setup where I have all Sony equipment (from before they start shipping root kits as an added bonus). I have to admit that programming these devices was a bit simpler with this remote than with the others I have. However it still took quite a bit of time to find the closest mapping setting with my devices and some hand tuning to make them workable.

I'll let my family play with it for a week and will than decide if I will hold on to it for usage in the family room or ship it back.

Oh and before I forget, the selection wheel is useless. 2 buttons would have been for more effective for scrolling left or right.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: So much wrong with this remote
Comment: I bought this remote to try to get rid of the array of remotes on our coffee table and this did not serve that function. In terms of hardware, the scroll wheel was difficult to use and often overshot the item I was trying to select. The LCD screen "buttons" were difficult to identify and know whether they had been pushed. From a functionality perspective, the buttons were not adequately customizable so that I could not control all of the functions of our Scientific Atlanta HD DVR without going deep into the "custom controls" of the remote. Basically, the remote did not make life simpler as a universal remote is supposed to. I returned it and got a Logitech Harmony 550 remote instead - which IS everything I was looking for.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Prestigo NOT so prestigious but works OK after lots of set up.
Comment: After its programmed it works quite well. But to say it easily "learns" features of other remotes is an overstatement. For MANY functions, keys have to be programmed one at a time. It will beep and read out "command learned". But then try that newly programmed button and it likely will not work the first time you program it. I had to program EACH key 6-10 times before it truly learned from my original remotes and would function properly. There's a "Fix A Key" programming function that must be used repeatedly before this remote is ready to go. But, after its programmmed, it works quite well. I do like it but will keep my eyes open for something that has more hard buttons (not touch screen) that can be programmed. There is NO way to use this without looking at it while touching buttons. Only the LCD lights up but the other hard buttons are darker than tar. But, overall, it does the job. It's OK.

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