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 GreatJul 09, 2010
Works my Samsung LCD tv, my Toshiba DVD player, my Directv box, and my Onkyo surround sound receiver. I am totally pleased with this remote, this was a great buy.
 macro program issueJun 25, 2010
The URC 8820 works as advertised. However, I bought it for its macro capability and found that it did not work well with my TV/DVD setup. The major problem is the long time my TV (Panasonic 42" plasma HDTV less than one year old) needs to boot up when turned on and it misses all the signal from the URC 8820 macro. I looked everywhere to see if the URC 8820 can be programmed with a 3 second pause before continuing with the macro and could not find any. To make use its macro capability, make sure all your electronic equipments can receive rapid remote signals from the URC 8820. There may be problem if the newer model TV needs longer time to boot before it can receive more remote signals.
As a work around I have to program two buttons to do what I intended to do and press the second button (e.g., to change the signal source from cable box to DVD player etc.) when my TV is ready.
Excellent, but some limitationsJun 02, 2010
Overall: reliable, cheap, and has most of the features of "the silver Comcast remote". The Learning mode (copying the playback of a button on another remote control) works perfectly.
Limitations:
* Well-documented, but the list of typical device codes is not provided. You can find this on the Web.
* There are just too few buttons. Some of the missing cable set top box (STB) functions: Live, Swap tuners, Page Up, Page Down, Favorites. You have to program these using macros on other function buttons (but there are not enough buttons to do this).
* There are only two buttons without function labels (M1 and M2). So you have to program a needed function on a key labeled with a function you might also want, such as Format.
* If you care, the usual TV picture-in-picture buttons are missing. There is just one button labelled PIP.
* If you care, the Record button is labelled with a circle that is not red.
* There is no button backlight (but you save the battery energy needed for this).
* The Favorites button is permanently set to a macro that flips your STB from channel to channel. Since your STB already supports Favorites, pushing this button by mistake is annoying (I cut the button off).
* There is no control over the delay before each button play in a macro. Usually, less delay would be better.
* There is a clumsy Power button instead of a true Turn All On/Off. Even though the Power and Device buttons can be partially programmed, this problem is enough to make a good Power On/Off function require programming an unused button, which is annoying.
* The 8 device buttons can only be used for actual devices, not functions within a device (macros). Since few users really have 8 devices that need to be controlled, this means wasted keys. If you can find this remote with 4 or 6 device buttons, that might be a better choice.
* The various button programming modes (macros, learning from another control, use of code function number) are different enough to make remembering them difficult. They are also a little more complex than is actually needed.
 Works great no frillsMay 29, 2010
For the price this product was easy to setup. I had my 4 devices all working within 15 minutes of opening the package. I doesn't do anything special except replace the remotes of each device. The manufacture appears to have chosen to stick with the original remote layout. So even if there are additional and possibly better labeled buttons then the original remote, you will find the Universal remote works just like the original with the most similar buttons performing the identical functions.
A Bit More To GoMay 27, 2010
My parents' old TV remote has been dying, button by button, so I went ahead and searched for a universal remote for them both. (The CC button especially was causing a lot of heartache.) I was looking for something that worked and was simple to use with bigger buttons. We don't have an elaborate entertainment setup or anything, so I didn't need anything fancy.
We got the remote and within 15 minutes I had it linked up with our TV, DVD/VCR combo, and Dish network receiver. With less than 10 keystrokes required to link them up, it was pretty easy to get the hang of it, and once the steps were done right, you were done.
The only problems we've had are with 1) getting the CC button to work (ironically enough). Our TV CC options are numerous, and the CC button on the remote won't go through all the choices for CC or turn the first CC choice on/off. We've managed to get around this by using the menu button for the TV to pull up the CC options; and 2) getting the VCR/DVD combo to do anything but turn on and off using the remote. This has been a bit more problematic since we've had to keep the old remote around for the VCR/DVD. I've tried any instructions found in the booklet that came with the remote, but it hasn't fixed that problem. [However, in fairness, I haven't yet been able to try using customer support (so maybe that might fix the problem(s)).]
Overall, I was looking for something easy to use and quick to set-up - this definitely did the trick. I intend to "finish" setting up the final components/fixing the things that aren't working, but my parents are using the remote now and really like it.
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based on 89 reviews
